As softrest says, Las Vegas is one of the least expensive metro markets in the United States, unless you go there with the intention of spending lots of money. Of all the cities I can fly to from my local airport non-stop, Las Vegas is the least expensive by far.
An airport shuttle running from baggage claim 7 to the strip hotels is only $7 one way, a fraction of the cost of a taxi. Even Uber and Lyft save $10-$15 over taking a taxi. Restaurants and buffets compete aggressively with each other in Las Vegas. There are plenty of upscale, expensive restaurants in Las Vegas, but there are many many more economical ways to get very nice meals. The same with alcoholic beverages... way too many "specials" to even mention. To say someone must budget $1000 before getting off the plane is an overstatement, unless they are going specifically to spend that much money.
I also have to question the use of "poaching" in Chuck's statement above. In the financial business world, where protection of client lists is vitally important, there are strict ethical rules for credentialed professionals on the use of client lists, especially when they leave a firm. If the individual is limited by a legal agreement or can't replicate the client list by using public domain information, then it is considered "poaching" and if reported, may result in severe financial penalties, as well as revocation of financial credentials. My understanding from the FSElite article is that Evan and Phil had a contract that expired immediate following the 2017 event with no restriction on competing in the same type of business.The emails by Evan and Phil cited by Chuck above occurred after the contracts expired. There are a limited number of FS vendors and it would be quite easy to develop a FlightSimCon vendor list by simply going to the internet and looking up FS vendors. It may even be possible to create a more extensive list than FlightSimCon had using this method. So how exactly is this considered "poaching?" Is it the right thing to do? That depends on many factors, especially if Even and Phil are considered friends, but none of the known ethical business definitions consider it poaching. I'm sorry Nicole trusted these contract employees, but perhaps that is a lesson learned the hard way.
I wish Chuck & Nicole success in Dallas, but it appears to be an upstream swim with two organizers working in the same arena with such a limited audience. Perhaps it would be better to spread the conferences out a bit and make them semi-annual - one in the summer and one in the winter. Maybe agree not to hurt each other by saturating the conference space with conferences only weeks apart.
FlightSimExpo ANNOUNCES JUNE 2018 ARRIVAL IN LAS VEGAS
in Product Announcements & Press Releases
Posted
As softrest says, Las Vegas is one of the least expensive metro markets in the United States, unless you go there with the intention of spending lots of money. Of all the cities I can fly to from my local airport non-stop, Las Vegas is the least expensive by far.
An airport shuttle running from baggage claim 7 to the strip hotels is only $7 one way, a fraction of the cost of a taxi. Even Uber and Lyft save $10-$15 over taking a taxi. Restaurants and buffets compete aggressively with each other in Las Vegas. There are plenty of upscale, expensive restaurants in Las Vegas, but there are many many more economical ways to get very nice meals. The same with alcoholic beverages... way too many "specials" to even mention. To say someone must budget $1000 before getting off the plane is an overstatement, unless they are going specifically to spend that much money.
I also have to question the use of "poaching" in Chuck's statement above. In the financial business world, where protection of client lists is vitally important, there are strict ethical rules for credentialed professionals on the use of client lists, especially when they leave a firm. If the individual is limited by a legal agreement or can't replicate the client list by using public domain information, then it is considered "poaching" and if reported, may result in severe financial penalties, as well as revocation of financial credentials. My understanding from the FSElite article is that Evan and Phil had a contract that expired immediate following the 2017 event with no restriction on competing in the same type of business.The emails by Evan and Phil cited by Chuck above occurred after the contracts expired. There are a limited number of FS vendors and it would be quite easy to develop a FlightSimCon vendor list by simply going to the internet and looking up FS vendors. It may even be possible to create a more extensive list than FlightSimCon had using this method. So how exactly is this considered "poaching?" Is it the right thing to do? That depends on many factors, especially if Even and Phil are considered friends, but none of the known ethical business definitions consider it poaching. I'm sorry Nicole trusted these contract employees, but perhaps that is a lesson learned the hard way.
I wish Chuck & Nicole success in Dallas, but it appears to be an upstream swim with two organizers working in the same arena with such a limited audience. Perhaps it would be better to spread the conferences out a bit and make them semi-annual - one in the summer and one in the winter. Maybe agree not to hurt each other by saturating the conference space with conferences only weeks apart.