What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. . .or maybe not?
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 9:10AM 
My family and I moved to Las Vegas from Cleveland in 1979, when Las Vegas was just this small town (pop. 165,000) with a big name. That same year Vegas had its second biggest winter storm in its history (with 7.4 inches of snow), three years earlier Elvis Presley performed his final engagement at the Hilton (dying nine months later of a drug overdose in Memphis, Tennessee) while at this time the mafia had been running Vegas for the last 30 years and had their hands deep into the pockets of the cities gambling industry; this being a part of the roots of its current moniker "sin city".
Now with the ousting of the mob by the FBI during the early and mid 80's, in which hotels were then sold to legitimate business owners, Vegas was now moving in the direction of transforming itself. From the place where adults play, to a family vacation spot, to the entertainment capital of the world, Vegas knows how to constantly reinvent itself.
During the 80's and 90's, whether it was luxury magazines, newspapers or business news reports, Las Vegas was constantly in the top 10 list of fastest growing cities in the country. This, in large part, was because of the hotel and gaming industry's "how do we re-imagine what the hotel experience is and push the envelope?" mentality.
As a result, this desert city has been the innovator in the hospitality industry for years. Whether it's the days of King Arthur re-created at the Excalibur Hotel or the the Big Apple re-interpreted as the New York, New York, imagination, creativity and hotels hold hands with one another in Las Vegas.
Now it seems that the innovative hotel experience that happens in Vegas, isn't just staying in Vegas anymore. Steven J. Heyer, who heads Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, the third-largest hotel chain in the world, behind Best Western and Marriott is understanding the monumental shifts in today's market, (across the board) and is recognizing that hotels can be something more and/or different from what they've been before.
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