Having 55,000 shopping centre professionals together at one time is awe-inspiring, and it puts our own BCSC event, with its 3,000 delegates, well and truly in the shade.

At first sight the event appears slightly chaotic - the sprawling site is hard to navigate and those chance meetings that can make any trade show profitable seem unlikely to happen amid such a scrum. But the people who get the most out of it are the ones who are best organised.

That probably explains why I had some of my most productive meetings in the departure lounge at McCarren International Airport, waiting for the flight home - at last I was able to catch up with my fellow Brits.

The other thing that struck me was the way US business is embracing environmental issues, even if their government is still in denial about global warming.

Mixed-use is now just as much a feature of mall development in the States as it is in the UK, with schemes like Grand Station at Centerra in Colorado incorporating a 480,000 sq ft shopping centre alongside offices, residential and hotel buildings.

More and more new shopping centres are being built to the LEED standards, the US equivalent of our own BREEAM. And open-air shopping seems to be back in vogue, at least in places where the climate is less hostile than it is in Las Vegas. Some owners are even going in for what they call 'de-malling' - taking the roofs off existing covered malls.

And my favourite shopping centre sight of the week? The security guards gliding swiftly and noiselessly on their Segway Human Transporters through the Simon Group's million-sq ft Forum Shops mall, part of the massive Caesar's Palace resort.

Not only do they get from A to B quickly, but because they're head and shoulders above the shoppers they can see what's going on better as well.

Graham Parker, Editor

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