Remembering When: Firsthand Stories of the Past

Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 5/16/2005

Las Vegas' history is brief, as histories of some of the world's great cities go, but there's been a lot packed into a relatively short period. The city's history as a tradeshow capital is even briefer, but it's staggering to consider how far Las Vegas has come in so short a time. Tradeshow Week Contributing Editor Gary Tufel asked a few longtime denizens ¡ª all of whom have firsthand knowledge of and deep involvement in the city's tradeshow industry ¡ª for their side of the story.

Imagine Las Vegas, the quintessential tradeshow town, without tradeshows. That's exactly how it was when Frank Sain was wooed away from his job as president of the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau to run the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority and the Las Vegas Convention Center in April 1981. For many in the desert city then, the status quo ¡ª slot machines, lounge acts, busy weekends and slow weeknights ¡ª was just fine, thank you.

But Sain, who believed in the power of tradeshows and was hired to develop Las Vegas' nearly nonexistent convention and exhibition business, was used to attracting some of the nation's largest exhibitions to Chicago ¡ª and keeping them there. In trying to sell the benefits of conventions and tradeshows for Las Vegas, he ran into formidable opposition from some powerful hoteliers.

In those days, Las Vegas was not a tradeshow town. It catered to gamblers and tourists, its bread and butter. Sain was executive director of the LVCVA and LVCC until July 1991.

"Tradeshows were just developing, and they were creating lots of conflict with hotels, who felt that conventioneers, who didn't gamble, displaced the coveted tourists, who did. Leading the anti-tradeshow charge was Circus Circus, but the hotels didn't all feel that way. Some agreed that attracting attendees would give them a taste of Vegas they wouldn't have otherwise had, and that they would return over and over again as tourists. The Hilton was for it, because it was located next to the convention center.

"This was a hard sell for us at first. We knew that about 40 percent of Las Vegas visitors came from California, and 85 percent of them came to gamble. I wanted to widen the base by attracting conventioneers and their repeat business. The hoteliers didn't like the aggressive efforts on the part of the LVCVA to attract tradeshows and the loss of leisure business. But they embrace it now.

"We got active to expose Las Vegas like never before. The convention center, opened in 1959 and host to a few shows and a lot of concerts and prizefights, offered only 600,000 square feet, including meeting space, so we tried to enlarge it and make it more flexible to attract tradeshows. For one thing, attendees had to leave the building to enter the facility's biggest hall, braving the Las Vegas heat. That was corrected, and a North Hall was added.

"In the early 1980s, there were only about 12 megashows, and they were all anchored to cities, such as Chicago. We had to promote Las Vegas to them. At first, we used hotel ballrooms and other hotel space as overflow, and we ran Cashman Field at the time, so that was available too. But when we added the North Hall and created a corridor with meeting space and ballrooms for the East Hall of the convention center, it gave us the capability of having one show moving in, another moving out and a third setting up simultaneously.

"I used the relationships developed with show managers and association executives as head of the Chicago bureau to great advantage, in attracting their shows and overcoming skepticism of those in Las Vegas about the wisdom of pursuing conventions. It was still a hard sell, but my access enabled me to convince some shows to include Las Vegas in their show rotation schedules. The shows began to come.

"Since 1981, there have been many changes, including the rise of themed hotels. The entire hotel package has changed dramatically. The existence of these newer hotels became another selling point in attracting show managers.

"Once they were convinced of the value of bringing conventions and tradeshows to Las Vegas, the hotels themselves began to market to them. Sheldon Adelson, who created the early Vegas megashow COMDEX, built the Sands (Expo & Convention Center). Now, we have nearly 10 million sq. ft. of exhibition space and more than 131,000 hotel rooms, and attract 38 million to 40 million visitors a year. We can host super shows or smaller shows, and we keep the hotels full all the time. The attendees keep on coming back.

"The pace picked up (in 1989) when Steve Wynn opened the Mirage and Treasure Island hotels, and Circus Circus built the Excalibur, Monte Carlo and Mandalay Bay, even though Circus Circus had been against an emphasis on convention guests.

"That set the tone. We pushed the theme that conventions and tradeshows were good for Las Vegas, and show producers began to bring their shows there. Many attendees came to Las Vegas for the first time, liked what they saw, and returned as tourists.

"One significant change was to restructure the LVCVA, which had an 11-member board consisting of politicians and representatives of the private sector, streamlining it into two departments: marketing, which encompassed tourism, convention sales, advertising, the visitor center, etc., and operations (the convention center). That was a change from the original system, in which all departments reported to me. It was hard to exercise control in that system. That's why we went to a vertical organization. Today, there's an even wider range of titles at the LVCVA, and it's become even more sophisticated.

"Another change: Everyone in Las Vegas used to wear sport shirts, but the tradeshow managers they were marketing to always wore suits and ties. So I had to make a rule requiring staff to also wear suits and ties, which was not popular. And I was wearing a three-piece suit one day when the air-conditioning went out, which was not comfortable."

