[Music] [Applause] [Music] my job okay for those who people that don't know next week I got myself a blogger on here and he got he got jealous so he got them him what that's right no problem my good folks over at Alma hospitality hooked me up with that bad boy I also shot a video all about how to use that product other than that I just posted today but let me tell you how great is that and it gave my wife such a feeling of comfort to know that we have something that's safe that can sanitize all just with a little spray so how cool if you liked it huh oh she thought she liked it I love it I think it's great if you guys want to check it out go to hospitality Elmo Pro AV dot-com that's hospitality got Elmo Pro AV calm and know they're not paying us for this I just really think the product is important and you guys should take a look at it for your business as well man so Glen today's a special day it is who made me realize that and I actually said this in my life today that this gentleman made me realize that I'm a frustrated designer that I was going to be I've always said if I was in the hotel business I would want to be a floral designer I would more than write or shop designing flowers and every time I walk through one of his hotels do you know this I've told you this off camera you know me personally that there's nothing better than me walking for one of his hotels and it says something to me and every single aesthetic every single design every single thing he does and his team does speech to me because I'm not only a fan I'm not only a customer but I am a hotel guy and I am definitely the the first I'm definitely a fan of our guest mr. Roger Thomas and Todd Avery Lenihan of wind design development I think we should get right into I'll bring them on what do you say about that Anthony let's design this puhd [Music] hey hey hey we are here we got a Roger Thomas who's emeritus with Wynn hotels wind design development it's odd Avery Lenihan who's picked up the the mantle is going to be continuing the the love that Roger has given to all of these hotels and casinos over the decades gentlemen thank you so much for being here today what an esteemed honor it is for both of us here good morning yeah it's an absolute pleasure I'm like I was telling you off-camera Roger when I saw your interview a few years back I literally played a five times and I realized why I loved hotel business that design and the aesthetic and getting the feeling right if everything in travel and everything in hospitality and I it just makes me feel better when I walk through one of your hotels thank you that's very kind of you to say we worked really hard at exactly that the guest experience the surprise the drama the humor and those are also the reasons that kind of excitement that kind of experience are the reasons that Steve went and I unanimously elected Todd Avery Lenihan to follow me in that important care of head of wind design and development you know and that's a question I had for you just now I was just bout to ask you that so Todd you know Roger and everything he's done is legendary and can you hear me he's a legend nice work he is the legend he's a legend and I haven't had an opportunity to meet him in person but he is a legend and so he doesn't hear my sound so Todd talk a little bit about what you're alleging your own right you haven't you have you had your own company or you have tremendous experience so how is that feeling when you were told that you were going to be the person kind of taking over well it was an incredible honor but I wasn't told that I was asked and it was uh it was a difficult decision in some ways it was natural in other ways that the difficulty came and that I had such a great collection of relationships that I had built over the past thirty years in the industry and the thought of you know sort of lining those up and and becoming singular to one company I came with quite a bit of heaviness because a part of what I've always enjoyed is the incredible diversity of my work and the clients that have brought me to incredible places all over the planet working in different contacts different cultures different settings and so the idea of sort of turning the page on that chapter came with a heaviness but you know the industry has changed so much in the past 25 years that the opportunity to work within a vertically integrated organization in this case win who I had been collaborating Roger and I've been working together for almost 20 years so in some ways it was really natural but the idea to work in a vertically integrated organization that places such high value on the experience on design and to basically own the entire process and not be beholden to a separate operator and a separate owner was really very enticing um so in that regard it was it was wonderful although there was some sadness with you know turning the page there was real excitement about in a way kind of returning to where I started because I began in the industry in an organization like this that was fully vertically integrated yeah and I apologized for using the word told instead of asked either whenever I didn't want to diminish the career you had built and I apologized for using those words oh no biology no apology that being said if somebody told me I would have that opportunity I'd be like yes whatever you say oh well I'm all over that so uh Roger let's go a little back in the the Wayback Machine because you've been very very influential on reinventing Las Vegas from the terms of look and feel and substance of the entire place what was that first project that you worked on that you felt like wow I've arrived we're changing things we're not gonna really be focusing on 99 cents from cocktails anymore well I think I think it was a double experience one was Bellagio because Steve changed the hire steve wynn changing the entire philosophy of the hotel model in las vegas and that was that the casino was not the driver anymore entertainment rooms food and retail would take equal partnership in the experience so it it became a completely different experience but my real entry into new changing the way I felt Las Vegas was was Wynn Las Vegas when Steve finally after 20 years of partnering in design of hotel said I want something no one has ever seen before which allowed me to use my newly invented language of design and experience and start by inventing the alphabet the words the sentence structure and the grammar in a way that I thought was pertinent and it came at exactly the right time because I was mature enough in my experiences with Steven Elaine Wynn to to come forward with with the kind of strength and convention but much of what I present it many of my ideas had been formulated over the 20 years before but we're not appropriate to the experiences I was creating so it was a delicious opportunity - yeah with tabula rasa Oh totally totally sounds like that but you just came off a couple years prior reinventing Vegas again with Bellagio bringing something that had never be seen before how do you continue to push your creative strengths to top something which many would see is a crowning achievement in one of the most iconic buildings on the entire planet well Todd had this experience to the genius of Steve Wynn is he always made you achieve more than you thought you were able to achieve he was great at inspiring and pushing when we did Bellagio he said I need you to create the most important elegant fantastic Hotel Casino Resort on planet earth I want it to be so good it can never be equaled when we went across the street and started when he said I know I asked you to do the very best before but you're gonna have to go way past and I know what no way Roger because when you get something like that you get a project like that which is everyone's dream right everyone in what we do I don't care if you're a doctor or your designer when someone says go past where you thought you can go and we're gonna give you the money we're gonna give you the time we want something that's never been done before so Todd whether you start like we're whether you like what do you start with what's the first thing you do when you get a project like that do you go meditate first yeah well Anthony I first of all I want to commend you I'm glad you used the word dream because that was really what Roger and I and the team were charged to do was to dream on behalf of others you know I wasn't a part of Bellagio Roger was but with Bellagio there was a there was a precedent there were references to Italy and the historic elements of architecture that informed some of what they were doing when when when Las Vegas began it wasn't called Wynn Las Vegas the projects working title was Laurette and it was named after the Picasso that our Chairman owned and our charge was to create something that really was fantastical and was dreamy so we didn't really have an archetype or a precedent that preceded us that we could reference like some of the other properties or say even Bellagio had and so that was a greater challenge for Roger and I and when we start you know people often think that the idea the seminal idea comes in a moment but it really started the moment that we were born I think Roger and I know share this philosophy because when we design something it is not of a moment you know momentous thought that we've had it is the collective life experiences that we bring to the table so in any one project we're reaching way back into our emotional intellectual database and we are referencing things that come from very deep intimate places you know design is easy to judge on a superficial level because of its you see it on the surface but so much of what's in it is very personal and very intimate and it comes from places that we often don't talk about but that's what gives the design real soul real heart and it's something that the guest it really connects with right you know we've often shared that philosophy but do you remember when we started Laurette our our commission our request from the Chairman was dream do things that were bent right Laurette really means the dream and that's the the show that has been at Wynn Las Vegas since opening Roger I saw you nodding well Todd was speaking yeah maybe you can expand on what your he was saying what Todd's exactly right it's because you're going to invent something that no one has ever seen before that was that's part of the charge of the dream your dreams are very personal and and every night when you go to sleep you draw on your entire