* Ladies and gentlemen, presenting a one-time-only event: International Living hits Las Vegas. If you're not one of the 225 readers gathered at the Palms Casino Resort, fear not. Your insider is on the case… Crime and Punishment in Las Vegas International Living Postcards--your daily escape Monday, April 30, 2007
Las Vegas, NV  My most important tip: Join the Palms Hotel's Players Club. After holing up for two nights in Hooters (laugh all you want…but I didn't know what the place was like), I've now exchanged my Las Vegas accommodation for the rather more salubrious Palms.
Las Vegas? But isn't this meant to be International Living? What are we doing writing about Sin City? Don't worry, we haven't changed tack. And I'm under instructions that this cannot be a "Lust in the Dust" or "IL Staff Behaving Badly" type Postcard. I'm not allowed to mention the 2.30 a.m. sessions at the blackjack table, the even later shenanigans in the Palm's Ghost Bar, the comp tickets to the Playboy Club, or how I've won $53 between the Frog Prince and Golden Monkey slots. So, I won't. Along with over 200 attendees and a huge number of speakers, I'm here in Vegas for IL's Live and Prosper Overseas Conference. (And prospering quite nicely, thank you.) Now, I'm sure you've read Live Reports from our conferences before. Well, I'm not going to cover the same ground. Rather, I want to tell you about the fun we have at these gatherings. (Well, they're certainly fun for me.) Whether it's at the general cocktail parties, the VIP events, or just helping out at the Europe table, I always get a great kick from chatting to so many attendees. And so do the rest of our regular speakers…though somehow I doubt they hear the same type of stories to which I get treated. That's probably because at the "Meet the Faculty" introductions, I always make it clear that everybody is more than welcome to talk to me about anything. Not just Europe, Asia, or Import-Export (my three main beats), but whatever takes their fancy. And the attendees never disappoint me… My favorite story so far is about jail-time in Malta. Now, in one of my speaking sessions, I always stress that Malta is practically a crime-free island. Which it is…most of the time. However, one conference attendee--who is now eminently respectable--embarked on a major Maltese crime spree during his misspent youth. (The story goes back about 30 years, but as I'm dressed in black and white stripes like some burglar, anybody overhearing us would probably think this is some ex-jailbirds convention.) On vacation with some friends, and after drinking the best part of a bottle of rum, our attendee decided to get back to his hotel on a Maltese bus. Unfortunately the buses had finished running for the night…but that posed no problem for our boy. His simple idea was to steal a bus, stash it somewhere, and then use it as private transport for the group during the rest of the vacation. (I sympathize--lots of stupid things always seem to make perfect sense after too much rum…) In this instance, crime most definitely did not pay. The Maltese police caught up with the newly-fledged bus driver after he'd demolished two cars and done some serious damage to the front of a house. Apparently back in the 1970s, Maltese jails were very unpleasant places. He languished there for a couple of weeks until an uncle paid all the damages and bailed him out. "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." I never reveal the names of the guilty. Rest assured that at the next major IL event (The Ultimate Event in Panama), your secrets will be safe with me. Steenie Harvey
For International Living P.S. If you'd like to join us in Panama for International Living's Ultimate Event, Oct. 24-27, 2007…here's a sneak preview. | 
