Lively presentations mingle with product roadmap highlights
Gaming supplier AGS has grown into a major force in the past five years, and right along with that growth has been the evolution of the company’s unique customer event, GameON.
Last week, AGS held its fourth annual GameON event at the WinStar World Resort in Thackerville, Oklahoma. It was the largest GameON event yet, with 142 attendees including 93 customers, investors, media and Wall Street analysts.
In his opening speech to attendees, AGS President and CEO David Lopez recalled how Julia Boguslowski, chief marketing officer and head of investor relations, originally designed GameON as “a customer event like no other customer event,” to provide real value and entertainment to the company’s customers.
“We recognize that coming to GameON is an investment in time and travel for our customers,” Boguslowski said, “so we strive to offer valuable content that is meaningful and useful, both professionally and personally. Our customers appreciate the opportunity to learn, grow, and bring back new ways to drive revenue and add value at their properties.”
“There are 365 days in the year, so for these three days, we’re just going to give back,” Lopez said.
GameON is different from customer events staged by most of the major gaming suppliers. It does feature the nuts-and-bolts proprietary content in the form of presentations and panel discussions designed to share news and plans affecting the product roadmap, to attendees dominated by the supplier’s major customers, the casino operators. But what has distinguished GameON have been keynotes, presentations and discussions beyond one company’s products.
For example, this year’s keynote presentation was staged by Chris Voss, a former FBI hostage negotiator who has authored a book relating how techniques he used while with the FBI were designed to trigger certain brain mechanisms to achieve the negotiator’s results—techniques that can be used by anyone in just about any business venture, particularly sales. As with many of the event’s presenters, Voss gave an funny and entertaining mix of stories, visuals and Q&A to illustrate his theme.
Another great example was “Managing Today’s Multi-Generation Workforce,” featuring Jenny Holaday, president of the Fuel Leadership consultancy and a veteran of 25 years in casino operations and marketing, who examined the fundamental differences between the baby boom generation, Gen X, millennials and Gen Z, just entering the workforce. In another intriguing and funny presentation (aided by some hilarious videos illustrating generational differences), she offered valuable advice on understanding members of each generation as a way of building teams and retaining talent.
Topics of other presentations included sports betting, esports, the guest experience, and the power of employee culture—a keystone of Lopez’s management philosophy.
In a discussion focused on the “Over/Under on Sports Betting in America,” Matt Davey, president and CEO of Tekkorp Capital and former group chief executive of Scientific Games Digital and CEO of NYX Gaming Group, and Sara Slane, the senior vice president of public affairs for the American Gaming Association, covered sports betting in America, examining the current state and potential opportunities for casino operators.
Esports expert and futurist Joe English provided attendees with an update on the esports landscape, focusing on what’s driving its popularity, who the fans, leagues, and teams are, how people in esports engage with one another, and the potential for casino operators to build esports venues and attract new patrons to the casino resort.
Strategically placed among the unique presentations were product demonstrations and updates from AGS officials on what’s happening with the company’s slot, table, and interactive product portfolio, and highlights from the company’s innovation roadmap.
AGS Senior Vice President of Slot Products Andrew Burke covered the “Top 5 Reasons You Want More AGS Slot Product on Your Floor,” focusing on the company’s continued investments in R&D, its hardware product roadmap including this month’s launch of the new Orion Upright cabinet, AGS’ strong pipeline of game software to support all platforms, game performance, and the company’s focus on culture to drive innovation.
John Hemberger, AGS’ senior vice president of table products, shared updates about AGS’ table products roadmap and the company’s mission to drive revenue and deliver value for customers. He shared AGS’ investments in animated, dynamic table signage; demonstrated upgrades to the company’s STAX and Bonus Spin table progressives; and gave attendees a preview of new table products in development.
For AGS’ Interactive B2B social business, GameON attendees were invited to participate in free-play tournaments through the GameON social casino app, experiencing the company’s ConnexSys social white label casino solution firsthand.
AGS Vice President of West Coast Sales Mike McKiski and Warren Steven, senior director, product and operations-online gaming for Golden Nugget, led a discussion of how Steven leverages his land-based and online real-money gaming offerings to drive revenue, player engagement, and cross-channel player rewards.
Along with two full days of conference content, there were numerous networking opportunities during GameON, including a golf tournament and an event at The Star, the Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters and practice facility. Charlotte Jones Anderson, Dallas Cowboys executive vice president and chief brand officer (and daughter of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones), addressed conference attendees, followed by meet-and-greets with the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and former Dallas Cowboys Defensive End Charles Haley, a five-time Super Bowl champion and five-time Pro Bowler.
In addition to attendees, the GameON event drew praise from Wall Street gaming analysts, including David Katz of Jeffries Equity Research, who reiterated a “Buy” rating for AGS stock.
“The AGS GameON event in Thackerville, Oklahoma last week coupled with our recent channel checks support our positive thesis on the name,” Katz wrote.
“Our attendance at PlayAGS’ GameON event, which is essentially a user conference, provided an opportunity to review the product range, the product development roadmap and to interact with senior management. Perhaps most important, it provided an opportunity to talk with the company’s customers, who provide insight into the performance of currently placed games and enthusiasm for future releases.
“In short, our take-aways from the event are consistent with our recent channel checks, which support the continued outperformance of AGS’ games and enthusiasm going forward.”
Skyelar Perkins, a four-time GameON attendee and corporate senior director of slot operations for Choctaw Casinos & Resorts, said, “AGS’ GameON 2019 Customer Summit at WinStar World Casino & Resort was fantastic. David Lopez and his team did not disappoint; amazing content, great pace, excellent networking, and lots of fun! AGS continues to deliver an excellent event that shows their obsession to not only being the best they can be, but also a drive to make the industry better as a whole.”
“We always strive to differentiate GameON from other suppliers’ customer events,” said Lopez, “and this year, we again exceeded expectations. We brought in experts covering a whole host of topics, many totally unrelated to what AGS does, all designed to give our attendees new perspectives, valuable insights, practical know-how, and the opportunity to build powerful connections.”
