It certainly was an information-filled week. I spent February 3rd until February 7th in Las Vegas to attend #MBLV18 at the Riviera Hotel in Fabulous Las Vegas. Even though I couldn’t attend every seminar, I did the best I could.

I left Kitchener right around midnight so that I could drop my vehicle off part way and meet up with a fellow Canadian DJ to hitch a ride with him. We travelled across the border to the airport together, and caught the same 6:30am flight from Detroit to Vegas. Once we arrived in Vegas at 8am local time, we left our luggage at the Riviera Hotel before heading down Las Vegas Blvd to site-see. We had a couple hours to check out the sights, and grab a bite to eat before we could check into our rooms and the seminars started.
Monday afternoon’s seminars consisted of Putting Social in the Mix by Steven Parry, 40 Games in 60 Minutes by Robbie Britton and The Psychology of Sales by Brian Snyder. That evening several DJs took to the stage at the Riviera Hotel for the DJ Takeover. I learned several tricks and was exposed to different styles of mixing and song choices.

Day 2 (Tuesday) was all about EntreLeadership. Chris Hogan gave a 4-part seminar including EntreLeadership Defined, Start with a Dream – End with a Goal, Flavor Your Day with Steak Sauce, and Death of a Salesman – The Art of Selling by Serving. After Mr. Hogan’s information packed, 4-part seminar, I got to partake in a line dancing lesson by DJ Casper himself. I also had the opportunity to meet him, get his signature, have breakfast with him and he even recorded a shout-out/drop for me. Tuesday evening video DJs invaded the DJ Takeover.

Day 3 (Wednesday) started out with a marketing seminar by Keith “K.C.” Kokurus. Followed by 7 Habits of Highly Ineffective People by Randy Bartlett and Speaking Her Language: The Four Dialects of Speaking “Bride” by Vickie Musni. After lunch I had the opportunity to learn more about the Bose L1 portable line array system, attended Jason Weldon’s Synergetic Consulting seminar and was exposed to many different ways to utilize moving head lighting fixtures in Arnoldo Offermann’s seminar on Choosing The Right Fixture For Your Event. Later that afternoon Tone Loc took to the Chauvet Exhibit Floor stage for a performance and I capitalized on the chance to meet him and even had him sign by MBLV pass. That evening I had dinner with some great DJs from southwestern Ontario and headed down to the Wynn to check out Late-Night at Surrender Nightclub. This high-end dance club was jam-packed with people and had two great DJs throughout the night. Even though the drink prices were nearly 3X was I’m used to, it was still a fun experience.

Day 4 (Friday) started out with the Mastermindz Roundtable breakfast followed by Josh Yawn’s presentation on Big Business Advertising for the Small Business DJ, The Power of Music with Montell Jordan (yeah, that’s right, Montell Jordan!), and Bryan Dodge’s energetic presentation, How to Build a Better You. The rest of the afternoon involved giveaways, wandering through the exhibit hall and the Grand Finale. Although I wasn’t drawn for the grand prize, I still picked up some American DJ swag. While the sun was setting I took to Las Vegas Blvd and headed up to the Freemont Experience when I caught a short presentation on the Viva Vision display. The canopy-style display consists of over 12 million LED lamps controlled by 10 computers and 550,000 watts of sound being produced by 220 speakers. By the time the presentation was done and I made the 55-minute trek back to the Riviera Hotel, I was ready for bed.

Friday morning was an early one because I had to catch a taxi at 6am to be back to the airport for the 8am flight back to Detroit.

Mobile Beat was definitely worth the investment. I ordered a DVD of all the seminars, purchased some DVDs about marketing, running a successful DJ business, and a 5-volume collection about performance enhancing techniques for entertainers. I picked up a book as well as another seminar recording. I have lots of review to do and even more strategies to implement. Stay tuned for more upcoming blog updates!

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

Waylan Grin

Vegas Sign