life in what goes on in your mind and so we thought of creating experiences that were not only new and innovative for the sake of being new and innovative never seen before but experiences with the dreamlike quality and it allowed me to fine-tune a philosophy of design called that I call it vaca texture which is charging my entire team and myself with the constant reminder that our job is not selecting the most beautiful fabrics and stones and woods and things and thinking of great shapes our job is to evoke drama and humor and mystery and intrigue and surprise and delight to make rooms that are joyous places where the party is always going on inspirational places where you feel like you have never been better a better self than in those environments and make it completely unique because if you do your guests will want to come back and with and the reason that Todd was selected for cameo appearances for Wynn Las Vegas along with Jacques Garcia and Naomi laughs and Vincent a wolf was because in touring around the world having Steve's approval select anyone on the planet do not do not let money or time or space direct who you're selecting Roger he said if I want I don't want the best I want the ones that are able to deliver the dream and I had known Todd's work for a while as I had studied the work of these other individuals and absolutely knew that Todd was able to bring that kind of fresh originality and evanka texture to the environment he held valuable those saying those same directives that we held valuable we didn't have to teach Todd who we were he was already a member of the family and said he has been he's been in every project except one since the inception of Wynn Resorts you know you said something first of all that relationship is going you know you somehow when you guys were born you you guys connected immediately before you met each other and so so you're born of the same flavor when I walk through and everything you just said really speaks to me because when you design something a lot of design there's a Lana hood house someone had a dream someone felt something and they all of a sudden it becomes that but it doesn't speak to me as a consumer it doesn't speak to the guy next to me as consumer it doesn't speak to the truck driver it doesn't speak to the CEO it speaks to this one designer and maybe a few other people in that kind of realm but it doesn't speak to everyone when you walk through a window it is absolutely for everyone and you do it's done in a way that I've never seen duplicated anywhere in planet Earth and I've been through some beautiful hotels where I'm like this is great but I can literally be dropped in the middle of a Wynn Hotel and not know the name of it and I immediately know it's a wind hotel there's something about the spacing about the walls about the feeling of it the colors that is just it all works perfectly and I know they get that kind of design that kind of feeling is maddening I would imagine you guys get yourself pretty close to madness because it is a piece of art it is definitely a maddening process but we're we're mad mad at heart you know Roger I'd love for you to build on this but you know I want to share something that you said to me when we first started working you know because Anthony I think what you have referenced has to do in part with the fact that every component every dimension of the experience at a wind property is viewed through the same lens of quality and importance where if you look at other properties in the industry there's often sort of a budget stratification where different spaces are given different priority not just in terms of the investment of dollars but in terms of the investment of energy the investment of creative capital and with the wind properties it is made very clear to the entire design team from the onset that every single dimension of the guest experience within this resort campus is to be loved and to be created with madness at the same level there are no places that are sort of secondary or tertiary so to your point Anthony about why it appeals to such a broad audience it's because everybody is regarded with the same respect the same repair the same care same regard and there's no hierarchy to saying that one level of customers experience is more important than another level of customers experience our arts three meal restaurants are buffets some of our areas that are less expensive to the customer are treated with every bit as much care and every bit as much investment and Roger that's something you you've made very clear to the entire design team from the onset it's don't think that because we're asking you to do a space that seems less glamorous that it's a less glamorous Commission because we treat those spaces with equal care and equal bravado and that was Steve Wynn's design philosophy first of all think like a guest when you design every decision should be it should take that into consideration and assume that that guest is the most experience sophisticated moneyed well-traveled guests in the world he directed the Wynn Las Vegas feel totally appropriate whether you're in jeans and a t-shirt or in a tuxedo and also since you're inventing things that have never been seen before you need to invest all of those invent inventions with great authenticity and with great yeah with great quality right so I would I would then ask how do you when you design something you don't get to stuck with it you can't get too emotionally connected with it because design changes a lot in particular there was a lot of changes to the Encore casino floor you figure out what works what doesn't work taste change and stuff like that so how do you make sure that you stay ahead of design trends and don't get caught up with doubling down on things that may have not worked or have simply passed their life expectancy so you are Glen you just said a word that we don't subscribe to and that isn't grand we are not a trying I saw Roger reacting trend is uh you know is a five letter word to us that we stay away from I'll just go I'll just use a vodka tech chure because that was a much better absolutely four letters yeah we're not a trend driven company on we are progressive and are thinking we are dynamic but we are not trend driven and we are not experimental even the things that we do that are innovative are not experimental they're not imbued with the same degree of risk that trend and experimentation have but we think of everything we do as timeless and as being something that will endure that really important to us so we don't look over our shoulders at our peers on we're interested in what people are doing from a business plan standpoint but we don't refer to other resorts hotels in the industry as case studies or benchmarks for us we really do live in a wonderful sort of dreamlike silo we design true to our heart true to our mission into what we know delights our guests universally we don't look to follow trends or stay ahead of a trend we actually create the experiences that that become trends for others to emulate well you know it's interesting you say that because I remember when in show you came on board with the hotels in New York City and everyone copied Ian Schrager everybody even when the intrigue wasn't being in Schrager they were trying to doing trigger and he stopped being in trigger a long time ago he's doing other things but very rarely do I see anybody try to copy you guys it's almost like why even bother if if you're not if you're not entirely original which requires the risk I spoke of yeah then you're one hotel behind everybody else righteous not a position that either Todd or I are interested in we don't want to what's already been created has already been created that doesn't interest us we're both creators we have a drive to see things that have never been seen before so with the change of the encore that was driven by in-house because we're in-house because we are so collaborative with our operations team we meet with our operations team years on end every day sometimes or at least every week and they had a feeling that the casino would be more active if we made those changes right some of them felt that they were right some of them feel that they were wrong some of them wish that the red chandeliers that I had created in Murano glass right but they're in Boston now thank goodness and alors and he can come and stay in my guest room on the Grand Canal in Venice where he does well why'd you in tired I want your show numbers because I'm connected to you both but you know ii-i'll tell you a little experience that I am at read my poker play as I said and I would go in the poker room in the manager any time I'm in the city to do a speaking engagement I always wind up in your poker room I never win money in your poker room because I'm always looking at the beauty of the room and of the design and I'm not paying attention and I always find something that speaks to me one day I get up to the manager I'm talking to her and say Oh welcome back mr. Walker and we're talking and I said to her um so do you like working here and she literally almost started to cry put our hands out like this and like pointing to her environment and said that's a silly question well yeah our charge Todd and I am something Steve directed is Steve always considered what we did important but the most important component in any hospitality environment is the team that is the humans who are actually functioning within that environment one of the things Todd and I both believe and we share this philosophy is that a big part of our responsibility is to make the work they do look effortless it's not but with really well considered planning we can put the meson PLAs in the right place in a restaurant so that they can spend more time focusing on the guest less time fumbling with flatware so we take that philosophy to every single thing we do and as Todd stated we sometimes elevate unexpected areas we spend as much money on the employee or the staff dining experience as we do on guest dining experiences our staff is as important as our guests and so they relate to the guests on a one-on-one they feel equal to the guests right and they're able to have a human relationship rather than a survivor and that has never been truer than what happened with kovat and how you guys handle that and it was the standard right everyone else try to attain and if you had employee confidence and gratitude before now it's legendary now it will be a legendary stories that everyone speaks to