Nightlife

Vegas party architects Lauren Linck and Zee Zandi strike out on their own

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New direction: Linck and Zandi team up in Silent Partner.
Photo: Mikayla Whitmore

The name Silent Partner is a curious one for the new booking/marketing/branding company founded by Lauren Linck and Zee Zandi. They are highly visible on social media, the two often photographed in celebratory huddles with their peers in Vegas nightlife and the jet-setting DJs they promote. But their professional aim is to thrive behind the scenes—to drive the party rather than join it.

Known for their allegiances with the most prosperous nightlife companies in town—Linck a Hard Rock Hotel hospitality veteran, Zandi helping elevate the performer stable at Wynn nightlife and Angel Management Group (where Linck also worked as a social-media manager) and both having just left ATM Artists, the mega-DJ management company that had been programming Light and Daylight—the two have struck out on their own with Silent Partner, which bucks the tradition of in-house booking and social-media marketing at local dance venues. Its biggest strength is its formidable connections—Zandi to the international DJ community, Linck to the entire online nightlife world—which promise to ramp up the entertainment offerings and Internet presence of its nightclub clients.

In a market where it’s easier to boast about a nightclub’s DJ roster than its revenue and social media engagement numbers, Zandi has the sexier responsibilities: continuing to book the most in-demand talent, a job that has increased her profile parallel to that of Las Vegas nightlife. But the public has to know about the parties in the first place, which is where promotional whiz Linck comes in, pushing the event from inception to execution. She coordinates photography for the headliner, arranges video to, as she puts it, “tell the story online,” manages meet-and-greets and contests, and even helps motivate the venue’s staff to market both the club and themselves.

“Lots of venues don’t allow staff to have their phones during their shifts, but we just learned that Ten [Nightclub in Newport Beach] does, and that’s smart,” says Linck, a former Rehab server herself. “It allows the cocktail waitresses to interact with the guests.”

Silent Partner will exclusively book electronic music acts in Las Vegas for Marquee, along with the EDM programming and social media for Ten, the marketing for Temple in San Francisco and Parq in San Diego, and hyping beverages like VOCO vodka/coconut water. From there, Linck and Zandi hope to sign contracts not only with clubs in other markets, but lifestyle brands and products. Given their experience at ATM, it’s no surprise they want to branch out into artist management—eventually.

“We want to get the projects we’ve already started going and make them successful,” Zandi says. “Next year we’ll start the management side, take one or two artists we believe in … really give it our all.”

Which is to say Silent Partner wants to truly go national. But Vegas nightlife shouldn’t fret about losing two of its biggest talents. “Vegas will evolve and be its own monster on its own,” Linck says. “But we can help people who are part of that evolution.”

Tags: Nightlife
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