An idea to help transform UNLV into a hotbed for hospitality innovation started cooking over a pizza between friends.

UNLV opened a new facility specifically designed to help students with turning ideas that have commercial potential into real business models.

UNLV’s mission to help students bring big ideas to life took a step forward Sept. 29 with the opening of the UNLV Incubator at Hughes Center.

UNLV is hoping to bring a slice of Silicon Valley to Southern Nevada with the opening of a new incubation hub.

At an office complex just east of the Las Vegas Strip, UNLV students are diligently working to bring new business ideas to life.

From the self-service kiosks lining the entrances to QR codes dotting virtually every sign, it’s hard not to notice how COVID-19 has changed resorts in Las Vegas.

Robert Rippee joins the show to talk about economic development trends in Nevada and how Black Fire Innovation (a unique public-private partnership between Caesar’s Entertainment corporation and the University of Nevada Las Vegas) is driving innovative concepts in the gaming & hospitality market.

Civic Technologies, a leading innovator in digital identity solutions, and Black Fire Innovation, the hospitality technology hub created by Caesars Entertainment, Inc., and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), today announced that a vending machine using Age Verification by Civic will be serving up an assortment of non-alcoholic beverages to Black Fire’s tenants.