Arriving at The Venetian hotel in Las Vegas has to be one of the most overwhelming experiences possible for a New Yorker. We’re used to tight, efficient use of space—after all, we live in a compact city that, after a brief orientation, is easy to navigate. Vegas’ major hotels seem bigger than the entire island of Manhattan, and are more disorienting than the Space Mountain roller coaster at Disneyland. The Venetian and its conjoined twin, The Palazzo, have 4,049 suites and 4,059 hotel rooms—plus a conference center and about a zillion shops, restaurants and casinos. It took me 25 minutes to get from my room to the conference area where ARMA International is holding its 58th Annual Conference and Expo.
ARMA (http://www.arma-org) used to stand for the Association of Records Managers and Administrators, but now its name is just a wink to its history—like how American Lawyer Media became ALM when we no longer were just serving the United States and the legal industry. ARMA has evolved into a massively huge group, with more than 27,000 members working in multiple industries, such as legal, health and finance.
