Today’s savvy marketer understands that social media is a crucial part of any digital strategy. These platforms can reinforce brand awareness and facilitate engagement with key demographics in ways we could only imagine a decade earlier. But the social media world is a complex ecosystem where everyone is vying for a few seconds of user attention; just throwing money at your social posts won’t always cut through the noise.

Before you start allocating more resources at audience building or influencer targeting, there’s a lot of social optimization you can do you to push engagement. Here are five simple things to consider when building a social media strategy.

The power of recommendations

There is nothing more powerful than word of mouth. Think about it – if you need a mechanic to look at your car, you ask friends and family for recommendations, right? Social Media has the power to not only fuel those recommendations, but it can potentially create actual brand advocates from your client base.

Research from Hootsuite suggests that more than 50% of social media users turn to these channels for customer service, and since consumers who experience positive customer care are more likely to recommend a brand, this interaction needs to be on point. Beyond that, look for ways of adding some value-adds to your interaction that’ll have users boasting about you.

Use that engagement to tailor easily sharable content and foster bragging rights, if you give your followers the tools to show off a ‘win’, that brand loyalty becomes much more palpable.

Post at the right times

It’s not just about “what” to post, but “when” to post it – If you want to reach the biggest potential audience, you need to factor in optimal posting times. Here’s a hint, it may not be 9 to 5 during week days.

Raise your hand if you start and finish the day with a scroll through Facebook, Instagram or Twitter? The stats prove it, too: 60% of Instagram users visit the platform every day and 38% say they use it more than once a day. Luckily you don’t need to spam your audience at all hours. Use your available reporting/listening tools to determine the times of day that people are much more engaged (is it commutes, mid-afternoon slumps, or late night retail therapy?) and catalog the times that seem to encourage different types of activity (likes vs views vs shares etc).

A solid social media marketing strategy is about much more than just posting regularly, it’s about engaging with your audience at times when it’s likely to generate the best results. Check out your stats!

Video is killing it

We already know that visual content sells. But rather than just adding an image to your social content, you should be working some eye-catching video into your social media marketing communications.

There are over 8 billion video views every day on Facebook alone, and while quality video content can be expensive and time consuming to produce, throwing your own video content on Social doesn’t have to cost a fortune with the help of tools like Vimeo. You can create a decent Instagram Story in a matter of minutes with nothing more than a GIF or a boomerang. Even if budget isn’t an issue, regularly updating your Stories will keep your followers hooked in between the meatier videos.

So if you are in a position to spend a little more energy on your video content to grab that extra attention (and keep users from scrolling past), you’ll reach a bigger proportion of your audience.

Get Savvy about the right platforms

More and more businesses are focusing on LinkedIn, and with good reason. There’s a dedicated audience of over 500 million professionals looking to network and share their work successes. It’s like Facebook for the career-minded, right? Well while 40% of LinkedIn users visit the site daily, in 2017 the average user only spent 17 minutes on the platform every month. I don’t have to tell you that is remarkably low! And while your target audience might be lurking there, are they likely to engage with you in ways that justify the marketing resources? Would finding a similar audience on Twitter be more conducive to pulling them into a purchase funnel?

When planning your social strategy, it’s important to focus on those channels most appropriate for your business. Get to know the platforms and their demographics. Just dumping time and money on Social Media Marketing that doesn’t convert won’t help your bottom line. Take the time to test the audience, and refine your message. What works on Twitter or Facebook won’t necessarily convert as well on LinkedIn if you don’t adapt your strategy.

Don’t dismiss Pinterest

Finally, let’s throw a little love at Pinterest. When it comes to conversion, Pinterest might be a useful weapon to keep in your arsenal. Before you scoff and question how an online mood board can help you make sales, here’s a stat for you: more than 90% of Pinners use the platform to plan purchases. That’s right, and 93% of 200 million monthly users is not an insignificant number.

Not only that, the platform reaches audiences during every stage of their buyer’s journey. From awareness to consideration, through to decision making, Pinterest allows people to find products and buy them. So if your business ties into any of Pinterest’s most popular topics, you might want to up your game and get it into your strategy.

There’s no foolproof or one-size-fits-all approach for creating airtight social media marketing strategies, but if you factor in these points, you’ll definitely be onto a winner.

For more actionable SMM advice, you’re going to want to be at UnGagged Las Vegas, this November.

