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San Francisco loses 2 big conferences

sfgate.com

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Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences

#131

Post by sokoloff »

soupfordummies wrote: post #99
sokoloff wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can complete the entire walk underground What? I’ve been to Vegas dozens of times (conferences and pleasure) and I’ve never seen nor heard of this. What specific casino pairs have underground walks between them (intended for public use, not stormwater or utility tunnels)?

Mandalay - Luxor - Excalibur is one for example. Can’t remember if it crosses Tropicana into NY or not. Not really an “underground tunnel” but definitely an indoor connector EDIT - just looked at streetview, I think they are actually underground.

There are around 30 casinos (most with hotels) on the strip. If three are connected by tunnels, that’s pretty well short of the original claim: “staying at pretty much any other strip hotel, you can walk to your conference in 10 minutes or less, and you can complete the entire walk underground.”

Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences

#132

Post by Tiktaalik »

gotaran wrote: post #103
Tiktaalik wrote: post #95

The situation in SF shows how much of a network cities are, with pieces relying on others for support. Big downtown conferences rely on a network of hotels and retail and restaurants to support them. The hotels also rely on the retail and restaurants for support. The retail and restaurants rely on constant foot traffic. SF made the subtle mistake of over building commercial office in its downtown, which meant that mu…

There’s way too much hindsight bias here though. SF office vacancies were at an all time low in 2019. I knew many founders who were struggling to find office space.

yeah you can't plan for a once a century pandemic.

I think where SF went wrong though was over emphasis of commercial in a single district. They should have known better, but likely didn't want to touch existing residential neighbourhoods at all, so here we are.

Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences

#133

Post by CydeWeys »

DebtDeflation wrote: post #62
CydeWeys wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely not true that you can walk the length of the entire strip in ten minutes. The strip is not super great for pedestrians because you have to keep walking up, around, and through various escalators/bridges/casino entryways. The strip would be much more pedestrian friendly if they closed the main street to cars and let you simply walk at ground level in a direct line. Anyway, it takes over an hour to walk from…

You're right that the strip is fairly long if you look at it from the airport to downtown, but the main part of it where conferences tend to be held is maybe a little over a mile long. So I should have said a 20 minute walk. There's definitely an indoor walkway connecting the casinos that at times is underground, at least on the southern end. I remember pre-Covid staying at the Luxor (the pyramid looking one) and the…

Most of the hotels there have convention centers. A convention could be anywhere. I've been to conventions in Caesars and Tropicana, which are not close to each other, nor are they that close to LVCC.

Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences

#134

Post by DebtDeflation »

znpy wrote: post #112
DebtDeflation wrote: post #30

I've been to tech conferences in San Francisco (Moscone specifically), Vegas, Orlando, Chicago, and Boston. While I'm not ordinarily a fan of Las Vegas, it is hands down the absolute best place for conferences, logistically. It's a 10 minute Uber to get from the airport to the strip. Tons of hotels on the strip. If the conference is at one strip hotel and you are staying at pretty much any other strip hotel, you can…

> It's a 10 minute Uber to get from the airport to the strip. if that's your metric for fitness... Milan has recently opened a subway line that goes straight from the Linate airport to the city centre, and you can get a fairly big congress centre (MiCo, Milano Congressi -- big enough to host the AWS Summit) very easily, and with a single subway ticket (which costs 2,20€ at the moment and is also valid for buses, tram…

It's certainly one of two main metrics, the other being that once I'm at the location everything from the conference to the hotel where I'm staying to dinner options are all walkable.

Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences

#135

Post by soupfordummies »

sokoloff wrote: post #131
soupfordummies wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mandalay - Luxor - Excalibur is one for example. Can’t remember if it crosses Tropicana into NY or not. Not really an “underground tunnel” but definitely an indoor connector EDIT - just looked at streetview, I think they are actually underground.

There are around 30 casinos (most with hotels) on the strip. If three are connected by tunnels, that’s pretty well short of the original claim: “staying at pretty much any other strip hotel, you can walk to your conference in 10 minutes or less, and you can complete the entire walk underground.”

Well that's just one one specific connection that sprang to mind. Also I think OP was exaggerating a bit generally ("PRETTY MUCH any other strip hotel") and I think the 10 mins is definitely an exaggeration unless you're going to an adjacent hotel.

But are you really saying that you've been to Vegas dozens of times and you didn't know the hotels were connected like this?

Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences

#136

Post by stubybubs »

mcphage wrote: post #101
stainablesteel wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is a repeat of what happened to philly when it went from bustling economic center to a union stronghold that stifled productivity, the politicians today still pretend like nothings changed

> this is a repeat of what happened to philly when it went from bustling economic center to a union stronghold that stifled productivity Getting bombed by their own police probably didn't help either.

I'm not from the US and I just learned about the MOVE bombing a couple of years ago. It is one of the most fucked-up events in recent American history. I can't believe that they convinced themselves it was a good idea to drop bombs, some of which was FBI-supplied C4, on a civilian building. The number of people who had to be okay with that from several agencies is astounding.

And no real consequences?

Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences

#137

Post by mcphage »

stubybubs wrote: post #136
mcphage wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> this is a repeat of what happened to philly when it went from bustling economic center to a union stronghold that stifled productivity Getting bombed by their own police probably didn't help either.

I'm not from the US and I just learned about the MOVE bombing a couple of years ago. It is one of the most fucked-up events in recent American history. I can't believe that they convinced themselves it was a good idea to drop bombs, some of which was FBI-supplied C4, on a civilian building. The number of people who had to be okay with that from several agencies is astounding. And no real consequences?

> And no real consequences?

Well, if you criticize the police, then they stop prosecuting criminals, and then Fox News talks daily about how your city has become a crime-infested third world hell-hole.

Re: San Francisco loses 2 big conferences

#138

Post by uranusjr »

rhaway84773 wrote: post #84
avar wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never understood this obsession in the tech industry with holding small to medium sized conferences in major cities. For something truly humongous you need a Las Vegas, but as a participant I'd much prefer the conference just book a hotel somewhere in the woods, or in a relatively small town. The usual counterargument is airport connectivity etc. But in most cases you can simply drive for X amount of time away f…

You hold a small to mid conference in SF and the plurality of your audience and presenters will not need to pay for a place to stay. That means the quality of your conference will increase significantly. Place it in another major city and they can easily fly there and find a place to stay there. Being a major city their companies may have subsidiaries there so they may be able to do other company work and add this on…

I run some events and hear opinions from both sides often. My take on this is there are basically two types of conferences. A more remote location helps people have more fun hanging out with each other, but a big city venue enable more people to attend. Both have value and there are middlegrounds, the choice depends entirely on what you’re looking for.
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