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Goldman Moves Meeting From Las Vegas

By OSKAR GARCIA

posted: 289 DAYS 8 HOURS AGO

comments: 61

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LAS VEGAS (Feb 10) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has moved a three-day conference from the Las Vegas Strip to San Francisco amid what the bank is calling a broad review of its activities.

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Goldman, which has accepted $10 billion in federal bailout funds, will hold its Technology and Internet Conference Feb. 25-27 at the San Francisco Marriott instead of the Mandalay Bay casino-resort.

A Mandalay Bay official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to release customer information, said the bank agreed to pay the hotel $600,000 to cancel its reservation.

Goldman spokesman Ed Canaday confirmed the conference move to The Associated Press on Monday night but could not comment on the cancellation charge.

Canaday said he did not know whether the company was saving money or spending more with the move.

"That's not the driving reason behind it," Canaday told the AP.

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"The decision to relocate the conference is based on our best efforts to operate according to the requirements of the new landscape of our industry," Canaday said.

The company made similar comments last week when it said it was postponing a planned March conference for investors and hedge fund clients, and moving the annual event from Miami to New York.

The switch comes as companies that have received money from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program have faced increased scrutiny for how they spend the federal funds.

Wells Fargo & Co., which received a $25 billion infusion, last week canceled a planned employee recognition conference in Las Vegas after an AP story reported on the trip and the bank received criticism from Capitol Hill that it was misusing the funds.

Wells Fargo rejected the notion that its trip was a waste in ad published in the New York Times on Sunday, but said it had canceled all its employee recognition events for the rest of the year.

Morgan Stanley, which has received $10 billion in bailout funds, canceled a trip last week for top employees to Monte Carlo. American International Group Inc was sharply criticized in the fall for spending $440,000 on a retreat for top-producing insurance agents days after it received an $85 billion bailout loan.

The Goldman Sachs conference includes three days of presentations from senior executives of several major technology companies including Intel Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., and Google Inc.

Canaday said the conference would remain largely the same other than the location change, which he said was revealed to Goldman Sachs clients on Monday.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

2009-02-10 00:29:12

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61 comments

NOS2001 07:31:14 AM Feb 11 2009

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i can see why moving from vegas, but to go to the fruits of san francisco? why would anyone want a meeting surrounded by so many leftwing loons.

VLWB34 03:06:08 PM Feb 10 2009

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Remember everytime they cancel or move a meeting workers in those towns loose work.

PassionSnowWolf 03:05:53 PM Feb 10 2009

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$600,000 to cancel its reservation.........Must be some meeting...i wonder what the total cost will be????

KENDRUM 02:33:12 PM Feb 10 2009

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Vegas is cheaper. And don't these guys have meeting rooms at their own office buildings? They have pretty swanky offices so you'd think they could meet there. Oh yeah, then they couldn't hang out in the hotel bar and laugh at the suckers that bailed them out (the taxpayers).

RLGJKG 02:21:32 PM Feb 10 2009

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vegas is much cheaper than san fran...another mistake..

Dfriberg 02:18:48 PM Feb 10 2009

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Hmmmm, couldn't this three day conference be handled by e-mail?? Ooop, forgot about all the ass kissing that goes on at these functions. Come on internet, gotta be something done to simulate a *** ***..

JBI99 02:13:41 PM Feb 10 2009

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Last time I checked I think vegas is cheaper

Otterdad48 02:10:47 PM Feb 10 2009

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I would say that it is time for GoldmanSachs to get a new public relations policy. People who gambled with money entrusted to them and lost so badly that public funds are needed to save their business should not have their meetings in a place that owes it's existence to gambling. People might get the idea that they cannot be trusted.

Pllc15 02:00:22 PM Feb 10 2009

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Poor Las Vegas; it getting a bad rap for an unjustified poor and unsavory image. NFL shuns Las Vegas advertising on the Super Bowl coverage, Goldman and Wells Fargo are staying away. Just by cancelling reservations adds more costs to TARP. It's all a matter of appearance; nothing else. Senator Reid needs to correct this idea about Las Vegas. It has a huge impact on Nevada when cancellations like this occur.