Buy tickets for the conference and get yourself a seat at the table for our Facebook Blitz Masterclass!

Despite the abundance of SEO myths and mysteries, we all know the aim of the game – we want our sites and pages to rank in the top SERPs for our niches and keywords. And yes, we are all gaming the system. Whether you consider yourself white hat, black hat or you think hats just don’t really suit you, we’re all playing the game. We’re constantly tweaking, adjusting and updating our sites to rank higher, and no matter which way you slice it, that’s a manipulation of the system.

Technically, all attempts at SEO are black hat. The Google Webmaster guidelines say: “Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings.” But that’s exactly what SEO is.

So now that we’ve muddied things up and got you nice and confused about your SEO moral compass, let’s just go for it, hell for leather and dig into the top 10 things we’ve always believed and been told about SEO, that might not actually be true…

Ready to debunk some SEO myths and solve some mysteries? Let’s go.

Quick disclaimer: most of these myths seem to relate directly to Google, but they’re still handy for other search engines too.

SEO Myth 1: We know exactly what search engine ranking factors are

Wouldn’t this be nice? We’d love to know every single ranking factor, precisely and perfectly – it would make our jobs so much easier. But life isn’t that simple. So no matter what you think, you definitely do not know them all.

Sure, SEO software companies are always claiming that correlation studies have told us exactly how the algorithm works. But actually, we’re making assumptions and coming to conclusions from the tests that we do and we can’t test everything. Of course, testing our approaches is really important and it’s the only way we can be successful, but we should never follow the results of these tests blindly, or we’ll find ourselves in a mess sooner rather than later.

Remember that you don’t know everything. Engage critically with the results of every test you do. Don’t get lazy or sloppy.

SEO Myth 2: Links are the most important ranking factor

Following on from this very neatly (if I do say so myself) is the idea that the ranking factors can be prioritised or weighted, making any one more important than the others. This would be super useful too. If there were a set few ranking factors that would make much more of a difference than anything else, then we would all have prescribed ways to absolutely smash our SEO.

Yet again, not so simple.

All ranking factors have their part to play. Links are important, but so is content and structure and technical elements. Unfortunately, you’ve got to give every factor some love to give yourself the best chances. No slacking!

SEO Myth 3: Guest blogging is against Google’s ToS

You could be forgiven for believing this, if for no other reason than Google’s ToS are convoluted and confusing and sometimes plain stupid. Plus, Google’s employees don’t seem to be able to agree on this, with Matt Cutts and John Mueller tying themselves in all kinds of twitter knots on the subject.

But, if you think guest blogging is entirely a no-no, you would be mythtaken. (I couldn’t help myself).

The cut and thrust of it is that guest blogging has a lot of benefits. We all know about the authority and links and exposure that guest blogging can provide. So, as with most things in SEO, do it for quality rather than quantity (or at least cover your tracks) and you shouldn’t be penalised.

SEO Myth 4: There’s no point putting noindex directives in robots.txt file

You might believe that Google ignores noindex directives in your robots.txt file, and that you need to use meta noindex tags on the specific page if you don’t want it to rank. Well, that’s probably because Google’s John Mueller told us all not to rely on robots.txt.

However, testing has shown that using robots.txt does work. What’s more, robots.txt is cleaner than having multiple confusing directives and you can use it to noindex groups of URLs all at once, rather than having to do them all individually. So that’s handy.

SEO Myth 5: JS-injected canonical tags don’t work

Ok, so injecting canonical tags isn’t the most efficient approach, because it can take a while for JS-injected target URLs to be picked up by the search engine, but tests have shown that they do work eventually.

Yet again, it pays to look at the supposed rules more closely, pull them apart and test the crap out of them.
Myth number 6: You can use robots.txt crawl delay directive effectively

This used to be true, but times have changed. Now that modern servers are capable of handling huge amounts of traffic, this directive has become outdated, so Google will ignore it. There are other ways of adjusting the rate that Google crawls your site, so play around with the site settings in Google Console.

Having said all of that, Bing still pays attention to the delay directive, so, go figure.

SEO Myth 7: You can manipulate crawls with sitemap priority and frequency

Yet again, wouldn’t this be great? We would love for search engines to crawl our most important pages more than any other pages on our site – it would make so much sense and would be such a great way of targeting all our SEO efforts and making them all worth it.

