I agree with the publicity side vs advertising. And yes, of course there's money expendeture issues to be considered.

My personal thoughts would be that this event is the icing on our hobby cake so to speak, and would be the perfect opportunity to perhaps get more las vegas locals interested. There are hundreds (thousands?) of local people that are potential future chip collectors. There may be alot of people that have seen articles on chip collecting, in newpapers, magazines and even tv that may be very interested in coming to the big convention.

Again, this is just a person opinion. But then again, I have a bias. One of my undergraduate business degrees is in Marketing.

I'm wondering if there's a cost effective venue to reach out to the local population. Just off the top of my head, perhaps a free "function" where locals can clip out a coupon, and then bring in chips for a free appraisal?