Brooke Thomas started the session “Stronger Together: How Diverse Teams Create Innovative Organizational Cultures” at the Global Gaming Expo by stating the rationale behind the panel.
“Diverse voices in a room doesn’t just drive innovation,” said Thomas, Seminole Hard Rock’s vice president, people & opportunities. “It’s also a risk mitigation component for our brands, and it also drives really crucial talent pipelines, not just in the diversity that you can see, but in all aspects of our affinities within our organizations in gaming.”
The session, at the Venetian Expo in Las Vegas, could also be seen as a measuring stick for the organization that was founded in 2023. This year, bolstered by the inclusion of Dyani Marvel, Wondr Nation vice president of marketing strategy and operations, and Pauletta Bowers of Seminole Hard Rock Support Services, attendance at the session notably increased.
But the premise of the session was the same: certain factions of the gaming industry are ignored or taken for granted when they are capable of making significant contributions.
For Marvel, it’s been a constant in her career. A few years ago, she was working for an ad agency in Detroit when she gave a presentation to a group of Chevrolet dealers.
“They were all older white men, and I walked in,” Marvel said. “I was young, I was Black, and I was female. I had three very different things that were different than these men, and it was extremely hostile.”
All the ideas Marvel presented were dismissed because of who she was.
“That’s not the environment you want to cultivate,” Marvel said. “If you see things like that happening, stop it, change it. What can you do to make sure that that doesn’t happen to other individuals? I’ve developed the strongest skin on the planet, Teflon, and it’s made me a strong professional from it. But you don’t have to do that to people. You can make a different environment.”
Diversity includes having representatives from all groups. Matthew Heenan, IGT customer success manager. Heenan joked that sometimes at a session, he’ll see primarily gay panelists and think, “we need a straight person here.”
But his point remains: all segments of society should have a voice, including junior members of companies.
“I know we kind of talked about leadership or generational diversity,” Heenan said. “Not necessarily waiting for the most senior person to give their opinion and everyone kind of fall in line, but really hearing from the junior person, getting that diverse opinion, so they’re not just kind of molding their response to whatever their leader is saying, but they’re really giving their individual contribution based on their own background and their own experience.”
Marvel also worked at company where co-workers took a fellow employee’s B-coat and pretended to be rappers. Management ignored the behavior, infuriating Marvel.
“For me as a Black woman, I could see how very insensitive that was, racially insensitive,” Marvel said. “But her supervisor didn’t do anything about it. That’s an environment where you have a person who has had an experience that they felt offended, but then you’re not moving on it. You have to let the whole team know those type of things are not okay.”
It’s also important to listen to newer voices that may seem to be atypical. Thomas said during G2E, she heard from many who are just starting their careers and have a different way of looking at issues.
“It’s not one-size-fits-all, especially with the generations coming up,” Thomas said. “And I think when we hear from panelists all over these education sessions these past few days, everyone has the most interesting paths. They’re not always typical.
“I think it’s a reminder that, okay, as you’re traveling through development you’re going to follow the same path as the person before you, and you’re going to do the exact same role? You’re going to graduate the exact same time?
“You’re going to say no. You’re not going to do that.”