and I'd like to add that I've been fortunate enough to get it back at house tour at the wind properties and you can't really tell in places that you're actually back of house in particular in where people go to do their dining and stuff like that so I love that you're talking about creating the right psychology within your within to the people that are working there so that way that they could be free to deliver great hospitality to all the customers I have to throw some credit to somebody who's not with us today and that is a gentleman that's worked with Roger for three decades plus and I've worked with him as a consultant for two decades plus and that's the executive vice president of architecture for the company a wonderful man by the name of de Ryder Butler and he is a genius at assembling the innumerable technical components that make these buildings work so not only do they work as an experience emotionally they are brilliant machines that from an operational standpoint allow this incredibly almost mellifluous operation to be you know turning out this consistently the word consistency isn't a glamorous word but it's important are in our industry to turnout this consistently excellent experience and those back of house tours really reveal some of that but an incredible amount of care goes into how these buildings are assembled because this is a production this is theater and so what happens backstage is absolutely essential to the great performance on stage you can't have a great show and in front of the drape if the backstage isn't absolutely you know crafted like a fine Swiss watch and that's what our architecture team does and they often don't get enough credit but you know that is that is the that is the bones of the body so to speak right and speaking of the bones of the body he's the one who came up the the shape of the building I believe like to be like a hug right because it was more emotionally comforting to create a building that kind of art shows a genius he is the very best creator of hospitality and Resort Hotels particularly on the scale that DeRuyter approaches them but the sweep of the building the the curve that you see is a lesson from Bernini that I knew and okay Steve about and the swoop on the top of the building was a little cap that Tony Marnell our our contractor who can who is also an architect came up with a solution I wanted a I wanted a floating roof that was up lit with columns on the top so it looked like there was something on the top that you had to get to right that was my concept but the swoop was what we ended up with but yeah but the rider is absolutely never given enough credit for the ease of operation that all of our structures have and also his incredible cooperativeness we're all housed in the same building which is unusual in hospitality designed to have the architecture interiors purchasing and construction teams all meshed together in one place and so architecture is always meeting with interiors which is which you see the result of it's it's a cohesive functioning organism you know I want to go back a little bit and you talk about you know you're there for the employees this is all about ease and one of the things I know of being you know again an operator for 34 years now is I don't like design I can't easily clean and one of the things I've noticed when properties it's clean again I'll give it my experience because I spent more time the poker room than most people is everything is easily clean the cushions are white and they're spotless even the little tray tables that that whoever designed them or wherever decide to have them those tray tables are made of some kind of I don't know what it's made of but it's stainless steel and where you put your drink is easily wipeable and it's the cleanest tray table in any concealer I've ever been I go to other casinos and that those trade tables I put my drink on I don't even touch because they're disgusting or the cards are dirty or the the fabric on the tables dirty and those things to me I'm willing to spend more money and more time in your casino in your hotel because those things speak to me especially now after COBIT that people look for hygiene and and safety and I always felt that again I have and I literally do have OCD I don't say like I mostly date I have it and so it really really affects me when I'm there it really makes me feel at ease and I go to other hotels and I can't function because I'm just dealing with stuff that's really affecting me and so though that little thing that you probably know I know you think of everything but do you think that maybe some people don't pay attention to it really made me a fan of win God Roger lost my parents every single day for my obsessive-compulsive disorder okay yeah we've done if we weren't born with that but you know Anthony to your point there's there's there's properties in the industry that start off with that level of care that you've observed in the way that that holder is detailed but what distinguishes us is that our staff really responds to something that's existed in human psychology for years and that is that people do respond with a greater level of care and respect for an environment that respects and honors them first and the fact that our team loves working in our building and it is really their office and it is their home for some of them that you know work you know 16 hours a day because they see so much care put into the environment in which they're enveloped every day they reciprocate that and so the level of care that comes in our maintenance in my consideration is often not just out of obligation of their job description but it's because they really love the place they take a great sense of pride and authorship of how it evolves and grows forward and when you go from our property to others that's one of the great distinguishing factors is not just the environment and the service level but also this the state of of the asset you know we're gonna be approaching our 20-year anniversary and in several years but our building is every bit as pristine when we were shut down unbelievable during kovat I had the chance to walk through it with our CEO and you know to be in that building with nobody present not even while we were under construction was there ever a silence like that because there was the activity was building towards her opening day but for the first time in the building's history it was completely quiet and to walk around through a building of this magnitude that has had millions of people through it 15 years later after it was open and see that it is absolutely sterling in every crevice in every intersection and every material is really quite inspiring and the credit goes to our engineering staff into our housekeeping team but a lot of their pride and what they put into it comes because they were honored first and foremost by being given an extraordinary environment to work in that made them feel good about themselves as employees so it's a it's really reciprocal it's a wonderful sort of circle of life you give people a great environment and they will care for it and then one of our greatest challenges as we age is how to always keep the diamond polished Roger and I have talked about this in this industry there's always this interest in changing changing changing being trendy and evolving we actually put more time and energy into making sure that we keep this diamond polished by not just making ad hoc changes and not letting it go off script because great properties lose their voice not just with Thunderbolts of the big singular renovation often it's the accrual of a lot of little things from a lack of air maintenance to a strange new addition and so we're very focused on maintaining the sort of linear legacy of this great asset original architecture and design I still go to the peninsula in Hong Kong because of the experience I had 35 40 years ago when I first went there and one of the other reasons that our hotels are beautifully maintained is because not only is our staff in exquisite places caring for the very finest kinds of environments but they are so well respected and so well taken care of that they remain there for a long time Marty Brown the chief of engineering I met when we were both young kids at the Mirage and building The Mirage Hotel and he worked at the Golden Nugget so Marty and I have been together for 40 years Wow in this hotel so that's a guy who really cares about it he's got real investment and he has not gotten tired of taking care of it he inspires his team beautifully you know I if you ever find a video camera footage of me walking around your property this will be like because because I there's millions of people that go through there every year so I'm not amazed by the design anymore because all right I feel it I taste it I love it when I'm amazing I'll look at the ground I'll go in the corner I'll literally be walking to get some sushi and I'll go to the corner to see the grout is pristine or I put my hand on the wall and the curvature of the wall is a little bit different and most people wouldn't notice it but this is different to it that I haven't really seen before and it's it's just it's mind-boggling I'm telling you I go and again Glenn knows I go to the wind and I'm just I'm okay I'm just I'm better and as an operator it makes me better because it makes me realize I have always been a little bit on the edge of trouble when I run a property I've always been challenging the owner I've always been trialing the union always challenging employees always always with respect but always with like we have to be better than everyone and when we walk it when I walk into a win I feel it so tell me about I just I have another question about young designers but when you walk through the car door going towards the poker room there seems to be something going on with some walls is there is there is it is there anything that I'm noticing or feeling that's different or is it just you know the whole feeling why you're why you're preparing your answer of that let me say we got a lot of great questions for you guys out in the audience and we're gonna start to ask those in just a second Roger take it away Todd I think you should take yeah there were actually walls Barry Anthony you're right we were doing construction of our new restaurant which just opened a few weeks ago so what you saw was in fact temporary walls that were redefining that environment that were when be taken down shortly after you left that room has now