I booked my hotel room for the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show way back in May. At that point, everything seemed to be on track for another eventful week in Las Vegas come January. But now, I am not so sure we will be making the annual trip. Here’s why.
Since being on the Dave Ramsey plan, I have come to realize how valuable money really is. In 2007, I put the entire price of our hotel on a credit card. I didn’t think twice about it then but looking back, yeah, not a good idea. And now that I refuse to use credit cards anymore, that is no longer an option. BTW, keep in mind that Vegas hotels jack the price of rooms by as much as 4x the normal rates during CES week, so it gets very expensive.
Besides that, I checked airline prices last week and discovered prices had increased over $300 from last year! I also need to budget for food which is pretty spendy as well, especially if you don’t want to eat fast food every day. Can you tell this is already getting extremely expensive?
Next I have to factor in my current situation here at home. Since I moved back in July, living expenses have increased a bit - a fair trade-off most certainly, but that means more money going out each month.
So really, it all comes down to money and trying to justify spending that much money to make it happen. Our first year was certainly well worth the money spent, as it really got my foot into the door and I met a bunch of really great people, etc. Last year, I really don’t think I accomplished too much in terms of making new contacts, meeting potential sponsors, etc. My plan for this year, however, is (was?) to connect with companies we currently do not work with yet, thus making the whole trip worthwhile in the long run.
But, all hope is not lost. I have pretty much ruled out doing the hotel thing, but it may be possible that we could stay with our friend Joe again, like we did in 2007. Joe lives about 20-30 minutes from the Vegas strip, which means we would be limited with how much time we can spend out each day covering the show and more importantly, attending press events and late-night parties. The benefit here, of course, is there are no overpriced hotel fees, which then puts the trip back into the do-able column in terms of money.
So right now, I’m unsure what I am going to do but I plan to make a decision before the end of the month.
