We were lucky to catch up with Josh Abelson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Josh, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?

Last July we got a call from a venue scout on a Wednesday asking if we are available in a week for an event. We were unaware of any details or who was calling and reaching out as the contact only had a gmail.

After 24 hours we quickly found out it was a campaign manager for The President of The United States. They quickly signed and told us the event was 5 days later for 600 people and The President was going to speaking at the event.

At this point we were freaking out inside but of course had to keep our cool. The President’s team decide to choose our venue out of the thousand of different options in Las Vegas. As we had little time to prepare we were working 16 hour days with their team to make sure this event went off without a hitch. When dealing with the government and hosting an event for the most important person in the world there are many hoops and processes you have to deal with. Lets just say secret service was a vendor we never had to work with in the past :).

Overall the event went extremely well and we were super grateful to have this opportunity. It was an amazing benchmark for our team and our company. I always tell our staff that if we can do an event for the President we can host an event for any client.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I moved to Las Vegas back in 2016 to start this business with my partner Alexis. We helped throw a couple parties in a family warehouse. We both had no experience in the event/hospitality world but took a risk to start something new. From my previous work experience I knew great customer service and what it meant to work hard. This translated directly to starting our business. 8 years later we have continued with those principals and have been blessed to have hosted clients such as the NFL, Microsoft, Ferrari, and many more.

We offer a full service, turnkey venue for all different types of events here in Las Vegas. With being a one stop shop it makes it very easy on our clients and planners to execute their events at a very high level. We offer white glove service and produce the events with our clients and not just rent out the space. When we started this business we did our research and found out there are not many venues that offer so much flexibility. We really thrive on out of the box ideas and come from a place of yes with our clients.

Events are stressful and we take the hard part out of it so our clients are able to enjoy the event and provide the value and or experience they are looking for. Our approach is non-traditional and we welcome creative ideas and events.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

By sticking to our ideas and notion that we produce the highest level of an event possible. This takes a lot of hand holding and more work on our end but at the end of the day if the event is succesful than they will leave us a review, come back next year, and hopefully tell their contacts about how great our space it. Every little detail matters at our venue as the experience as a whole is what they remember. The food, beverages, entertainment, etc. all makes a different to the outcome of the event at our space. By being highly organized and making sure every guests experience is a good one helps build our reputation in the entertainment capital of the world.

It was very difficult at first to break into the Las Vegas market as there are so many options and venues to host events. Don’t get discouraged and continue to put in the hard work and it will pay off.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I was working in the corporate world world for 6 years. It was great experience and pay but ultimately I was not overly happy and was going through the motions.

I came to a point (which most entrepreneurs do) and asked myself do I want to be doing this forever? I ended up quitting my job and took a leap of faith and moved to Vegas to start a business I had zero experience in. Myself and my partner Alexis put our head down and researched everything about the Las Vegas market and what make a venue succesful in hospitality.

At the end of the day it is not rocket science. It take dedication and hard work. We knew what a succesful event looked like and how do we continue to recreate that experience for our clients. It was not easy but we stuck to the plan and now we have a long list of amazing clients we have worked with.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://theindustrialvegas.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theindustrial_eventspace/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheIndustrialVegas/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-industrial-event-space/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-industrial-event-space-las-vegas-4

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