One of the great things about my job at The Kingsport Times-News is the opportunity to attend the annual Newspaper Association of America’s convention held at various locations around the country. Over the past decade, I’ve enjoyed these professional events in several of America’s greatest cities including Orlando, Dallas, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, DC. I added Las Vegas to that list last week and recall plenty of great sessions that included the best and brightest of our industry. Over 2,000 newspaper execs from around the world attended the conference held at the Mandalay Bay hotel and looking back, it was an enlightening week of creative insights, entertainment and plenty of memories from the city that never sleeps.
I’ve traveled to Vegas several years ago with the Strickler family on their family vacation. Our Vegas experience was a whirlwind though with just a brief 16 hour experience – we call it the Chevy Chase Vegas Vacation. We had plenty of places on our agenda that time as we took in the Grand Canyon, Lake Meade, Zion National Forest and many other sites in and around Nevada and Arizona.
This year, the NAA conference began on Sunday, January 27th, so I decided to take the long flight from TriCities early Saturday morning. My 6am flight brought me over Nevada’s horizon early and the warmth of the morning sun was just passing over the Grand Canyon as the 757 taxied into McCarren Airport about 10.00.
I had to book a room at the Luxor next to Mandalay Bay and had plenty of time before check-in so I decided to rent a Mustang convertible first thing and get to know the city. Vegas sits proudly in the middle of a desert, surrounded by rocky crags on all corners and since the outside temperature was about 60, I was excited to drive my first rag top. One of the rental car folks set me up with just enough instructions and a map and the I couldn’t wait to turn on the stereo.
I started the car and inserted Miles Davis CD at the Black Hawk in San Francisco. This would be my soundtrack for the next several days and I made turned down Tropicana and rolled the windows down to cruise down “The Strip” on an early Saturday morning. There were plenty of tourists along the sidewalks and I could hardly keep my neck from reeling this way and that at the Bellagio, Ceasers Palace, The Venetian, the MGM Grand and all of the casinos I’ve heard about, read about and watched weekly on my favorite CSI – Las Vegas.
From all sides, the lights, sound, color and architecture of Vegas is overwhelming. Driving north on th strip is an interesting experience too because the history of the city moves South to North. As you move toward the downtown region, the buildings are older and reminiscent of a different time for Vegas. These 50 year old hotels still seem familiar with names and signs that marked The Mirage, The Frontier, The Sands and the Stardust. Nestled on the side streets in the old part of town is where you’ll find wedding chapels, pawn shops, adult book stores and low-rent districts. I drove from one end to the other turning back into the city at Nellis Air Force Base.
Driving the beltway on 215 is a scenic experience. Vegas is visible in a cloudy mist and the hills of the desert rise on each side. I took several pictures, had a bite to eat and made it to the Luxor around 3.00. This hotel, known for it’s striking black pyramid is an opulent model of Egyptian architecture and stucco. One of the cab-drivers later in the week mentioned they were planning on tearing it down, but I still enjoy the false=faux bravado from this black pyramid in the heart of the city.
I checked in and it wasn’t long before my friend Patrick O’ Brien called to say he had arrived and was looking to get out on the town. Patrick is the Web Director at The Sandusky Register in Ohio and had flown in with publisher Doug Phares. We met up in lobby of the Mandalay and began our hike down the strip. It was a little cool – 55 degrees – but we had no problem walking in front of hotels, casinos, bars and shops that glitter on the streets. We ducked into a few bars along the way including a cool little Irish bar named O ‘Sheas.’ That’s where I would begin a weekend of Patron shots and imported beer.
(Thanks for the picture Patrick – Click here to see all of Patrick’s photos)
We walked almost halfway down the strip and watched the sunset in the background. That was enough for one night too and we visited a few more casinos – walking through – before hailing a cab back to return us to the hotel. Kingsport Times-News publisher Keith Wilson had arrived along with Art Powers and Tom Harris from The Johnson City Press. Other publishers and managers would arrive later in the night including owner David Rau and Peter Vogt, Standard Examiner publisher Lee Carter, along with advertising manager Bard Roghaar and Justin Scott. The new publisher from the Norwalk Reflector was also attending the conference this year along with Nick White – reporter, programmer and son of Dudley White.
Sunday morning was the official opening of the 2007 NAA conference and after an early morning registration at the Mandalay, we attended several sessions featuring speakers from newspapers around the country and talent from MySpace, Yahoo, Google and other popular dot-com companies. Topics ranged from local searches, social websites, classified advertising and plenty of Q&A among attendees.
In the past, there have been several memorable keynote speakers at the NAA Conventions, among them Colin Powell, Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki. This year, the speaker was a retired product manager for Frito Lay and even though his theme seemed appropriate, his presentation was a bit weak in regard to this convention and the new technology being discussed in the sessions and exhibitor hall.
Several software vendors from around the country attend the NAA convention. Amy Weaver had called earlier in the in the week inviting our staff to dinner. She works with Vision Data and we were happy to accept an invitation on Sunday night with dinner at Strip Steak at the Mandalay.
When we arrived, the hosts situated our group of 15 or so in the back room and I had the pleasure of dining with Vision Data president Tom Dempsey. Tom had a little trouble ordering from the wine list and I would have too, especially considering their prices stared at $115 per bottle with a $4600 bottle of wine on the list! I remarked later that I wouldn’t drink from the Holy Grail at $4600. We ordered from a short menu and although we ordered filets, the appetizer – strangely enough – french fries. This is the place that has a $200 steak on the menu too.
The food was good, but the conversation more interesting as I spoke to Dempsey about his company and his 30 plus years in the software business. Tom has a genuine interest in his customers and continues to show a passion for his business that resulted in several conversations around the room.
