Temporary … and Loving It

Diane Taylor -- Tradeshow Week, 5/2/2008 11:33:00 AM

One of them rented Howard Hughes his penthouse at the Desert Inn. Another had careers with the U.S. Navy and in civil service. Another has a degree in marketing from Stonehill College in Massachusetts. All three are Las Vegas temporary employees, who regularly staff Las Vegas convention registration areas and tradeshow offices.  

According to those in the local convention staffing business, one of Las Vegas’ assets as a meeting and exhibition destination is the availability of temporary employees here, many of them retirees with a lifetime of professional experience behind them.

“My experience working with retirees,” said LVCVA temporary employee Debbie Backes, “is that, if a job starts at 7 a.m., the retirees are there at 6:30 a.m.”

“Most of us drive to assignments,” said John Sand, a supervisor with Blaine Personnel, “but I know one woman who takes five buses to get to work. I agree, when a senior says he or she wants to work, you can depend on them.”

Mary Ann Nimmo has a business card describing her as a “convention specialist.” Her resume includes 17 years on the registration desk at the Desert Inn Hotel. (Yes, she did rent the top floor in 1966 to a “Jack Trent,” the name used by Howard Hughes.)  She then attended and graduated from the University of Nevada Las Vegas and spent 21 years as a business teacher. At the suggestion of her daughter, Nimmo began working conventions. She recently spent 12 days straight in the exhibits office of the Natl. Assn. of Broadcasters’ NAB show.

“When we work the same jobs year after year, the people we work with are like family,” she said.  

“We came to Las Vegas because of my husband’s job,” Backes explained, “but I fly back to see my parents in Cape Cod once a month. The flexibility of convention work is perfect.”  Backes also said she liked working at conventions, because the people one meets there are “generally in a great mood. Yes, they work hard, but Las Vegas is fun, and coming here is a kind of perk. We’re generally dealing with happy people.” 

For Sand, retired from the U.S. Navy and civil service, convention work came about because his wife, Donna, “thought I was getting too friendly with the remote (control),” he said. Donna took her husband with her to Blaine, where she was already working as a temporary employee.

“I began as a typist,” Sand said, “then on one job our supervisor became ill, and I was asked to step in. I’ve been a supervisor ever since.”   

Sand said most temporary employees like working the hotels because parking is easy, but they’ll follow the jobs. 

Pay for temporary employees is in the modest range, but the extra money comes in handy. Nimmo recalled discussing new cars with her husband, who was recommending a moderately priced car. Nimmo said she wanted a Lexus.  “Well, you’ll have to pay for it yourself,” her husband said.  

She’s on her third Lexus.