Conventions

Apr. 1-4, 2012. NIGA is the Indian Gaming Trade Show and Convention.  The National Indian Gaming Association’s Gaming Tradeshow and Convention is the nation’s premier Indian gaming event, the place where Indian gaming executives, buyers and industry professionals meet each spring to conduct serious business. Anyone currently doing business in or wanting to begin doing business in the Indian casino-entertainment industry can’t afford to miss being a part of the Indian gaming industry’s number one event. More than 400 exhibitors representing 49 states, 7 Canadian provinces and 6 countries filled the 90,000-square-foot San Diego Convention Center, and 5,000 guests made their way to this land-based gaming show. The week was filled with golf tournaments, roundtables, conferences, award ceremonies, business networking and training.  No, that was no smoke signal, that was a Cuban cigar…

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.

Lady Luck seems to just love those folks in traditional tribal dress who brought you the wonders of Wampum (which when you think about it is not so different from brightly-colored gaming chips, right?). The Lady has presided over a nationwide transformation of marginalized and impoverished Indian reservations into an unrivalled coast-to-coast business. Today’s Big Chiefs (and their treasurers, financial advisers, casino managers and lobbyists) are now piling up seriously impressive chip-stacks, and showing the casino-owners in Macao and Las Vegas a thing or two. It’s a terrific way to reverse a century and more of the White-Eyes having it all their own way, wouldn’t you say? There are even indigenous groups in the Hamptons getting in line to declare Tribal Status and start building their own casino resorts. It’s almost as if it were their Manifest Destiny or something…

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”…

“The Gama Trade show is all about “”minding the business of games”". The theme for GTS 2011 was “Times Are Changing”, and those gamesters witnessed a lot of changes at the show. This was the best retailer turnout for GTS since 2008, with 219 unique retail stores attend this year’s show, fifty percent up on the GTS 2010 attendance level. The sponsors were outfits like Bandai, Wizards of the Coast, Mayfair Games, Cryptozoic, Sandstorm, WizKids, AEG, Paizo, Konami, Osprey Publishing, GameScience, Alliance Game Distributors, ACD Distribution, Game Publishers Association, and ICv2, and they collectively pioneered a new Retailer Appreciation Package. See that little group over there, in pink gingham shirts and raggedy-ann straw hats? They’ve been playing Farmville non-stop for the whole duation of the show. Now, if I give you a cow, will you feed my chickens?

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