Bishop: “I’m afraid that egg on your plate has gone bad Mr Jones.”
Curate: “Oh no your Lordship, I assure you parts of it are excellent.”
That pretty much sums up the feeling of the industry to this year’s G2E Asia. The number of visitors to the equipment expo itself appeared to be significantly down on last year, especially on Thursday, the second and final day of the exhibition. By then most of the decision makers had already left town or were re-installed in their corporate headquarters in Macau and Hong Kong.
It seems some business was actually done before the trade show began, with a few senior industry executives arriving in town early for the opening of Melco Crown Entertainment’s (Nasdaq: MPEL) City of Dreams resort on the Monday. On Tuesday, the first official day of G2E Asia, premium level delegates had the opportunity of a networking lunch with Lawrence Ho, Co-Chairman and Chief Executive of MPEL. On Wednesday Lawrence’s father Dr Stanley Ho pulled in the crowds when he was presented with a G2E Asia Visionary Award. There was the added bonus of an appearance by Lawrence and by Dr Ho’s daughter Pansy to witness the presentation.
Many equipment suppliers reported the reduced number of visitors this year actually gave them more time to talk to customers and potential customers. Others were less impressed by the attitude of some operators.
As one supplier put it to AGI: “As we went to the trouble of shipping a 40ft container part way round the world, you’d hope operators would at least do us the courtesy of coming to look at the equipment while it’s here.”
The same moderately disgruntled supplier wryly observed that one potential customer who did stop briefly to speak seemed more interested in angling for an invitation to the company’s base than looking at the kit in front of him. The fact that the supplier’s head office was in an area firmly on the international tourism circuit rather than say a smokestack city in Mainland China was purely coincidental—natch.
When AGI repeated this anecdote to another supplier, his only response was to roll his eyes and say: “Tell me about it.”
Operators would no doubt counter they’re in the casino business not the psychotherapy business. There’s no point in them looking at stuff they have no intention of buying just to leave exhibitors with a warm glow inside.
Neither the G2E Asia organisers nor the Macau government can compel operators to visit every stand at the show, especially during recessionary times. But if G2E Asia and other casino industry trade events globally are to retain their credibility and popularity with suppliers, it might not do any harm for operators—regardless of whether they’re from Macau or further afield—to think about spending a bit more time on the exhibition floor and a little less time out on the town of an evening at say the Lion’s Bar at MGM Grand Macau or D3 nightclub. Or is AGI being a little too hard on the ops?
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