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Vegas 07 Diary: Night of a Thousand Parties
June 1, 2007

The JCK Las Vegas show began this morning and the Sands Convention Center and Venetian Hotel is swarming with familiar faces. As always, I can’t help but feel like I’m at summer camp, seeing old friends and catching up after a year apart. But, unlike summer camp, we do that not over s’mores around a campfire, but over cocktails at the various events around town.

Last night, the style team—along with a few other JCK colleagues we picked up along the way—did a whole lot of said catching up.

First stop, the AGS cocktail party at the JCK Luxury show. Luxury closed yesterday after three successful days and AGS retailers came to mingle and celebrate with champagne cocktails. Here I met up with JCK Editor-In-Chief Hedda Schupak, left, and the JCK show’s Dave Bonaparte and Nancy Walsh.

The thing about these evenings is the pace. Even if one event is great, there’s another waiting, so I tapped my watch and our little entourage was off to the World Gold Council’s celebration of jewels, fashion, food and all things Italian at Valentino restaurant at the Venetian. A beautifully executed event, the party drew a nice cross-section of the industry, though talking wasn’t always easy, what with all the "Oooing" and "Ahhhing" over the fabulous food and tasty Italian wines. (Pictured on left, from left: JCK Art Director Todd Gast, Jennifer Heebner, Bill Furman and Laura Finkelstein; On right, JCK Publisher Mark Smelzer, me and Todd)

Ah, but there were places to go and people to see. So off we went, across the Venetian casino to the ever-hip Tao nightclub, where Novell hosted a sleek event in a private upstairs room. Dark and comfortable, the atmosphere was perfect for looking at jewelry in the bright display cases. We didn’t have long, so congratulated Novell's Rick Mulholland on a great event. But before we left, the music got to Jennifer and Todd.

For the first time since Monday, I actually set foot outside the Venetian/Sands complex as we headed over to the Wynn for the Kwiat party at Tryst. We were a little on the late side, but had a chance to soak in the beautiful atmosphere, complete with fantastic waterfall, and say hello to the Kwiat family and their designer, Janice DeBell. (Here with, from left, Laura, Todd and Jennifer and me)

Finally, we were into the home stretch, heading back to the Venetian for David Yurman’s party at David Burke. Perhaps it was the late hour, the crowd of old friends, the fabulous chilled seafood or the amazing pomegranate martinis, but the JCK team joined the packed dance floor (including Luxury Brand Group's Alex Alvarez and JIC's Helena Krodel, below right) and celebrated the end of just another day in Vegas.

Posted by Carrie Soucy on June 1, 2007 | Comments (0)