The 2023 EDS Lead­er­ship Sum­mit returns to the Mirage May 16‑19, 2023

Space reg­is­tra­tion will begin in late Decem­ber 2022 and Attendee reg­is­tra­tion will begin in ear­ly 2023.

• Check out the Reg­is­tra­tion Infor­ma­tion page for atten­dance options
• Whitelist info@​edssummit.​com to receive EDS communications
• Ear­ly Space Reser­va­tion infor­ma­tion is locat­ed under the green Reg­is­tra­tion tab at the top of the page
• Spon­sor­ship infor­ma­tion can be found in the Pro­mo­tion­al Oppor­tu­ni­ties link, also at the top of the page.

Be well and we all look for­ward to see­ing each oth­er May 16 – 19 at EDS 2023!

The EDS Board thanks every­one who took the time to respond to the sur­vey regard­ing EDS 2022. Your input is reviewed by the Board to learn how it may improve your busi­ness expe­ri­ence at the only indus­try event that brings togeth­er man­u­fac­tur­ers and their dis­trib­u­tors and rep firms for face-to-face meet­ings. In par­tic­u­lar, the Board looks at the remarks made in the com­ment sec­tion. Such com­ments can be use­ful in clar­i­fy­ing ques­tions that some atten­dees may have about EDS. Below are some of the more com­mon ques­tions and the Board’s response.

Why is EDS always held in Vegas rather than oth­er cities?

The pri­ma­ry rea­son is that Vegas is the only city that has hotels with suf­fi­cient num­ber of suites and meet­ing rooms to meet EDS’ spec­i­fi­ca­tions. The typ­i­cal con­fer­ence hotel in major U.S. cities has a lim­it­ed num­ber of suites and meet­ing rooms. Even in Vegas, there are only a lim­it­ed num­ber of hotels that have the req­ui­site num­ber of suites and are will­ing to sell those suites to EDS. The oth­er fac­tor is num­ber of meet­ing rooms in a hotel. In oth­er cities EDS would need to book mul­ti­ple hotels or part of a con­ven­tion cen­ter to get suf­fi­cient meet­ing room space.

There are some resort hotels, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the Orlan­do area, that have an ade­quate num­ber of suites. How­ev­er, these prop­er­ties are more fam­i­ly-ori­ent­ed and are iso­lat­ed from restau­rants, enter­tain­ment and the airport.

Oth­er con­ven­tion cities, such as Chica­go and New York, are vast­ly more expen­sive and lack the num­ber of suites needed.

Why is EDS being held at the Mirage rather than anoth­er Vegas hotel?

Every three years, the EDS Board eval­u­ates oth­er hotels in Vegas to ascer­tain which prop­er­ties are best suit­ed for host­ing the Sum­mit. EDS Board has deter­mined that the Mirage con­tin­ues to be the best fit for our require­ments. Here are some of the cri­te­ria that the Board uses to eval­u­ate Vegas hotels:

• Suites:
  • Are the suites spread across mul­ti­ple floors and towers
  • Can the suites accom­mo­date meetings
  • Can fur­ni­ture be removed to accom­mo­date busi­ness meetings
  • Num­ber of suites for var­i­ous size meetings
  • Will the hotel only sell its suites dur­ing EDS to reg­is­tered EDS attendees?
• Ele­va­tors:
  • Do atten­dees have to use mul­ti­ple ele­va­tor banks to reach the suites, i.e., ride down to cen­tral lob­by to walk to anoth­er ele­va­tor bank?
  • Are oth­er guests also using the same ele­va­tor bank?
  • How will the hotel han­dle the crowds dur­ing peak times?
  • Dis­tance from ele­va­tors to con­ven­tion floor (less than 10 min­utes and yes, we do time it)
• Num­ber of meet­ing rooms in con­fer­ence center
• Hotel room rates (the Board rec­og­nizes that not every­one can afford to stay at the Bellagio)
• Is EDS the only big event at the hotel or does EDS share space with oth­er large events (in oth­er words, does EDS get the entire atten­tion of the hotel or may we play sec­ond fid­dle to a larg­er event going on at the same time)?
• Room ser­vice and house­keep­ing to suites
• Is the hotel con­ve­nient­ly locat­ed to trans­porta­tion, restau­rants, enter­tain­ment, etc.?

EDS has and will con­tin­ue to eval­u­ate all hotels in Vegas. At this point, the Mirage rates the high­est in meet­ing our cri­te­ria. In par­tic­u­lar, the Mirage stands out with regard to suite loca­tion, room rates, and access and respon­sive­ness in address­ing issues such as ele­va­tors and room service.

What is hap­pen­ing to the Mirage as a result of Hard Rock’s acquisition?

The sale of the Mirage to Hard Rock has not been com­plet­ed. As a result, there are no def­i­nite plans for what the new own­er will do once the sale has been com­plet­ed. How­ev­er, wide­ly pub­lished news accounts have point­ed to the Mirage volcano/​lagoon being torn down and replaced by a gui­tar-shaped hotel tow­er. There are no indications/​rumors that the exist­ing hotel and/​or con­ven­tion cen­ter will be torn down. Rather, there is strong spec­u­la­tion that Hard Rock will invest sig­nif­i­cant mon­ey to ren­o­vate the exist­ing prop­er­ty to make it the company’s flag­ship prop­er­ty and show­case on the Las Vegas Strip.