For years we've reported on the annual springtime "ICSC RECon" expo in Las Vegas, one of the real estate world's most popular expos, and the many great parties that take place around it. This time we decided to be part of the action.

On Monday, May 18, at the world-famous Tryst nightclub, right inside the front door of the glamorous Wynn Hotel, we'll be hosting an early evening party for Washington-area retail specialists. It has no official affiliation with ICSC, but is our own; we're calling it the Bisnow Beltway Bash, and are indebted to our Founding Partners for helping us launch it. They are a Who's Who of top retail players in the DC region, about whom we'll be writing more as the event approaches:

Acadia Realty Trust
ASB Real Estate Investments
Calkain Companies
Combined Properties
Cushman & Wakefield (Dochter/Alexander team)
Douglas Development
Federal Realty Investment Trust
JBGR Retail
McCaffery Interests
Miller Walker Retail Real Estate
The Peterson Companies
Potomac Development
Roadside Development
Streetsense
Vornado/Charles E. Smith
Washington REIT (formerly WRIT)

Tryst is one of America's coolest club venues: dramatic outdoor and indoor spaces, complete with lagoon and towering waterfall. We hope to keep the party relatively small and intimate — which by Vegas standards means perhaps 600 or 700. No program, no speeches. Just the ultimate networking event.

So if you're active in retail in or around the Beltway, you are warmly invited. (We will also be inviting retail players we know in our other 26 cities who have an interest in the DC Metro.) We've priced tickets near cost for early birds, and would love to have you as a sponsor or individual attendee. We are excited about the party, and hope it can help you make or renew retail acquaintances and, even more, make deals!