INTEL: Garden work, Tea Expo move and affordable Cosmo suites

IMEX America and Las Vegas Sands committed to help Shade Tree build up its garden to make it more healing and substantial. The latter’s horticultural team will be designing the space, while GES provided storage sheds.

In addition, IMEX attendees and businesses are encouraged to volunteer at Shade Tree during an event that will take place the weekend before next year’s IMEX, in October 2014. The show also is looking for donations to support Shade Tree, all of which will go to internal programs.

“I think people get a lot back from taking part in those types of projects,” said Carina Bauer, IMEX Group CEO.

IMEX runs a biannual community project, and has done them previously in Poland and Slovenia.

According to the website SizeUp, Las Vegas is home to the top-performing costume shops in the U.S., according to per capita revenue. Rounding out the top five cities are, in order, Fort Collins, Colo.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; Seattle; and San Bernadino, Calif.

Creative Destinations, a destination management company, opened at 3960 Howard Hughes Parkway, Suite 500. The business specializes in corporate travel, décor and entertainment, tours and activities, transportation, site selection, team building, A/V production, graphic design and branding.

At least for 2014, Las Vegas won’t be home to the World Tea Expo anymore.

Instead, the World Tea Expo and co-located Healthy Beverage Expo will be in Long Beach, Calif., next May. The change in city comes at the request of exhibitors, as about 20 percent of the show’s attendees and exhibitors hail from Southern California. Producers also have said they’re hoping to attract walk-in business to the show by hosting it in Long Beach, as there are about 460 tea stores in the area.

This isn’t the first time the group has moved the show from its home base of Las Vegas: In 2007 the World Tea Expo was held in Atlanta.

On a side note, there have been other changes. World Tea Media now is called The Beverage Group, and a new director of sales and marketing was named recently, Val Moon.

The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas made it to the top again.

Jeremy Murphy, CEO and co-founder of The Suitest, recently wrote about his list of the Top 10 Suites you didn’t know you could afford for Huffington Post. His No. 1 pick? The Wraparound Terrace Suite at Cosmo.

Murphy writes: “The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas exudes a fresh sophistication that has placed it on the Condé Nast Gold List as well as Travel &Leisure’s list of the World’s Best Hotels. So it’s no surprise that the Wraparound Terrace Suite delivers 1,200 square feet of pure opulence — equipped with its own kitchen, soaking tub, 54-inch TV, and a 480-square-foot balcony with panoramic views of the Vegas skyline.”

According to him, prices start at $218 per night on weekdays and $250 per night on weekends.

Other suites on the list include Scottsdale’s Mountain Vista One Bedroom Suite at the Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain Resort and Spa and Hollywood’s London Veranda Suite at the The London West Hollywood.

“The trick is to plan ahead and nab them at the right time. Then, sit back and enjoy a ‘suite’ taste of the schmancy life,” Murphy wrote.

Just before hosting a large banquet for a group of Australian tourists, a bar employee at an Italian restaurant at a prominent hotel-casino about mid-Strip decided to fill empty, midrange liquor bottles with bottom-shelf product. Another, newer bartender saw the devious act and decided to report it.

The replaced alcohol was served to patrons all night under the guise of being the higher-end stuff. No word on whether the move was mandated from management or something the employee cooked up on his own.

Contact reporter Laura Carroll at lcarroll@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4588. Follow @lscvegas on Twitter.