Some MICE Business Ideas form Las Vegas Sands Expo

Here is an interview of Richard Heller, president of the Sands Expo and Convention Center ... Richard Heller knows how to keep customers happy because he used to be one. Heller, president and general manager of the Sands Expo and Convention Center, formerly was vice president of trade show operations for the Needham, Mass.-based Interface Group, which owned the Comdex computer trade show. As the owner of Comdex, Heller knew what it took to keep the show coming back to Las Vegas year after year. Now, the head of the Sands Expo Center sees things from the other perspective, knowing that he has competition that can undercut him in the local market.... Example .... What is the Sands Expo Center doing to increase its share of shows? I don't know if I'd say increase. We look at our calendar out into the year and we see a hole and we target customers and we attempt to fill it. It's about relationships and people. You can spend a ton of money advertising, but if you survey our customers, they know who we are and they know where we are. We go out and visit our customers in their offices in their places of businesses and we talk about the virtues of Las Vegas first because you can't sell them on the destination of the Sands Expo and the Venetian unless you convince them that they want to come to Las Vegas first. If they're convinced on Vegas, now we need to sell them on us. It's a lot of work and it takes a lot of time. It's not a go-out-and-close-you tomorrow. It's a joke with our sales staff that if a $200 or a $500 fancy dinner could close a piece of business, I wouldn't need a sales staff. I'd fly around the country, I'd seek 22 customers, take them all to an expensive dinner and have a contract. It doesn't work that way. It's about time and relationships and trust that we're going to deliver on our promise and that they're going to be successful when they come here with us. In Business Las Vegas: