SuperZoo 2008 Our Trip To Las Vegas

We had a great trip to Las Vegas for the SuperZoo 2008 trade show.

For those of you who don’t know the story; my friend Tracy and I invented a product to help calm dogs in the force drying rooms of grooming shops. It’s called the Happy Hoodie. For more information click here.  We decided to take our product to the SuperZoo 2008 trade show in Las Vegas to see how it would be received within the pet industry.

As we crossed Hoover Dam we started getting excited and a little nervous. We couldn’t believe all the construction going on for the bridge that will span across. Why is it that the Nevada side has more artwork than the Arizona side?

As we dropped into Las Vegas we became even more excited and it was hard to follow the directions to Mandalay Bay.

Aw, heck, who needs directions anyway when there’s this huge, gold hotel in front of you that says “Mandalay Bay”.

We finally got there we had to decide where we had to unload all of our stuff. We had to try to get as close as we could because we had to hand carry all our stuff in. Even the convention center area of Mandalay Bay had some really beautiful buildings.

We got the booth set up on Monday and took a picture of Tracy and I. Tracy is on the left and I’m on the right. I think the booth ended up looking very nice. The pictures of the dogs were attracting other vendors setting up their own booths. It was great. After we got all set up we set off to find the hotel we would be staying in for the rest of the week.

We stayed at the St. Tropez on Harmon Ave. right across the street from the Hard Rock Hotel, Casino, and Café. The St. Tropez is one of the older hotels in the area and we couldn’t have asked for a better place to stay. They allow dogs so our friend Chuck was able to bring his dog Maya. The courtyard was amazing. After long days at the convention center it was nice to come to a place where you could hang out outside and not have to hear or watch traffic. The only bad part was that the St. Tropez is right in the flight path of a nearby airport. But all the “goods” really outweighed the one bad part. We really enjoyed staying here.

While in Las Vegas, we met a lot of people from other countries that had come to have some part or another in the trade show. We met one couple from Canada who had brought their groomer to be a part of the grooming contests at the show. They had three Standard Poodles and a Bichon. Robert fell in love with the Standard Poodles. They are beautiful dogs. Chuck’s dog Maya had a blast playing out in the courtyard of the St. Tropez.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we spent all day at the trade show. The trade show was only open to people in the pet industry and not the public so it was a perfect opportunity to see if our product would do well. We were so proud when crowds of people would stop to see our demo video and their jaws just dropped as they voiced their amazement at how well our product calmed the dogs in the forced dryer rooms. We heard stories about how groomers were getting tired of wrapping towels around the dogs’ heads or stuffing cotton in their ears. They were so impressed. We got many comments about how great our idea was. Robert, Chuck, and Teri were the best salespeople ever. We were pretty happy! Mission accomplished!

We were so busy with our own booth that we didn’t get too many chances to walk around and see other booths but we did get to see many of the beautiful dogs coming from the grooming contest area. We also got to see these two Standard Poodles that a couple of groomers brought in with them. In some of the bigger cities this type of grooming and dyeing is popular and these two dogs strutted their stuff. They loved all the attention they were getting from people.

Each day after the show I would take shots of the “Strip” as we were driving back to the hotel. We were too worn out each day to go exploring so I got what shots I could. I got shots of Excalibur, the Luxor, New York, New York, and the MGM.

On Thursday, the show ended early to give people time to pack up their booths. We all had dinner and went back to the hotel. Robert and I decided we wanted to go out and see the town at night so we had the hotel shuttle take us as far as the Tropicana.

Then, from Las Vegas Blvd., we jumped on a double decker bus called a “Deuce” and headed toward the Stratosphere. We got to sit on the top deck of the bus. Since this was our first time on one of these we got pretty freaked out. LOL. These buses pull up to vehicles or people and it seems like they get close enough to run them over. It’s pretty freaky!

We passed all kinds of casinos just one right after the other. Vegas is beautiful at night. As we saw the huge crowd of people walking from casino to casino we were thankful that we were on the bus.

Robert and I were married in Vegas 19 years ago so Vegas isn’t new to us but some of the casinos are. I really enjoyed seeing some of the newer ones. Robert really wanted to take me up into the Stratosphere, which really surprised me because he is afraid of heights. We got to the Stratosphere and here’s what it looks like from the ground. Cool!

Here is what it looks like from the observation room with glassed in windows. Very cool!!!! (Robert stayed as close to the core as he possibly could. LOL)

When we got to the very top I went outside on the deck and Robert stayed inside. Here is what it looks like from the deck. AWESOME!!!

Here is just one of the three rides that you can “enjoy” while you’re up there, for a hefty price, of course. No I didn’t ride any of the rides. This one is on the very top of the Stratosphere.

On our way back, we stopped at the Tropicana to wait for the shuttle bus from the St. Tropez. I got a really cool picture of the MGM Grand. I love the reflections of the words. Robert and I finally got back to the hotel around 2am and we were beat.

During the trade show everyone was given the opportunity to do a “pitch” of his or her product to be considered to be aired on the Jay Leno “Pitch To America” segment of the Tonight Show. I don’t know how many people did the pitch but I believe it was at least 100. Only two pitches were to be picked out of all of those. Tracy decided to give it a try and her pitch was picked. We found out today that it had aired last night on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He poked fun at it but it was hilarious, not to mention free advertising. Check out our segment on the show. The link is on our homepage.

We had an awesome time in Las Vegas and we got the Happy Hoodie name out there with the pet industry. We did great!!!