Keep dreaming.

Apparently, Google ignore sitemap priority and have their own logic that decides how frequently a page is crawled. Of course they do.

SEO Myth 8: It’s a bad idea to put hreflang attributes in anchor links

So, according to Google, they don’t particularly care if we put hreflang attributes in our anchor text. But, testing has shown that some hreflang attributes are picked up if they’re put in anchor text. Emphasis on the word some here.

Basically, it’s not an entirely bad idea, but it’s also not a golden ticket to success. Play around with it, see if works for you. Are you noticing a pattern yet?

SEO Myth 9: Cookies are a super important factor in crawls

I’m going to keep this short and sweet: Google only cares about cookies if your content won’t work without them, otherwise it’s just white noise.

Next!

SEO Myth 10: Googlebot crawls HTTP/2

It doesn’t yet. Currently, Google bot still only crawls HTTP/1.1. So that’s worth bearing in mind.

TL;DR?

Basically, Google like to lead us on a merry dance, telling us contradictory stuff and then back pedaling as fast as they can. We should take it all with a pinch of salt because at the end of the day, the best option we have is to continuing our rigorous testing and critical engagement with data and results.

But hey, it wouldn’t be fun if it was easy!

Want more insights like this? Of course you do, get yourself to UnGagged in Las Vegas this November. Buy your tickets now!

Work can be an uphill struggle. Justifying expenses, maintaining software subscriptions, keeping your food safe in the communal fridge – you don’t get anything in this world without fighting for it. So we understand that it’s hard to convince your boss to spend money on conference tickets, flights and hotels. The trick is getting them to see how it’ll benefit them, then you’re golden – so why not let us do that for you?

You can thank us later, preferably over a beer, in Caesar’s, some time between the 4th and 7th of November.

There’s always something new to learn in digital marketing

No matter what people may try to tell you, SEO and digital marketing are not dead. Technology is always evolving and changing, so of course approaches and techniques will be adapting too – that’s part of why we love it, right? UnGagged is where you can hear the newest ideas from people who are pushing the boundaries of digital marketing every day.

Sure, you could go to a cheap or free conference, with thousands of other attendees, and hear the same old stuff again and again. Or, you can be among only a few hundred attendees and get the gold that speakers don’t want to share with every person in the industry. As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.

UnGagged has an excellent ROI

Speaking of paying for things, let’s talk ROI. Bosses love three-letter acronyms, and ROI might just be their favourite. When you convince your boss to send you to UnGagged, they will be spending money on your ticket and paying for your transport and accommodation (unless you live in Caesar’s Palace, in which case, kudos – what’s your secret?) and they have to consider the fact that you’re going to be out of the office for a few days, too. So what is the return on their financial and time investments?

Actionable advice. UnGagged is the only conference where you will get ideas you can actually put into practice and make real money from. In comparison to the initial outlays required for marketing campaigns and projects, the cost of attending UnGagged is small. And yet you’re going to be presented with a whole load of profitable ideas you can take straight back to the office and start implementing. That’s going to make you popular with your boss.

Networking with UnGagged speakers and attendees

The concept of “networking” has a bit of a reputation – it sounds like such a cliché and people think it’s awkward as hell, but it’s actually a valuable thing to do and it doesn’t have to be painful.

One of the great things about UnGagged is the access you have to the speakers. At the huge conferences, speakers have a tendency to disappear as soon as their slot is over. And if they don’t, you’ve got to fight hundreds of people to get anywhere near them. That just isn’t the case at UnGagged. Our speakers hang around for coffee, lunch, drinks and dinner, and they are all delighted to answer questions, share slides and generally chat about stuff. There’s no video recording at UnGagged, so if you want someone’s deck, dive in and ask – it’s the perfect conversation opener and you never know who you might befriend.

On the flip-side, there’s always room to market your business’ service or product to the attendees. Networking isn’t just an opportunity to connect with people who can help you, it’s also a chance for you to find new customers, clients and colleagues. Buying a ticket to UnGagged gives you the opportunity to talk up your company and your boss is going to love that.

Get a fresh perspective

There are so many benefits to getting out from behind your computer and spending time with other digital marketers. When you get bogged down with your day-to-day and the projects you’re working on, it can be easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. By coming to UnGagged, you’ll rub shoulders with some of the industry’s finest minds (both speakers and attendees). Talk with other attendees about the things you’re working on and you might find an answer you didn’t even know you needed.

