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10 Hartford Business Journal • September 3, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com FOCUS: Tourism At 10 years, CT Science Center's STEM focus top priority Q&A talks with Matt Fleury, president and CEO of the Connecticut Science Center, which is marking its 10th anniversary. Q. The Connecticut Science Center is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. How has the Science Center evolved over the last decade and what's been its impact on downtown Hartford? A. Going into our 10th year, our mission to engage people of all ages in science is unchanged, but we are focused now more than ever on con- necting young people to the growing opportunities in science and technol- ogy careers in Connecticut. Research shows that there's never a better moment to attract a person to science than before the age of 14, and industry in our state is creating thousands of great opportunities for science and tech talent for the next several decades. So this is a crucial moment for the Science Center — and for our state at large — to il- luminate these opportunities and put people on a path to realize them in the very near future. Q. The Science Center will be hosting the Association of Science-Technology Centers' (ASTC) annual conference in September. Why is this significant? A. ASTC is the leading member- ship association of science centers in the U.S., and also serves science centers from around the world. The Connecticut Science Center has been part of ASTC since before we opened our doors, and we have participated in the association's annual conference in other cities across the country. We've always wanted to bring those 2,000 science educators to Connecti- cut to see our science center and our community. We're especially excited to do this in 2018 because our vision for a science and innovation-oriented neighborhood in Hartford is coming to fruition. We have national and interna- tional flights to a convenient airport, a wonderful city, first-rate convention and hotel facilities and a great science center. It's a perfect venue for lots of conferences, including this one. Q. The Science Center recently un- veiled its new engineering lab exhibi- tion. What is it and why was it created? A. We're deploying a series of new projects to showcase science, technol- ogy and innovation professions and to support the introduction of new science standards that are rolling out in schools. We launched the new Butterfly Encounter last year to strengthen our life-science offerings. The new Engi- neering Lab does the same thing in the technology area, covering electrical, aerospace and mechanical and software engineering. It's supported by Stanley Black & Decker, which has become a real leader in building an innovation scene in Hartford and the state. We're also running great bioscience programs in our Genomics Lab. Next, we're working on new exhibitions about earth, followed by DNA and genomics. Q. The Science Center earlier this year announced a new lineup of adult pro- gramming. What did that entail and why was it created? A. This is another area where we want to help build a community where Matt Fleury President and CEO, Connecticut Science Center By Joe Cooper jcooper@HartfordBusiness.com S taring down the 3,750-foot zipline atop Foxwoods Resort Casino's Fox Tower, Interim CEO Rodney Butler rides the new cable down from 32 stories high with a clear view of his destination and the competition lying ahead. And it's not just Mohegan Sun peak- ing over the foothills of southeastern Connecticut. Just 73 miles away, MGM Springfield has opened a $960 million casino and entertainment complex that stands to make Connecticut's north central residents think twice about their gaming options. But this is nothing new for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation- operated casino, which more than five years ago began knocking down walls and adding exclusive gaming and adven- ture entertainment to combat expected losses from its new competitors over the border and across the Northeast. With much planned development ahead, Foxwoods for now boasts New England's first on-site casino brewery and zipline; exclusive regional food and retail options; the nation's largest indoor karting track; and could be nearing groundbreaking of a proposed $300 million satellite casino with Mo- hegan Sun in East Windsor — the first tribal gaming partnership in the U.S. Exclusive offerings are key to Fox- woods' business strategy, which will come under threat with MGM Spring- field's recent opening. Foxwoods' bottom line has already been under pressure in recent years amid height- ened competition. In 2017-18, Fox- woods recorded 6 percent less gaming revenue ($477.2 million) vs. 2013-14 ($507.8 million) and 41 percent less than it reported at its peak in 2004-05. Next on its wish list is securing the exclusive rights to offer sports betting in Connecticut alongside Mohegan Sun, but it appears that won't happen until 2019, at the earliest. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has been pushing unsuccessfully for lawmakers to meet in special session to legal- ize sports betting in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision earlier this year to allow states to authorize it. For the tribes and Malloy, sports betting means more than the project- ed $10 million to $20 million in annual state tax revenues. Legalization, they say, raises Fox- woods' and Mohegan's competitive- ness with casinos in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York, which are Gambling on Exclusivity For Foxwoods Resort Casino, size matters as MGM Springfield adds new competition HBJ PHOTO | JOE COOPER Foxwoods Interim CEO Rodney Butler and his predecessors have been gearing up for the launch of MGM Springfield for several years, adding exclusive resort and recreation amenities.