When people think of Las Vegas, they imagine high-stakes poker rooms, the dancing Bellagio fountain, or the Hangover movie franchise. Most don’t consider it a leader in tech and innovation.
The city’s reputation for leisure and entertainment is undeniable. However, beyond the bright lights, Vegas stands tall at the center of the global tech industry. Whether it’s playing host to the most prominent tech conferences on the planet or serving as an urban leader in the rollout of autonomous vehicles, there’s no shortage of technological action in Sin City.
Below is your digital tour guide to the booming tech hub of Las Vegas. You’ll also learn how high-speed broadband internet providers like GeoLinks and its award-winning ClearFiber™ network supply top-grade internet access, allowing businesses to fuel innovation within Vegas’ tech ecosystem.
Sin City or SIM City?
Las Vegas already holds a global reputation. However, now it’s receiving recognition for its booming tech scene — similar to Seattle, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco.
Many factors explain why Vegas has become a magnet to some of the world’s most fascinating tech conferences, developers, and industries.
The first factor is the physical space. Vegas has a sprawling, 3.2 million-square-foot convention center, accommodating some of the world’s largest tech conferences. On top of this, governing bodies, communities, and businesses are making a dedicated effort to be on the cutting edge of technology in urban planning and commerce.
Here are a few events, initiatives, and businesses forging Vegas’ new image as a leading city for tech and innovation.
Consumer Electronics Show
Every January, Vegas hosts more than 100,000 conference goers at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Thousands of showrooms are used for displays, keynote speeches, and product demos for every imaginable type of consumer electronics.
Many consider CES to be the most influential and powerful tech event in the world. It showcases all the extraordinary technological breakthroughs and developments in numerous areas, including:
- Automotive and transportation
- Internet of Things (IoT)
- Mobile tech
- 3D printing
Suppliers, manufacturers, developers, engineers, and media professionals pile into Las Vegas to network, discover, and strategize on how to use and invest in the latest and greatest tech.
Las Vegas is the perfect setting for CES, as it merges glitz with business, bringing in massive spending to support local businesses. Year after year, CES smashes prior attendance records, which is a boon for local companies.
However, businesses require the ability to handle seasonal spikes from events like CES. They often rely on broadband internet providers like GeoLinks and depend on our redundant network for some of the fastest and most secure uninterrupted connectivity in the area.
The Vegas Loop
CES is great, but it brings a lot of traffic. Something had to be done to accommodate the swarm of convention attendees. Then, the Vegas Loop was born.
The city contracted one of Elon Musk’s companies, the Boring Company, to construct an underground transportation route, providing a specific channel for attendees, resulting in prompt commutes to the convention center. It also reduces traffic levels for the city at large.
The Loop initially covered only 1.7 miles. Now, it’s expanding to cover 25 miles. All in all, the capabilities of the Loop are astounding, transporting up to 90,000 attendees every hour.
Las Vegas: An Urban Center for Business Innovation
On top of being an assembly point for the global tech industry, Vegas’ urban planning has made great strides. In recent years, it’s showcased how city officials can incorporate technological innovation to improve transportation, fuel business growth, and optimize energy consumption.
Here’s a look into some exciting technological developments happening in the Vegas area.
The Innovation District
City planners and officials have put in a lot of work to transform downtown Vegas by equipping it with tech that promotes sustainability, efficiency, and safety.
The city is so focused on such development that it dedicated a district for the use of emerging tech in 2016. The district helps businesses and officials collaborate as they work across many areas, including:
- Renewable energy
- Transportation and drone piloting
- Social infrastructure
- IoT
- Fiber-optic internet support
To accomplish such feats, the city invested in a revolutionary public-private 4G wireless network to promote communication between travelers, traffic managers, and roadside infrastructure.
By relying on best-in-class internet providers like GeoLinks, Vegas has been able to power many noteworthy innovations, including:
- Regional traffic signals: a smart transportation system to record and exchange data during automated vehicle testing
- GPS network: connects to a base station network to record land measurements and create maps to help manage fleets of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and automated vehicles
- Lidar mapping: use of light-detecting sensors to survey a 3D view of Las Vegas to better program automated vehicles
- GoMed program: advanced mobility program to ensure the safety of drivers and pedestrians traveling to and from the Las Vegas Medical District
Private Business Investments
On top of the interests of public officials, there’s also plenty of activity from the private sector, as many startups now call the Nevada desert home.
These are some of the tech companies that have moved into the Vegas area in recent years:
- Zappos
- Switch Technology
- Textbroker
- JCM Global
- Rakuten Super Logistics
Connecting Las Vegas
The bright lights and unforgettable nightlife of Vegas aren’t going anywhere. The city gets around 42 million visitors annually, many of whom come specifically for tech conferences, and the responsibility comes down to local businesses to service them.
GeoLinks takes pride in its reputation as a leading high-speed internet provider in the Las Vegas area and considers it an honor that Nevada businesses rely on our infrastructure to connect, thrive, and grow.
GeoLinks recently rolled out a Gigabit+ upgrade to our ClearFiber™ network enhancing the networks’ existing speeds and capabilities GeoLinks’ Gigabit+ upgrade offers many benefits, including:
- Unlimited bandwidth
- 24/7 U.S.-based customer support
- Guaranteed multi-gigabitspeeds Zero Data Mining Guarantee
Visit our site today at www.geolinks.com to find out why we’re one of the fastest-growing internet service providers in the Las Vegas area and across the U.S.
