Life Improvement Tips For The Wise Few

For those who are unfamiliar with “Sin City”, it’s the place where all gamblers go for 24 hours of non stop gambling fun and excitement. It is also the city where the most conferences and conventions are held yearly. They have more Hotels per square meter than any part of the world, and I do mean high rise buildings with over a thousand rooms per hotel. I was amazed and wondered what type of expertise and management skills are needed to manage such a complex.

Anyway, while visiting Sin City, it was more for business than pleasure, but at the same time, it makes no sense visiting a city and not enjoying the place and capturing the moments, with a couple neat pictures.

Oh, before I forget, some of you may not have a clue what city I am referring to, or what part of the world I am talking about. I am talking about Las Vegas, Nevada, the place of lights and 24 hours of entertainment. It is amazing to see how people stay awake around the clock, and no matter what time of the day it is, you can find places open for fun, a little bit, or should I say a whole lot of gambling.

Let the journey begin, I left St. Maarten around 2:35 P.M. and got into Miami, Florida about 5:30 P.M. From there we took a connecting flight to Las Vegas, the flight departed around 19:55 P.M and arrived around 11:20 P.M. The flying time was about 5 and a half hours, but they are three hours behind us, so we were traveling for about 8 and a half hours and not including stopover of 2 hours, so a total of almost 11 hours.

When we arrived in Las Vegas, from that moment on we saw a very amazing and yet astonishing arrangement of how lines are built to keep people in check. It was the amount of people waiting in a long line upon a taxi. Believe it or not, it was spring break and many kids head to Las Vegas for even more fun and recuperation I should say. It took about 2 hours to catch a Taxi. Some of the other persons traveling with us took a Limo. The lines are almost always very long, no matter where you go.

Checking into the Hotel

All went well, and we got to our Hotel, and checked into the Hilton Hotel, the rate for one night was $355 dollars, excluding taxes. With Taxes the room was nearly $390 dollars per night. I must thank my boss, for seeing my potential and giving me a chance to experience the CTIA Wireless convention of 2008. It was awesome, and a real eye opener.

Let me give you a little glimpse of the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas Nevada. Hey I am no master photographer, I took these pics with my phone. So I do hope they do justice and give you an overall view of this trip. My check in didn’t go very well, my credit card was not being approved, and it made me wonder why the company doesn’t pay for the Hotel room. My Boss pitched in and put up his card.

The following day, I called the credit card company and they spoke with them and had everything arranged and ready for my stay.

Attending the conferences

We actually had a booked schedule, because we were there attending two conferences. One was for Nortel inform 2008, and at the same time attending the CTIA 2008 convention.

The first conference we attended was at the Paris Hotel, very elegant and sheik looking conference rooms. Nice place to plan your dream wedding if you ask me. Saw a wedding going on while we were there.

The conference was one where Nortel covered all the new technology based on where the ISP (Internet Service Provider) and Telecom industry are heading. The schedule was very tightly focussed and you had to choose among the many rooms were a different product, case study or technology was being discussed. Me and my boss planned a full schedule and decided exactly which sessions we would attend.

We attended very different sessions in order to cover a many more of the session. each session was given in 45 minutes intervals. It was organized very well and the information was really important and very helpful. Each session showed exactly where the industry was heading for this year, and exactly what our company would need to do in order to keep up to date with the changes.

The trainings were organized for three days, and we attended two days, and the other two days, we attended the CTIA show. It was spectacular. Will give a couple pictures, so you get an idea what takes place.

An exciting design for a Hotel

While there, I must admit that some of the Hotels were symbols of money and artwork. Breath taking designs and nice paintings, with huge sculptures displayed something that only money can build.

Here is the first master piece, it’s the Luxor hotel. Below you can see the exit, that leads to the monorail station. Oh, just in case you didn’t notice, they guy below, is my twin brother…

Here is the view of the Hotel from the highway, it is built like a pyramid, a couple of the show attendees, say they didn’t like the Hotel rooms, but I have only seen the outside, so I can’t vouch for that.

There are many more Hotels, but I only took picture of the ones I found really attractive. The interior as well as the structure and built of these building are something to see.

Here is a night picture of the Mirage Hotel, a few friends was staying there and they found they rooms very nice. I like the building, and the design. I will show you the night view.

Next I will give you a snap of the famous Bellagio Hotel, this is the Hotel form the movie “Ocean Eleven”. Nice movie if you haven’t seen it, and if you did, you will know this Hotel, it was the one they robbed.

The view is awesome, but one one place that I went that really stood out, was the Venetian. The designs on the roof of the building is awesome, and then the day effect that was created by clouds is just breath taking. It gives the impression that it is never dark, no matter what time it is, and while walking it seems that the clouds are moving. You had something similar also in the Paris Hotel.

There is also a real venetian style boating scene where you can ride in a Gondola. This is on the second floor of this Hotel complex and it is such a lively and attractive setting, that will amaze you.

As you can see, it is world wide theme of many of the famous spots from around the world, they also have Disney Themed Hotel and Caesars Palace. Huge Hotel, just splendid. I was even in the Famous MGM-Grand which is known for all those Pay Per View boxing matches that we watch here on St. Maarten.
CTIA 2008

Now back to our business trip, next is CTIA 2008.

The CTIA show was huge and many thousands of visitors from around the world come to display their newest and latest gadgets, ranging from TV’s to Wi-Fi-equipment down to cellular phones and accessories. From wireless to wire-line equipment. You name and you will be able to see it.

I have many pictures, of the various boots, but will only show a couple so that you get the idea. Below you can see a cell phone supplier, displaying all the latest cell phones.

The booths were huge, and some even had two levels, below is a picture of a well know switch manufacturer.

All in all, the experience was awesome, and it was fun speaking to the many vendors and getting ideas from them. You can’t ask for a better experience if your in the technology field. The amount of systems displayed was overwhelming and there is so much to learn and understand once you took time out to really listen to what the vendors had to offer.