Leaving Las Vegas

Leaving Las Vegas 

AE industry executives, investors, and experts from as far afield as Hawaii to the west, Quebec to the north, and Mexico to the south gathered in Las Vegas from Wednesday through Friday last week for the Western States M&A and Business Symposium.

With the early evening temperatures still sizzling in the low 100s, all the action was indoors at Wednesday evening’s opening reception with next-level networking and early-stage deal-making in abundance. After last call (which always seems to come ridiculously early—where does two hours go?), CEO attendees decamped to enjoy networking dinners with their peers at three of the pretty fabulous on-property restaurants. (Who knew you could get such awesome seafood in the middle of the desert?) 

Thursday kicked off with a networking breakfast (which was totally needed since attendees essentially achieved most, if not all, of their daily steps trekking from their rooms to the conference area) followed by a packed day of presentations, panel discussions, and an Excellence in Acquisitive Growth Awards ceremony. Here’s a quick summary of how Thursday went down. 

State of the Industry—Nick Belitz

Armed with real-world data from full-year 2024 and the first quarter of 2025, Megan Miller (Deltek) and I updated attendees on the “State of the Industry” as represented by the real-world facts and results of the 46th Annual Deltek Clarity Architecture and Engineering (A&E) Industry Study and our proprietary Q1 financial performance intel…Read more