been read you didn't know with you but but you didn't know it was a temporary wall right right all of our temp all of our construction walls our team in China calls it hoarding our fully finished elevation so these are not just plywood walls that right look like there's work in progress they're finished with wall covering with moldings with art with sconces they are bosses yeah they're completely integral to the aesthetic that surrounds them so I felt something different that tells you how obsessed I am with your design okay yeah and I have a question before you go to the audience when you have a semi not a young designer but a designer that's been around for five or ten years they come to work for you and they're brilliant and that's why you bring them in but there are a few bad habits like what's the first thing that you try to infuse or inspire into a new designer or to that night shouldn't say new but to a person that comes from a different house comes from a different background but has that that natural feel that you need in your business but it has a few bad habits how do you motivate them how do you change those bad habits it's actually the young designers that haven't developed the bad habits yet I'm not saying about the young an easy one I'm giving you the hard way where you just really like this person but they got a few edges that you just you need to change well anyway Roger and I are both you know it we're mentors of our staff and it requires lots of communicating lots of times side by side at the table it's communication that's verbal as well as illustrative you know we draw we sketch we lecture and it's it's talking through the entire process you know we're designing a new project right now and we have about 20 different suite room and villa types of quite a collection of accommodations within this particular tower and the conversations could be me just handing on my drawings but it's not because there are some younger people on the team some that are legacy members of the team but we spend a huge amount of time articulating the why and the how and the reasons collectively so there'll be there'll be a work session that may only need two or three people at the table but I often encourage everybody to come over we have big work tables in the middle of the studio where everybody can see in here and I invite everybody to the table to become a student of that conversation and to understand the nuances of what we're doing and why and a huge amount of time is spent discussing operational issues technical issues as much as the overall creative directive they're perfectly balanced because if it is an extraordinary feeling experience or an extraordinary looking experience but it doesn't function then it's all for naught so it's really a constant balance of right brain left brain right brain left brain and I think Rogers you know Rogers process is very similar that's why he and I have worked so well together for so long and well one of the things that I find I need to indoctrinate in every designer who comes to work first and Todd does this as well I've seen him do it is to teach them about the history of our profession our craft the history of architecture design and even art I didn't study architecture design I studied art history and was a studio artist and so I come to design in a different way and I find that they don't know what's gone on before it's not taught in schools unfortunately and once they understand why our decisions are based on the lessons learned of what not to do and lessons learned of what to do they they're they have a richer experience in the design world and they're better equipped to anticipate the next room right so let's uh let's move ahead to a question from the audience I love this one what is that what are some of the greatest challenges with any of the specific projects you overcame and let me and let me add overcame them as well Roger maybe you could take us back and share one of those with us well the reason I stayed with Steve for 40 years is the greatest challenge was always ourselves was overcoming was realizing that we could go further than we thought we could go that we could achieve more than we felt we could achieve in the time allotted he dared us to dream as you've heard and so I think just it's not not being afraid of going into risk and into places that no one has ever dared go before I think that was the greatest challenge that I face consistently and Steve was always excited about those challenges Stephen was a true Explorer of the art and architecture world that really excited him and so it excited us and so probably not to places we didn't know we could go right what about let me uh let me ask you another question I don't I can't find it on on there but someone was asking about sense and I'll add to that how does scent design and sound design play into the overall experience sometimes we think about just the stuff that we look at as opposed to the other things that add to the overall experience Todd we sound design you mean audio yeah and and and the smella ties errs and all that sure well well it our properties the audio that you hear in the background and it really is background music it's not foreground I mean I want to be foreground the background music is intended to basically fill in the blanks and it's establish kind of an emotional tenor to the space but that is a very highly curated list a playlist of music it is not just something streaming from a website or a service that provides music to hotels which do exist our our lists our playlists are constructed by a group of people that spend hours screening every single song even the lyrics are listened to to make sure that there's nothing objectionable but there is a definite emotional tenor to the music that you hear in our property and it's not just from a streaming service every Salah song is is chosen with intention and it changes throughout the day so what you hear in the areas throughout the hotel in the morning is very different than what you're going to at noon versus what you're gonna hear before you go to dinner or if after dinner if you're going to one of our clubs so it's it's constructed and there are crescendos and decrescendos throughout the day that very much support the mood of the guests while they're in the property so Mike and how you hear it is important our casinos have upholstered wall cover so that you hear a fuller more resonant sound our restaurants are attended to so that you can not only feel the vibe of the restaurant and feel that it's really lively but so that you can hear the conversation across the table we also we also do use scent but we use a fresh cut fresh moan lawn scent I'm losing battery power so I'm gonna have to switch to something else give me a minute all right hope you come back real soon because we need to talk about the Roger Thomas collection so go take care of that and we'll see you in just a second gotalk why should my question for you is give me an issue that's kind of backing to a Glenn's question yeah we challenge with something from Roger or from Steve we're walk by mr. Maddox today Yeah right or mr. Maness or where you were where it was like okay yes sir all right I'll think about that and then you go back to your office and it's a and you said yourself are they out of their minds and somehow you figured it out like the biggest the biggest one they were like this is this is not doable somehow you figured it out on so the most recent example of that and it wasn't daunting but it was definitely a challenge for the team you know things have changed in the last six months in the last year also even before kovat things were starting to change and we had a room renovation underway on paper only the work had not been initiated in construction but it was a project that was going to be several hundred million dollars and it was beautifully conceived it was designed and documented but there was a realization for a number of reasons that the investment was actually a bit too rich and so we were asked to go back to the drawing board and start entirely anew or a budget that was 30% less than the initial budget and the design team was pretty daunted by that because it's a substantial reduction in cost but you know there's a lot of expensive work out in the industry that is very expensive but doesn't necessarily justify the money that was spent so we subscribed to that that philosophy and said okay if we're got if we've got 30% less money that doesn't mean that we have 30% less ideas or 30% less creative wherewithal on the contrary we have to compensate for the reduction in investment with an increase in our intellectual and creative investment and so we went back to the drawing board and said that ultimately no matter what something costs great aid and timeless design is what prevails and endures and so we approach the project anew with 30% less of a budget but delivered something that looked every bit and developed every bit as rich as the initial budget and so that's an example of the kind of challenge that that we're gonna see increasingly in the business not just with us but we have to increasingly be more and more fiscally responsible with regard to how much we're spending and what the real return on it is not just from a financial ROI but also from an experiential and emotional ROI but that's a challenge that's gonna be universal in our industry because budgets are being continually reduced right now could I ask you what the status is of the property that was proposed for across the street do you do you know where you're at with that we do yeah we are constantly planning on we had a couple of versions of studies and master plans that have been done and it's actually kind of a wonderful thing happy accident so to speak that we didn't proceed with some of our earlier plans because a couple of the things that have been done in the market on neighboring sites including the expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center have informed how we would look at that site now and those weren't things that would have been known about had the project proceeded a couple of years ago but now at the Las Vegas Convention Center completing and some of the new properties on that Street about to open in the next year it allows us to look differently at that neighborhood and what it really needs so our process is that when you see a built product from when we have gone through dozens of iterations dozens of explorations no stone unturned so what see is the best