Off to Vegas for SKO

Today I'm headed off to Las Vegas for my company's annual sales kick-off (SKO) meeting. Yes, SKO is in Vegas again this year. This company has always done its SKO in Vegas, at least as long as I've worked there (going on 7 years).

Ugh. I am so done with Vegas. Just in the past 12 months I've been there four times: SKO last February which I extended with a three-day weekend of hiking and outdoors stuff, a trade show in May, another trade show in October (with an uncomfortable ironing board), and yet another trade show in November.

I would've been happy going almost anywhere else for SKO this year. It doesn't even have to be anywhere fancy. Just a solid three-star hotel. It could be the airport Hilton in Omaha, Nebraska for all I care. Anywhere with ballrooms big enough to accommodate us (I think our organization is about 200) and decent food is fine.

In Vegas, at the Bellagio. I Still Hate Vegas.

Picture it: Las Vegas. The Bellagio. You're thinking of those fountains, right? The beauty. The luxury.

Now imagine that you're at the Bellagio, and you turn around 180° from that and walk away.



There's a loooong corridor leading away from it. And your room is almost at the end.

On all my trips to Vegas in recent years I've always been reminded quickly of why I hate Vegas. This one has been no exception. Crowds. Traffic. Driving 20 minutes to go 2 miles. Waiting in line another 20 minutes to check in. Having to trek through a smoky casino both ways to get to... anything. And sadly, the Bellagio's casino is smokier than others I've stayed at in the past few years. Even though nearly nobody is actually smoking, the whole place reeks of it. Years of second hand smoke piled up are already making my throat scratchy, and I'm going hoarse. After just minutes in the poisoned air.

Oh, but there's my room...



It's a fairly well sized room, if utterly dull. And the view outside is nothing special. Remember what I said above about the fountains? Yeah, here's the view from my "desk":



Hey, look, a 10-lane boulevard, a freeway, some high-voltage power lines, and... miles of concrete desert. Fabulous Las Vegas!

Well, at least that little round table I pulled over to the window to serve as my desk today is better than sitting at an ironing board.