Leading Las Vegas
Leading Las Vegas is a podcast produced by the Emergency and Crisis Management Master’s Program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Each season, students in a "Leadership, Innovation and Adaptability" class interview prominent leaders who discuss their leadership approaches, and how they prepare for, respond to, and recover from, shocks and stresses faced by the community.
About Leading Las Vegas
Leading Las Vegas focuses on issues relevant to managing emergencies and crises, as well as community resilience. It’s a must-listen for emergency managers, leaders, community members, and students interested in the field of emergency crisis management.
Season 1
Season 1 of Leading Las Vegas focuses on tourist safety. Tourism is an integral part of Las Vegas, with over 42 million people visiting the city every year. Large-scale events from shows at hotel properties, music festivals, to high-profile sporting events, occur on a nightly basis, along with conventions that can draw well over 100,000 attendees. Different agencies work together in the community to plan for these events and respond when safety threats occur.
In this season, we discuss issues of event planning, current and future threats, as well as community resilience. Las Vegas was also the site of the October 1, 2017 Route 91 Music Festival shooting, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. The season contains an episode focused on the shooting, and conversations with the leaders involved with the security planning and response to the attack, and an interview with Las Vegas mayor, Carolyn Goodman, who discusses the city’s resilience.
Season 2
Season 2 of Leading Las Vegas focuses on Combatting COVID-19. COVID-19 created enormous health and financial consequences for cities around the world. Las Vegas was hit particularly hard by the pandemic, because of the critical role that tourism plays in the city and state economy. In addition, Las Vegas was identified as one of the most vulnerable cities in the country to the health effects of COVID. Response to this threat required efforts and coordination through different levels of government and by the private sector.
This season’s episodes cover ways in which the city, the region, and the state responded to this health crisis. Our guests include leaders from the city emergency management office, local hospitals, the regional health district, the governor’s office, and the National Guard. We also focus on how COVID impacted the tourism industry, and look how a major hotel property responded to the challenges it faced. In addition, we examine how COVID affected some of the most vulnerable populations in the community. Our guests discuss lessons learned from the pandemic, and the importance of innovation, communication, and adaptability in managing crises.