Howard Ness took a somewhat circuitous route to the Las Vegas tradeshow industry. As an engineer, he started his career with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in Denver, a job that, oddly enough, would serve him well years later when he became a Las Vegas service contractor. The 88-year-old Ness is still a go-getter and full of stories about the early years of the industry in Las Vegas. And his son Jim is continuing the family tradition ¡ª he is general manager of Freeman's Las Vegas operations.

"I was transferred by the Bureau of Reclamation to Hoover Dam, where I met Dave Jamison, the owner and director of the Las Vegas Convention Service Co. I went to work for him as an assistant in June 1964.

"Earlier, right around the time there was a move to build a convention center in Las Vegas, one of the convention center's major promoters had been George Albright, who owned a local office supply company. He knew that more conventions in Las Vegas would mean more sales for his company. Albright talked to Pat McMur, head of the American Mining Congress, and the show was one of the first held after the new convention center was built ¡ª on the former site of a racetrack.

"The convention center only consisted of a rotunda then, but when McMur first came out and saw it, he knew a convention couldn't be held there. So the North Hall and six meeting rooms were built. Later, Dr. Koss, head of the Academy of Ophthalmology & Otolaryngology came to Las Vegas, and I traveled with his show as it rotated through Kansas City, Atlantic City and Denver. I was close to Koss, who wanted the CVA to build something to meet his meeting's needs. I worked with Des Kelly, then head of the CVA, and we got 30 more meeting rooms built and the construction of the South Hall and a portion of the East Hall, which gave the convention center about 600,000 to 700,000 sq. ft.

"Dave Jamison had a heart attack that hospitalized him, and things were getting tough. The Stardust Hotel wanted to hire me, but said that I'd have to fire two of their employees. I ended up hiring Mark Swain from the Stardust for Jamison. Swain was known as a bag man for Moe Dalitz, a mob figure, and the mob wanted to lower Swain's visibility and get him out of the hotel business, so he moved to the contracting business and got more legitimate. Because of his contacts, convention services sales for Las Vegas Convention Service increased. The company was sold to Greyhound Exposition Services in the mid-'70s, which later became GES.

"Conventions continued to grow. With the addition to the East (now C2) Hall, we had 850,000 sq. ft. Koss' show ended up at about 500 10¡ä¡Á10¡Á booths. By the late '70s, I put on the last of the Pacific Automotive Shows, which had 4,250 booths and spanned 1.8 million sq. ft.

"One of the most memorable things we ever did was to hold a VIP party for 1,600 members of the Young Presidents Organization on top of Hoover Dam. This was never done before or since and was very hush-hush. It even required President Nixon's approval, because it was contrary to Department of Interior regulations. We hosted a barbecue and had several dance bands, all on the roof of the dam's powerhouse.

"As a former employee of the Bureau of Reclamation at the dam I'd wanted to do some sort of dam tour, but we decided to do a party instead. Attendees were told they were being taken to a hidden mine strike, as they boarded 30 buses at their hotels, which later disgorged 40 to 50 partygoers each at the dam every two or three minutes. Elevators were used to transport the attendees to the powerhouse roof.

"It was then I suddenly realized we had no toilets. I got on the horn, and within two hours had seven outhouses built on top of the ramp.

"Another memorable incident happened when a doctor at a tradeshow had a fight with his wife and jumped into his rented plane, intending to buzz their house to frighten her. He took off, but clipped the 'L' on the old Landmark Hotel sign next to the convention center, and crashed right into the No. 2 meeting room as I watched. He was killed in the crash.

"I eventually left Greyhound, went to United, and formed United Wesco, as vice president of all West Coast facilities. I retired in 1980, but I remained a consultant on several shows.

"The biggest changes I've seen are that every hotel in Las Vegas now has thousands of square feet of convention space as part of the hotel. It's their top priority. All across the country you always hear about Las Vegas, but it's not so much about the gaming, it's the conventions. Gambling is less of an issue. People want to know about the facilities."

Kami Oisboid's father, R. Scott Griffith, started Nevada's first modeling agency in 1957. Although most tradeshow professionals now eschew the idea of "booth babes," Griffith thought beautiful women might draw attendees to tradeshow exhibits. Oisboid grew up in her father's business, but spent much of her adult life as a teacher, returning seven years ago to take over as head of Las Vegas' HMI-Holiday Models, which continues to provide hostesses and models for major tradeshows and special events.

"My father originally came to Las Vegas from Kentucky and worked for Nevada Power. He quit that job to open the modeling agency in 1957.

"He pioneered the idea of beautiful people in the convention industry nationwide and provided models for the first convention at the Las Vegas Convention Center, World Congress of Flight, in the late '50s. Eventually, he expanded all over the country, providing talent to events in Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles and elsewhere.

"He worked with Las Vegas hotels and produced fashion shows for attendees' wives back in the days when attendees were mostly men. The fashions came from the hotels' stores and helped to promote them.

"In the 1960s and '70s, in Las Vegas and elsewhere, it was considered great to have half-dressed women working shows as hostesses, but we always had them escorted at our events. But by the '80s, there were more women in tradeshow management, so women in the booth became less sexy and more professional.

