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The numbers are staggering. Las Vegas hosted nearly 5 million convention attendees in 2022, and with a robust schedule of meetings, trade shows, and Lisa Messina, the very first chief sales officer at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, talks about what it is like to have a top spot in the entertainment and meeting capital of the world.
Straight out of college, Kelly Gleeson Smith knew she had fallen into her dream career after landing her first job in “meeting connection sales” at the Hyatt Regency Hill Country in San Antonio, Texas. From the start, she reveled in what she described as the “power of meetings” to affect so many people. “It was like a pebble falling into the water, and then the centrifugal rings just continuing to expand it,” Gleeson Smith said. “I thought, ‘Wow, this is an amazing industry.’”
As the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas buzzed with the sounds of utility vehicles zipping by and booths being meticulously finished for the show floor opening of IMEX America 2022 the next day, Carina Bauer, IMEX Group CEO, couldn’t have been calmer—or more excited. “Fantastic!” she said, when I asked how she was feeling ahead of the big day. Her joy—and that of the thousands of attendees who graced the show floor, educational sessions and networking events Oct. 10-13—was palpable. One overriding feeling seemed to prevail: The rebound is real.
As the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas buzzed with the sounds of utility vehicles zipping by and booths being meticulously finished for the show floor opening of IMEX America 2022 the next day, Carina Bauer, IMEX Group CEO, couldn’t have been calmer—or more excited. “Fantastic!” she said, when I asked how she was feeling ahead of the big day. Her joy—and that of the thousands of attendees who graced the show floor, educational sessions and networking events Oct. 10-13—was palpable. One overriding feeling seemed to prevail: The rebound is real.
One of the hottest topics in the meetings industry is talent acquisition and retention. Michael Massari, chief sales officer of Caesars Entertainment, started out his career in the hospitality industry as a bellhop.