E3 won't be in Las Vegas in 2005 :-\
All of the major conferences have found they loose too much money doing it outside of Los Angeles; so that is where basically everything is being held now.
You didn't wonder why E3 has been in LA the past 2 years in a row?
Basically it's cheaper to rent, fly and stay in California than anywhere else in the states; this is speaking world-wide.
I'm pretty sure if you have something like this...
either a) team up with Pure and Blitz to make it a BASIC developers Conference ... or b) have it in a place where most people are located.
Quote: "Yeah, E3 in vegas, that's a good idea "
$600 for 4days ... that's just to get into E3; not to be funny but that is a little steep for most.
I think teaming up is probably the best option, because you really need to get down the price of the actual convention tickets; So you need ALOT of people to allow you to bring down the price and cover your costs.
If you have it... plan it for a holiday weekend. Cause it is trying to travel such long distances.
The most important thing here, is you'll need someone to actually finance this ahead of time!!
It's all well and good Mouse putting the idea forward, but i sorely doubt he can financially back his idea.
A year ago when i tried to do this, I was fully willing to back it up; but there was a definately lack of interest... The thing is your going to need quite a few people to guarentee to make it worthwhile;
If you look at the UK one, even in a country as small as this where we can really drive/take a train within a day to where-ever we need to be; it is still something alot of people umm and err about.
More people = lower price, but at the same time; in order to get enough people the price can often be the key thing to turn them off.
Something I'd say is talk to Hubdule, before really planning this properly. As he has sucessfully run 2/3 'Sync On' Conventions in Germany, so I think he can help with this all.