"In the mid-1970s, he launched his destination management company, which provided such services as ground transportation, hospitality events, parties, event planning and management and VIP services. He was active with the Las Vegas Press Club and the Hotel Sales and Management Assn. Other conventions where HMI provided the majority of talent were the Natl. Grocers Assn. meeting, Fall Joint Computer Conference and the Consumer Electronics Show (Intl. CES). We still are the official talent agency for the Natl. Automobile Dealers Assn. and support their talent needs in New Orleans, Orlando, San Francisco and Las Vegas.

"I have been involved in the company since I was 4 years old and was a model for fashion shows. When I was 16, I began working in the office. I rebelled and became a schoolteacher until my father's last diagnosis. My dad passed away from cancer in 1998. I took over the company at that time as the president and owner.

"We've almost come full circle now. Shows like Intl. CES and exhibitors like Dell and Panasonic are more corporate, but car shows are all about having sexy women models again in their exhibits."

Michael Gasta is president of America's Guest and vice president and general manager of Key2 Travel. He's been in the industry for 30 years and in Las Vegas for more than 20, arriving on April Fools' Day 1982 when the city had about 50,000 hotel rooms in its inventory. Today, it boasts more than 131,000.

"The Hilton moved me here from California. I came here as director of catering and convention services for the Las Vegas Hilton, which had 3,000 rooms and was next door to the convention center, at the time the only convention facility in town. I spent 16 years there and knew all the mega-shows in Las Vegas.

"When I got here, the mob was still active. Everybody learned to sit with their backs to the wall in local restaurants. You'd see the Spilotro brothers in the Caf¨¦ Michelle sending wine over to the table of the FBI men who were tailing them. They all used those big brick-sized cell phones from Centel, the local supplier, and the Caf¨¦ Michelle became known as Caf¨¦ Centel.

"Back then, there was very limited support for the convention market in Las Vegas, because casino owners felt it wasn't good business. They thought conventions kept attendees away from gaming. But as the convention center continued to grow, and the city started to get more properties in the '80s and '90s, concern grew about how to fill those hotel rooms midweek ¡ª the city always did well on weekends. So more and more hotels began to see the value of convention space.

"The city has matured. For instance, today visitors no longer are willing to stand in line at restaurants and shows. In the 1980s, tourists were willing to do that because they weren't on a schedule.

"In those days, the hoteliers were basically gaming operators. Hotel rooms didn't have the dual phone lines and Internet access they do now ¡ª the whole idea was to get guests out of the rooms and into the casinos. And entertainment became more contemporary when conventions came in. The Sinatra-type entertainment that once predominated has been replaced by rock acts like Coldplay and Paul McCartney.

"Before, low-priced buffet meals were the norm; now, every distinguished chef has a presence here. I consulted with Wolfgang Puck before he opened his Caesars Forum restaurant. He had doubts, but I told him to just open the doors. Today, it's his top-grossing restaurant: $25 million. I also advised Steve Wynn when he was planning the Mirage. Last year, for the first time, gaming accounted for less than 50 percent of the spend in Las Vegas. Business, food and beverage, and entertainment are now bigger.

"The two biggest factors in the city's success have been that McCarran Intl. Airport has always stayed ahead of the curve in expanding, and the marketing efforts of the LVCVA. They're constantly reinventing Las Vegas as a worldwide destination, as with the recent 'Today' show coverage of the Wynn hotel opening. And the 'What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas' campaign was the most successful in the city's history. I really credit the CVA, Manny Cortez and now Rossi Ralenkotter."

Manny Cortez was president and CEO of the LVCVA for 13 years before retiring last year, when he was succeeded by Rossi Ralenkotter. Nevertheless, Cortez spent most of his life involved with the hospitality business in Las Vegas and, during his tenure at the LVCVA, presided over the most fundamental period of growth in the city's tradeshow industry, an era begun by his predecessor, Frank Sain.

"The convention center opened in April 1959, and the first show there was World Congress of Flight. The planes to be displayed landed at the old McCarran Field, and then taxied through town to the convention center.

"In 1960, I was a valet parking attendant; in 1969 I worked downtown; and then got into local government.

"It was originally decided to create a new convention bureau under the chamber of commerce, and the activities were mostly of a public relations nature. It was then decided to do more PR outside of Southern California (from where, as now, most visitors to Las Vegas came), so it was expanded, especially in winter. Next came the decision to build the convention center to attract groups in the shoulder season in summer.

"The convention center didn't have many tradeshows at first. It was mostly prize fights, concerts and UNLV (University of Nevada Las Vegas) basketball games. John F. Kennedy spoke there. But it later became apparent that tradeshows were good business.

"The gamers didn't embrace that right away. It wasn't until the late 1980s and early 1990s that the hotels really got into it. It's a relatively recent phenomenon, but a very important one, and the hotels began building their own convention, conference and tradeshow space.

"Much of this had to do with Atlantic City getting gaming. Las Vegas looked at that as a threat that could cost them East Coast visitors, so that galvanized Las Vegas into action, and it stopped counting on California so much."