Experience is a very different vibe than MBA Annual. The latter is more about parties & intros. IMO Experience is really about the invite-only dinners & power-meetings at Tower Suites rooms. That said, Snapdocs is doing an invite-only party on Monday night. See you there? Tuesday is also Sharkey Byte’s open bar party at the Tower Suites Bar.

Several vendors said Experience ‘26 is the best ROI of all the conferences. Yes, they’ll spend $35K on a booth & fly out 10 staffers (another $45K), but a few said they’ll ink 5 or more contracts. MBA Secondary is probably the next-best for deal-making, w/ HW’s The Gathering at #3, they said. Agree? Disagree?

The hottest goss will be whispered at Bar Parasol, not the expo floor or the meeting rooms or the adorable puppy 🐶 bowl thing they do. By total coincidence, there are some ICE competitors who take vacations at the Wynn the same week as Experience. They tend to congregate around Parasol. Most people will end the night—sloppy as shit—at B Bar near the tables at the Wynn.

Anthropic & Google Cloud ☁ are here for the main Wednesday session 👀. That’s probably going to be the newsiest part of the program. Speaking of AI, will ICE perhaps announce an AI initiative for Consumer Connect? Most of the sessions on Tuesday & Wednesday will be roadmap & product stuff. (ICE has some pretty tight media restrictions in place for this conference, so I might be a bit behind in reporting some of it.) 

Wear comfortable shoes. Every year people saunter into the Wynn in dressy Oxfords or 5-inch heels & bitch about how bad their feet hurt. Pro-tip: bring blister Band-Aids. Real talk though: this is not a dressy conference. Have you ever met an Encompass administrator? (Gross generalization on my part, but still.) The overall vibe has way more overlap w/ Comic-Con than MBA Secondary. It actually reminds me of the time I went to my wife’s cousin’s wedding. I dressed up—like really dressed up. Suit, the whole deal. We get there & half the guests on the bride’s side are wearing cargo shorts & polo shirts. To a wedding! I was furious my wife made me dress up. Same energy here: don’t overdress.

You’re in Vegas—get some shopping done! There are t-shirts on sale at Chrome Hearts for $695. That’s a bargain! People will know you are very rich & successful & cool. Relatedly, I hope you stock up on the $12 bottles of water at the Wynn…

Baby Tennis is happening on Monday. You might know it as “pickleball,” but I think “baby tennis” is a more apt descriptor. In other recreational sporting news, ICE took “lender reps & certain clients” to Top Golf Sunday night…

Have you already made dinner reservations? If you’re going off the strip, you should consider Esther’s, Al Solito Posto, DE Thai, Shang Artisan Noodles, Nittaya’s Secret Kitchen. (Personally, I am a fan of Hofbrauhaus & love a good schnitzel.)

Preorder coffee before you leave your room & it will be ready by the time you reach the ground floor. Links for Wynn Tower & Encore Tower. The good folks at Lodestar (Booth 311) have a full care kit btw in case you are a bit hungover…  

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