At the Combined Properties booth, we snapped founder Ronnie Haft (center, with the only vest being worn in Las Vegas, certainly the snazziest), Gibson Dunns Jesse Sharf to his immediate right, and a fun rat pack of business pals. By day, Ronnie owns or is developing a billion dollars worth of projects in LA and DC. You probably help keep one of them in businessthe always jammed Lincoln and Rose Shopping Center in Venice, featuring one of the countrys busiest Whole Foods.

And over at the Hard Rock Hotel in the evening, we found Newmark Merrill co-founder and CEO Sandy Sigal, limber enough to squat second from right. With him: some of his 80 employees, so glamorous they look like theyre arriving at the Billboard Music Awards (which was held in Vegas at the same time, so maybe they were). The company, based in Woodland Hills, has developed over 70 retail centers in 30 cities.