Jim McGovern recently attended CasinoBeats Malta Digital. The conference welcomed over 40 virtual exhibitors and 120 leading speakers to share their insight and ideas on 2020’s unique challenges and the long-term opportunities for the industry.
Here Jim explores his key takeaways from the event and the pros and cons to events going virtual.
1. Tell us a bit about your role at Continent 8
I have been with Continent 8 for 3 and a half years; I’m an Account Director and I manage the commercial relationships for some of our key clients and partners.
2. What were the top 3 themes/takeaways from the virtual event?
Firstly, business resilience during the pandemic has been impressive to see. The online gaming community have really stepped up and have shown fortitude and adaptability in a crisis.
New life is being continually bred into the industry with resourceful and innovative challengers showing real competence and innovation, which is exciting to see.
Last but certainly not least, security and data integrity continues to be absolutely paramount to business as cyber vulnerability is a constant.
3. What was you highlight of the virtual event?
Honestly, it was when many senior executives described how they were able to continue to do business thanks to the talents and adaptability of their people and the business communications tools we help to provide!
4. How are you finding online events during COVID-19?
There are some great positives to take from online events; such events are good for the spirit. The fact that these virtual gatherings are so strongly supported demonstrates the will and conviction to drive success despite the challenges we face, and will continue to face, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
There is a sense of “the business community” lives! You meet clients and business contacts albeit in a limited fashion. But importantly there is also information sharing with expert commentary and perspective added in. This is very useful and feeds our curiosity.
Some of the disadvantages are that people’s approaches in chat rooms are guarded. This is just not the case at an actual event when you meet face-to-face. The medium does not readily lend itself to relaxed introductions.
From time to time the interactions do not flow due to the technology, for instance there can be delays in audio. This, in my opinion, detracts from the experience, and of course sometimes the sessions do not get our full attention as we tend to multi-task since we are online anyway.
Overall I think it’s great to be able to attend these virtual events while we are unable to meet in person.