version of all the studies all the distillation 's that we've done it's not just the first thing out of the gate so when that project is developed it will be the result of an even more rigorous understanding about the context the market and and it'll be that much more successful because of that great simply you said something very interesting I want to get back to you said just because the investment went down 30% the budget went down 30% that doesn't mean our creativity goes out matter of fact it's got to go up there the precise cuz expectations are still going up no matter what your price point go ahead first this was the first project Todd did this 30 percent reduction the first result we saw of Todd's taking the helm and I got to view the result of this and I called both Todd and our largest stockholder by the way and said this is proof absolute that Todd is the right guy to take this company forward for the next 20 years it is genius it looks more expensive than the room that I was 30 percent over it was my design that was bridge and Tom's design was absolute sheer genius it was I was so impressed so thank you Roger Wow that is absolutely fascinating percent less is really creative problems right and then and with batad the reason I wanted to go back to that because I thought it was so important that that's the way you build teams and that's how you basically when you're ready to step down that's how you build the next HUD or the next Roger is that you said okay we have a challenge nobody likes it nobody wants to look at this and say okay we have a 30% measure but you know what we are not the 30% less smart or 30% you're less as a team we've got to now say we're in the room for a reason yes God Avery is I'm here for a reason and the reason they chose me or I chose to be here over anybody else is because when they come to me with the challenge like this hold my beer here I go and and I just love the fact that Roger and Roger again knowing you a little bit you would never say that that is completely authentic completely genuine I'm Pro as wonderful as that answers wonderful is the team is is there a space and you'll have to mention the space is there a space that you walk through either one of you in your career that you're like oh I just just not exactly perfect is not exactly the way I wanted it does that happen yeah every space we never face yeah sure absolutely let's see Roger and I didn't even rehearse that and we both reacted it of course I mean we are obsessive we are maniacal it's very hard for us to put the paintbrush down very hard you know when you are a master painter you will be working those eyes and that nose until the last minute you know you're racing the oils as they dry and it's very much the same way for us with our spaces we are our own biggest critics it looks complete it looks wonderful to the guests but Roger and I always feel and see things that we feel like we could have continued painting on it's just our nature and that's what fuels us to keep going because when the next project comes along we build on that experience that's funny because that's exactly the way I feel as a writer broadcaster and stuff like that what I'm in it this is amazing this is great and then I go back to it and I'm like what was i liking about that sorry you know it's interesting it's hiding Roger because I probably tend to be more like you as far as maniacal and obsessive that I actually stop myself and I'm okay and I don't do that to myself because early on I did that to myself and I and I started reading a book called burnout and as I'm reading the book called burnout I'm like well I shouldn't be reading this book if I wasn't burned out and I got myself so obsessive in so in 19 hours a day 7 days a week turning these hotels around then I literally have to say once I put the paintbrush down it's good and I just have to say to myself accept it and so yeah it's it's exhausting being us [Laughter] because I know another experiences around the corner right another challenge another opportunity I don't I don't really think of things as challenges I think of them as opportunities creative problem-solving and there's always another one so as long as you learn and don't repeat your mistakes that's good so what is so what is the biggest challenge now with kovat and design and you know one things that we've heard from designers is I'm not designing a hospital you know I refuse to design something we're in the pandemic but you know in two or three years or hopefully even sooner you know hopefully this will be in our rearview mirror I'm not going to design something for a pandemic how do you handle this well I think the greatest check there's many challenges but one of the the challenges that's really I think sort of it's just present and we can't do anything about it right now is barriers you know even a plexiglass or a glass screen between two humans that are supposed to be interacting in a forum where gracious hospitality is being presented that is an impediment to real human connection also face masks when over half the face is obscured and you're lacking human expression it really makes it hard to deliver something with the same sincerity and humanity that exists underneath that mask it's there but our staff communicates universally with something called a smile with a bride I with you know a lift of the of the mouth when somebody's talking and they say something fun or in gay all of that is now obscured so you have barriers to seeing facial expression which is essential and delivering really sincere hospitality experiences graciously and you have physical barriers you have pieces of glass you have stanchions you have dividers and all of that is antithetical to what our business is all about in the hospitality industry but it's here for now so we've been working to make the most invisible barriers figuratively speaking as possible but they're still there and people feel them you know there's a there's a conviviality and a socialization that occurs between people and a restaurant people at a poker table people in a theater people in a bar and when you're separating them and you're putting barriers between them it really impedes the thing that humans need which is connection with other humans and that's a challenge that is present and that we're not going to be able to overcome anytime soon yeah and I would say one of the things that you were ahead of the game with was more of a touchless guest room because you have it powered by Alexa I happen to stay there in February but for all of this happened it was the first time in a hotel room I really got comfortable with and enjoy to that particular feature so I think that's something that you have is a component that adds to guests satisfaction as opposed to being a takeaway and Tata Avery I got to tell you when I was over there walking around the casinos floors on June 5th things may have changed but I like what you did where you were it was like a choose your own safety adventure there were a lot of barriers at some tables but no barriers at others I'd say like a blackjack table we only had two gaming positions instead of five or six so I like that you were looking towards getting people to feel comfortable in the way that they would feel comfortable as opposed to you trying to tell them how they should feel comfortable yeah you know there's there's guidelines and rules in place that we have to adhere to but it's helpful for the guests to feel like it is something that benefits them as opposed to something that is restrictive to them there's a fine line on how you make it feel it's an amenity in an enhanced experience versus something that's imposed upon them and so even you know if you walk into our properties you know we have the thermal image scanning that checks the temperature of our arriving gas on really only property that I've seen where our guests can walk seamlessly from the Porte cochere in total without any break in their cadence they flow through very smoothly we hand them a mask we offer sanitizer for their hands but you'll see it a lot of other hotels guests are being queued they're being put in stanchions and they're having to do the same thing in the hotel that they just did perhaps at the airport where they came from they're there because you know it's adding to their anonymity which masks I've already done and we've really worked contrary to that where we still have individual recognition direct connection to the guests and a seamlessness and the way we introduce taking a temperature or handing somebody seamlessness indeed I producer Jeff and I walk from the parking garage into the facility and the only thing I noticed is you had more limited access on entrances but I walked in everyone said hi I didn't think twice what I was walking out I noticed that you had the the thermal temperature detectors it was just that subtle that you were doing what you needed to do but you weren't interfering with the experience that I was about it was very clear when they did that because they went to seven hotels that day I would gonna go but I couldn't make it and it was clear that you guys haven't set the bar because that's the kind of environment I want to walk into I want to make sure everybody except which is checked I want to make sure employees away our man's but he said something to me that really spoke to me was anything there's some tables that have Plexiglas but if you want to play blackjack you can play at the table you know with one person on one and one person on the other and it's just two people I was like yes I'm in and then there's one casino that actually has a barrier in front of you and two barriers on the side and as much as I love playing I just couldn't do it I just you know because of my well I I think taught every I think you've got some of those too because again it's about its choice yeah yeah yeah yeah right I I feel very close from phobic in that environment and they win I just just watching it I wasn't even there and I felt like ah you know it felt so so there have been a lot of thought into that and yes Roger I think that's exactly it the same team that is figuring out how to enchant you because they are in-house and they are given great currency for their value and for their opinion in the operational at the operational table that same team that enchants you is figuring out how to continue that enchantment in this unenchanting time Todd has been working diligently with his entire group to come up with ideas to not let you know that