James Edgar came to Las Vegas from his native Newcastle, England, to build a career in the hospitality and live events industry, but he never expected to start his own business by the time he reached his 30th birthday.
“I came over in June 2017 and started with the Hakkasan Group as a lowly marketing coordinator,” he said. “I wasn’t in charge of much, just posting on social media and capturing stuff at the clubs, intern kind of stuff.
“But I was really lucky to have that opportunity and didn’t want to let it go to waste. I spent four years sleeping about three hours a night, doing everything I could in the office, going home to study, going out to network and getting home again at 4 a.m.”
He was breaking into the dynamic Las Vegas nightlife scene with one of the biggest companies in the world, but Edgar said he saw opportunities to grow in the digital marketing space promoting club events and other live entertainment offerings. His study time was focused on Facebook Blueprint, Google Ads and other online marketing platforms.
“By the time the pandemic hit, my responsibilities had gone from almost nothing to creating digital marketing strategies for every [Hakkasan] nightclub and dayclub in Las Vegas and San Diego, building out those campaigns and laying out high-level strategies,” Edgar said.
And then it was all gone when March 2020 arrived. He was furloughed along with the vast majority of Hakkasan Group staff in Las Vegas, and then laid off weeks later.
While major nightlife and hospitality companies in Las Vegas and around the world slowly came back to life with the reopening of some club venues and restaurants last summer, Edgar was using his self-taught skills and valuable experience for some initial, small-scale consulting work. It started with restaurant brands in Las Vegas and LA, since live events weren’t happening, and when some of his clients and colleagues shifted to live streaming events, things ramped up quickly.
Edgar returned to England last fall but continued to work with clients in the states, and even though travel restrictions have prevented him from returning to his business hub of Las Vegas, he’s busier than ever. His new company, Five Eleven Marketing, regularly collaborates with some of the biggest nightlife, hospitality and festival brands in the U.S.
“The position I’m in now, I couldn’t have been here otherwise,” he says. “I’m making four times the money and I’m in charge of my own time. COVID really sucks for everybody, there’s no doubt about that, but I feel like I’m coming out of it as one of the lucky ones.”
Laid-off employees becoming entrepreneurs is one of the most prominent trends in the COVID-era economy. U.S. Census Bureau figures indicate about 4.3 million new business applications were filed in 2020, about a million more than in 2019.
In the world of Las Vegas nightlife, the Hakkasan Group has rebounded and put its returning staff back to work as clubs have reopened to excited audiences ready to party again. In April, the merger of Hakkasan Group and Tao Group was announced, forming a hospitality behemoth operating more than 60 venues across five continents. In Las Vegas, the expanded Tao Group now runs clubs like Marquee at the Cosmopolitan, Omnia at Caesars Palace, Wet Republic at MGM Grand and restaurants including the new Casa Calavera at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, Lavo at Palazzo and the flagship Tao at Venetian.
“The demand now, we’ve never seen anything like this,” Edgar says. “Everything we put on sale is just gone immediately, across the board, and it’s demand for experiences that’s higher than ever. Once international travel resumes, it’s going to be insane because when you can travel anywhere, everyone chooses Vegas. It’s the ultimate destination for people in the U.K. and Europe and the rest of America, too.”
It’s the ultimate destination for Edgar, too, as he’s planning to return and continue developing his business as soon as possible.
“It’s been nice to see friends and family back in England, but being so far away and being eight hours ahead of the U.S., it’s not ideal,” he said. “Since I don’t need the whole office setup, I can work from anywhere. I can come to Ibiza, where I am now, and bring my laptop, but you take the rough with the smooth, I guess. I’m really looking forward to being back in Las Vegas.”