If none of that works throw in some buzzwords like ‘value for money’, ‘synergy’ and ‘diversification’. Bosses love that stuff.

No matter what, you’ve got to get yourself to UnGagged Las Vegas 2018, it’s going to kick-ass.

Buy your tickets now!

UnGagged – the ultimate SEO / Digital Marketing UnConvention – is returning to the vibrant city of Las Vegas on the 13th-15th of November. Attendees will experience 3 days of intensive learning, sharing, and networking among some of the top names in digital; all behind closed doors at the Tropicana Hotel.

Bring your team for less! With our 4+ Early Bird group offer, your ticket is $695 when you bring 3 co-workers or friends.

Want to go solo? Register within the next 14 days to get your ticket for $795, before prices go up on the 11th of October.

What’s included in the UnGagged experience? A selection of fine foods will be served to all attendees; including breakfast, morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea. Each day will finish with a networking event where all attendees, speakers and sponsors/exhibitors can unwind and enjoy the company of like-minded individuals at a fantastic venue.

Accommodation

Rooms at Tropiciana Las Vegas are available at an UnGagged group rate of $99/night until October 10, 2017 or until the group block is sold-out, whichever comes first. After that, the hotel will charge the prevailing rate.

Sponsorships

Limited UnGagged Las Vegas 2017 Sponsorships are still available (the top sponsorships and booths are sold out).

Take a gamble and attend a conference where no digital marketing topic, opinion or method is off the table.
BlackHat, GreyHat, WhiteHat – it’s all there.

Register now!

Taking time away from work will always be one of life’s challenges. But seizing the opportunity to attend a conference can be well worth the time.

Why? Because conferences produce an ideal atmosphere for new ideas to be generated, new methods and strategies to be discussed among like-minded individuals, all in an atmosphere which cultivates learning and networking with industry professionals. As Linkody puts it, “there is no better way to stay up to date with the recent trends than attending an event with top minds in the industry.”

Where to start your research? We think it starts and stops at UnGagged. In case you missed our last article, check out ‘5 Reasons YOU Need to Attend UnGagged’ and you’ll see why.

But don’t just take our word for it, browse some of the ‘Best Digital Marketing Conferences’ listed on Linkody or take a look at the conferences listed on OMCP – both of which lists UnGagged as a must-attend.

Once you have an idea of the type of conference you want to go to, next you need to know the benefits it brings to your career life and what to do when you get there…

Learn more than imagined
Ultimately, all conferences are an environment where you’re there to learn – and to learn from the best. While you may be at a stage in your career where you think you know it all, surprise, surprise – there’s always something the next person knows that you don’t. And if you do know it all, share it with those around you and discuss their take on it, which may enhance your understanding. Interested in furthering your PPC knowledge? Want to learn the latest in content marketing or paid media? Check out the agenda for UnGagged Las Vegas this November.

Promote your personal brand
This one is for everyone – whether you are an entrepreneur, have your own business, or you’re responsible for delivering the coffees in the morning; you have a brand to uphold. This brand is a representation of you, your skills and your experience; regardless of which company brand you’re with at the time. The extent to which your promote this brand is entirely in your court. You may go to all the networking events, be sure to speak and exchange contact details with some speakers that caught your attention; or, you may wear the same branded shirt every day (a strategy to ensure you’ll never be forgotten).

Your Net Worth is your Network
As the saying goes, ‘your net worth is your network’ is evident when looking at who attends conferences. While there are conferences that have thousands upon thousands of attendees; are they valuable and relevant to you and your career path? Seek out those events specific to what you want to get out of your career going forward, what skills can be sharpened in a unique way that will be profitable. Network with that handful of key individuals whose 5 minutes of chat is worth more than a whole week of aimlessly networking at a massive conference. Want a few names to check out? See the UnGagged Las Vegas lineup for some food for thought…

Solicit Business
While it may be a break from the constraints of your office, it’s still on work time, meaning your Mr./Ms. Business cap needs to be on. What a perfect opportunity to conduct business and check out the latest happenings in your industry than a conference where everyone is literally contained under the same roof? Start with joining the conference app to get an idea of who has registered with the event, and what companies they’re from. Take a look at the sponsor and exhibitor lineup to see which ones you will need to target during the conference. Don’t forget the speakers aren’t untouchable (not at UnGagged anyway), be sure to grab a drink with them or raise a question after their session to get business ideas flowing.

