[BC] NAB???

[Ernie Belanger]

Actually Patrick you are wrong at least for this year.

Vegas is trying to woo business. Hotel prices have dropped like a rock. 
You can easily pick up a 50 or 70 buck a night room on the strip.

Check the NAB housing rates.  Thanks to the Exhibitor Advisory Committee 
and NAB  working together,there has been a lot of pressure put on the 
hotel vendors. In fact
Harrah's (SP?) properties started a program this year that worked like 
the airlines tickets. The further out you booked the lower the rate. 
That was before the bottom
fell out of things.

Point being they were willing to work with us to offer reasonable rates 
VS what they are during CES which does not have a housing office and 
doesn't work for
discounted rates for attendees.( some normally $150 rooms go for as much 
at $800 or more during CES.

Right now you can get rooms on the strip for $50 and $75 a night. One of 
those is Imperial Palace which is recently renovated the other is Circus 
Circus. Plus the airlines have been slashing prices for flights to 
Vegas. Check sites like Cheap Tickets, Jet Blue or Southwest or other 
discount carriers. In some cases you can get a package with the hotel 
and airfare priced such that you can save additional money.

The bottom line is that if you are going to go to the exhibit floor and 
the seminars, after you get back to the hotel and drop your "goodies" 
off, grab food you'll be exhausted enough to crash for the night it's 
not like you're going to host an event in your room so the cheap rooms 
will do well. I've always live by the motto. 'If the bed is soft and 
comfortable, the room doesn't stink (as in gym socks), and the shower 
knocks me on my butt to wake me up in the morning, I'm good to go."  One 
thing you may want to remember when you get a room. BE sure that if you 
are going in a higher floor that it is the floor with or no more than 2 
floors above the auxiliary water pumps.  (It's all about water pressure 
for that shower to knock you on your butt)

Food, As I recall from January you can get a breakfast for under $4. 
That is eggs, toast meat and drinks.  You have to search them out, but 
they are available. Likewise you don't have to go to the
expensive buffets if you search them out there are inexpensive dinners 
as well. Usually at the Casino lounges where the gamblers hang.  Watch 
the ads and you'll find them.

Venue. Barry is right LVCC is about the only venue big enough that is 
convenient and has enough hotel rooms. This list has had that discussion 
in the past.

The other plus this year for vendors is this. With the economy being 
what it is I suspect that we will see very serious buyers on the show 
floor. Vs the tire kickers. No on can afford to go to Vegas to
play golf or party as they did in the past. And this as they say will be 
a "Good Thing"

With any luck
I'll see ya in Vegas
Ernie
Chair NAB exhibitor advisory committee

>
>         1. Up until now, there has no other place with sufficient 
> floor space
>                 to handle the whole show.
>         2. LV has not been a "cheap" place for a long time.
>                 Just like radio listeners, tastes have changed,
>                 and the public seems to want what LV has
>                 become ... at least until the economy hit
>                 the speed bump.
>
>         That said, in January I stayed at a older, modest,
>                 hotel right at the top of the strip - for an
>                 average of $40 a night. Sure, the room was
>                 nothing you'd ever call "luxury" ... and
>                 amenities were few. But the car was
>                 10 feet away. And I easily walked to the
>                 LVCC each morning.
>
>                 For about $20 more per night, you could
>                 get some of the "name" hotels.  And, as
>                 more than one reader has found, there
>                 are packages of less than $200 for three
>                 days at some major hotels .... including
>                 some food!
>
>                 Yes, you can spend $250 or 5000 a night,
>                 and the buffet at Wynn is pushing $50.
>                 But there are still many other options, not
>                 as cheap as the 70s in raw number prices -
>                 but what is?
>
>                 Barry (retreating to my box)
>
>