This year is one attendee didn’t want to miss, with the new and exciting features, technologies and opportunities to help maximize the G2E experience both pre-show and on-site.
Between the new things that were sawed this year, were Roundtable Talks for Leadership, Tech, FinTech, and Sports Betting sessions in addition to the traditional Education sessions, it allowed attendees to dive deeper into G2E Education topics with speakers and gambling industry peers through a more interactive and intimate environment than the traditional education programming. The G2E Mobile App had some innovative features such as GPS and attendee-to-attendee messaging. Experience a seamless and efficient experience by quickly navigating to the exhibitors highlighted on the map. Also, attendees could find education session details and personalized exhibitor, session and product recommendations, and access the full exhibitor list, important show information, and My Show planner to stay in the loop and on schedule.
G2E is also introduced the all-new G2E Hot Hits – a real-time ranking of exhibitors who are launching products and services at the event. This year, at the Innovation Lab, there was a 15-minute TED-talk-style presentation offer insight on a variety of topics from industry experts and newcomers who may influence the gaming industry.
This year’s program was organized across these themes:
1. Application of Virtual Reality in Gaming: From pop-up lounges to in-room VR for hotel rooms and interactive tabletop and bar top installations, this session left to the attendees a better understanding of how VR can enhance the casinos' property.
2. Breaking Through or Completely Avoiding the Crowded Mobile Marketplace?: It was a re-evaluation and shift of the strategy in mobile games. In this discussion, social casino game developer FlowPlay discussed the pros and cons of launching in mobile marketplaces, such as Apple's App Store and Google Play.
3. Enhancing the Customer Experience through Digital Engagement: In this Innovation Lab session, Agilysys' Don DeMarinis explained one of the most industry-disrupting trends: guest-facing, on-demand technology that enables patrons of all ages to be served even when access to staff may be limited,
4. Growing the Pie: How Casinos can Leverage New Technologies to Expand Their Customer Base: discussions about new research that suggests technology can change the profile of the gambling consumer and drive new industry growth.
Speaking about the educational leadership that this event brought to the gambling professionals is the betting symposium, one of the strongest and newest features of the event, the topics were range from legislative issues to business strategies, including ample opportunities to engage with sports betting exhibitors to begin or refine the attendees' sports betting strategy. Starting with an update on the sports betting rollout in the US from a Federal, Tribal and State-specific perspective, the symposium moved on to answer the key questions about white-label operator vs. supplier strategy; leveraging local partnerships; location-based venue challenges and strategies and critical information about payments and sports betting.
By the other hand, the offer this year of the slots machines it has plenty of variety for different ages and players, it went from very disruptive slots machines that looked more like a video game console than a traditional machine, with more developed systems that help the involvement of the player itself. Also, there were new features in other gambling machines such as cards tables, where there were no more physical cards, but a screen as big as the table making it completely digital, and almost leaving out the dealer work and transforming it more as a player accompaniment.
As the time passes by, the gambling sector sees more and more new gambling artifacts that are made in collaboration with traditional games or table familiar games, such as monopoly, Pac-man, even series, and TV shows continue to be one of the most attracting complements that a slot machine can have. Also, for the exhibitors the Virtual reality was a big ally to show with an innovation touch their products and involving the visitors to a better experience and challenging the new players which are younger, and more technology tangled so the traditional machines do not attract them. In terms of numbers, the fair just keeps getting bigger and bigger, the 2019 edition of G2E was visited by more than 27,000 gambling professionals, a figure that represented a growth of 16% of key buyers compared to the previous year, 2017.
The technology this year was the biggest precedent marked if compared with any other edition of the fair, attendees saw so much aspects of the 4Th IR as blockchain, big data, AI, all applied to the casino sector. In almost every aspect, including marketing, player experience, and machines developments.
The G2E event, keeps extending itself and adding new touches to its fair, this year they had not only more academic aspects, but there was even a fashion show, completely new for this type of industry and its event. Another highlighting event of the fair was the intervention of Scott Stratten, Best-Selling Author and President of UnMarketing, he presented strategies and insights from a business leadership perspective and drawing from his experience as a longtime patron of the gambling industry. He helped the attendees to have a deeper understanding of how people/players want to feel special, included and that they got what they paid for. And they aren’t feeling that which opens up their minds to competition and then eventually they leave any casino that does not fit with their demands.