Be Inspired
As much as this sounds like something a homewares shop would have written on their display bedroom wall, it is nevertheless true. You might be one of those people who go to work, do your job, get home and repeat it the next day; and that might be working for you. But, if you have nothing to compare it to, no off the beaten track experience or enlightening event you participated in; how do you expect to bring any of these transformative attributes to your job – to then be reflected in your profit? Your goal of the week: book yourself into a conference coming up. Meet new people, learn in a new environment, banter with like-minded individuals and you just may be surprised at how motivating and beneficial it could be (even if it’s just to have a mental break from the office!)

Travel the World
Ever heard someone say they travel the world with their job? Doesn’t come often that’s for sure. Attending conferences, however, provide you with that perfect opportunity to visit cities across the globe for a completely legitimate and excusable reason. Take UnGagged as an entirely unbiased example… With just this one conference, you can visit the thriving digital hub of London or visit the adult’s playground of Las Vegas – the choice is yours.

There are well over 150,000 hotel rooms in Las Vegas, more than in any other US city. 62,000 of these rooms are on the Las Vegas Strip… How do you begin to choose the right one?

Las Vegas is a mecca for leading tech and marketing conferences. This November, the city’s hosting some real heavy hitters. Whether you’re in town for Pubcon or UnGagged – or both – your hotel choice can make or break your conference experience. If you’re hoping to experience Las Vegas on an executive level, hotels like Treasure Island or Hard Rock won’t be the first choice on anyone’s list. However, if you want the most bang for your buck without compromising your standards, always start with the Host hotel to get the most out of your conference experience.

For a completely unbiased and objective example (that we have absolutely no stake in whatsoever), take a look at UnGagged. Taking place this November, UnGagged is hosted at the Tropicana Las Vegas – with 1,467 hotel rooms and suites available, that’s just 1% of the rooms on offer in the city… so what can they offer that the other 99% don’t?

As classy as the Cosmopolitan is, it won’t have a lobby bar filled with the industry’s leading digital marketers… or any of these fantastic attendee-exclusive benefits:

Staying at the Tropicana between November 12 and 15 will give you the rare opportunity to rub shoulders with industry experts like, Tim Ash, Samantha Noble, Chris Kubby, Marty Weintraub – to name a few.
Every networking event is held at the Tropicana hotel, placing you in the heart of the action. Follow where the night goes, after casually ‘bumping’ into fellow attendees in the lobby – making a perfect opportunity for harmless schmoozing to take place.
If you’ve attended conferences held at the convention center before, you’ll know the hassles that come with waiting for cramped, overcrowded mini-shuttles, hailing a cab or the long walks to and from the Monorail.
Dedicated to your work? Enjoy complimentary WiFi, an oversized desk, and fantastic room service – all at your disposal to get those hours in before the fun begins.
Rooms are just a push of an elevator button, at the end of an action packed, productive day.
Choose from any of the three bars or award winning restaurants situated throughout the hotel. Enjoy some evening entertainment at the Laugh Factory or see a show at the Tropicana Theater.
Other hotels go full price on resort fees, perks are few, and the fine print is many.

What’s more? Not only does flying to Las Vegas add mileage points to your frequent flyer card (and we all know how much we secretly live for those points), but a host hotel also offers you the opportunity to stay amongst a hub of marketing genius’.

Why stay anywhere else but in the thick of it?

If you’re planning on attending UnGagged and figure a limo ride from the Wynn in the morning is a small price to pay; firstly, we’re jealous, and secondly, you might just miss out on some of the best times offered up at Las Vegas conferences. Think of those chance meetings, the lively late night discussions over drinks at the lobby bar, and those easy meeting places to round up the gang for excursions to the Strip… the possibilities are endless.

From the UnGagged Team to possible, future UnGagged attendee – consider your accommodation options carefully, and if the Tropicana is starting to feel like a great proposition, take advantage of the great rate we were able to negotiate.

From only $99 a night, you can benefit from the conference-associated perks mentioned and get involved in the UnGagged experience that happens outside of working hours.

After all this, you may never want to leave the hotel! (Although, some may consider that a step too far…)

See you at check-in!

