State Farm speaks on aborted Las Vegas convention

A spokesman for insurance giant State Farm confirmed the company backed out of an agents' convention it had been planning in Las Vegas in October.

Jeff McCollum, spokesman for the Bloomington, Ill.,-based company, said the firm backed out in a show of solidarity with its customers, many of whom are facing hard times.

"We are trying to kind of acknowledge our customers are having a tough time right now," McCollum said. "Our agents as such need to stay in their offices."

The cancellation announcement Wednesday coincided with an ongoing fit of pique over the appropriateness of companies, particularly those seeking or accepting taxpayer bailouts, holding meetings or events in Las Vegas.

Politicians and cable news reports have depicted such Las Vegas events as wasteful junkets, a characterization that caused umbrage among Las Vegas boosters and convention industry folks seeking to defend a type of business that generated an estimated $8.5 billion for the local economy in 2008.

McCollum said, despite the cancellation, Las Vegas is a cost-effective site for big events such as the one State Farm planned for as many as 17,000 agents.

"We take bids all over the country, Vegas is among the least expensive of the venues to hold a gathering that large," he said.

As for the notion Las Vegas has a reputation as a party town and haven for corporate frivolity he said, "we weren't concerned about that perception at all."

But he did acknowledge, "the perception of having a convention," could be problematic.

"Us having a convention when everyone is facing a tough economic time, it is probably not the best thing we can do at this time," McCollum said.