U.S. mayors conference coming to Mandalay Bay in 2013

The 2013 U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting will be in Las Vegas, or at least just down the Strip.

Conference officials in Orlando, Fla., at the group's annual meeting announced plans to have their upcoming event in Southern Nevada.

"We are a great place for meetings, but we are also a great place to have a great time," Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman, who was in Orlando, told the group.

Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority spokesman Vince Alberta said the event will be at Mandalay Bay on the Strip, which is in the jurisdiction of Clark County, not the city of Las Vegas.

The Conference last had its annual event in Southern Nevada in 2006 at Paris Las Vegas when Goodman's husband, former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, was in office.

The 2006 event generated grumbling because it wasn't in the city, despite city taxpayers' sharing the bill.

Oscar Goodman dismissed the criticism, though.

"I'm the mayor of everything," he told the Review-Journal at the time. "Everybody thinks that everything is the city of Las Vegas, and I'm certainly not going to do anything to dissuade them."

City spokeswoman Diana Paul said it is not yet known how much it will cost to host the 2013 event and added the city will look for partners to share the cost.

According to Alberta, the conference is expected to attract 1,300 attendees and generate about $1.3 million in spending in the local economy.

The Conference of Mayors event will be June 21-24, 2013. Also in that same month Southern Nevada will host the U.S. Travel International Pow Wow, which Alberta said means "great exposure for the destination."

The U.S. Conference of Mayors is a nonpartisan organization for mayors of cities with 30,000 or more residents. The annual event is a forum for members to share policy ideas.

Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at
bspillman@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.