the thermal scan is there to make it a human hospitable guest experience it's it's really it's really his team that's made the difference I think as well as working so closely meshed with their operational team because for every solution there's a concern and that meets that needs to be solved and but Todd's team he knows how to handle that from experiential and aesthetic visual as well as sensual concerns so you know in our operational team has been incredible you know we're the only property that I've seen we were at least the first if somebody's caught up with us that has you know beautiful place to purposefully place your mask while you're dining and while you're drinking that's excised and disposed of after you leave you know a beautiful debossed card that has a mask graphic you know everything's been thought of wonderful little QR scanners at every table the level of detail to which we've gone to to still demonstrate that we've anticipated you because anticipation an anticipatory service is kaity to delivering hospitality and an elevated level and so everything that we've done has been about communicating that we do anticipate you we are ready for you we await you we welcome you our moves have not been reactive there have been guidelines issued by the state by government authorities but so much of what we did actually preempted those guidelines to the point where a lot of the authorities actually looked at what we were establishing as our company protocol and adopted some of that as the broad standard for everybody else right you were the first ones out of the gate with a very comprehensive document remember when that came out how great it was all right after one o'clock so we're starting to run down on time here yes Roger I just want to say that that is also due to the extraordinary leadership of matt mattox our CEO absolutely has been inked right there with everybody in person solving these problems and he is inspirational he kept them all onboard which by itself is Herculean but he has led because of his superior intelligence and because he really really cares he's a great human that's awesome and I'd be back every day he lived this every day he hired an epidemiologist he became an absolute student of what was occurring and I was actually invited to the White House to speak on what we had done has become quite accomplished in this in this space it's been an extraordinary effort and really precedent-setting industry great either and as someone from the outside looking in that's exactly the feeling I know that Anthony and I both had Roger you're an emeritus now you're kind of retiring we were joking for the show you're not really retiring of course you have the Roger Thomas collection and you've been doing more designs for that but you're also working on some home projects as well Anthony how cool would that be to have Roger Thomas do a design for your home you know be even cooler is to have Roger come on my new show and be my designer with me for one of my projects really crappy client so tell us a little bit about the Roger Thomas collection well the Roger Thomas collection happened the same way Todd's products happened in an effort to create a very unique environment you have to invent everything in the environment so you learn how to make everything from lighting to furniture to to the bee house mantri that edges the drapery yeah the Roger Thomas collection with Steve and Elaine wins complete backing started producing these these unique pieces so that we could use them first and when we get went back to get them they would still be a product that we could get without ordering 500 and so I've continued to do that and I've been working on new product for Samuel and Sons which will open soon which will launch soon for puss bone tree I have a bedding collection with fabric and evasions I have new lighting with Boyd in fact one of interiors coveted award for best of year last year with part of that collection I am working on new designs for quinces a furniture company that I'm very involved with in Los Angeles for which we do high very high-end bespoke bench made furniture I'm working on new designs for Rocky Mountain Hardwear la Brazil is going to launch a new collection of guest room and bathroom amenities so I don't like the grass to grow that's for sure I'm also a big fan of oh my god Debra Hermann over at fabric innovation she's she's pretty freaking awesome yeah and if you guys ever fly Delta you get to go first class that's her stuff up there in the first-class cabin I know so that's pretty awesome I don't you know that Roger is interesting how many times the team here we're sourcing something we'll be looking through a catalog or a list of available product and on many of Rogers items that he's designed very discreetly have the tag that it's designed by Roger Thomas and it's interesting how we'll select something and only after we print the cut sheet and have fallen in love with something and decided is going into the job do we then see the little thing that says designed by Roger Thomas and then you say of course saying yeah when it comes to the people I procure of a team I here's a Cody a cody Herzog who I think is Laura's kid over there and then she's been a big part of the other procurement team over there and as absolutely fantastic professional yeah we have an amazing purchasing and construction group our purchasing team and construction team are extraordinary you know and that it doesn't use that whole process that most people aren't in the building or design or hospitality industry they don't realize how many people are in that chain and how many people once you have this vision to bring it to life is a different story to have the vision is hard enough but to bring it to life is probably almost more impossible than half division to begin with so one of the things I want to ask is I would be remiss if I let you gentlemen go without asking the question that I've had for 34 years what is the secret to bathroom lighting ah interesting I have my I have my theory it's all going to start with the face you've got to have really flattering lighting that makes people look like the best version of themselves which is usually shadowless lighting fulfil lighting just like you might on a makeup artist salon styling table you know backstage at a theater or in a great salon so full lighting around the face that shadow less evenly balanced that renders color in the skin correctly then in addition to that you want to supplement the space with a nice balance of task lighting as well as sort of ambient lighting and sparkle but it's all gonna start with what's happening at the vanity and how somebody looks and then you build from there I totally agree I think side lighting is really important not only in bathrooms but in public all public spaces so that we don't walk around with all of those shadows and I think light surfaces in the bathroom that reflect all the lights that are on the ceiling using the ball about wattage reflecting back look we lost his we lost his signal I'm sure I'll pop that up there he is yes there you go Roger you're back all right so you're saying the last thing we heard is light surfaces that reflect back yes nope I don't know all right Tod's light surfaces on the countertop of the bathroom because you using all that wanted yeah just well gets a little bit under here yeah right so that seems like I need a whole class or at least a week worth of classes to really understand it but there is there is an art of science to it and most people get it wrong and I should mention Anthony we in addition to our purchasing construction architecture interiors finance we also have our own lighting department so we have integrated into our organization a lighting design team so we do all of that in-house as well it really is a complete circle of intelligence that creates these projects no and that's that's the thing when you look at a big company and they're like well if we do it in-house it's expensive right but doing it especially you have projects like you guys work on when you do it from when you do it with I'm trying to I have to say outhouse when you're doing out of the house and you're doing contractors it costs you double or triple sometimes because of the activation because of of the mistakes and you don't have complete control of it yes riser so let me say that the guy who hits that Tom koala check used to be an engineer at the Mirage we had a huge lighting problem with the casino I called in four different lighting designers New York Los Angeles Atlanta these huge high-powered thinkers to cut to solve the problem at the Mirage they couldn't do it Tom koala check an engineer on our team said do you mind if I try went to the backup house use some tin snips and a couple of pieces of shiny aluminum came out and fixed the problem before our very eyes right and then he then he was the guy and became our lighting designer yeah he leads our team now it leaves our team well and again you the expense to bring in for the superstars which you know when you have superstar on your name you get a lot more expensive and then you have from a guy that was on your team and not only that it inspires everyone else that like it inspired you that our own team why are we going outside when we have the best try this on our team and sometimes and that's been a problem with when I was working for people it's like I'm not that's why it all of a sudden I become a consultant I become more explain so I become smarter know your teeth ten years ago the same guy you know I got a TV show and I became smarter no I'm the same guy I'm not as smart as everybody thinks I am they got a TV show so when you have somebody in the house you really got to develop that talent well hit that I've got to tell you though actually we are the more expensive alternative consultants actually are much more cost-effective we are expensive because on our payroll there's a 30% burden on everybody it's very difficult to get a lot of the talented in this industry to move to this desert community far from an ocean or a mountain and we are expensive but that expense is an investment it's how you build consistency when you're working with a consultant that has a lot of different masters you although they may be talented their attention is divided and when you work with us we need your undivided attention on we really need to actually feel like we own you in some ways and you have to kind of pretend like we do I know I had to sort of pretend that that