Editor's note: Este artículo está traducido al español.
Dan Hayes, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority’s new chief operating officer, comes to Las Vegas from Salt Lake City with a quarter-century’s worth of experience in live events.
Hayes said he was compelled to accept his role with the LVCVA, which he started in November, because of Las Vegas’ reputation in the live-event space.
Dan Hayes
Hayes said he will be primarily focused on the Las Vegas Convention Center, including the completion of its ongoing renovation, ensuring a positive guest experience and sustainability.
The Las Vegas Sun sat down with Hayes to discuss his transition, goals in overseeing its operations and more.
The LVCVA is very to Las Vegas, as an entity all about marketing Las Vegas’ brand. What drew you to that?
It really is the undisputed destination. In the convention business, there’s a couple big players out there. And as a convention center manager — maybe someone that is ambitious, I guess, like myself, to some degree — you always look to those tier-one operators and wonder if you can cut your teeth in that space — wonder if you can compete in those spaces, and really achieve the same goals that I pushed in my smaller markets, that I worked in throughout my time.
But of those tier-one markets, Las Vegas is far and away the most successful destination, the busiest convention center in the United States and likely beyond. And it is the ultimate convention center for my business, and that ultimate peak.
So Vegas is always something that I’ve looked at from afar. It’s an incredible operation, whether it be at the convention center and the activities of the convention center themselves, but also to the wider city infrastructure to support the hospitality industry here.
The Las Vegas Convention Center is undergoing a $600 million renovation. Can you discuss the timeline for that project and what it’s been like coming into that when it’s already underway?
There were a couple of different focus points. Primarily, there was a meeting room renovation in both the North and Central Halls. There’s about, maybe, 200,000 square feet of meeting space in those halls that has been, really, fully rehabbed from top to bottom, so ceilings down to carpet, as well as lighting systems, etc., throughout. So those spaces look brand new, and in many respects, are brand new. So that was one of the major components.
The second was the improvement to the public spaces themselves. So this is the corridors, lobbies. And those spaces have been blown out in terms of ceiling heights — have been pushed way up, as well as bringing in a significant amount of natural light. And then maybe most significantly, connecting a lobby-side concourse space from the Central and North Hall new grand lobby to the South Hall. So there is no longer a requirement to walk outside to access between those two venues when you’re transiting between them.
The LVCVA’s mission is to make Las Vegas the “undisputed global destination for leisure and business travel,” per its website. What about your role contributes to that mission?
First and foremost, I have a new role here in the building. So, I have my own goals that I’m focused on as I get familiar with the convention center, with its operations and “what status are we at today?”
I want to get in and understand workflows that are happening inside the space from department to department, looking at lines of communication and figuring out how successful they are. The focus of those types of workflow reviews is to improve outcomes for customer service, for safety and certainly efficiency of operations.
I like to focus on what we’re successful at today, as well as focusing on where the improvements are that we need to make. The great thing about coming to the LVCVA, and specifically the Las Vegas Convention Center — there’s a significant number of wins that this operation is executing on today. There is a very high level of satisfaction from our customers, with respect to cleanliness, with respect to services delivered from staff members.
Some of the things we want to work on and improve on is, how do we better provide wayfinding to guests? Wayfinding in a venue that’s 4.6 million square feet can be a real challenge, and it can be very difficult to effectively communicate to masses of people, whether it be inside the venue, or whether it be how to gain access to the many transportation services that we have right outside of our door.
When I think about customer service and operating a convention center, I really try to think about it from that user’s experience. So, what is happening as they’re in their car a half a mile from the venue? And what does it mean for them to access this venue, and then what’s their experience from the moment they pull into our parking lot? And how is that staff engagement going on from that point through their access into the venue, the event itself and then their way home?
What does it look like in your role to work with other entities in Las Vegas, like resorts and different gaming properties, on some of the goals we’ve been talking about, and how do you plan on building relationships with stakeholders in the area?
The LVCVA is a representative of our wider community. The Las Vegas Convention Center is a piece and a part of it, but it is merely that — we’re just one piece or part. The resorts that operate — and that may mean resorts on the Strip, it may mean resorts off the Strip — but all those stakeholders to the destination are a collective part of the goal.
And with respect to the performance of the convention center, specifically, our obligation and intention and goal is to provide the best possible customer service and customer experience that we can align with that hospitality service that someone experiences at the resorts in our community.
We are representatives of our destination, as well as a small part of it. With respect to my engagement with the resort community and with these hospitality partners — I’m new. I’m early. I am gaining some access early on to some of our resort partners through different board engagements. So I’ve got some early introduction to folks but am making weekly efforts to reach out and start to learn some of my counterparts at properties that are stakeholders of the LVCVA. We all have a role to play in extending the brand of Las Vegas to the world, and that requires execution of high standards.
Is there anything you want to add?
We’re on pace to host 48 trade shows in 2026. Planning to track, as far as trade show attendees go, over 1.2 million through the convention center. Have several new shows starting. And then some returning shows, as well. So, 2026 looks to be a strong year for that convention business and those convention attendees.