There are so many things to do in Las Vegas that it’s no wonder the city has earned the nickname “America’s Playground”. With a lot of the action happening on the Strip, the rest of what Vegas has to offer often goes untouched. That’s why we thought we’d recommend a few of our top highlights of things to do away from the Strip.

Who knows, you may be faced with the ending of one conference and a free weekend to fill in before UnGagged begins… what a coincidence!

1. Visit Downtown Las Vegas

From what was known as the gambling district, Downtown Las Vegas was the center of the all the action, before the Strip rose to fame. Visit Fremont Street to step back into the old, classic Vegas – where many casinos, bars, restaurants and hotels remain. With more than 2 million lights and a state-of-the-art sound system, and a zip line running through the middle of Fremont Street; it’s a place you have to experience if you come to Las Vegas.

2. Have coffee at Mount Charleston

Fancy a hike? Mount Charleston is the highest mountain in both the Spring Mountains and Clark County. With 200 campsites, and over 150 picnic areas and fantastic hotels and lodges on the peak; there is more to this mountain than meets the eye. If you don’t want to end the bend, try the world famous Mount Charleston Coffee with a twist of the Scotch-based spirit, Drambuie – served at one and only, Mt Charleston Lodge.

3. Step behind the closed doors of The Mob Museum

Interested in hearing the whispers and uncovering the faces of the shadows that built Las Vegas into what it is today? Uncover ‘the mob’ and the inner workings of organised crime in this world-class, interactive journey where true stories from those at the frontline of both sides of the law reveal unparalleled insights into America’s history.

4. Feel the Need for Speed

For only a 15 minute drive out of Las Vegas, you could get behind the wheel of any muscle car of your choice; Mustang, Lamborghini, or Ferrari anyone? At SpeedVegas, cars start from $39 a lap – offering you the chance to give your best Richard Petty impression you’ve got.

5. Spend some time on Lake Mead

Visit America’s most diverse national recreation area to kayak, fish, camp or simply enjoy the views of the beautiful blue waters. Lake Mead is a favourite amongst the locals, as it offers a range of fantastic outdoor activities, in a blissful setting. Why not rent a boat or jet ski and fly along the still waters, or drive around the scenic routes before you retreat to enjoy a lovely lunch at a restaurant in the Marina, to enjoy beautiful panoramas of the lake.

6. Marvel at the Hoover Dam

Named one of the Top 10 Construction Achievements, and contains enough concrete to pave a road from New York to California – the Hoover Dam certainly holds a reputable name in America. Capture picturesque views of the incredible surrounding landscape by embarking on one of the many hiking trails, bike trails or helicopter tours offered. This dam is named after America’s 31st president, Herbert Hoover, who played a significant role in settling a 25-year controversy between the near by states over water allocations (fun fact 101).

7. Check out the National Atomic Testing Museum

Geek out at the museum which showcases some of the rarest of artifacts relating to the nation’s atomic testing program. Experience a Ground Zero Theatre simulation, see a large nuclear reactor that was used in the development of the nuclear rocket and the first air-to-air missile, learn about the progression from above-ground tests to underground tests and more!

8. Go climbing in Red Rock Canyon

Ever flown into Las Vegas and looked out the window to see large amounts of red rock? Well, you could just be looking at the desert, but amongst it stands the iconic ‘Red Rock Canyon’. It consists of large rock formations, sandstone peaks and walls called the Keystone Thrust. The walls reach up to 3,000 feet – perfect location for those of you who are rock climbing enthusiasts!

9. Take a tour of Grand Canyon*

Fancy getting out of the city? In need of a breath of fresh, casino-free air? UnGagged has teamed up with the Tropicana Las Vegas to offer you a variety of fantastic bus and helicopter tours which are all pre-planned and awaiting your arrival. Take a look at our two favourites below…

Wild West Rim Grand Canyon Bus Tour by Sweetours:

Join us to view Eagle Point, the Grand Canyon Skywalk and the Hualapai Ranch. Take in the beautiful surroundings of Guano Point, feel free to hike the trail leading to the highest point, where you’ll enjoy the scenic view of the Colorado River. You will spend 3 luxurious hours at the canyon. This part of the canyon is also where they have the skywalk, a U-shaped glass bridge that extends 70 feet beyond the rim of the Grand Canyon, giving visitors a full view of the 4,000-foot drop to the Colorado River.

