One of the gaming industry’s most anticipated conference, RD&E: Retail, Dining & Entertainment in the Gaming and Hospitality Industry, announced the keynote speakers for each day of the conference, May 1 and 2 at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas. The presentations will represent the first time these distinguished speakers will appear before a gathering of the gaming industry.
At lunch on the first day, a tag team of Tom Breitling and Tim Poster will describe the evolution of gaming and how non-gaming amenities, technology and online gaming will come together to craft the industry of the future.
During the second day’s lunch, Sam Nazarian, the chairman and founder of sbe Entertainment Group, a Los Angeles-based hospitality company, will explain how he plans to renovate and reopen the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas as an SLS brand, the flagship of the company’s hotel chain, with a focus on non-gaming attractions.
Breitling and Poster founded the internet reservation service Travelscape in 1998, which they later sold to Expedia for more than $100 million. They then purchased the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas in 2003 for $215 million, selling it two years later to current owner Landry’s Restaurants for $340 million. Next, they signed on with Wynn Resorts, where Poster still serves as senior vice president of casino marketing. Breitling is now president of Ultimate Gaming, the online gaming arm of Fertitta Interactive. Poster still works closely with Breitling, while serving as senior vice president of casino marketing for Wynn Las Vegas.
Nazarian founded Platinum Wireless, a telecommunications business specializing in the distribution of Nextel software, in 1998, which quickly became the leading company in that field. He then launched 3Wall Development, a real estate company that quickly became one of Southern California’s largest owners of multi-family housing. His sbe Entertainment Group developed several nightclubs in Los Angeles, including Area, MI-6 and Hyde, later diversifying into the SLS hotel brands, now with properties in Los Angeles, Miami Beach and New York City, with the Las Vegas property slated to open in 2014.
