Handful of Las Vegas companies seek attention at Comdex

Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2000 | 11:06 a.m.

Two Las Vegas companies with different approaches to delivering qualified employees to businesses are among a handful of local companies exhibiting at this year's Comdex show.

The Eastridge Group of Staffing Cos., which has had a Las Vegas presence for 26 years, is meeting with hundreds of the estimated 200,000 Comdex visitors as Eastridge Infotech, a division of the company that specializes in technology staff recruitment.

While Eastridge takes a more conventional approach to recruitment and is duplicating a success formula that has worked in nine divisions for recruitment in manufacturing, medical, construction and other fields, eCommerce Staffing, a rival company, uses a more high-tech approach to matching resumes with companies.

Meanwhile, a key player in the city's bid to develop a dot.com business incubator also is exhibiting at the show and has personnel in the city scouting for locations to build a wireless communications network.

Worldwide Wireless Networks, which plans to operate from a high-tech office complex on 10.6 acres west of downtown Las Vegas, also is making contacts at the show, the largest convention the city hosts each year.

The trade show, which has more than 1 million square feet of exhibits, continues through Friday at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Las Vegas Hilton and the Sands Expo Center. Seminars also are being conducted at the MGM Grand Conference Center.

"We felt a booth at Comdex would broaden our outreach into the high-tech industry," said Jane Whisner, managing director of Eastridge, which is based in San Diego, but has primary offices in San Francisco; Irvine, Calif.; Reno and Atlanta as well as Las Vegas.

Whisner believes the show presents an opportunity to recruit companies to Las Vegas and she said she has worked closely with the Nevada Development Authority (NDA) on her contacts.

Because an able work force is important to companies considering a Las Vegas presence, Whisner said her company has been in demand.

"We feel we have the expertise to discuss work force availability and the talent pool here," Whisner said. "In the past six to 12 months, we've actually been getting a lot of phone calls (from potential companies moving to Las Vegas) before the NDA has."

Eastridge's method of operation is similar to many employee recruitment companies. A staff of 85 in Las Vegas includes recruiters who meet with potential employees about their goals and objectives. Whisner said the company sifts through resumes and recommends placement to its employers' clients.

Eastridge has attracted the attention of qualified employees with a salary survey. The survey lists several classifications of high-tech workers, charts experience and education levels and the average and high salaries offered.

At eCommerce Staffing, Chief Executive Officer Bruce Hiatt said he wanted to add a human touch to the Internet job-search industry. With the introduction of streaming media to the traditional online-posted resume, the company lets prospective employers see and hear candidates talk about themselves and what they can do.

"We've reinvented the end-to-end candidate resourcing process," said Hiatt, whose new Las Vegas company is showing its Clipstream audio and video products for the first time at Comdex.

The company's Internet site, www.ecommercestaffing.com, has a database of audio and video resumes available for employers to review. The company is in the process of transferring about 10,000 resumes to its site and it also is licensing its system to other job recruitment firms in other countries.

Hiatt said the biggest advantage of the system is the cost savings to employers.

"We had a CEO who wanted to interview a prospective employee, but he was in Australia on business," Hiatt said. "He used our video interview system and hired an employee on the spot and he figured between travel and recruitment costs, it ultimately saved him $250,000."

Worldwide Wireless Network's Curt Collier, vice president of marketing, said he hopes to meet a number of business people who may give downtown Las Vegas a look while his company explains its wireless network plan at this year's show.

Meanwhile, engineers are scouting Las Vegas locations for wireless transmission sites.

"We've got some of our people walking around a lot of the tall buildings in the area," Collier said.

Those wireless transmission sites cover a radius of about three miles, he said, and the company is attempting to develop coverage of the city with a network that will enable customers to access the Internet without plugging to a cable.

A wireless PC card -- basically, an antenna -- plugs into a computer to give it access to the Internet.

Collier said the main advantages of wireless links to the Internet are cost and reliability. He said the wireless link is less expensive than a T-1 Internet connection -- about $800 a month compared with $1,200 a month for the cable. He said installation only takes about 48 hours once the wireless network is in place.

Worldwide will compete locally with Sprint, XO Communications (formerly Nextlink) and Cox Communications. The Greenspun family, which owns the Las Vegas Sun, has a minority interest in both the XO and Cox operations in Las Vegas.

Collier said his company, which uses the retail name of Global Pacific Wireless Internet, hasn't wrapped up plans for its downtown presence and is in a "quiet period" during a public stock offering.

Other Las Vegas companies have booths at Comdex and one company that was planning its Comdex debut canceled at the last minute.

HelloNetwork.com, which produces streaming video that can be received by end users without special plug-ins or downloads, is showing its suite of six products that use different applications of the same technology at this year's show.

Amy Black-Ellins, vice president of public relations and advertising for the company, said the company's helloVideoMail product is being demonstrated with a campaign that client Sam's Town hotel-casino is using. Sam's Town is sending video e-mail to advertise the opening of its new events center.

"It's been spectacular," Black-Ellins said of the turnout at the helloNetwork booth. "It's sensory overload at Comdex anyway, but when people walk by and see what we're doing they stop and say, 'Whoa, look at that!"'

It's helloNetwork's first Comdex after the company opened its doors in December.

A Comdex veteran showing again at this year's show is QVS, a manufacturer of and distributor of custom and standard peripherals, cables and accessories.

The Las Vegas-based company has manufacturing facilities in Detroit and Taiwan in addition to Las Vegas.

A company that planned to exhibit at Comdex but was forced to back out at the last minute plans to be on the floor when Comdex 2001 arrives a year from now.

Lisa Sanders, director of marketing for Jetlane Corp., said the company planned to unveil its Ovation Web product, a web-building design tool. Jetlane provides web hosting from its local base and with its products gives small business users with no technical experience the ability to design and build a website in less than 30 minutes.

Sanders said the company expected to show Ovation Web at Comdex, but when a show deadline arrived and there was still uncertainty about the availability of the product, the decision was made not to participate. As it turned out, the product was ready on time.

Chief Executive Officer Mark Doppe, who heads Carina Corp., a local homebuilding company, began marketing Las Vegas companies on the Internet but is planning to expand to other markets.

Jetlane has five employees and Sanders said the company's cancellation at this year's Comdex is enabling the company to prepare for a big presence at next year's show.

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