was the case for many years when I was a consultant so we're actually the more expensive option but it's what allows us to deliver with total quality control absolute quality control and only we know how what we do best and it's very difficult to indoctrinate outside consultants sometimes into certain things that we need done a certain way we might hire somebody for a cameo appearance where there's a little bit more flexibility in the way that the space is conceived there's other things that we do that we have a verification lated we're looking for it's best for us to do it ourselves wow that's interesting so basically just told us the story about why you are brought on to run the division instead of just that male sourcing work to you [Laughter] that's awesome so what else did you tell us before we wrap up today that's absolutely essential perhaps for somebody that is interested in being a hospitality designer how do you keep your mind open how do you keep learning what do you think about noir to be the best you can possibly be every single day in your career Roger you pay for uh I look at an awful lot of art in person if at all possible I look at a lot of beautiful just beautiful II designed buildings I go to every museum I possibly can I draw every day which is really important and I read a lot yeah I'm not so much I'm not so much I never look on social media for inspiration ever right because that's already been done right I looked for things that had been done a hundred and fifty years ago for a spark in me that gets me thinking of something new so you're on Pinterest anytime yeah I don't want to insult an icon but that was the wrong answer you watch no vacancy live every single day I bet that's discussion and that discussion is what Todd and I do in our Studios every day with our teams just what we're doing right now so that's very balanced that is a super essential point though is getting the feedback from from people as well Roger yeah even with the silent screen of Pinterest things that have already been done doesn't interest me great yeah I I post on Pinterest I have a lot of people who want to see Pinterest and what I'm doing and I think it's a be a great vehicle for letting people know what I'm doing because I'm a producer of goods right but and I look for goods on Pinterest and I look for goods on Instagram but I don't use it to find design solutions is what I'm saying right absolutely fine I use it often to find product and new product it's great yeah yeah did you want to add to that it's very similar we feed ourselves the same way I constantly have a stack of of books that I am immersed in and inspiration for design can come to me just from words not always visuals although I love going to museums I grew up in museum towns and I find great satisfaction in looking at the work of the great masters I also find inspiration in music I'm very inspired by the construction of a song or a symphony I can envision spaces when I really allow my mind to start decoding the components of a piece of music or an orchestration I often assign some of my design elements in the space to specific instruments within a composition so I'm very inspired by my music I'm very inspired by literature but I'm you know I'm a dreamer like Roger is can my inspirations don't come from things that have already been built although I do admire the classics and I admire history especially in terms of the discipline that they teach us about you know rational design but the actual final idea that we arrive at for a space usually comes from a space that's much our comes from a sources that are much more diverse than anything that exists today for us to look at you know you boat you poop in this for decades and you both have the curiosity and the passion of a first-year college student you still that just complete curiosity and what I think makes the grades to great it's it's not what I did yesterday it's what I'm going to do tomorrow and next year and you can't teach it you can't it's born and when I'm listening to both of you I'm out of breath as you say every word with just that passion and curiosity that is inspiring well that's so nice of you to say Anthony and I'll tell you you know it it it it's wonderful for that compliment although I would say there's a dark side to it for me because I know that in my work session here at the studio and I'm I know it's the same for Roger because you know in work sessions together but I I'm very impatient with people that are not curious and not learn it and so I'll be in a work session where there is a deafening silence silence rings very loud to me and when that happens it's because I feel like the audience either is disengaged or uninformed both of which are deadly to a design collaboration or a Charette and I will stop a conversation and ask people if they know the references I'm making or I'll ask them to give me an analogous experience and when they can't that's when my patient really runs thin and I will start giving assignments to people of what they need to become aware of that they need to go back and study and learn and and then we'll reconvene but I expect everybody to always be serious no matter how if all they are in their career I love working with curious fascinated people I am NOT interested in people that feel like they've arrived at a mastery where they don't have to learn anymore you know Roger approaches everything as if he is a student and I do the same thing which kid we wouldn't we don't necessarily have to do you know we could we could find stasis and our careers and our accomplishment and what we've already done and live very comfortably in that space but I like the challenge of not knowing how to approach the next challenge and immersing myself and becoming a student of that new endeavor that's exhilarating to me it is scary it can be intimidating there's great vulnerability there but it is absolutely exhilarating you do it that's one of the things that young designers or less experienced designers need to get confidence in and that is saying I don't know tell me then you have to ask what you mean constantly we're happy to explain it's okay if you don't know what's not okay is not knowing and remaining in ignorance well I also what you just both said tada Roger I think that that really is that is everything through a young person or even an older person that's been doing this right like if no one's ever looked into the show before if no one's ever listening anything we said please listen to the last five minutes of what Todd Avery and Roger said it is critical what you arrive doesn't mean you arrived you're in the room in the major leaves you're I used to say when you're on my set this is serious when they push a button and we're in front of millions of people 120 countries doing the major leads act like it and if you're going to act like it that means be curious that means I should us that means push on that means challenged us but that means pay attention be passionate and be curious but you're in the room for a reason you're not in the room sitting next to you and the design table or sitting next to rise your design table if you're not talented now okay so what doesn't matter now you have to get to the next level because once you're in the major lead being patient and I've been you know I've been guilty of that the the curiosity and the absolute zero tolerance for really I don't know I'm not sure like that we don't live in that world but when you're in that world and you around those people that is just you fly at a different level in a different air you breathe a different air colors are different to you when you're around those people and guess why and you wouldn't go up in in those rooms some people just don't get it and that's okay that's when we promote them to customer and say you can come for front doors you just can't come through the back door then I love that art Roger maybe tell us about one bigger big failure that you overcame in life and then after that I want to talk a little bit about your final project that you completed so my biggest challenge in life had to do with a disease and that is the disease of addiction and I thought that it was helping me but fortunately I had a lot of people surrounding me who knew that it was not who helped me find the kind of help I needed to move past it and that was 25 years ago and I include Steven Elaine win as being integral in that and what it did was it made me I still remained afraid of my own voice in my own authenticity but I came to realize that that was the only value I had when I was in any room and then everyone was afraid of their own voice in their own authenticity and then it was a voyage of revealing that together so not that allowed me that particular moment if you look at my work Treasure Island was the last tell I did with that problem Bellagio was the first I did I think that's revelatory I think it really is although I am sad that the current owners got rid of the pirate show that was uh that was that was the thing that I really cool Roger thank you for sharing that because people look at you and look at you built and look at your career in your station in life and like I want to be him right you know I want that he's so lucky so I was also a bear I had a lot of difficulty as a student I am severely dyslexic so I've had other challenges I it was very difficult for me to read as a child but I liked the result of reading so I stayed with it and I read all the time and now I read really well even though I'm severely dyslexic going to the gym I wasn't really very strong when I went to the gym the first time but after several years I was pretty strong yeah and that you know and I'm glad you share that because a lot of people don't it's like to make you know to make the cake you got it you got it you know you got to see how you make it and you gotta bring some agent and I can't tell you just just how in love I am that you said that because I noticed people that struggle out there I've very fortunate I haven't had an addiction with a lot of people around we have and to see what you've accomplished in life sometimes you're your own worst enemy and when you have love around you they help you get there so thank you so much it's a blessing to share that story thank you now I had the opportunity to spend my last my last trip before coab it was at several resorts and I round up at the the win and the encore for Radisson Hotel group's annual conference and we had Jim alderman their current CEO on there so go