Preview Las Vegas 2025: City of Diversity

How does Las Vegas keep pushing the envelope? The third annual Las Vegas Preview, held Jan. 16 in the East Room of the Las Vegas Convention Center, sought to uncover the city’s past, present and future.

The event included an update on the state of the Las Vegas economy, a discussion of WrestleMania 41 at Allegiant Stadium and a discussion of what makes the Sphere so attractive to visitors.

Las Vegas is on the rise

Applied Analysis principal analyst Jeremy Aguero has been there to provide an overview of Nevada’s economic conditions since the start of the 2022 preview. Now in his third year, he (and the country) did not disappoint. In his presentation, “The Turning Point,” Aguero first took the audience back to Las Vegas’ humble beginnings.

“What strikes me is that if we go back to 1905 when 1,500 people showed up in downtown Las Vegas to buy 1,200 acres of land that eventually became Las Vegas, I wonder if any of them would have imagined It’s going to be what it is today,” he said. “I imagine when those original casinos were built on a dirt road next to a casino, they imagined we were going to turn them into the most extraordinary hotel-casino on the planet.”

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He went on to list several other developments in Las Vegas since the early 20th century: Fremont Street, also known as Glitter Gulch, fed by Boulder Dam Massive power was built; the first flight to Las Vegas in 1926; the Union Pacific Railroad made Las Vegas a stop between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City.

Today, more projects are being developed in Las Vegas that will only add to its appeal, such as Brightline’s Southern California-to-Las Vegas link in 2028 and Warner Bros. and Sony’s move to Las Vegas Garth as the next film production hub.

“I wonder if those early days of sporting events that were held in the old convention center and other places outside could have imagined us hosting the biggest events in the world from a sporting perspective or being home to world championship sports teams. I doubt it. I say that Doubtful,” he said.

economic production

“The United States produces more today than at any time in American history,” he said. “Oh, by the way, it’s not just us. It’s the whole world. Growth is expected everywhere.” Equatorial Guinea, on the west coast of Africa, is an exception.

Although overall production is high, consumer confidence is lower than in previous years. “It’s not at the high levels that we’ve seen in similar periods of growth,” Aguero said. “We’re seeing from consumer spending that it’s also at the highest level we’ve ever seen, which makes us a little bit nervous because we’re also borrowing (money) to build some of that, which may be a little bit unrealistic.”

The price is too high

Aguero drew a chart showing the prices of consumer goods such as electricity, air tickets, food, vehicles, childcare and highlighted the everything has risen. “We know consumers are facing stress,” he said. “This is squeezing consumers and that’s something we should be watching closely because those consumers who are spending more, those consumers who are taking on more debt, are also saving as low as we’ve ever seen in modern society. The level. The history. It’s a little tricky to combine.”

Of course, rising food and airfare prices are also affecting meetings and events, putting pressure on meeting professionals as they try to negotiate higher prices across most industries.

Heather Pilcher, CEO and executive producer of Blue Spark Event Design, talks about the difficulties she faced when shopping for catering for events in “Helpful Budgeting Advice for Event Planners in the Post-Pandemic World.” “A lot of times, individual menu items are priced so high that it’s not equal value for what you’re getting,” she said. “Even though I met the minimum standards for food and drink, I got a lot less food because the meal prices were so high, so it was really difficult.”

WrestleMania 41 and Building the Sports Economy

Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority CEO Steve Hill sat down with WWE President Nick Khan to discuss the wrestling and entertainment company’s April 19 to the 41st WrestleMania at Allegiant Stadium on the 20th.

A year and a half ago, WWE partnered with Zuffa, the operating company of mixed martial arts organization UFC, to create TKO Group Holdings. “When you see the success of the (NHL) Golden Knights, when you see the success of the (NFL) Raiders, when you see the construction of Allegiant Stadium, when you see the construction of T-Mobile Stadium, to me That all started with the UFC,” Khan said. “Obviously there were Vegas guys, Dana White, the Fertitts (Zuffa founder). They believed in the city. They believed the city could become an international player. They went out and they did that.”

“In WWE, we always think of ourselves as the underdog,” Khan told Hill at the start of the discussion. “We’re just at the starting line. We’re at the beginning of where we want to be. We want to be one of the largest properties in the country and the world.”

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Hill asked about community outreach leading up to and during WrestleMania weekend, and Khan responded that there would be a lot. “WWE is leading the way for WrestleMania week. It’s going to be a week-long event. Take away two nights of WrestleMania, take away Friday Night SmackDown at T-Mobile Arena, take away Monday Night at T-Mobile, the whole week It will all be activated in the community,” he said. “Our wrestlers, known as superstars, are personally involved in this. We want to give back. We want to leave any city we go to better than we found it.”

Beginning April 17, Fanatic Events (the company that partners with Proto Hologram at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York) will partner with WWE at the Las Vegas Convention Center to bring WWE World to the convention center, offering a Five days of interactive experiences including autograph signings and meet-and-greets with WWE stars. Khan said that when they debuted the program at WrestleMania 40 in Philadelphia, over 40,000 people attended.

Bill Walsh talks about spheres

Bill Walshe, executive vice president of Sphere Entertainment Group, just delivered a keynote speech on Delta Air Lines’ innovation at this year’s CES technology event held at the Las Vegas Convention Center and talked about Sphere’s positioning as the premier entertainment venue in Las Vegas. “I think it’s going to happen more and more often that brands are using Sphere to help promote their corporate messaging,” he said.

“For some people, the Sphere is the greatest live music venue in the world,” said Walsh. “For others, it’s about the epic cinematic experiences that happen, the big events that happen outside and inside the Sphere, and the company days.”

With Sphere’s 4D technology (haptic seats that allow viewers to feel the action on the screen and smells moving throughout the venue to match content discussed during the show or presentation), Delta is able to create unforgettable experiences that no other airline can match . “(Delta) wants to celebrate their heritage but do it in a forward-thinking way where they talk about technology, the use of artificial intelligence, mapping out and charting the path forward for Delta in order to set expectations for them What better way to do that than in an unprecedented venue?”