Sam Parr breaks down Sheldon Adelson's $20-40 billion fortune. Adelson sold Comdex, a computer trade show that became CES, to SoftBank for $1 billion, then pivoted to Las Vegas real estate. Parr argues that conference business is really real estate business: you drive foot traffic to events and sell space at premium rates.
Sheldon Adelson. He's like known for being like a huge asshole and he's worth like $20 or $40 billion. He basically started this event called Comdex, which eventually was acquired for $1 billion by SoftBank and it became CES. And he goes, you know, you're in the conference business and now you're in the real estate business building up Las Vegas Strip. What are you doing? And he goes, well, the conference business is the real estate business. What I learned early on was I got to get people and foot traffic to my event and then I'm just selling real estate at a crazy high square footage. It's the same thing. And so that's why I'm into real estate now.
