I just returned from a business trip that took me to St. George, Utah and Las Vegas. My boss and I flew into Las Vegas and then drove a car north-east to reach St. George. We spent a day meeting with a client there and then drove back to Las Vegas.

St. George
St. George is beautiful. We drove through an amazing canyon to get to it and the city itself is nestled in between red-rock mesas. It is also very near Bryce and Zion canyons. I walked around the city a bit looking for a tourist information place, but the whole time I was amazed by the mesas. My boss had the better idea. She walked up the mesa behind our hotel and saw the sunset from the top!

In our meeting with our clients, the talked about how fast the city was growing. Most people who lived there had not lived there for very long; many less than 10 years. I could see the appeal. Beautiful land, no allergy problems and the weather was beautiful, too; however I imagine that it is a lot hotter in July and August.

St. George is also home to Utah’s first Mormon tabernacle. I wondered what the religious demographics in the area were now since so many had moved in from out of state.

Las Vegas
Once our meeting with clients was finished in St. George, we drove back to Las Vegas, checked into the Luxor (the pyramid one) and walked the strip. My boss’s parents live in Las Vegas so she knows the city well. We walked and saw many of the major hotels including catching the water show at the Bellagio. One of my favorite things was the sign outside the Wynn hotel. It was a digital board with a physical part that would move up and down. They used the physical sign to interact with the digital ads to transition between ads:

or squash the Monty Python ads: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzdFKmuwesY.

In one example the physical part seems to be the stand for a digital robotic arm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ9f9kdMUU0&feature=related

By far my favorite was how the physical element interacted with a golf ball. It showed a golf hole and golf ball rolled in from the top bounced off the side and then off the physical sign and then came to rest near the hole. The physical sign then moved up quickly until it “tapped” the ball into the hole.

A conversation about Vegas wouldn’t be complete with mention of prostitutes. The lack of prostitutes surprised me. I knew that prostitution was illegal in the city, but TV shows like CSI certainly leave you with the impression that you will see some. I also remember as a kid our family drove through Reno, NV, at 1am and we saw 2 prostitutes. My dad yelled back at as “Boys, those aren’t nice girls.” We knew what he meant. So it surprised me that I did not see any prostitutes walking around Vegas.

I had been warned about the cards. Lots of Hispanic people were standing on the sidewalks handing out small cards with nude women on them. They had a phone number that you could call for prostitutes. I’m glad some people had warned me. As I walked by, they would attempt to hand me the cards. I just looked straight ahead and kept walking. It seems they were used to that, but they would try very hard. Without telling my boss, I began to use her as a buffer between me and these peddlers, but they would reach all the way across her and put the card in front of me. Even if you did not take them, it was hard not to see them because people who would grab them would then drop them on the sidewalk, so the sidewalks would be littered with all these porn cards. I also noted that they were never in front of a casino. My boss told me that the casino security would not let them there, so they always congregated in front of new construction or empty lots.

So the only prostitutes I saw were the next morning. Our flight left at 6am, so I was getting ready to leave the hotel at 4am. As I was leaving, there were 2 women being escorted out of the casino by security. The only thing that made me realize that they were prostitutes was that they were being escorted out. Then I listened to a bit of their conversation which confirmed my suspicion. I was surprised because they were not amazingly attractive or young women. They were average looking, probably around 30-35 years old and the way they dressed would not have alerted me to the fact that they were prostitutes. It’s hard to describe, but they were not dressed normally, but their clothing wasn’t sexual either. There were people walking the strip that would have turned my head more than these two. I guess advertising is just as false when it comes to their profession.

So that was my trip to Vegas. In the final review, if you are not there to gamble and you are not there for the skin and you are not there for the overprices shows, Las Vegas doesn’t have that much appeal.