The course's final exam: Throw a Vegas pool party
UNLV nightclub management students are charged with promoting a grade-A bash at MGM's Wet Republic.
LAS VEGAS -- The noontime sun is beating down on milky-shouldered tourists. They unfurl poolside on chaise lounges, downing mojitos, agog at the bronzed cocktail gals sashaying, as if in a music video, to Rihanna and Kanye West. The air smells of sunscreen and salt, and bikini-clad beauties tiptoe into the pool, never wetting their curls or ditching their shades. Even amid the bustle, it's easy to pick out the college students: They're clad in canary yellow and scurrying and stressing and not sure what to do about the strippers.
This party is their final exam.
Nightclubs -- and their daytime counterparts, pay-to-sunbathe pools -- are the Strip's newest moneymakers: LAX, Blush, Tao and their ilk are where celebrities flock and reputations are made. It's a lucrative industry that sells fantasy: Customers shell out hundreds of dollars (cover charge, tips, smokes and martinis) to buy a fabulous time. If the clubs don't deliver, they're gone -- there's always the casino next door.
Though a new club seems to grace the Strip every few months, the local college's esteemed hospitality program had long overlooked the industry, says Bryan Bass, a 31-year-old former beverage manager at MGM Grand. So he created a nightclub management curriculum at his alma mater, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Field trips are to hot spots: the Palms' Rain and Moon and Planet Hollywood's Prive, where students learned that every hour the "shot" girls also table-dance. Required reading: the glossy ads in Las Vegas Weekly, which demonstrate how to promote night life; apparently the key is scantily clad models -- who knew?
Homework: three papers that sized up hot spots. Student Cheryl Martin analyzed Tao, whose decor includes women soaking in tubs; Pure, which the IRS recently raided; and Tryst, where she languished in line for 45 minutes. (Bass said that was a short wait.)
Lecturers were Bass' pals in Vegas' nightclub community, which has its own distinct culture. The hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the office, 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. at the club. The uniform for men, who dominate the industry: striped button-downs and blazers (polo shirts come summer) and a buzzing BlackBerry.
One afternoon, a speaker shared two commandments: 1) never get more messed up than your clients, and 2) you don't need to be the last person to leave. There are other rules: Hand out booze and business cards. Buddy up to concierges and VIPs. Never change your cell number.
