Golly! Vegas has been busy.

JohnD

Well-Known Member
Fight Leukemia
From what I have heard they are. Vidcon, Super Computing, and many more. Each day I get itchier and itchier to get back into my shop to start banging out shows.
 
World of Concrete is going on right now in the brand new West Hall. And look, there's that motif I find so intriguing! https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/what-is-it-about-this-design.48078/
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And be sure to watch the 1996 cult film Mars Attacks! to see what the West Hall site was before.
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Oh yeah, LDI is in the Central Hall. One reason could be that the West Hall features huge amounts of daylight.
 
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If you have the MotorTrend channel, and even if you don't, the Barrett-Jackson Auto Auction will be televised from the West Hall of the LVCC this Thursday through June 19.
https://www.reviewjournal.com/enter...-classics-in-barrett-jackson-auction-2376552/

EDIT: It seems Motor Trend has reverted back to Velocity. The auction also appears on fyi, and the History Channel.

EDIT2}: Barrett-Jackson has broken up with DiscoveryNetworks and signed on with A+E, which includes fyi, and THC. Not that THC, the History Channel.
 
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Word is the Whirled Concrete event attendance was down 40%.

"Business conventions exist to prove how many employees a company can function without."

I think the future for many trade show/conventions is not positive. If one attends because there are new products or services to evaluate, or participate in continuing professional education, much of that can be done remotely without the expense of a LV trade show "booth". Yes, there are aspects of conventions and trade shows that lend themselves to in-person contact but there are more productive ways to accomplish those as well.

Right now it's carpe per diem and we should grab every bit of work we can. The pundits that Fortune 100 companies pay for prognostication are indicating a resurgence of Covid-19 in October. I hope they're wrong.
 
I heard that rigging in the new West Hall is a nightmare. The building is a parallelogram and the points are not conducive to regular booth rigging.
 
Word is the Whirled Concrete event attendance was down 40%.

"Business conventions exist to prove how many employees a company can function without."

I think the future for many trade show/conventions is not positive. If one attends because there are new products or services to evaluate, or participate in continuing professional education, much of that can be done remotely without the expense of a LV trade show "booth". Yes, there are aspects of conventions and trade shows that lend themselves to in-person contact but there are more productive ways to accomplish those as well.

Right now it's carpe per diem and we should grab every bit of work we can. The pundits that Fortune 100 companies pay for prognostication are indicating a resurgence of Covid-19 in October. I hope they're wrong.
I'm not sure if attendance for a conference that's going on right now is an indication of what people will attend in a year. Personally, I'm not eating at indoor restaurants and my vacation to Seattle will be a first time road trip instead of flight. I'm just not ready yet.

Hearing from people who were regulars to Apple's WWDC, LDI, AES etc., conventions are a time to connect with people you didn't have formal meetings scheduled for and demos of products you didn't realize existed. I know the Fancy Food show in SF was a place I went to every year to find the rows and rows of small businesses that didin't or couldn't advertise because of their size, but were plenty successful enough to operate and gain more exposure at the show, many of which I connected with and purchased from.

I guess I'm just thinking positive. My girlfriend rented out a private movie theatre for our anniversary and it was a great experience to go to the movies. I think there will a lot more public activity as vaccination rates get closer to a large majority and work stresses rise beyond always wanting to be stuck in front of your laptop at your dining room table. :)
 
I tend to agree. I'm fully vaxxed, but nothing is 100%. I will keep doing food pick-up instead of dining in restaurants. Home Depot and Kroger are still mask-on environments, and I have no desire to fly anywhere. If you find me in a public place without a mask, it's outside, and I don't care how "open" the governor or any other politician says we are.
 
I'm not sure if attendance for a conference that's going on right now is an indication of what people will attend in a year. Personally, I'm not eating at indoor restaurants and my vacation to Seattle will be a first time road trip instead of flight. I'm just not ready yet.

Hearing from people who were regulars to Apple's WWDC, LDI, AES etc., conventions are a time to connect with people you didn't have formal meetings scheduled for and demos of products you didn't realize existed. I know the Fancy Food show in SF was a place I went to every year to find the rows and rows of small businesses that didin't or couldn't advertise because of their size, but were plenty successful enough to operate and gain more exposure at the show, many of which I connected with and purchased from.

I guess I'm just thinking positive. My girlfriend rented out a private movie theatre for our anniversary and it was a great experience to go to the movies. I think there will a lot more public activity as vaccination rates get closer to a large majority and work stresses rise beyond always wanting to be stuck in front of your laptop at your dining room table. :)
I think there are a combination of factors - much content can be consumed online, businesses that have remained productive while not in the office are finding out that using 4 to 7 days to send someone to a conference or convention is a big productivity hit, and that it costs a lot of money to put on and attend these events.

The part about missing the little booths in back is valid, but I don't see an inherent reason these have to be in-person contacts. The trade show model as it exists today does not serve them well (they're stuck in exhibit halls furthest away from everything else). What if NAB, or USITT, were able to provide a virtual platform for these small/new vendors to display their offerings, answer questions, and present demonstrations? Other than not being able to touch the object, what's missing from an info point of view?

