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I arrived in Las Vegas on Thursday after flying through Nashville and checked into the Rio. The trip was built around CONEXPO, but the things I wanted to keep from it extended beyond the exhibition floor.
A long dinner before the show
That evening, I went to Ferraro’s with leadership from my company and other manufacturers in the sector. Our CEO had been going there for years. We spent about four hours talking about business and personal topics, engaging people around the table. Giant prawns, octopus, almond cookies and tiramisu all made it into my notes afterward.
The meal was worth remembering alongside the conversations. It gave us time together that the show schedule would not.
A work trip, with time around it
The next morning, I reached South Hall at seven and was first in the badge pickup line. I was representing White Motors and Steering. The show brought conversations with industry people, new connections and observations I wanted to keep working through.
The hours around the schedule
Some conversations happened in elevators and around town. Others happened in taxis. On the ride from the airport to the Rio, I talked with a driver about Australia, New Zealand and rugby. Another driver told me about places he had lived. Those exchanges became part of the trip without appearing on its schedule.
The March 7 photograph through the room window catches another part of the visit: the city lit up after dark.
One more morning
The final morning’s photographs include a boxed pizza, a small food stop at the end of the work trip. It is a different meal from the long dinner that opened the visit.
I started writing while the show was still fresh, less than an hour after it ended. Dinner and the taxi rides sat alongside the equipment and the early badge line. What I wanted to keep was the whole visit.
Beyond the exhibition floor
The city lights, dinner at Ferraro’s and conversations in taxis are the travel story. The equipment displays have their own Industry photo account.
The pace around the exhibition
The dinner and the early badge line describe two very different kinds of time on the same business trip. One held several hours of conversation around a table; the other marked the start of a day organized around the exhibition. Both belong in the account because the work trip included the people around the show as well as the equipment inside it.
The taxi conversations and photographs through the hotel window widen that frame further. They are brief encounters and views between scheduled points, without becoming evidence of a business result. The final pizza photograph is another small marker of that surrounding time. Taken together, these details keep Las Vegas visible as a place visited during the trip, beyond the name printed on a trade-show itinerary.
Trip photographs
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Las Vegas between the show hours · 3 photographs