Tour Schedule: Departs daily from Tropicana Las Vegas’ North Entrance at 6:40 am

Tour Duration: 11+ hours hotel to hotel

Price:

$198 without skywalk
$223 with skywalk

Grand Celebration Tour by Papillion:

The Grand Celebration is the crowning jewel in our selection of helicopter tours and easily the most popular. This helicopter tour provides stunning aerial views of Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, and of course, the Grand Canyon. Additionally, this tour lands at the bottom of the canyon on a private plateau overlooking the Colorado River. Their guests enjoy a champagne picnic and refreshment while surrounded by the awe-inspiring grandeur that is the Grand Canyon. It is truly an experience unlike any other!

Tour Schedule: Daily

Tour Duration: 4 hours hotel to hotel

Tour Times: 7:00 am, 9:45 am, 12:15 pm, 2:45 pm and 5:30pm

Price:

7:00 am, 12:15 pm & 2:45 pm = $513
9:45 am = $533
5:30 pm = $553

*Times and prices for tours to the Grand Canyon may change, contact the concierge team for the latest.

Las Vegas may be known as a gambler’s paradise but there is so much to see and do in the city that doesn’t involve chips, cards or dice. You know the saying ‘When in Rome’, well ‘When in Vegas’ don’t miss out on these 8 things that you just have to do while you’re in town for UnGagged Las Vegas.

1. See a Cirque du Soleil show.

Old school Vegas came with showgirls, the Vegas of today comes with some insanely talented circus performers. With seven shows in Vegas to choose from, there really is something for everyone. Information overload from the conference? These show are the perfect excuse to sit back and just enjoy, here are our 3 favorites:

Mystère at Treasure Island (from $98) is the original Cirque du Soleil production that combines high-energy acrobatics and dramatic dance set to the thunderous rhythms of the Taïko drums.

The Beatles LOVE at the Mirage (from $111) which combines the re-produced and re-imagined music of The Beatles with an interpretive, circus-based artistic and athletic stage performance.

Zumanity at New York New York (from $100) is a seductive twist on reality, making the provocative playful and the forbidden electrifying! Part burlesque and part cabaret.

Top Tip: Need help booking your tickets? The concierge team at Tropicana Las Vegas, the official hotel for UnGagged Las Vegas, are happy to book any shows for you.

2. Wander the Strip with a yardstick.

And when we say yardstick we are obviously talking about the ridiculously large souvenir glasses that you’ll see people carrying up and down the Strip. We recommend “Comfortably Numb” from Chill’m in the Tropicana. A mix of Piña Colada & Strawberries with Skyy Passion Vodka, topped with a Cruzan Guava floater, plus a nod to Pink Floyd, what’s not to love?

3. Get pampered at Glow.

This Mandara Spa located in Tropicana Las Vegas is a great place to recover and re-energize from all your conference learnings, providing an outlet for complete immersion in T.R.T. – total relaxation time.

4. Play a round of golf.

There are over 30 golf courses around the city, so chances are you can find a course suitable for you and your best networking buddy to play on. If serious golfing isn’t your thing, check out Topgolf which is a driving range that includes food, bottle service and three levels featuring views of the Strip. It’s basically a nightclub in a golf course.

5. Spend some time at Bellagio.

Have your own Ocean’s Eleven moment (the ending, please don’t try to rob a casino) and watch the Fountains of Bellagio. While there, make sure to head inside and check out the Bellagio Conservatory & Botanical Garden located next to the hotel lobby. And speaking of the hotel lobby, the ceiling is composed of over 2,000 hand-blown glass flowers known as Fiori di Como.

6. Ride the world’s tallest observation wheel.

While UnGagged London may have had the London Eye right outside the venue, the High Roller eclipses it by standing 550ft tall and measuring 520 feet in diameter. The wheel takes 30 minutes to complete one full revolution and offers incredible views of Las Vegas and the Strip.

Top Tip: Book the Happy Half Hour cabin for an open bar in the sky!

7. Get hitched.

Vegas is known for its quickie weddings, so why not embrace the madness and get married on the fly. Hey, you could even have Elvis as your minister! Just don’t pull a Ross and Rachel.

8. Get your picture taken at the Las Vegas sign.

Could you imagine going home without one of the photos to show to your friends and colleagues? You just have to. Bring the team to the event and you’ll have the coolest team photo around!

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