Yo-11 Minutes: Episode 7 "F1'd Up Traffic, ZorkFest 2024 Announced"

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Mostly Vegas. No BS. Casino Experience +more
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Yo-11 Minutes: Episode 7 "F1'd Up Traffic, ZorkFest 2024 Announced"
ON THIS EPISODE:
-F1 Construction  = Traffic Issues
-Trager looks back on ZorkFest and also talks about ZorkFest 2024

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to Yo 11 Minutes. Yo 11 Minutes mostly Vegas, no BS, casino experience and more. Michael Traeger is a casino and travel loyalty expert who also helps people turn their travel dreams into reality. And now Michael Traeger, how's it going, michael?

Speaker 2: 0:18

It's going great and I'm glad we were able to fit this in today from Lake Tahoe.

Speaker 1: 0:25

Yeah, you look very chill, very relaxed over there with your, with a piano and a fireplace and a cigar, just chilling out and enjoying. How are the views? Do you have a view of the lake from your room?

Speaker 2: 0:41

Yeah, it's really, really nice. It's lovely, and this is probably close to one of the first moments I've had to really relax. I started to relax a little bit last night, but it was such a busy weekend with Sorkfest.

Speaker 1: 0:53

You can now do your post at Sorkfest Exhale.

Speaker 2: 0:58

Exhale and cognac.

Speaker 1: 1:01

There you go. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I heard Sorkfest went really well. I saw a lot of tweets and positive feedback via Twitter or X, so I'm looking forward to hearing more about that. Well, while you're over there, just chilling and relaxing and enjoying your cigar and your cognac and your lovely views and your piano and your fireplace, it's been a shitstorm out here in Vegas. Let's get to the news and views.

Speaker 1: 1:30

One of the most disruptive of the road closures tied to the Las Vegas Grand Prix circuit set up is scheduled to begin this week. Crews will install a massive temporary bridge on Flamingo Road over Coval Lane over several days during the next couple of weeks. On average, 52,000 vehicles travel through the intersection daily. According to the Nevada Department of Transportation data, the intersection of Flamingo and Coval will experience partial and full road closures through October 25th for the installation of the temporary vehicular bridge. The work began on October 8th with Flamingo closed. West of the Coval intersection to Weston Hotel Entry, flamingo Road was closed to both east and westbound traffic. During the closure that runs through 9pm Monday, motorists will want to avoid Flamingo and Coval.

Speaker 1: 2:18

As the bridge is installed into phases, the second phase of work involves the intersection of Flamingo and Coval being closed to traffic in all directions beginning from 9pm Monday until 9pm on October 21st. The last phase starts at 9pm October 21st and runs through 9pm October 25th, when Flamingo, in both directions, will see lane closures, but traffic in both directions of Coval will not be restricted. The four-lane 760-foot structure will allow approved traffic to cross over the racetrack when drivers are on the course. That traffic will be limited to hotel employees and guests with proper credentials. That's going to do it for the news, and now it's time for the views. Michael, what are your thoughts on the perceived havoc being caused by Formula One construction?

Speaker 2: 3:11

I think I can't even start to imagine the immense amount of bandwidth. You need to just think about what has to be done to prepare for F1. I keep thinking to myself are they going to finish all of this in time? I guess they will, because they'll just work around the clock. Then I keep thinking that when F1 happens and then is over, they're going to have to dismantle a certain percentage of things and redo those things for next year. I don't know exactly what, but it's not like when you're building Raiders Stadium and you're done building the stadium, you've got the stadium here. This is a venue where I guess certain things will be permanent all year long, but there is, I believe, a significant number of things that will have to be dismantled and put up every year. I just don't understand how that works. It just seems like such an immense amount of work in a place with so much traffic, even on the best of days.

Speaker 1: 4:15

Indeed, and with that, now it's time for the tease.

Speaker 2: 4:25

The tease, the biggest tease, is going to be Zorkfest 2024. And we have you know, since things went so well with Zorkfest 2023, we decided to announce our dates for Zorkfest 2024, just to you know, keep the excitement going and get people ready for it. And that's going to be November 1st through 3rd and I think, of 2024. And I think I revealed it for the first time. Actually, you said, hey, wait, you revealed it for the first time on Bridger's great slot slot video, because we did a slot poll for Zorkfest.

Speaker 1: 5:06

So November 1st through 3rd and I'm assuming that more details will be coming up soon what are some of the highlights when you look back at Zorkfest 2023 that just ended? Now you're relaxing, exhaling, having cognac. What are some of the? What are some of the things that really stood out to you?

