“This year’s G2E exceeded our expectations”

Which is the final balance you make about this year's G2E edition? Was it in line with your expectations?
The show exceeded my expectations only because our customers seemed so pleased!  We have just sent out our post show surveys so we will have more info very soon – but so far we have heard very good things about the new venue, the new floorplan and the show in general.

Do you have any official numbers in terms os visitors, represented countries, etc?
We don’t have numbers yet as our audit won’t be complete for a little while.  We do know that similar to past events we had 90 countries represented on the attendee side and 27 countries on the exhibitor side.

What feedback did you receive from exhibitors related with the new venue and the stands distribution at the floor?
Very positive!  The venue offers so many amenities that weren’t available before so it was a good experience.  Stand distribution was also favorable, many of our smaller and medium size exhibitors had extremely good traffic based on the new layout.  Additionally, the floor was much easier to navigate so finding exhibitors was easier for our attendees.

The Conference Program also offered a wide range of sessions where importants topics where discussed. How did you see this part of the event? 
Our conference sessions were very well-attended and since we did away with the 8am sessions our conference attendees were happy. The most well-attended sessions were in the areas you might expect – I-gaming, Social Media and Native American topics.

Among other activities, it was organized the Latin American Lounge with a great response of attendees from all over the continent. Did you expect much attention? How do you evaluate the participation of the Latin American market at this year's G2E edition? 
We were very pleased because our attendance from Latin America looks like it increased about 20% over last year!  The market in Latin America is very strong and we know our exhibitors want to see buyers.  So, we will continue with our programs in 2012 and hope to continue to increase our attendance from the region.

G2E is always used as a platform by the companies to release their novelties? What kind of innovative developments or technologies surprised you? 
Nothing in this industry surprises me anymore!  But it’s always impressive to see the new gaming and technologies.  Global Gaming Business gave awards to Aristocrat for Best Customer Service Technology- nRich Bonusing Engine, Cantor Gaming’s eDeck won for Best Productivity-Enhancement Technology, Best Slot product was Bally’s Fish ‘n for Loot, also love the Aruze Amazon Fishing!  And best table game product was Interblock’s G4 Organice Roulette OR FBS 12.  Some of the other products that were cool included Liquor Monitor (tracks the life of a bottle) and ScentAir – both of these were new to the show and had awesome new products.

2011 has not been an easy year for the global economy in general and the gaming industry was also affected. Which is your evaluation of this year and how do you see and expect the next one? 
This year has been a roller-coaster ride for all of us.  Bad news and good news keeps coming out.  Some regions of the world including Asia and Latin America have continued to see increases in gaming and it looks like it will only get better in the future.  Here in the U.S. we are hopeful that gaming will continue its upward trend into 2012 – there continues to be a lot of activity and opportunity in the U.S. and we know the gaming industry will take advantage of that opportunity.

Which are your goals or expectation for next G2E edition? 
To continue to delight our customers and add value for them in any way we can.