Live From the Vegas Expo

While the canals of Venice are neither clean nor chlorinated, and St. Marks Square, in reality, is thoroughly overrun by pigeons (at least it was when I was there several years go), the mock versions created for tourists here at The Venetian hotel in Las Vegas are still pretty sweet renditions. Only in Vegas could you fathom a shopping mall that sports gondola rides (complete with a charming serenade), and a miniature Rialto. And all that water on the second floor nonetheless. Its just remarkable. Or maybe Im overly easy to impress. Honestly, when I arrived at the ISS Expo last night and checked into my room, the thing that most thrilled measide from the luxurious mini bar and flat-screen TV in the bathroomwas the remote control for the window blinds. I called my husband: We need one of these! The show opened yesterday with two kick-off events: The Inside Self-Storage Golf Classic and the Developers Seminar. These are high-demand happenings, and folks from all over the country fly in early to attend. The DS completely sold out, which tells you that storage development is not, contrary to what the media would have us believe, coming to a screeching halt. This morning, we launched the general education program with a keynote presentation by Kelly Perdew, winner of season two of The Apprentice. As one of his ventures, Kelly now operates Patriot Self Storage. Seems even a Trump protégé knows storage is a good business to bank on. Since then, weve been in concurrent seminars, which have covered everything from how to educate facility managers to economic feasibility to green building techniques to staff compensation. As I type, Im sitting in the back of Casanova Room 603, where Joe Niemczyk (Executive Self Storage Associates) is talking about the pros and cons of fee management. We are in the business of storing memories, he says. From here, Ill head the Self-Storage Q&A: The Game Everyone Can Win. Ive been telling everyone to join us for this interactive forum, where they can get their management and operational questions answered. We have Q&A boxes scattered throughout the seminar areas, where attendees can submit their questions in writing before the event. If your question is chosen from the pile during the event, youll win a cool prize. At least thats what Ive told folks today. I hope they consider ISS Factbooks and registration packages, free t-shirts and mugs cool. In any case, well see shortly. And if they dont like their free gifts, they can throw them into a chlorinated canal upstairs. More later. Ciao!