Yo-11 Minutes: Episode 6 "Chaos, ZorkFest, Venue is a Show"

Yo-Eleven Minutes
Mostly Vegas. No BS. Casino Experience +more
⬇️
Yo-11 Minutes: Episode 6 "Chaos, ZorkFest, Venue is a Show"
On this episode:
- We talk Travel Chaos, ZorkFest, and Sphere itself being a Venue AND A Show

Watch, Like and Sub on YouTube
The Yo-11 Minutes Playlist on YouTube

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

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: 0:16

It's going great, though it's a little crazy because we've got Zorkfest at the end of the week and that always is. It's only like a once every two year thing, but it's a lot, of, a lot of chaos. Before I get myself to Tahoe for the start of Zorkfest on Friday night, with Dr Dave doing the opening session Actually Friday morning, did I tell you about that.

Speaker 2: 0:40

No, we're basically starting off with a history session, even though most of what we do is loyalty based and, like you know, comps and airline miles and loyalty programs. But we're doing a historical piece. That's basically about like could it's an interactive piece where, if could, we have saved Frank Sinatra's gaming license in Tahoe, because he lost his gaming license in Tahoe due to mob connections at the Hal Neva. So anyway, it's sort of cool, like that's what we're mixing. So basically it's a real mix up this year. It's got all the regular loyalty stuff and hotels and airlines and comps. It's got a little bit of Sinatra and Vegas history mixed in.

Speaker 2: 1:26

And then the amazing gang from 360 Vegas, karen and Tony, are doing a cocktail experience where they teach you how to make three cocktails because they're really into that whole cocktail thing. And then on top of it we're doing a influencers after dark late on Friday night, which is sort of sort of like the podcasters after dark kind of panel thing. So I think it's a really cool program. But then again I sort of created it with Danny, vegas and Trivards, so of course I should think it's cool.

Speaker 1: 1:56

It sounds pretty cool to me. Anyway, I'd go if I didn't have to like be at work super, super early on certain days, but it does sound fantastic for sure. You called it the chaos before Zorkfest, which sounds a bit different before than the calm before the storm, right? So if? Is it a chaos before the storm? Is it fair to call it a storm even? Or do we call it?

Speaker 2: 2:26

No, that is, that is sort of true. And I think, yeah, it's definitely not the calm before you know. It's not the calm before the storm because before you run a conference, there are so many details and so many things that you have to deal with. You know things that are being shipped there, you know even if it's like banners and collateral, and making sure all of your AV is OK and making sure that all you have all the presentations from your speakers and making sure that the dinner is. We do a really nice dinner, making sure that the dinner you know everyone's chosen their entree for dinner. So I would say that is a lot of chaos. It actually gets calmer, like right before, because then everything is in place. So it's not really the calm before the storm, it really is the chaos before the storm. But that's OK, but managed, very organized and managed, very organized and managed chaos for sure.

Speaker 1: 3:21

All right, sounds good. It sounds good. Oh boy, my voice is shot. Ladies and gentlemen, sorry about that, I'm going to do it. I can't muster on through this. And now it is time for the news and views.

Speaker 1: 3:35

Sphere Entertainment Company has debuted the sphere experience, a signature content category featured at Sphere, capturing worldwide attention for its stunning visual displays and immersive technologies. The sphere experience journey is curated by five humanoid robots named aura that serve as an interactive a serve as interactive guides to sphere, each focusing on one fundamental aspect of human ability connection, creativity, innovation, longevity and productivity. Aura was developed using next generation technology and robotic mechanics and artificial intelligence. Postcard from Earth takes full advantage of spheres experiential and next generation technologies to transport audiences and engage the senses, making them feel like they have traveled to new worlds without ever leaving their seats in Las Vegas. This includes utilizing the interior LED display plane that wraps up over and around the audience to create a fully immersive visual environment. At 16K by 16K, it is the highest resolution LED screen on Earth.

Speaker 1: 4:38

So, michael, what are your thoughts on sphere being a venue that has a show fully utilizing the venue's entertainment potential? I mean, you can't get this kind of stuff at a stadium, or Madison Square Garden is as if the venue doesn't need a headliner to put on a show. What are your thoughts?

Speaker 2: 4:57

My thoughts are that it's really cool, like I realized this actually clicked for me a couple of weeks ago that the venue is sort of like the destination, or the venue is the show, which is really crazy when you think about it, because I can't think of anywhere else that's like that. I'm sure someone can chime in on that, hopefully maybe. But like there are a lot of venues that are like historical or like special, like Radio City Music Hall or you know, going to a concert at Fenway Park, but the venue doesn't put on a show for you. You wouldn't just go sit in Fenway Park without anything happening. That could be a little odd. So that's sort of cool that it's doing this. I mean, it also seems a little bit to me like that concept of like the venue has like an IMAX kind of thing for lack of a better term you know, kind of show, but that's, I think it's really great.

