NIGHTLIFE
2007 Nightclub & Bar Show - Las Vegas
March 12th , 2006
Four days, eight packs of cigarettes, 12 total hours of sleep, and every beer and liquor company in the world offering FREE samples to your heart’s content! Sound like Willy Wonka’s Factory for adults? Well it pretty much is and where else would it be located than the City of Sin: Las Vegas!
Nightclub & Bar Magazine’s annual show, predominately known as The “&” Show, is the perfect mixture of the corporate side of the nightlife industry with the attitude of Mardi Gras. It all starts early on a Sunday morning with red-eyed bartenders and club owners staggering into a classroom for seminars at about the time they’re usually catching up to the buzz of the after-hours party.
Seeing the mohawked, pierced, and tattooed bartenders wandering around in the daylight was definitely a sight to see. Like a separate nocturnal culture that rises as the Sun falls and falls upon its return, it is obvious that our skin is more accustomed to the dim tones of the neon lights, and not the hot desert sun; especially since most of us had closed the Saturday night before and caught the last minute Red-Eye to Vegas. But it IS Vegas right? So let’s get it started!
Sunday kicked off the week’s events with seminars important for everyone in the industry. From the new bartender/server in training all the way through to the club owners, speakers were brought in from around the country to discuss trends, management ideas, and simply show you how to do better business in the oh-so-chaotic world of selling, distributing, and promoting ALCHOHOL!
As you can imagine when you bring this caliber of partiers together, you can’t keep them locked in a classroom the whole time. So as the sun set on the days of studying, brainstorming, and networking, the spirit of it all continued, just more hands-on! As if Vegas doesn’t have enough to keep you going at night anyways, the private parties surrounding The “&” Show are the hottest in town. With special events at Mandalay Bay’s Rum Jungle and the Palms’ Rain Nightclub, Moon Bar, Ghost Bar, and Playboy Lounge, the options were plentiful and the only guarantee was that since the party’s built around the nightclub industry, it’s gonna be going down till the sun comes up!
With the warm Vegas sun melting away your hangover as you walk towards the convention center, easy three and four are sure to be the wildest, and most influential, of your whole venture. The Show floor is the alcoholic’s equivalent to “a kid in a candy store.” Every alcoholic-beverage company in the world is offering different mixes, new shots, new liquors, delicious flavors and samples of them all. Anything you need to turn your profits up and your costs down can be found at the show; whether it’s as simple as a new holster for your bartender’s bottle opener or an entire new bar! Most of the supplier’s offer special pricing during the show as well, so if you’ve been saving for that larger upgrade, now would be the best time to consult a rep.
Anyone in the industry definitely needs to check this show out. For the smaller privateers and all of us still working in the trenches, you can get away with going every couple of years, since everything doesn’t change overnight. This year’s show was all about the energy drinks, but with a new twist. There were tons of tonic’s that offered not only energy, but also aided in hangover recovery. Some doubled as an aphrodisiac in both men and women, while others came as more of a malt-beverage with alcohol already added in. Rockstar’s new formula, “21,” tastes almost identical to the original, but boasts a 6% alc/vol! Those were a much needed help-along through out the entire show. But at any rate, the energy drink craze isn’t fizzling a bit.
Another big trend this year was Botanicals. From Rose to Sage, ingredients usually reserved to the kitchen are making their way into the bar. Don’t be surprised if we don’t see it for awhile though, as with all trends they are starting on the coasts and slowly working their way towards the middle. All of us around here know how long we’ve been hearing about this new Mojito craze that’s going to take off, but have never heard a person order it outside of some trendy new reality TV show.
Energy drinks galore, botanical potions all over, a flurry of new Trendy vodka’s, surrounded by the staple drinks and the pillars of the ages, each with their new twist on the upcoming season; one couldn’t leave this show without a million ideas running through your head. Among all of this, there are all of the new gimmicks, gadgets, and gizmos; each guaranteed to make your job easier and your profits more plentiful. All there is left to do yourself is put it all together into a plan that custom fits your own club or bar. You’ve got the entire flight home to fantasize about how cool you’ll look behind your new bar, showing off your new tricks with your new toys.
Be sure and check out the show next year, same time, same place. Special thanks to Gina Rousaville for taking care of us at the show. For more show information and to check out info for next year’s show, check out www.nightclub.com. See you all next year!
Full gallery Here
Joseph Bonish
joe@stldmag.com
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