And consider the cost of exhibiting... the cost of the show booth space, transportation for booth materials/displays and for exhibitor personnel, per diem expenses, local labor for drayage and setup, and costs of provisioning the booth space (electric, internet, etc). For a lot of exhibitors it would be cheaper to ship demo goods to dealers/distributors as needed, have interested folks come to the demo and have an engineer from the manufacturer virtually present to answer questions, discuss applications, and otherwise complement the efforts of the on-site demonstration. For a fraction of the price of a Vegas/San Francisco/Chicago/New York/LA trade show booth.
 
I tend to agree. I'm fully vaxxed, but nothing is 100%. I will keep doing food pick-up instead of dining in restaurants. Home Depot and Kroger are still mask-on environments, and I have no desire to fly anywhere. If you find me in a public place without a mask, it's outside, and I don't care how "open" the governor or any other politician says we are.
I definitely don't want to push anyone to do anything they aren't comfortable with, but I want people to know that the there is very solid data showing you truly can trust the vaccine.

Mrs Gaff recently was told about some internal data about vaccine effectiveness at work. Out of all the vaccinated employees across the entire U.W. Medical System they have only had about 40 "break through cases" of Covid and only one of those was severe enough to require hospitalization (they recovered quickly and are fine). Covid is real. The risks are real. So I don't want to in any way belittle anyone's concern or caution about returning to normal life. But just take a moment and think about how many people work at Mountlake, Harborview, Fred Hutch, Northwest Hospital, Valley Medical, and the dozens of UW Neighborhood and specialty clinics all around the greater Seattle area. Then think about the level of exposure risk those people face every day in those hospitals and clinics compared to us civilians. If only one of those thousands of members of their medical staff has gotten severely sick in the 5+ months that they have all been vaccinated, you and I are at very low risks of getting it in our casual interactions at say a store or restaurant.

All of that said, I'm not recommending attending drunken parties in Daytona Beach. But my family is all vaccinated and we a planning a normal summer vacation in August.
 
I definitely don't want to push anyone to do anything they aren't comfortable with, but I want people to know that the there is very solid data showing you truly can trust the vaccine.

Mrs Gaff recently was told about some internal data about vaccine effectiveness at work. Out of all the vaccinated employees across the entire U.W. Medical System they have only had about 40 "break through cases" of Covid and only one of those was severe enough to require hospitalization (they recovered quickly and are fine). Covid is real. The risks are real. So I don't want to in any way belittle anyone's concern or caution about returning to normal life. But just take a moment and think about how many people work at Mountlake, Harborview, Fred Hutch, Northwest Hospital, Valley Medical, and the dozens of UW Neighborhood and specialty clinics all around the greater Seattle area. Then think about the level of exposure risk those people face every day in those hospitals and clinics compared to us civilians. If only one of those thousands of members of their medical staff has gotten severely sick in the 5+ months that they have all been vaccinated, you and I are at very low risks of getting it in our casual interactions at say a store or restaurant.

All of that said, I'm not recommending attending drunken parties in Daytona Beach. But my family is all vaccinated and we a planning a normal summer vacation in August.

I want to avoid the other respiratory illnesses for which there are currently no vaccines. Working indoors, I'm wearing a mask if there are other workers in concentration, or if anyone is sneezing or coughing. I continue to wear a mask in retail establishments and grocery stores, partly for the workers, who will be around more people than I will (except during a show) that day.

I feel vaccinated. I don't feel "immune" in the strict definition of the term (90% protected, maybe?), and it sure doesn't make me invincible. I'm in a State with a full vaccination rate of just over 40% and we're sending doses to other places and reducing reorder quantities. Those who have been fully vaccinated will fare far better in the upcoming "Return of the Son of Covid" that will debut in about 60-75 days and be in full production by October. The good news? Well, if you're some place where folks got their shots, life will be less interrupted. The bad news? In those 'other places' we'll see the need to close things down again... but there will be no political will to do so, and there will be unnecessary, premature deaths in the realtively youthful demographic groups (under 50) and more long haul Covid cases. I'm considering getting the Moderna or J&J vaccine in late July (had Pfizer #2 in April) or early August as a hedge. At any rate, without the death/illness moral hand-wringing, consider that this demographic group is where the vast majority of audiences come from, as well as our employees and coworkers. It'll be a productivity hit that will affect entire geographic regions, throwing a new wrench into the barely recovering machine that is our supply chain. For much of the world, who might envy Kansas's crap-hole rate of 40%, the impact will be a repeat of 2020.

To keep it topical for Vegas... all employees who fall under the jurisdiction of the Nevada Gaming Commission must be vaccinated to be at work. This applies to casino workers, not other hospitality workers (employers may require, but the state does not). What the state of Nevada may do when infection rates eventually go up remains to be seen. Do not be lulled; this aint over yet, folks.
 

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