Great idea but afraid to say at this point in time it won’t work and is massively unlikely for a number of reasons including
a) A lot less profit – A lot of people assume there is big money in events and I did too before I got involved but the truth is the costs are very very high and the margins are low so by working with other groups you are massivley reducing your profits and increasing your risk vs return
b) Completely different business models and approaches to an event – Of course you could meet in the middle somewhere but teh identity of the event and what made it a success will be lost somewhere
c) Why would we do this? I know this sounds rude but think about it, I love poker, I don’t want to download loads of rooms, I want to play somewhere with loads of players with games all the time, I don’t want the hassle of making different usernames on different networks, etc. Why can’t Party, Pokerstars and Fulltilt merge so I can have one room which will make it sooo much better for me as a poker player? It would never happen. I firmly believe that delegates come first but I also have a responsibility for the business I run, the salaries it pays, the budgets set by my bosses, so have to weigh up both sides to ensure there is a balance between the two, i.e. the business and the delegates.
This is something we have been working on – What I am trying to develop is a tool where people can network prior and during the event to arrange meetings etc. Facebook events helps a little with that but comes no way as close as we want to get to. Printing lists of attendees is possible but a vast amount of affiliates seem averse to having their details made availaible – A way we could start is by making all AM’s attending available for the attendees as they won’t mind and a lot of affiiliates often message me asking me to put them up with xxx room as they don’t have direct contact details so that might at least be a good start.
Anyway – I am waffling on now = My conclusion of all this is that a GAP event in London is bad timing and pretty stupid as it benefits no one not even them, BUT it isn’t a huge deal, the industry will tick along, affiliates and operators will choose where they want to go where it be London, Amsterdam, Budapest or all three and over time things will level out – After all we don’t work in the iGaming industry for predictability and stability – The fun part is not knowings what’s next :3eyes:
I do agree with you Alex. At the same time though I think that if there were less conferences you could get more people attending, more operators/groups etc (because their cost would be lower to attend just 1 or 2 conferences than 10), which would theoretically mean a higher profit for you (the organiser).. It might be impossible for two groups to join up like you gave an example on the poker rooms above, and I see your point.. I guess I was just trying to throw an idea out there.. hopefully someone can bounce a legit idea off mine and so forth.
I think everyone has had enough of all this crap really and I would just like to see something done so we can all get on with it (and so I can finally get to these bloody things).
Maybe someone should invest in an airline and a hotel chain… :tongue:
As I said previously, bring back Vegas!