Back when things were really booming here — you remember those days — a trip from Henderson to North Las Vegas was something you often had to plan your day around. Gridlock ensued on Interstate 15 most weekday afternoons, usually spoiling even the best of Outlook calendars.
The most positive aspect of any new year is the optimism it brings. But it also seems to energize a business community — and just in time. After the annual business lull of December, things are starting to happen again.
Combined with the bucks spent by the gloomy Chad Golightly, the dour Adam Kutner, the stoic Ed Bernstein, and a gaggle of others aspiring to become scene-of-the accident household names, local ad spending by personal injury lawyers amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars annually for TV affiliates. Maybe more.
Pardon me if this sounds shallow, but my first reaction to the new Brookings Institution-SRI International “Economic Development Agenda for Nevada” was that someone probably should have let a newspaper editor work it over before releasing it to the public.
If there’s anything that recent times have taught us, it’s that when you sit down with someone who’s in real estate, you probably shouldn’t open a conversation with a traditional question.
Long ago but not far away, an aspiring young executive was in a large company that demanded its future leaders read books if they ever wanted to be considered for promotion. Because all the company’s young managers wanted that opportunity, they prepared by reading everything they could about management and leadership.
The business world is usually more appealing to grown-ups than kids, and that’s why it’s always interesting to attend a Junior Achievement event. The young people at these gatherings never talk about business as though it’s boring or just for adults.
If you like Halloween and authentic local events, show up next year for the Boneyard Bash, a fundraiser for the Neon Museum. The first one was held in the historic Fremont East District on Oct. 28. Amidst the eclectic crowd were some elaborate costumes. Or, at least, I hope they were costumes.
Their industry has certainly been racked the past few years — along with the rest of the world — so banking execs might be excused if they want to avoid microphones for a while.
You can almost always count on Southern Nevada Water Authority General Manager Pat Mulroy for great quotes, and she delivered as expected at the Oct. 6 meeting of the Water Conservation Coalition at South Point.
The triple-digit days are thankfully gone at last — on the morning I’m writing this, at least. This time of year, local Outlook calendars have been filling up fast.
It’s a maxim established centuries ago: To be successful in business, you have to know what the customer wants. Because we’re basically a reflection of our audience’s interests, it’s a long-accepted principle in the world of media.
A user’s unforgettable experience at a Las Vegas recycling center.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
We may be more digitally inclined these days, but the publishing industry still uses a lot of paper in serving its readers and advertisers. And just like you, we enjoy products from plastic, glass and aluminum containers throughout the course of the day. Together, these four ingredients form the bulk of recyclable materials.
Sartorial common sense wins when it’s summer in the desert.
Monday, June 27, 2011
It’s already 92 degrees outside when you begin to think about what you’ll be wearing on this workday. Women are not alone in that challenge, you know, although men don’t seem to go through the whole shoes thing.
Wait just a second: Let’s not put Phoenix on a pedestal.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Timing is everything in the news business. What makes headlines one day is so often dullsville the next. Good or bad, it’s something you understand in this business.
It’s another Monday, and I am focused on one thing as I enter the office, en route to an assignation with a 4-foot-10 office acquaintance known to me only by its maker’s name of Saeco.
Why do we like award programs? There’s a very good reason. Having been in this business for a while now, I’ve gathered plenty of testimony about the positive force the media can have in society.
In many ways, we’re like your company. But not exactly.
Monday, May 9, 2011
There are a lot of moving parts in the average business organization, but also a lot of moving people. As any smart leader knows, a mission statement alone isn’t enough to ensure they’ll work in unison.
In my world, we have our own ways of measuring a recovery.
Monday, April 25, 2011
We’re all so easily distracted when Spring arrives in our desert, but also thankful that our local commerce rarely stops for nice weather. We wouldn’t want anything to interrupt our recovery, or to interfere with the trace of a pulse in our economy.
A night full of Italian-American memories at the Mob Experience.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Not long ago, one of our other sister magazines carried a feature about being born and raised here. It was a popular piece, mostly because natives are so hard to find.
Solid UNLV hoops program is marketable, even for wild Las Vegas.
Monday, April 11, 2011
It’s easy to recite the formula for promoting tourism here: It’s all about our selection of gaming, shopping, entertainment and dining choices. Come have fun in Las Vegas.
Let me ask you this: Who ever said trying to be great is easy? Not us.
Monday, April 4, 2011
When USA TODAY first began in 1982, a lot of veteran newspaper and magazine journalists across the nation refused to take it seriously. Pointing to its shorter news stories and formula layout, they sarcastically dubbed it “McPaper,” a pejorative referring to certain negatives associated with fast food production.
It started off as a casual hallway conversation, two co-workers reminiscing about the food we had grown up eating in separate Italian-American households. Being men, though, we found a way to get competitive about it.
Few people personified our famed commercial real estate boom the way he did. And when values were soaring to unbelievable heights locally, an adoring public just couldn’t get enough of Richard Lee.
It had been a long and hot summer, simmering with bitter political divisions and desperation over the economy. But as summers so often do, it was passing too quickly.
Long drives can be therapeutic, and at the end of one particularly crazy recent week, I gathered what remained of my wits and embarked on the 4 1/2 hour drive to Phoenix, the city of my childhood.
It seems like only last month, but it was more than a decade ago that we sat down in our conference room to hear a presentation by celebrity researcher Frank Luntz.
As we’ve been reminded this winter, tourism is not a small part of our economy. All financial roads lead to it, from it and around it — at least until such time as a few more industries begin to share the rent. And we watch it like hawks.
It was at the North Las Vegas’ State of the City luncheon Jan. 21 at Texas Station that a longtime business associate walked up and shook my hand with a familiar question. “How’s business?” he said.
Its very name has been a part of our everyday vocabulary for a couple of years now, a trademark that evolved into a metaphor for an anxious community’s hopes and dreams.
It was just a couple of years ago that cops and reporters gathered at Rainbow Boulevard and Craig Road. Although police and journalists don’t always play nice together, on this occasion — a news conference to announce an awareness-raising campaign — they were partners.
It’s one of those things you hear more often than not when interviewing applicants for sales positions, usually after you’ve asked why you should choose them for your opening.