Teddy Liaw, left, founder of NexRep, talks with Nevada State Treasurer Zach Conine during the Vegas Tech Summit at the Summit Club in Summerlin Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023.
Friday, Oct. 6, 2023 | 2 a.m.
To Andrew Cherng, business is all about taking care of people.
Cherng, the billionaire CEO of Panda Express who recently relocated to Las Vegas, encouraged entrepreneurs who attended the second Vegas Tech Summit on Thursday to be fiscally responsible, learn from crises and always prioritize the personal development of and share profits with their employees.
“It does involve personal growth,” he said. “It does involve a culture. And building a better life is really thinking about teamwork, and you really, actually, have to go above and beyond and go out of your way to help people to see what they’re not able to see.”
The Vegas Tech Summit kicked off Thursday at a home in the luxurious Summit Club in Summerlin — with views of the Las Vegas Strip and mountains beyond it — where dozens of industry leaders, stakeholders and others gathered to network and hear experts like Cherng discuss the future of artificial intelligence, among other topics.
Teddy Liaw, who founded the Vegas Tech Summit after moving to Las Vegas from San Francisco a few years ago, said he was inspired by the amount of opportunity, community and entrepreneurial spirit in Southern Nevada.
Ultimately, though, Liaw said the city was lacking a “top-down strategy” for actually attracting the tech industry. His solution was the conference, which exclusively targets executives, owners, founders and investors of major companies, and shows them Las Vegas beyond the Strip — like properties at the Summit in Summerlin, the nearby downtown area, golf clubs and more.
The more time they spend in Las Vegas, Liaw said, hopefully they will begin to envision themselves and their business there — which will ultimately lead to a boost in the economy.
“It’s more of a retreat,” Liaw said of the Vegas Tech Summit. “It’s small, it’s meant to be intimate, and it’s a great … visual concept that, ‘Wow I could be there.’ ”
There’s been a mass exodus of industry from California since the COVID-19 pandemic, with many people leaving Silicon Valley in Northern California for places like Austin, Texas, or Seattle, Liaw said. He began the conference as a way to highlight all that Las Vegas has to offer that other destinations may not — from its proximity to hubs of industry in California, to its already booming business in hosting conventions.
“Everybody comes to Vegas at least three times a year anyway for this convention or that convention,” he said. “So business is being done. How do we get business to stay here?”
Being in Las Vegas and seeing all that it has to offer outside of the Strip, as well as mingling with important stakeholders, can be influential for people who may be contemplating relocation, said Ryan Smith, director of economic and urban development at the city of Las Vegas.
“We’re one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, we have an awesome business climate, and we’re in close proximity to major markets,” Smith said at Thursday’s event, adding that an influx of industry to Nevada could lead to increased job opportunities, new collaborations and curriculums within the university systems and positively affect other factors like property values.
The event, which was also attended by state legislators and representatives of the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development, the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance and Clark County, puts forth a united front between the private and public sectors alike, Smith said.
“I think it shows that we’re united, in terms of trying to diversify the economy,” he said, emphasizing the importance of entrepreneurs knowing that key people in Nevada are accessible.
Although Nevada has always done a great job of pushing tourism and bringing people in for a vacation, it’s only recently started prioritizing attracting business, and encouraging people to stay here and “build something great,” said Zach Conine, Nevada state treasurer.
“Of course, from a state perspective, we’ve got to make sure that when we’re attracting those types of businesses, they’re the right types of businesses,” he said Thursday. “That they are increasing the average wages, and that they are looking for talent and basically making the state better.”
With regards to California, Conine said people in Nevada’s neighbor to the west often feel like the work they do is in conflict with the state government. In Nevada, however, everyone is working together to push the economy forward.
The first Vegas Tech Summit paid dividends, Conine noted, with some tech investors moving to Nevada because of it.
During this year’s conference, he’s talked to attendees about Nevada’s recent economic growth, addressed concerns like water usage and pointed out potential benefits, such as the state’s lack of personal income tax.
“When somebody in this room has a great idea, our work is to make sure that it’s not just one nice event where they go to some amazing houses and see some amazing things that Vegas has to offer,” he told the Las Vegas Sun. “But actually, that the underlying sinew and tissue is there, that when they reach out to the government, they try to start a business, that we’re there for them to walk them through the process.”
The infrastructure and community for the tech industry is already in place in Nevada, which Liaw noted is also incredibly livable. It’s the kind of place where entrepreneurs can feel like they’ll make a difference, he said, which is the overall goal of any business — to change the world.
“And do you really feel like you can change the world in California, other than building your business and making a lot of money? Not really,” Liaw said. “But here, the … community has come together and there is a spirit of ‘Let’s go and drive things together.’ And, as you see from the Vegas Tech Summit, it’s happening.”
