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They met in separate, completely unrelated conventions in halls about a mile apart. But their messages were strikingly similar: Why is the federal government making it so difficult for us to thrive?
At the Las Vegas Convention Center was the National Business Aircraft Association. I did a double-take when I first saw “NBAA,” thinking it was some new alternative basketball league.
Down the street at the Sands Expo Center was IMEX, an acronym that doesn’t seem to stand for anything in particular. Its show was about bringing meetings industry professionals together with venues for the purpose of booking conventions and trade shows.
It was the inaugural meeting of IMEX in North America, and Las Vegas was able to capitalize on being the host city because meeting planners got to see firsthand what kinds of conference facilities the city has to offer.
Organizers of IMEX initially signed a three-year commitment to gather in Las Vegas, so having the show here could pay dividends in years ahead. Corporate and association meetings bring more than 6 million people to our city every year, so it’s a nice piece of business if we can get it. Las Vegas has been the top convention destination in North America for years, but it’s an ongoing challenge to stay on top.
The NBAA has been here before. Two years ago, the association had a static display of aircraft on a piece of a runway at McCarran International Airport that was undergoing repair. While the show was in town, there was a wind shift that forced air traffic controllers to change the landing pattern. To hear NBAA delegates tell it, the association was blamed for commercial flight delays because those planes were on the runway.
This year, the static display was at Henderson Executive Airport and, for the first time, some aircraft were shuttled from the airport to the Convention Center for an on-site display.
While there was some grumbling about having the display so far from the show, requiring a half-hour bus trip to get there, there really aren’t very many places in the country, if any, that can accommodate 26,000 delegates and has an airport just down the block from the convention hall. Having the display on McCarran’s runway under repair apparently spoiled some delegates.
The common thread of the two conventions was that both are in the business of promoting face-to-face business meetings. IMEX works on the accommodation side; NBAA works the transportation.
But both sets of delegates could find common ground in asking questions about government roadblocks. Both groups found some fault with President Barack Obama.
The IMEX complaints are notorious in Las Vegas tourism lore, but industry leaders never tire of complaining about the president’s ill-timed remarks exemplifying the city as a place where visitors shouldn’t blow their cash, especially if it involves government money.
In a presentation at the IMEX conference, U.S. Travel Association CEO Roger Dow noted how difficult it has been for Las Vegas to recover from Obama’s throwaway line that could have mentioned any resort destination but, unfortunately for us residents, turned out to be Vegas.
In a panel discussion at the NBAA that featured some star power — Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan, the “last man on the moon,” and actor Harrison Ford, who piloted the Millennium Falcon as Han Solo in the “Star Wars” movies (Ford is a private pilot off-screen) — participants voiced concerns about taxation and what seems to be an annual ritual of sidetracking funding for a modernized Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control system.
“Until we convince our political leaders of the importance of aviation to the country, we’re going to fall short,” Ford said.
The NBAA will meet in Orlando next year — not because organizers are still mad about being the fall guys for McCarran’s traffic delays the last time they were here but because they’re trying to rotate between the East and West coasts, even though Las Vegas conventions are a better attendance draw.
But in 2013, both the NBAA and IMEX will be back in Las Vegas.
Maybe if the two organizations still have some beefs with the government they should pool some resources and see how they can help each other.
That’s one of the beauties of Las Vegas’ ability to host several shows at once.