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 Las
Vegas in Retrospect
-Sid Vanderpool
I arrived at the
Tropicana on Sunday, two days before the show was suppose to start to
give me and my crew time to get settled in. That night I had the
pleasure of attending Rick Springfield's EFX with Franz and Kim
Seifert from Tahoe. Kim is a sweetheart and Franz is a kick in the
pants. The next day was filled with various tourist things that
included sitting in the lounge area while the DJs filtered in. One
thing that stood out was that most all of those with badges that came
by that day were newbies, most I had no idea who they were.
That night
everyone converged on the opening night registration party that was
put together by Karaoke Singer Magazine, a sister publication of
Mobile Beat. This party by no fault of MB was hampered by a live
stage performance that had to be in a theater setting to be
appreciated, not an opening night party at a DJ show. Karaoke host,
Bill Smith did his best to recover the crowd disillusioned from the
karaoke play. He grabbed them with some prize giveaways and a song,
which turned around most that were left in the room and kept things
rolling until the room was shut down. Later RA and the Rum Jungle
dance clubs had a strange crowd on this night, as the show attendees
descended upon them.
The opening
greeting and seminar with around 700 people was wall to wall. When
asked how many were there for the first time 80% of the people raised
their hands. Once again tons of prizes were given away. The room
stayed packed for the touchy feely Doug Cox, a guy you have to see
and hear to appreciate. He is a wonderful man. The rest of the
day had a mixed bag of seminars that included the disappointing MF
2.0 seminar. At the same time as the MF seminar Cross Mix brought Bob
Carlisle to the DJ masses, during which he thanked DJs for making his
song Butterfly Kisses such a success. It is very cool that DJs get to
speak with the artists at these conventions.
That night the
All-stars show more than made up for what the opening night party
lacked. Attendees were greeted with a huge buffet with salad, cheese,
bowtie pasta, marinara sauce, tortellini, meatballs and two carving
stations that had 3 types of meats. The shock of the food was quickly
forgotten when the stage came to life. It was a blast. Todd Mitchum,
CJ from CJs DJs, Russ, and many more took hold of the crowd, threw
them onto the dancefloor and gave them a high energy show with lots
of great stuff to take home and use. From here it was off to the
famous Studio 54 at the MGM.
Wednesday was
Chris Mills' day. The short rapping white guy from New Mexico gave
not only a seminar, he put on a show that kept people awake, even
those of us that got in from parties only hours before he started.
Chris gave great pointers for those that do schools and those that
want to do schools. The exhibits hall opened at 11 am to many
familiar vendors and some real great deals. This year's selection of
vendors was down over past years with only 48 chiming in. This could
be because of the DJTimes show one week before. The deals were great
though. I even picked some stuff up on my first day through. After
lunch Dr. Drax (the best dressed guy at the show) did a commanding
performance in his "New Millennium DJ" seminar. He brought
down to Earth and unraveled the mysteries behind MP3 DJing. The
ever-popular Bobby Morganstein and his interactive Mitzvah seminar
followed up the Drax seminar. The day closed with a repeat of the MF
seminar with only a few DJs showing up.
At around 7 PM
well over 30 DJzone/DJchat regulars converged on the Rio buffet for
dinner and pictures. Humor broke out when I was asked when I was
going to move out on my own on the web and out from under PDJ. After
dinner we repeated the classic of filling a vehicle with bodies. This
time it was a 2001 Chevy Astro and we had 14 people in it. From the
Rio we went down to the Freemont Experience in the old downtown.
After and hour and two light shows it was off to the Beach to party.
Scott Davies is known in the music circles as being quite the party
animal and when his company, American DJ puts on a party, it's puts
on a party. The Beach was no different. He was reported to have
dropped well over $10,000 on drinks for everyone.
On the last day
both seminar rooms had to be put together to accommodate Todd
Mitchum's seminar. Even with that tit was still standing room only.
Todd really rocked. He gave the DJs something they were missing.
Performing only a small part of his regular seminar he displayed why
he gets the big money and what DJs need to do to get what they are
worth. Todd even stayed around in the lobby and spoke with anyone
having questions for over two and a half hours. Later John Young's
wedding information swap had 150 DJs clamoring for their packets
while DJs walked by with gear sold at fleamarket prices in the
exhibits hall. Checking in on the MF 2.0 seminar and the 1.0
seminars, the crowd was lost in the room that was earlier filled with
DJs for the Todd Mitchum seminar. One guy commented that it seemed
like a ghost town in there.
During the last
few moments of the exhibits hall the fire was burning to move gear.
ERG ran out of most of his cd copies at a smooth $6 a piece, while
right across from him Jim Robinson from Promo Only also ran short of
product. On the quiet side Jeff Greene was smiling ear to ear
explaining how successful the show had been for him. Other vendors
were also smiling.
Speaking as a
first generation of DJ convention attendee this show had its moments,
but overall it was a good show for me. I made new friends and even
learned a thing or two. I can see where the second and third
generation probably got more out of it than me, but that was the
majority and the show was geared towards them. Was it worth the $160
I paid? I would definitely say YES! Was it worth more? I will leave
that up in the air.
I think Mike and
Bob need to be congratulated on putting their all into a great show
and I look forward to seeing the new and innovative twists they put
on future shows.
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