One of my mentors...Bill Hermann and I at Buca Di Beppo's in Las Vegas
What a whirlwind of a trip. I recently got back from my Mobile Beat Las Vegas trip and it was exhausting but worth it. I flew out on Sunday morning out of Marquette and after a 4 hour layover in Chicago boarded the plane that would take me to Vegas. I arrived at McCarran Airport at about 4pm local time and was greeted by a friend of a friend who is a dealer at the Venetian. From there we checked into the Riviera hotel, the site of the Mobile Beat Las Vegas convention. The Riviera is starting to show its age as a hotel but their rooms are newly remodeled and are quite nice.
Our first day of education started on Monday as I attended one seminar and then it was off to a Think Tank group for the WED Guild. Here I learned A LOT of new and helpful information about uplighting from fellow WED Michael Anderson from Sacramento California. Then it was off to a client meeting with Jennifer and Chad who I get the honor of performing for in July of this year. They both live in Vegas yet are having their reception in the UP. It was a pleasure meeting the two of them again and working on their wedding together. Then it was off to a yearly tradition at Buca Di Beppo’s, where fellow DJA members get together to share Italian food and good times.
Peter Merry broke his glass during his toast to Richard Mills, a good friend who traveled all the way from New Zealand to join us in Vegas
Tuesday was the real start of the conference and fellow WED Jim Cerone of Indianapolis, IN was one of our feature presenters with his Perfect Host seminars along with Andy Ebon, who did some very informative seminars on blogging and new social media. Tuesday evening started out with Otis Day and the Knights rocking the top of the Riv followed by Vanilla Ice. After about the third song I had had enough of Rob throwing out obscenities mixed with water he had half drank being spit into the crowd so we left. From there we made out way to our annual DJA get-together known as Hugfest. Hugfest this year was held at the Riviera and included karaoke. DJA is short for a forum I belong to called Discjockeyamerica.com. DJA has helped me tremendously and is a great brother/sisterhood of DJ’s nationwide who all want to succeed in their business but first and foremost have their clients best interests at heart and are always looking to improve.
Mitch with "The Hat" from Colorado's finest, Mr. Robert Krueger
Wednesday was more seminars as well as the opening of the show floor, where we got to check out the latest in gear from national manufacturers. Wednesday night was our 2nd annual WED Guild dinner, which was held this year at Gallagher’s Steakhouse at the New York, New York Hotel and Casino. Memories were made again this year at that event. Thursday wrapped up our seminars and provided some unwind time before the flight home on Friday. I thoroughly enjoy the trip but do feel since it is over that the five nights out there is a bit too long. It’s really hard to cram that much education into the timeframe we have but we seem to do it every year.
Can’t tell you where I’ll be next week as it’s a surprise. Have more pics to show later….as well as more posts with tips for your party. Talk with you soon.
Mitch with Andy Ebon, owner of the Wedding Marketing Blog
