Bridging the gap between gaming leaders and technology will be the theme of a conference and trade show scheduled for the first week of November in Las Vegas and hosted by TribalNet.
Mike Day, the founder and CEO of TribalNet – an organization that brings tribes and resources together – said the conference has multiple technology-specific educational tracks dealing with tribal gaming, government, healthcare, leadership, and security as part of how to do things better.
The 19th annual conference will run Nov. 5-8 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
Day said a gap exists between the business side of an organization becoming increasingly dependent on technology to improve productivity and customer satisfaction. Information technology also struggles to provide seamless and continuous service while taking the mystery out of technology where innovation is coming from 90 percent of the time.
“There is a gap, and the two don’t seem to come together,” Day said. “They need to because every organization is so dependent on technology, and you need to strong leaders that not only understand technology but can engage those people. The organizations that are going to win are the ones who understand that and know how to bridge that gap. When you are seeing technology savvy leaders, you know you have a good leader.”
Day said the TribalNet conference is expected to attract some 600 attendees – including tribal leaders and technology professionals working in tribal and commercial gaming, government and health care. The two-day trade show is expected to include 140 vendors.
Day said one conference highlight is a session called, “Gaming Titans” that will showcase representatives from Aristocrat and Everi in which casino executives as industry panelists are asked pointed and relevant questions important to every gaming and hospitality executive, Day said. It will deal with where is the overlooked bump in revenue in their systems and what is the must-have innovation, he said.
The panelists represent key and quickly changing areas of gaming and hospitality, such as systems, cash and cashless, online and mobile, Day said. This session will help people keep up to speed with the pulse and future of the industry, he said.
“We can all buy the technology,” Day said. “You don’t win or compete at a higher level than your competitor by what you buy but how you use it. We are going to take some industry executives in Native gaming and firing questions at them about how to move the bar and innovate and what we should be looking at. It’s more like a presidential debate.”
Day said there several sessions about making technology a bigger part of an organization and driving a strategic plan while taking the fear factor out of it.
One of the educational sessions is about rightsizing technology to ensure seamless integration from the executive team of Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures.
“We not only try to do that with technology leaders but (also) the business side so they aren’t afraid of it,” Day said.
There’s a panel on sports betting and the challenges faced by operations. It will feature USBookmaking founders Vic Salerno and John Salerno. USBookmaking launched sports betting at the Santa Ana Star Casino near Albuquerque, New Mexico on Tuesday. The panel discussion includes IT staff from the Pearl River Resort Casino in Mississippi. They will talk about technical and operational controls necessary to open and run sportsbook, new wagering methods being introduced, and outlook of sportsbooks.
The leadership track at the conference is for industries involved with tribes, commercial gaming or non-gaming, Day said. There will be a workshop that looks at the outcomes of emotional intelligence and managing in moments of tension. It will teach people to evaluate self-awareness and develop strategies to manage emotions and build productive relationships and increase results.
Among the other sessions, there’s one on esports and the fantasy impact on gaming presented by Ari and Ben Fox of Fox Marketing and Zachary Atherton-Ely, associate general counsel at Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures.
One session is entitled, “Total Property Intelligence: A Real Life Pechanga Case Study.” It’s presented by Stuart Kerr, chief data scientist of Pechanga Resort and Casino who discuss how Pechanga defined the future state of big data for resorts and casinos. It has developed and deployed what is billed the world’s first total property intelligence information system using graph technology.
Another session is entitled, “The Modern Hotel Room.” It will provide tools about filling hotel rooms, have an enhanced guest experience and keep guests safe. The panel will include executives with Rainmaker, a leader in analytics for hotel revenue management; KEYPR on how to set up hotel space with the most modern amenities guests are seeking; and Cherokee Group Solutions on utilizing Title 31 and predictive analytics to keep hotel guests secure.
Another of the highlights of the conference will be a meet-and-greet event that features classic video games as part of a retro night at Vanity in the Hard Rock, Day said.
“The whole idea is to get everybody in a space where you’re networking,” Day said. “It’s meeting people and information sharing.”
The expo will include vendors that are primarily technology and consulting related. In addition to Aristocrat and Everi, it will include Microsoft, Adobe and Oracle, companies that focus on the Native American market, Day said.
The expo is not about products on the casino floor but what what’s needed to manage what’s on it, Day said. It’s about what’s behind the scenes to manage and improve a business by analyzing data and making good decisions, he said. That also includes security.
“We’re focused on how to keep the bad guys out of your organization,” Day said. “This is phishing attacks, hacking attacks and protecting the golden jewels of your casino and information.”
For more information on the schedule and registration:
https://www.tribalhub.com/tribalnet/tnet-2018-conference-agenda/
