SINdustry CITY visits the Yummy Low Country

June's Vegas 4 Locals meeting was held Thursday June 19 at Louis's Fish Camp in Town Square on Las Vegas Boulevard. The Fish Camp is one of two restaurants bearing Louis's name; apparently the "Fish Camp" qualifier means to indicate it is the more colloquial of the two. (Southeastern style with a concentration in matters New Orleans, mint juleps a specialty, two bars, and a three-hour happy hour. "Laissez le bon temps &c," it seemed to say.)

A crowd of approximately 1000 was in attendance. (OK, it's approximate. Sue us.) Tom Wilkinson did his usual good job of bringing off the whole networking opportunity nicely, and Ty Ku and Snow Queen provided complimentary liquor at the rear bar that some thoughtful patrons (modesty forbids) liberally supplemented by ordering other spirits in stock, allowing Louis and his stockholders to make a little money on the whole deal.

This round of the monthly informal gathering of businesspeople featured a band called BluesStorm. They were a four-piece that played classic rock covers and had those present dancing openly as soon as they became sufficiently loosened up. Our staff declined invitations to participate, however. Most of the conversation was in the front of the store, but we staked out a table in front of the band and let the party (or at least the dance party) come to us.

Waiters came around with complimentary fishy hors d'oeuvres including deep-fried alligator with authentic Texas Pete hot sauce (product of the TW Garner Food Company of Winston-Salem, NC). Our waitress, Jackie, was another Chicago native who had moved to Las Vegas (we seem to be averaging one per event lately) who expressed righteous indignation at our having been refused the name of the well whiskey on our last visit to the Palms: "It's not like it's vodka!"

Attendees were handed out coupons for prize drawings in between sets by the band. Selecting the (random) winners were the "CB Girls" of Callback Magazine. The "winners" of the prizes were required to be in attendance at the drawing, and several prizes had to be reallocated when holders of the lucky numbers were unluckily absent. (One member of our crack staff had a ticket that was one number off from an absent "winner's" ticket, but the CB Girls were unimpressed by our claims that such ordinal proximity dictated that the prize be awarded to her instead. Well, this is Vegas, and it comes as no surprise when one cannot beat the house.)

The party was still going at the obscene hour of 8:30 P.M. when we left. Some people just don't have to get up in the morning, I guess.

Old SINdustry CITY Meets New!

We had a great time at our second Vegas4Locals event. Casa di Amore was total old-school Vegas, classic! The pictures on the wall tell a history of cool. Doug Michaels set the mood with “lounge entertainment” (you know the type, good enough to pay attention and enjoy, background enough that the cocktail party isn’t disturbed). Kathleen D’Esposito was a gracious hostess and fun to talk to as well.

Seth Grabel, local magician extraordinaire, walked around doing magic with film crew in tow. We were impressed: tricks in such close spaces are hard to pull off.

The set-up and atmostphere made networking easy (definitely easier than last month at the Pink Taco). We met Yvette Brown of Vegas VIP Hottie Hosting (a concierge service), Edwina Carabajal of Las Vegas Homes for Rent Magazine, Clint Montgomerty of Montgomery Media Productions, Shirley Mulvihill of Mountain View Mortgage Company, Daniel Braisted of Business Cards & More.

BTW, Daniel was a reminder of how small a world Vegas can be. Along with promoting his business, he was passing out flyers for The Airport Center office building. Our good friend and long-time client, Dion Brosan, manages the Airport Center, so we would be amiss if we didn’t mention them!

All in all, it was a great evening of good food and drink and good company. Tom Wilkinson pulled off another great evening for locals!

Oh yeah, and congrats to Kathleen D’Esposito for correctly identifying all the points of interest on our logo and winning a SINdustry CITY Tee!

SINdustry Freedom

So last night we had a great time at the Pink Taco in the Hard Rock Casino. Tom Wilkinson (no, we are not making his name up out our two last names, but it makes it easy to remember!) hosts these networking events to promote his website, Vegas4Locals.com. That was a wonderful idea because, frankly, we never would have found his website if he hadn't offered us free margaritas! One of the great things about living in Vegas is the free stuff.

We investigated his website this morning (only a little foggy from the margaritas). It is well worth the visit: Two of our favorite things -- freebies and coupons -- along with some valuable info on things to do in Vegas and things about Vegas that rock!

This was our second networking event. Last month we went to a St. Pattie's Day party at the Hard Rock Cafe (the other building at the Hard Rock), hosted by another cool website, The LINK, hosted by Joel Jarvis, which is dedicated to providing the most comprehensive Las Vegas Networking Calendar he can muster.

At the St. Pattie's Day party, we met Andrea Dixon, Executive Meeting Manager at the Platinum Hotel, Lounge and Spa and cat diva extraordinaire. We, of course, love cat people and especially cat people who take in disabled cats like our little Anawim.

We ran into Andrea again last night and had a great discussion about the Las Vegas business culture. We concluded unanimously that the best thing about doing business in Vegas is that it is straightforward. You don't have to pretend to be something you're not in order to achieve your goals. The toleration of all sorts of businesses and the understanding that businesses, like people, are diverse and serve many different markets, creates an atmosphere that accepts making money as a natural goal for one's activities. You don't have to pretend that you don't want to make money in order to make money.

This freedom is why we decided to start a blog about our SINdustry CITY. There is so much more to Las Vegas than casinos. We plan to explore it!

Two more evening events of mention:

1. Congratulations to Brooke Siebel who won our makeshift, on-the-spot contest to see who could name all the buildings represented on the SINdustry CITY logo. We are sending her a SINdustry CITY t-shirt from our SINdustry CITY Gift Shop (modeled here by our own Carl Wilkerson). Now that we figured out how much fun it is to have people stare at our chests and name the strip, we are thinking about playing similar games at each event we attend. More on that as it develops.

2. And finally, the highlight of the evening: Pattie played "Casino War" for money! Okay, with non-negotiable chips offered by the casino as a promotion. But it was fun!