check out that past that pet show but I got to tell you Roger I love that pavilion out there I love what everyone did with the expansion project what was that experience like for you going into it knowing that hey this is gonna be my last big thing before I go and pretend to retire well it was one of those really exciting projects because it was all planned to be around a lake that never had Lake dreams yes and so we designed it all for view and the Golf Course had been closed it had been disengaged part of it had been deconstructed and we realized as we were building it that we were going to open the south convention facility which doubled the space of the Convention Center at Wynn long before a lake could ever get ready so we head back up we reinstitute the Golf Course reconstruct a couple of holes ring we organized the view from there and I think it ended beautifully but that that pavilion was supposed to be on a lake but if you didn't know that if you did you don't know that it's a brilliant experience and that was the that was the the brainchild of Chris flat who I've also worked with my entire career our director of convention sales she saw the need for that she described exactly what she wanted and we were able to do Ryder and I we were able to ward some sketches get her over with her team and fine and tune that into the space it is today it's a great experience thank you for mentioning that and you know Glen I have to mention you that conference that you attended with Radisson was one of the first three events we had in that new space you at us did it I know I was very blessed to uh to be able to to see it and experience it and I love the the to to the two levels not not just Pavilion ballrooms up top the smaller meeting rooms down flow with another great area space it was very well done your whole group could be in one area away from everybody I absolutely love that Anthony area anything else want a these gentlemen before we continue to impose on their time you know sometimes in life music when you should zag I wish I had over it sir Vegas early in my career because I had the opportunity to work with you gentlemen it would have been an absolute just an inspiration and you know seeing so many hoteliers work for a really great people and working for some people that aren't so great when you work for great people like yourselves and you're on a team again don't suffer fools that's where people understand working people like you and in that environment you better come up every single day and you better be ready every single day because every single day is the bottom of the ninth you have to win the game you have to hit a grand slam alright and I feel in that environment that's why I love the military but Jaso there must be thousands and tens of thousands of people that you've worked with that that felt that inspiration and you've made them better and I just wish I had the opportunity to work with you when I was much younger and I wouldn't learned a lot feeling's mutual yes absolutely thank you we share your passion well thank you but here we all know what will happen yeah but sometimes I'm stuck with I'm stuck with Glenn's than you too that's not too bad that's better every day gentlemen thank you so much for being here before we wrap up it's a big tradition over here to allow you to give a good shameless plug so Roger maybe one for the Roger Thomas collection anything you're thinking of and then taught every ever let you it will let you promote win so Roger take it away you can find the Roger Thomas collection at the Roger Thomas collection calm and I also can be found on Pinterest and on Instagram of course in most other social media platforms and look for all of my new product for my wonderful partners at Samuel and Sun at La Brazil at Boyd lighting and fabric innovations had quinces and so many others thank you for your time thank you it's not avery well you know one of the the great parts of the wind' story has been than not knowing what's coming next but knowing that whatever it is is going to be fantastic and we have some incredible things on the boards and in the ground that are all going to be making their appearance over the next year so if you think that anything has slowed down during the kovat the real slowdown has been in the movement of people traveling but there's been no slowdown in what we are dreaming on behalf of our guests all over the world we've got great stuff on the boards and coming out of the ground and so the next time you come back they'll be some wonderful new surprises for you that although new will feel like they've always been here which is exactly one of the things we always strive to do and needs to hear that we really need to hear that that's an inspiration to all of us and we will be coming to Vegas soon so I would love to meet with you in person and do the show in person with me you and Glen when we get there it'll probably be sooner rather than later yeah we really you know we were waiting for some inspiration last couple weeks because of the numbers and everything things are slowed down again but hearing that you guys are hard at work and you're going to brilliant some great ideas going forward makes me real happy big stuff too big stuff Wow it's alright Gary yeah gentlemen thank you so much what an honor and a privilege was it it was to have you both here today so thank you so much Anthony I'm gonna wrap up the show but thank you for being here Wow oh wow now before we before we wrap that part before anybody tries a going offline oh Anthony and I are going to be featured in in an article that somebody's putting together so if you would like to make a comment right now about what this show means to you what the show is done for you what you hope this show is all about leave that comment in there and you might get noted you might get put in that article as well and Anthony they're looking for a quote from you about what the show does for the the industry well you know what it just did it it was a great example we went to the altar we went to church today right and and what and what happens what happens right people have been the reason win and the people around wind work like glued together is because they have faith they have faith that they can do something that hasn't been done before they're from each other that when somebody says 30% less budget it's gonna be bigger and better anyway yep and that there's what there's there's one way to do it and the way they do it is our team being together and so I think it was a great example of why the win experience works so well it's because people are impatient people are curious people are real professionals and it takes a lot of work but think about that they've been around for decades they've done they've worked collaborated on projects the biggest projects in the world and do they see they even look tired no Rodgers claiming to be retired but he's not no tired tired oh no no there's no way that these guys are tired they've got boundless energy it shows about me yeah now talking to maybe a vice-president of operations and then also talking to CEO but then we're talking to an icon a legend a person that took hospitality design and said no we're not going to go here we're gonna go here right don't try to keep up with us because the second you get there we're gonna be here already that's right yeah I'm not that I got schooled on the use of the word trend that way when you said trend I literally I'm saying oh you just used the dirty words but you know they said something also that was very critical this was this was a class we got it this is a class where it was also interesting is when you go through a hotel Erwin hotel they not focus on the next big thing they're not focus on let's recreate what we just did let's maintain what we did let's show that 20 years from now the place is still spotless that place looks like it just opened they just took the bubbles yeah yeah it's amazing how unbelievable that place is all right so I thought every I know you're backstage still would love to go up to the Boston property and do a show from there so let's talk about how we can make that happen and Anthony Tom you know I'm feeling very good about today's show but I think people might still want a little more hospitality success how could they find that well actually hospitality says calm or ask us on facebook we're also gonna do a facebook live this week where I'm going to break down the components of a show and it's going from a branded hotel to a to a non branded hotel and how you do that so I'm going to take one of my shows which is actually show I just looked at last night it was in San Francisco in San Francisco Airport very big very very nice hotel and they took their brand off because because they wouldn't do the PIP and they tried to go private and it wasn't working out very well and I'm gonna show how you can be successful you know doing an independent hotel so how do you kind of think about going into a brand so I'm gonna break that down step by step me and my friend Jeremy my partner we're gonna do it this week and we're gonna do that probably once a week beautiful I love it I don't want to thank everybody for being here today remember to subscribe to our newsletter text the word hotel to six six eight six six that's the word hotel two six six eight six six and I know you guys out there are vibrating with love and light and pulsating with love and light so remember you've only got one life so blaze on and I gotta say something before we go do that yeah like we asked for comments about was this show do for you right we all have our challenges right right he'd been traveling we haven't been getting on planes and what they show does for me it's a classroom and that I get to sit with people that I consider like literally legends and mentors that Roger was on this show for an hour and I've always admired him and Anne Tolley I don't know very well but I know his name and to be able to sit here and basically be given a lesson and get inspired it makes me feel okay you know something I feel like a weird kid because I'm so intense and I expect such high standards and then being around people like that and being able to speak to people like that to be on our show it's it's everything so this show is really kept my inspiration and my curiosity it also makes you feel like you know what I'm not crazy no you're still crazy but not for the reasons you think you got what life so thank you so much for checking in we'll see you tomorrow guys