Comdex transforms Vegas into techie world, with strip clubs

Angie Wagner

Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2000 | 3:36 a.m.

You wouldn't recognize the Strip this week. Instead of tourists armed with coin buckets, it's techies with cell phones attached to their ears. They wear pocket protectors, their collars are buttoned-down and they don't like to gamble.

When they feel lucky, they head to the strip clubs - where the dealing is done.

The country's largest computer trade show - Computer Dealer Expo - has taken over Las Vegas this week.

"It's like a hormone festival of nerds," said Bejan Esmaili, 36, of Berkeley, Calif., who was attending Comdex to get ideas for his Web site.

The label didn't apply to Esmaili, of course.

Comdex is the granddaddy of all conventions in Las Vegas. Some 200,000 people, mostly men, are attending this year's show, taking up almost every hotel room the city has to offer. They are expected to spend $254.6 million before they head home to their desktop computers, and that's just on nongambling activities.

While it's the biggest, this isn't your typical convention - many convention-goers won't even pick up a quarter to drop in a slot machine. Instead, they head to the neon city's many strip clubs or summon private dancers to their rooms.

"We have a saying in Vegas that they come with $20 and a clean shirt and don't change either one," said Chris Schneider, manager of the Olympic Garden, a strip club on the Strip.

"I guess because they're all in the industry they know computer chips control the machines. They figure they cannot beat them."

Alan Feldman, spokesman for MGM-Mirage, agreed.

"It's just the way it is. These are people that are here on business to do business. They're not on vacation," he said.

Strip clubs and outcall services, which send dancers to hotel rooms, do rapid business during Comdex. Even the Crazy Girls topless show at the Riviera hotel-casino has a special Comdex version.

At the Tropicana hotel-casino, the AdultDEX convention, which features adult Web sites and products, attracts thousands.

"There's a lot of men in town and they have an interest in adult entertainment. We'll be very busy," said John Drace, manager of the Crazy Horse Too Gentlemen's Club.

Jorge Bravo, 30, a salesman from Miami, takes potential customers to the clubs for entertainment and, hopefully, a business deal.

"That's a male bonding thing," he said from the convention.

"It looks like a computer class to a certain degree," Mike Beecley, spokesman for Cheetah's, said, summing up the Comdex crowd at his strip club.

Outcall operator Richard Soranno thinks he knows how to market to the Comdex guys - go straight to their computers. His Web site allows men to pick from a selection of nude women, then call the outcall service and request a visit from the dancers.

"I wanted to find a way to hit the Comdex people," Soranno said. "When you're into computers, you spend a lot of hours in front of the computer."

But that side of Vegas night life isn't for everyone.

Roger Street and Jesse Knight, who run the computer networking system for a law firm in Salt Lake City, opted for a different revue.

"We watched the fountain show at Bellagio, listened to the jazz band, went to the Aladdin and got some ice cream," Knight, 26, said.

Street, 36, quickly added: "It's not as boring as it sounds. We had a good time."

Meanwhile, thousands of delegates meandered through the massive crowd, hoping to eye the latest technology while what seemed like every one of the extra 500 cab drivers put on for convention week operated in assembly line fashion outside.

Traffic snarled around the Las Vegas Convention Center as people struggled to get service to their cell phones. Almost everyone had one stuck to their ear, even if the airwaves were as clogged as the roads.

Another group of people argued about whether or not jaywalking is a crime in Las Vegas. (It is.) Technobabble filled the convention area and spilled onto the sidewalks.

"We're an OEM manufacturer," Bravo said, explaining what he and co-worker, Peter Irizarry, do.

What?

"Original Equipment Manufacturer," Bravo and Irizarry said in unison.

Got that?

Just another week at Comdex.