Hartford Business Journal

8 Hartford Business Journal • June 22, 2015 www.HartfordBusiness.com FOCUS ENTERTAINMENT & GAMING Q&A Technology reshapes casino slot-machine experience Q&A talks about the latest slot-machine trends with Eric Pearson, Foxwoods' vice president of gaming and revenue enhancement. Q: What are the challeng- es of marketing slots? How do you attract people to Foxwoods when there are so many choices within 100 miles and there will be more soon in Boston and Springfield? A: Casinos use many of the same elements in their mar- keting strategies, so it's challenging to dif- ferentiate and resist merely trying to beat the other guy's offer. The challenge is find- ing ways to give com- pelling offers to our guests. Much of what allows us to remain competitive is our mix of great amenities and venues. Our best strategy for preparing for the new casinos in Springfield and Bos- ton is service, quality and brand. If you can execute well on those three, you'll have a strong foundation. We are also continually working on ways to improve our Foxwoods Rewards loyalty program. Q: You have diverse experi- ence including Las Vegas and Spokane, Wash., casinos. How does East Coast gaming differ- entiate from those locations? What do you need to do differ- ently in terms of marketing? A: Obviously geography is a major influence on the business. I've worked in pure local markets in Illinois, Arizona and Washing- ton that saw over 80 percent of the business come from guests that live within a 50 mile radius of the property. On the Las Vegas Strip, essentially all of our busi- ness was destination in nature, coming from guests who had to travel at least a few hundred miles, by either car or plane, and every- one had to stay in a hotel room. Foxwoods engages both types of business models. We have a lot of drive-in/local business as well as destination business. From a marketing perspective, we have to engage these different groups of guests in ways that are compelling to their individual needs. We strive to connect to each guest and speak to him or her individually to discover what matters most to them. Q: What are the demograph- ics of slot machine play? Do you have to market to a young- er crowd to sustain growth? Do younger people want to play slots? A: Slot players really span all adult demographic segments. In fact, the fastest-growing seg- ment we have is 21 to 35 years old. Younger people definitely play slots, maybe not to the same degree as older guests, but that is because of a variety of factors. Slot machines are also growing more inter- active and are incor- porating elements that you will find in the most popular social and video games. Q: How are you using data- base marketing to improve revenue at Foxwoods? A: On a very basic level we use our data- base to communicate offers that our play- ers will find appeal- ing. We only get a fairly limited snapshot of what our players do while they are here. We try and use that information to tailor offers and promotions that we think they will find exciting. Q: What's the future look like for slot machines? Where does the growth come locally and overall? A: The evolution in technol- ogy has focused on slot machines as entertainment as much as they are gambling devices. Every year, I attend the industry's tradeshow called the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, where the latest and greatest machines are debuted, and every year I'm blown away by a new technology or game- play mechanic that completely changes what I thought was pos- sible on a slot machine. I try to follow general technol- ogy trends as much as gaming trends, and in some instances the first times that I've seen an excit- ing new technology was in a slot machine. For example, the first time I ever saw a translucent video screen was in a slot machine; the first time I saw a curved monitor was in a slot machine; and the first commercial application that I saw where a 3D image was displayed without the need for special glass- es was in a slot machine. It's a very exciting business for a tech geek like myself. I think that the indus- try will continue to evolve and offer exciting new games for us to feature on the casino floor. n ERIC PEARSON Vice president of gaming and revenue enhancement, Foxwoods Gennaro leads Goodspeed Musicals into new era By John Stearns jstearns@HartfordBusiness.com M ichael Gennaro's first act as the new executive director of Goodspeed Musicals is off to a fast and relatively smooth start. Gennaro, who took over the East Haddam nonprofit the- ater company on Feb. 6 following the retirement of longtime executive director Michael Price, has dealt with the loss of "The Honeymooners" show, which had been scheduled for this season before moving to Broadway, and booked "A Wonderful Life" as a replacement; filled the vacant general manager's position with a highly regarded manager from the Lincoln Center The- ater in New York City; and played a role in adding two new board members. "We made the right deci- sion," of hiring Gennaro, said John F. Wolter, presi- dent of Goodspeed's board of