Speaker 2: 5:51

And then when you do have an actual show, like U2, they're utilizing all of this technology, incorporating it into their show. But what sort of makes me wonder, and you tend to know much more about this than I do. Like the U2 show is specifically crafted for Spear, so what happens? Like with other people who have a concert, like, say, they have a concert tour with 25 cities in the United States Would they do it in a venue like this? Or would this venue, like this, was required that they have to rework their show too much, as opposed to doing it like the MGM arena or the Mandalay Bay arena? That's something I was thinking about Like. Is it because it's so there's so much that this venue can do? I guess you don't have to utilize everything, right?

Speaker 1: 6:38

Yeah, one of the things about you two is that their visual artist production person has been with them for many years regarding concerts and they always strive to like do the you know the next biggest thing wherever they go. I don't think it's going to get any bigger than what they did at Spear by any means. I think it's going to be relatively some sort of the same visual elements but on, you know, much, much, much smaller screens and back of the bands. I think.

Speaker 2: 7:13

No, no, you make a really good point and actually this is an intriguing concept. One of the biggest criticisms of Spear was how much money it cost. Right, like everyone was like oh my God, how are they ever going to get a return on investment on this thing? But that's actually what makes it really powerful, right? Because no other city, no matter how well this does, chances are it's going to be out of budget for almost everywhere in the world, except a place like Vegas that has, you know, over 40 million visitors a year. You know it's going to be. It just going to be even a place to say, oh, we would love to do that. They're going to like oh, but you know we can't. Like how are we going to fill this thing throughout the year? So it could.

Speaker 2: 7:54

It's one of those weird. I just think it's one of those weird Vegas things where people originally are like these people are crazy, why are they spending all this money? This is never going to work out. And then you're like wow, maybe it will. So I still don't know if that's the case with F1, but definitely here I'm feeling, definitely with regard to the spear, I'm feeling positive about it. I don't know about you, I mean, I don't know all the maths behind it, of course, like yeah, but I mean I'm feeling more positive about it, you know, since it's open.

Speaker 1: 8:25

I think you I think you touched on something, though, because you know a lot of people. You know in a lot of places they have venues. They're thinking about how to fill it up. You know fill the venue how to? You know how to keep business going, and sphere basically solved its own problem by doing the sphere experience. So when there aren't concerts scheduled for that particular day or evening or stretch of time, there's something there that could be a draw, even if there isn't a headliner, because sphere itself is the headliner. That's freaking genius of that, my thing.

Speaker 2: 9:00

No, it is genius, but you do need to have a balance of that, you know you need the high.

Speaker 2: 9:04

You need to quote high revenue. You have the high revenue people and the low revenue and actually this will lead us pretty well into our tease. It's just like on an airline you've got the high revenue business class seats and the low revenue. You know economy class and discounted. You need that mix right. You need that mix of having you know for most airlines, especially for long haul flights, you need that mix of expensive seats and high revenue seats and inexpensive seats to make the flight profitable.

Speaker 1: 9:35

Well said, without giving too much away. And now it's time for the tease.

Speaker 2: 9:46

So today's tease is just quickly touching on travel chaos. Maybe actually the theme of this show is just chaos, but especially with a lot of what's been happening over the last couple of days with people trying to get out of Israel and trying to get to Israel and flights and I've been working with a number of clients and people on that kind of thing it is amazing when there is a major world event and you have travel plans and you need to change travel plans. So I was just going to run down a really quick list of you know, just some, just some things to keep in the back of your head. One is move fast, like very fast, act fast, think later. That's very, very important because you really have to move quickly when there's a travel problem and if you need to get out of somewhere or fly somewhere, you don't have time to really think. So you need to move fast, get those tickets booked really fast. You need to also think about if there are issues when you're traveling. You need to think about customer service by non-traditional methods like Airlines, twitter or contacting through chat and not always holding on. Also, you have to remember that sometimes travel advisors make a lot of sense, because travel advisors handle a lot of that kind of thing for you. They're sort of your insurance policy. So sometimes you might be paying a little bit extra but you're paying for that service and when you really need that service, you really need that service.

Speaker 2: 11:17

And the other thing is keep your cool, just be. Just keep your cool because things, things are tough. Airline employees can't handle it. You don't want to argue with flight attendants or any airline employees. Airline employees are quite empowered these days. You are not going to win and it could end up really badly. And sometimes, true, you've had a bunch of flights canceled and it's extremely frustrating, but you just have to accept that. You know everyone's doing the best they can do and you don't want to get kicked off of a flight. And there is a funny segment in a show called Come Fly With Me which shows the power of a flight attendant in sort of a humorous way. So that's just always something to keep in mind.

Speaker 1: 12:06

Alrighty, remember, folks at home complaining because they didn't have your particular beverage of choice is not a reason to get on a no fly ban. Anyway, that's going to do it for today. A 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 Travel Zork. We'll see you next time.