It’s been said before about the trade show and convention industry: it is a multi-billion-dollar industry that people know about–or understand.
Let’s take our current US President. It seems Mr. Obama doesn’t understand just how influential a few words can be when he says not to blow your money in Vegas.” The last time I was on the show floor at the LVCC the labor was still cursing the Chief Exec for his swipe at banks holding business meetings in Sin City. From what I heard, after Mr O’s comments, the bank (I believe it was Wells Fargo or Citi) took their meeting to San Francisco–and spent more money.
Truth is, Las Vegas is probably the best-equipped and cost-effective (in most cases) convention city in America. When the Prez (whether it is Clinton, Reagan, Bush or Obama) says not to go, many people swallow it whole. He doesn’t realize how many jobs, from forklift drivers to carpenters to hotel staff–depend on those convention dollars.
So, as an industry, we need to take the time to educate more of those who don’t know who we are and what we do. Or watch further damage be done to our economy by misinformation.
Here’s the whole story from Yahoo today:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obama_las_vegas
TTSG