Speaker 2: 5:29

Well, what was really interesting and this was truly a once in a lifetime kind of event for me we knew it was going to be a smaller than what we usually target for Zorkfest and that's because we were doing it in this summit suite, which was actually the star suite at Harris Lake, tahoe. And it's the whole history of that suite, not only the venue I don't know if you saw a few pictures, but you know there's beautiful views of the mountains but it's a duplex but it's really all about the history. And that history is that that's sweet and there's a much longer story here. But fundamentally that suite was built for Sammy Davis Jr. It would eventually go on to become a restaurant for many years called the Summit Restaurant, as well as across the hall would be a cigar bar. So this was one of the. There are two suite floors, two major suite floors at Harris Tahoe that have Butler Service and basically this was a gigantic duplex suite that was built for Sammy Davis Jr called the Star Suite. So the history, it just reeks of history, which is, I think, is really really cool.

Speaker 2: 6:40

And we really encapsulated a lot of that with our opening session with Dr Dave, where he talked a lot about Rat Pack and you know Rat Pack history, frank Sinatra and then did an interactive session about you know, could we have saved Frank Sinatra's gaming license because he lost his gaming license for Calneva and we basically so we did a whole bunch of history and then we did that and that's how we opened things up and I thought that was really really cool. As far as other things that are really interesting is, we did a quote podcasters after dark, which was just a panel discussion where we had a bunch of podcasters and influencers answering a bunch of questions and people really seem to love that. And then you know all of the Myles and Point sessions and casino loyalty sessions we did teaching people about comps on the computer casino side and how to travel better and how to use your points more effectively. People really liked it because the venue was so nice, it was very intimate and the way that we set things up, with really ample breaks between things, had a really good cocktail reception and then also had a dinner at an end.

Speaker 2: 7:58

At the end, you would be amazed how many people who didn't know each other either, like travel people who met casino people or casino people who met travel people, who were like best friends at the end of this and if I, so many people came up to me and told me how much they enjoyed it and how much they can't wait for next year and how they made friends with so many people and made so many connections. So that's what makes me so happy, because you're bringing like all of these people who are obsessed with travel programs and really love that, and then all of these casino people who love all the comps and loyalty programs, and you're bringing them together and then they're leaving as good friends and like that. That, to me, is the biggest accomplishment and I think it's awesome.

Speaker 1: 8:41

That really must be like the best part of it all, and that's not even the part that was planned.

Speaker 2: 8:49

Right. And the other thing is we did a mixology event with 360 Vegas and 360. Karen and Tony did that and unfortunately, because during a conference there's so much work that I have to do, I wasn't able to be there for most of that event and a lot of the social media from that event is going to be coming out. And they did three classic cocktails. One of them included was the bee's knees. That session was so successful, it was absolutely phenomenal and I have to say everything.

Speaker 2: 9:20

You know the little bit that I saw and all of the feedback I hear. Karen and Tony, you know, between the presentation, the way they explain things, everyone was so like they were socializing and learning how to make the cocktails, and we're going to expand even further on that in the next Zork Fest. So not only are we going to have all of these hardcore learning sessions, but we're going to have another cocktail experience and we're going to do a foodie experience too and it's going to be like you don't have to do it, but we're going to do something that's cocktail oriented and something that's food. So it's really trying to elevate your weekend and make it a really fun social weekend where not only do you learn about a lot of travel things and casino things, but you also like learn how to make cocktails or learn how to make a great dessert.

Speaker 1: 10:04

That is I'm looking forward to next year. Hopefully I won't be sick again, but yeah, and the work thing that that's. But yeah, definitely for sure. Zork Fest 2024 sounds like it's going to be even better than 2023, which you probably thought was going to be hard to top. Right before we wrap things up here, do you have dessert? Anything that's on your mind?

Speaker 2: 10:31

No, I just I mean a lot of, and I said the same thing on Bridger's video. People should really give Tahoe, the Tahoe Reno area, a chance, because there's a lot of, there's a lot of great gambling, a lot of great outdoors stuff and it's a great place to visit and if you haven't considered it before, you might want to consider it, especially if one person doesn't gamble or you want to make a family vacation out of it, especially Lake Tahoe, you know, between the lake, between you know, Heavenly Ski Resort, that's right here. There's just a lot for, you know, families and lots of hiking, you know. So I think it's really cool.

Speaker 2: 11:06

And yet you still have really pretty good casinos and I will say the dealers here are some of the best dealers ever. Like we did. We had a full dice table for coffee dice at eight o'clock in the morning on Saturday and that's 14 players buying in for $1,000 at the same time. And I asked a couple of people how did these dealers run the game? Was it good? And they said they were amazing, Like, because they're all local people who worked here 15 to 25 years and these were amazing dealers. So it's so great to be able to have an experience where you can gamble with friends and have it really, really organized, but then on top of it have amazing dealers and, as you can imagine, with craps you really, it's really hard to run a table with 14 people.

Speaker 1: 11:56

I can imagine. I've seen it happen at some 360 events and, yeah, I don't know how the dealers got through it. All right, Well, that's going to do it for this one. Luxury travel booking. Travel Zork Travel. Visit us at TravelZorkTravelcom to plan your next amazing vacation and please join the conversation on social media. You can find us easily. All social platforms are at TravelZork. We'll see you next time.