Goodbye Sin City

So....Las Vegas just made my list of top million things to experience before you die. That's right, coming in right under the Trunk Tour of Rural Iran, is Las Vegas Nevada at #999,999!

I wanted to stay in SF until Sunday but when I called Bally's Hotel, the conference location, they said that I couldn't check in on Saturday or Sunday. I would have to stay at a different hotel. However, if I wanted to check in on Friday I could stay the whole time. I don't know what greedy moron penned that into law but I hope they get some bad unagi.

So, I flew to Vegas, checked in on Friday, and spent a very bored few days waiting for the conference to start. I have no interest in gambling. Some of the shows looked interesting but at $70 a pop I wasn't willing to sign up for any. Oh, and one of the ones that sounded interesting when I heard the name actually turned out to be some sort of topless vampire fantasy erotica. I got a things-to-do book from a cab driver and saw a picture from the show that made it pretty clear it wasn't what I was looking for. So, I wandered around the strip for awhile, watched people gamble themselves into poverty, and ended up back in my room with little to do but work and read a book. The wildest thing I did was go out for some sushi.

Oh, and in case your thinking that I'm pushing my expense sheet...sushi in Vegas, and San Fran for that matter, costs about the same thing as a decent burger entree at another restaurant. Regardless of where you go, your meal will be about $15, which is what a filling meal of sushi cost. I would have rather had a steak but the cheapest steak I found was $38. The only place on the strip that offered cheap eating was a single McDonalds and it was a 30 minute walk from the hotel. I'm pretty careful with my expense budget but I'm not walking an hour every time I want to eat. Taking a cab would defeat the purpose of eating cheap in the first place so...sushi it was.

Let me mention here that Bally's is not the place to stay if you go to Vegas. My room was large but had the furnishings of a Detroit Motel 6. Everything was bolted down, including the stupid alarm clock, and was completely immobile. Trust me, I tried to turn the TV to a logical angle for viewing and gave up after heaving all my weight against the nightstand in an attempt to get it to budge. Nothing worth watching was on anyway. I was tempted to destroy the alarm clock just out of spite. After all, at $250 a night through the weekend it couldn't be hard to replace that $10 piece of junk. The bed was junk too. It's not that I mind bad lodging, I just don't like how much they charged my company for the garbage they had to offer.

The conference signup was held Sunday morning (of course, since the Devil obviously runs the city) but Sunday afternoon was the first actual event, a mini-exhibition hall with a few booths and then a networking party. They put an interesting twist on the networking party...providing a stage with a bunch of instruments. Since there was an open bar, it wasn't long before an informal karaoke got rolling and that was fun to watch. The guy who organized it is a brilliant pianist and sort of carried the other volunteers. I was impressed by how much it came together, actually. I have tried to play on several occasions with a single, other musician and failed to make anything worth listening to.

Monday was the official conference first day. I went through the regular networking, seminars, etc. After the day's events were over I went out to an "Asian Fusion" restaurant called Tao with Chops, Chewy and some other folks from Host. I ordered the absolute cheapest entree on the menu, $25. Host ended up covering it so I was glad I had tried to eat as cheap as I could. Later Monday night they held a sponsored networking party at the Wynn. The room was a very large horseshoe shape with doors around the middle that opened out to an outdoor lagoon. The lagoon was fed by a 40 foot, 3-tier waterfall with the sponsoring companies logos projected onto the water. They also had lots of ice sculptures around the room. I caught back up with Chops and Chewy and spent the evening with them. Chops just had a baby boy so we had something in common to talk about. I got to my room at about 2:30(AM) but didn't really get tired until near 4. There is something about Las Vegas that totally turns your body clock upside down. Probably the thing I mentioned before about the whole city being run by the Devil.

Tuesday was more of the same, I was up by 9, hit seminars all through the day and then I met up with Wally, a guy I met in San Fran. He works in affiliate marketing for a well-known retail giant. We went out to dinner with a coworker of his at the House of Blues in the Mandalay Bay hotel. They were great company, lots of fun to talk to. We walked around the strip and took some pictures. Finally I headed back up to my 10th floor, anti-vandal Bally's special at almost 3:00. Oh, and Wally said that his room was a suite with a fridge and he was paying the same thing. My room didn't even have a coffee pot. Thanks a lot Bally's.

Wednesday, to my great relief, I flew home before it rained brimstone. I was worried about that. Both conferences had a lot of valuable info and I met some great people. But, by Wednesday morning, I was prepared to strangle the next person who said "Monitize," "Leverage," or "Return on Investment."