Las Vegas

So, I will be going to Las Vegas in December. There is an International Conference on Information Systems held at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. I am pretty excited and ready to get out of Pullman, although a little intimidated by the big conference. We are trying to look for the best hotel to stay in. I don’t think we will be staying at the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas although we might try to go see some entertainment shows on the strip.

One thing that amazes me about this trip, is that the Venetian has no internet service. So I am going to the most prestigious conference on information systems in the world and one of the most popular hotels in Vegas does not provide internet service for the conference. Seriously, where is Quest DSL, Adelphia, Verizon or anybody else? And no corporate sponsors from the information systems industry. I can’t believe that Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Dell, IBM, HP, Apple, Sony and others are not a part of this too. We are trying to bridge the world of academia with the world of the practitioners, yet we don’t even care about the practitioners to invite them to the conference? And we don’t even care enough to get some sponsorship from them? Or we don’t even care enough to provide internet service. I think it is a shame that we charge people 400 dollars to get into the conference, when there are ways to raise money by asking corporate sponsors for money. Well, that is my opinion only…

However, I was going to write this post too get ideas from those of you who have been to Vegas about the shows that are worth seeing, or hotels that are worth staying at when you are on a budget. Or would you just go gamble in a casino? I would appreciate your advice.

Anna