On Monday, the sessions were in full swing early in the morning. This was the day the vendor halls opened too and along with the workshops, we had an opportunity to meet many software companies including Your Hub, Morris Newspapers, Zope, Ad Lizard, My Capture, Gabbini and many others. This is an interesting group to talk to about their business ideas and unfortunately, the only thing missing from their presentations are the hard-core/proven revenue programs to help us our grow our revenue. I’ve said it before and I’ll state it here again – there’s no shortage of ideas these days.
After the sessions on Monday, the vendors turned the exhibit hall into an after-hours cocktail session and we had several drinks along with coconut shrimp, sushi and more imported beer before dinner at Borderline Grill. This is an “OK” Mexican restaurant at Mandalay Bay and that’s where we had dinner with all the Sandusky people including our consultant Mike Blinder. The food was southwestern, the drinks were patron and beer and our conversations – always intriguing and challenging as we debate ideas for the future.
One of the memorable social events of the Vegas trip was the Monday Night party sixty stories above the lights of Vegas at The Mix. This is a swanky club that Patrick and I joined along with other newspaper/tech reps for a late-night dance party – Vegas style. You had to take a special elevator to the top floor and some bouncer ala/Justin Timberlake with a an ear wire greeted our party. The lights were everything you might imagine from a Vegas club and as we entered and to our right, we were overlooking all of the sparkling lights of Vegas and below, the Luxor beaming it’s ultra-white beam directly into the sky. We had several drinks and enjoyed the scenery too – there are beautiful women in Vegas and we didn’t leave that room to well after one-o-clock.
Tuesday morning was a bit rough. We had reached our limit earlier in the morning and it took plenty of Starbucks to get us going for the last day of sessions and meetings. One of the last events of the day was the NAA Awards Ceremony in one of the conference rooms. This was a bit rowdy because there were free cocktails, but it was interesting to hear the winners of this years awards for best websites. I must admit, I was envious.
Later that evening, the publishers met for their own dinner and me and Patrick were joined by Nick White at The Red Square. This was one of the most interesting restaurants we visited in Vegas. It’s a Russian-theme restaurant with a 15-foot statue of a headless Lenin out front and has decor resembling a KGB party hall complete with onion-domed architecture, a bar with a counter made of ice and a Vodka list instead of a wine list. We had a great time talking about the business and exchanging ideas related to everything from politics, religion, media and Russian literature.
Nick is an intellectual young man who claims he is “over-educated.” He certainly has plenty of parchment and I especially enjoyed hearing his appreciate of Russian literature. I should have expected interesting conversation when he mentioned outside the restaurant that we would be discussion “The Revolution.” I enjoyed our conversations and he’s led me to an interesting Russian primer – a book written by Mikhail Afanasevich called ‘Man and Margarita’ which I ordered from Amazon next day.
Our meal was extraordinary and the conversation was intriguing. Patrick had our waiter take a few pictures and we settled into everything from Tuna Tartar to Russian Stroganoff and a few tasty martinis. After dinner we strolled through the casinos smoking a cigar and watching a few crap games before parting company for the night.
Most everyone had a flight out early on Wednesday. An ice-storm had blanketed much of the Southeast and since I didn’t have to travel through Atlanta, having instead a flight back through Cincinnati’s, I decided to stay for the final sessions and pack up my bags and hit the roads around Vegas for a trip to Death Valley.
The NAA conference was wonderful in Vegas. For the past part, the sessions were great, but this town sure has lots of distractions. I spent more time with software vendors this year than ever before and we had dinner at some great restaurants.
The general directions of the conference point to some serious partnerships brewing with Google and Yahoo and that’s very encouraging for the industry. They see the “fourth estate” as having distinct advantages of respected branded content, unique relationships with the businesses in our community and feet on the street. I’m looking forward to seeing how this will play out.
There was plenty of discussion about local search too including many software vendors purporting the idea that newspapers should be the conduit for all search requests within a community. This should include more than just the news, but these database should query all sorts of local content. Personally, I found the conversations centered around the new phenomenon of social network and community based publishing much more interesting and cutting-edge. Projects like Bluffton Today, Bakersfield Online and others hope to integrate several new ideas on their websites in the future and much of that centered around user-contributed content.
I didn’t gamble much and unfortunately, I didn’t get to attend any of the shows. Elton John, Jay Leno, Penn & Teller, Carrot Top, The GoGos and plenty other stars were playing the strip this weekend, but my work kept me busy. Although I had originally planned on spending a couple of hundred dollars in the casinos, I only blew $50 bucks on slots and the rest on a shopping trip one morning to Macy’s in downtown Vegas and a trip to the valley.
Over the next several weeks, I plan on implementing many new ideas gleaned from this Vegas conference and more importantly, I have an agenda for working closer together with Patrick, Nick and our other properties in the coming days. I’ll look forward to those developments and anticipate plenty of new ideas related to this conference. Next year, the NAA conference will be held in Orlando and although I’ve been there before, I like the site because they have a great convention center and since I’ve been there before, maybe there won’t be as many distractions.
After returning from my trip in the valley, my plane was scheduled to leave McCarren at 11.45 pm. I guess that’s the red-eye and as we lifted up past the ocean of lights and the view from windows turned dark, the airplane was packed and quiet as we all slipped back and forth into various sleep states till the sun started to rise on the tarmac in Cinncinatti. There was about an inch of snow on the ground and after a three hour layover there, I was finally back in the Tri-Cities around 11am Thursday morning and it always feels good to step off of that plane and get back to my home here in Tennessee.