Interview Issue: Dave Kirvin

By Richard Abowitz

Thursday, July 2, 2009 | midnight

Dave Kirvin

Partner, Kirvin Doak Communications

Interviewed June 22 at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

You became a marathon runner shortly after moving to Vegas 15 years ago. Was there something about living here that inspired you to take up long-distance running?

No. There was a challenge between me and buddies to run the New York City Marathon, and that was the start.

What do you enjoy about the actual marathons?

The thing on marathon running is this: The race itself is really just a 26.2-mile graduation ceremony. Marathon training is hard to talk about. There is a process and a discipline to it. A long, painful ceremony, yes. But the magic is in the 500-600 miles you put in training for the race. Getting out the door each day, whether it’s hot or cold or windy or you’re tired, is the real accomplishment. Like a lot of things, marathoning is far more about the process than the result, which tends to take care of itself.

Is it hard to raise your kids here? Do you worry about it?

Doesn’t everybody worry about it? I have a 10-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old son. I’ve never raised them anywhere else. Is it something you think about a lot? You do. But they are having a very normal life. They do little league sports, go to school and hang out with friends. They only go down to the Strip if it is something special.

Have they figured out daddy has juice?

They sit in good seats when they go to shows. But they don’t quite understand what their dad does, but that is okay. A lot of people don’t understand.

How would you define your job doing public relations in Vegas?

There are smart people here doing incredible things here. And we tell their stories. And it isn’t just the Strip. It is the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute and Nevada Cancer Institute. There is a misconception that Las Vegas is flash over substance, and the longer you are here, you realize there is a lot of substance.

Like Las Vegas, your firm has grown a lot over the years. How are you as a boss?

Fifteen years ago it was just me and then two and three other people. Now there are 40 people. I think I am a fair boss. Part of the opportunity you get when you run a company is to create the kind of place you want to work at. I have worked at some really great places and some less-great places. And Bill Doak and I both agree we create where we work, and that is a pretty special thing.

You are a huge Springsteen fan. What is it that his music does for you?

I admire people who bring passion to everything. What I learned from Springsteen from the first time I saw him in the ’80s was to try to find something I like as much as Bruce Springsteen enjoys playing music for people. That is an amazing thing to watch. And that is what happened. It has been 15 years of very special and inspired people who love what they are doing, and we have had the opportunity to help them tell their stories.