Conventions

The Global Gaming Expo (G2E) 2011 took place at the Sands Convention and Expo Center Oct. 4-7, 2011.

G2E is the world’s premier casino-entertainment event and several thousand exhibitors and attendees participate in the event each year. The conference program with cutting-edge conference sessions led by leading-edge industry experts covers topics such as Casino Design; Compliance, Law & Regulation; Finance; Gaming Technology; Global Markets Forum; Human Resources; Indian Gaming; Marketing & Players’ Clubs; NCRG at G2E; and Retail, Dining & Entertainment.

The exhibition features hundreds of casino companies featuring their latest machines and table games as well as exhibitors from food and beverage and entertainment.

Virginia, we were told, is for wine-lovers, and Richmond’s Wineries Unlimited show never lost sight of that message. Wineries Unlimited is a division of Vineyard & Winery Management magazine, the leader in wine industry professional development and North America’s leading independent wine trade publication. Any idea how much stuff you need to be in the wine-making business? Think barrel and tank cleaning systems, cork supplies, bottling plant, label-printing, fencing, measurement and analysis tools, barrelage, vine-stock acquisition… The list goes on and on. Special Guest Speakers this year included Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, and Virginia’s Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry, Todd Haymore. Back by popular demand was Virginia native Andy Beckstoffer of Beckstoffer Vineyards, delivering the General Session Keynote. Oh, and you had to be over 21 to attend. May I see i/d please?

Seatrade Cruise Shipping Miami is “your passport to success”. Says so on the big disply right above where you sign in and get your badge. Things have moved on since The Love Boat was topping the bill on network TV. Get on one of these big beautiful babies (stand one on end and it’s like a seagoing skyscraper), and there’s more on offer than just a leisurely game of shuffleboard with the senior citizens. You could bring back more than a tan and a straw donkey in a Mexican tasselled sombrero, too: like how about your mega-winnings from playing the slots? Or a new spouse? Or a certificate saying you’re now a qualified salsa dancer? The 4-day conference program was kind of a virtual cruise in its own right, particularly with all that audience participation and interactivity. There is actually some justification to the often-heard claim that cruise vacationing is the last recession-proof business on earth. Wait, that’s my favorite song! Jimmy Buffett singing “Boat Drinks”…

Hospitality Week? Sounds a little staid, right? So how about if we call it the Nightclub and Bar Convention and Tradeshow? Oh, NOW you’re interested! Okay, if you can just peel your eyes away from that cocktail waitress in the black leather bustier and the little butt-twitcher skirt for five seconds, I can explain that this here is a SERIOUS BUSINESS, okay? Say what? Who? Over where? Oh, I give up… The proceedings are best summed up by a report in the Las Vegas Sun, whose lead paragraph was: “Pint-sized porn princess Jesse Jane packed a powerful punch when she dazzled and wowed the delegates at the three-day Nightclub & Bar Convention and Trade Show yesterday, as she launched her new line of pure and flavored Diosa Tequilas”. Okay, make mine a… Oh please, what idiot just asked the waitress for a Virgin Mary?

Gone fishin’. To where? To the Eastern Canadian Fisheries Exposition in Nova Scotia, Canada, that’s where. To get an idea of who’s who at this piscine extravaganza, look no further than the A-Z of exhibitors and participants. Acadian Marine Inc. is there at the front end (did you know that Acadian is the origin of the word Cajun?), and there at the end is ZF Marine. (“Marine” is quite a common component of company names on this list). Along the way you’ll make the acquaintance of Best Glove Mfg Ltd., Easy Kleen Pressure Systems Ltd., Hi-Liner Fishing Gear & Tackle, Nova Scotia Boatbuilders Association, Rainbow Net & Rigging Ltd., the Scotia Fundy Professional Fishermen’s Association, international logistics giants like Sealand Industries, and more modest enterprises like Wade’s Wire Traps Ltd. It all goes to show that there’s more to the fishing industry than just fish.