trustees and a lawyer at Updike, Kelly & Spellacy PC in Hartford. "I'm not going to say we've cloned Michael Price because [Gennaro] is his own per- son, but this transition has really gone the way we hoped it would." What Goodspeed gets in Gennaro is someone well versed in the industry from an early age. Genna- ro's late father, Peter, cho- reographed the original Broadway production of "Annie" and "Annie II" at Goodspeed's Norma Terris Theatre, a smash hit that continues to spin off royal- ties for Goodspeed and for which he won a Tony Award for best choreography. "People talk about growing up in a trunk going around on tours and on Broadway, and I literally was," Gennaro said from his office in the iconic Good- speed Opera House fronting the Connecticut River. "The earliest things I can remem- ber are going to visit my father in a rehearsal room. Instead of going to the ballgame, I would go hang out with him in a theater. So this comes kind of second nature to me." Gennaro said he never envisioned being in theater, but hung with actors at the University of Notre Dame, pursued an acting career, appeared in the Broadway company of "Godspell," which led to producing and the realization that he lacked a business background, for which he was urged to get an MBA or law degree. Nine years out of college, he went to Fordham Univer- sity School of Law at night and worked as a lawyer for about seven years in New York, including representing entertainment clients. "I went down that road for a while [in law], and I'm glad that at some point I realized I'm going to go back to why I did this in the first place," he said of returning to theater. Gennaro, 64, has run seven nonprofit arts organiza- tions. He came to Goodspeed from the Trinity Reperto- ry Theatre in Providence, where he was executive direc- tor since 2007. He also has led the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey and Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. Goodspeed, which has an annual budget of approxi- mately $11 million and about 65 year-round employees, produces three musicals each season at the Goodspeed Opera House and develops new musicals at its Norma Terris Theatre in Chester. It also has The Scherer Library of Musical Theatre and The Max Showalter Center for Education in Musical Theatre. Additionally, its JMF Writers Colony, in partnership with the Johnny Mercer Foundation, brings established and emerging writers and composers together for a month each year to create new musicals, providing a pipeline of shows that may be further developed in the Chester theater. Building on Goodspeed's history of talent develop- ment is important to Gennaro, he said. "Because this is such a destination spot, I want to try and develop more writers and composers and give them the ability to create new work — I think that's got to be our strength," he said. Audience development He also hopes to develop more audience crossover between Good- speed's two theaters: the Opera House, dedicated to refreshing and reviving musicals from their golden age, and Norma Terris, dedicated to new works. There's significant value in each constituency, he said. Key, too, is attracting a new and younger audi- ence — something the- aters across the U.S. are trying to do. "I feel that there's a core group that has sup- ported this place for years and they're important to us," Gennaro said. "The other theater [Norma Ter- ris] allows us to find an entry point for developing a different audience." Paul Marte, communica- tions manager for The Bush- nell in Hartford, said enter- tainment venues in general are struggling to cultivate audiences because people's attention is so fragmented. "It all comes down to programming — if you do things that younger people are interested in, they will jump at buying tickets and coming into your venue," Marte said. It's a balancing act of presenting shows appealing to a spectrum of tastes, he said. "We have to know our audience and make sure we're giving them enough of what they want that they keep coming back," Marte said. Also today, many people, primarily those who are younger, are looking for something experiential, per- haps a party before the show, coming as a group and making an event out of what they're doing, he said. "That's a big thing," Marte said, noting that more entertainment venues and businesses in general are catering to "eventizing" things. Gennaro also sees opportunity to broaden Good- speed's geographic reach as a regional destination. Beyond the theaters, East Haddam and the surrounding region have a lot to offer, from restaurants and natural beauty to other theater venues. He cited the Oregon Shakespeare Festival as an example. That event, in Ashland, Ore., has annual attendance of about 400,000, with people drawn for the shows and the small city's charm, restaurants, bed-and- breakfast inns and outdoor beauty. n Michael Gennaro practiced law in New York for about seven years before he decided to return to theater because he had a passion for it. H B J P H O T O | J O H N S T E A R N S

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