It’s All Go for the Gala! AAMA Topper Outlines Upcoming Annual Event, Encourages Greater Participation Q: What are you looking most forward to and how are plans coming along for AAMA’s big event? A: The schedule is all set for the meeting and we’re excited about how it’s coming together. For those who don’t know, it will be Oct. 2-6 at the Renaissance Chicago North Shore Hotel, an easy drive of about 35 minutes from O’Hare Airport. We begin the week with committee meetings on 2nd, 3rd and 4th and will have sponsor presentations the 4th and 5th. Then the night…
Author: RePlay Editor
Editorial I’m getting older, and like many guys with gray hair, I don’t like to learn about new stuff (like the things my smart phone does which I don’t know about, or, honestly, don’t care to know about). But, I do admire Apple, Samsung, and the rest for coming out with these breakthroughs. My angst is caused by the new business lingo that came with it all, like using the word “solutions” as in saying “currency solutions” instead of “slug rejectors.” The other night, I was walking through a Target store when I was stopped by an end-of-aisle display of…
Prize Automation’s Future Seen Years Ago BMI Merchandise Builds New Tech Around Redemption for Better Operations & Higher Profits If you were a fly on the wall at BMI Merchandise nearly 30 years ago, the talk may have sounded a lot like what we’re hearing in offices across the nation today as companies look to technology to improve methods, efficiencies and profits. Back then, this forward-thinking, solutions-focused company was hard at work in the redemption world coming up with new ways to help its customers run more efficiently, and three decades later finds itself well positioned with a new slate of…
10,000 Steps a Day What Commitment Can You Make to Better Your Life & Business? By Beth Standlee, CEO, TrainerTainment If you follow me on Facebook, you know I’ve been having a walking party every day by challenging myself to walk 10,000 steps per day for 100 days. I knew I needed to set a goal that would create real lasting success. You see, I’ve started and stopped every fitness program known to woman. It was important for me to pick something that could fit into my busy schedule. I figured I could walk no matter where I was, especially…
Emerging Tech Takes Center Stage The Amusement Scene Is Buzzing With Developments in VR and More by Kevin Williams KWP/The Stinger Report & Founding Chairman of the DNA Association While still wrapped in nostalgia, the perception many have of the “arcade” and amusement entertainment business in general is as far from the modern reality as possible. There’s been a revolution in the deployment of out-of-home entertainment in recent years that has the capability of dragging the amusement trade toward a startling new future. The definition of technology-based entertainment platforms encompassed in the term “Digital Out-of-Home Entertainment” (a mouthful so we’ll just call…
Attention Deficit? Clearing Your Head to Clear Your Way to New Ideas by Jack Guarnieri, Jersey Jack Pinball & PinballSales.com As a kid, I was asked, or told, to pay attention. Maybe my focus wasn’t the best all the time. I don’t have an attention disorder, but I’ve tended to pay closer attention to what I want to and not hear much of what I’m not that interested in. I can dial in or tune out as I choose, I guess. (No pun intended with my new Dialed In! pinball game. LOL) We all do it to varying degrees. It seems when…
“CX” And Your Business Don’t Know What That Is? You Actually Do & Here’s What’s Important by Howard McAuliffe, Partner, Pinnacle Entertainment Group What is “CX?” That’s what I wondered when I started reading an article about consumer trends. It turns out “CX” is simply a new way to say “customer experience.” I was struck by the fact that much like the term “CX,” the consumer trends that were outlined were basically a new way of explaining an old standard. “Truthful Consumerism” was the trend outlined in the piece specifically as: “transparency, aspiration, positive impact, tolerance, and empowerment.” All of…
90 Days at a Time Quarterly Meeting Sets the Stage for Successful Long-Term Strategies By Beth Standlee, CEO, TrainerTainment Once a quarter, the TrainerTainment leadership team gets together to dream and scheme of all the things we can accomplish during the next 90 days. We start this process at the beginning of each year with a two-day, annual planning session where we dream of our 10-year target, get more focused on the three-year picture, and then set it all in motion as we plan the one-year strategy…90 days at a time! We do this for ourselves and for other companies…
The Good News! Why Arcades Haven’t Died In the U.S. (& How They’re Very Much Alive) by Adam Pratt, Game Grid Arcade & ArcadeHeroes.com This month’s op-ed is based on an article that I wrote for my Arcade Heroes blog back in February. It was created in response to an article that ran on a popular gaming news site known as Kotaku. That article was entitled “Why Arcades Haven’t Died in Japan” and offered up that writer’s perspective as to why the arcade business and culture has remained strong despite diminishing in size. The Kotaku article did do a fine…
Editorial Back in my early days covering this business, I read a story in some magazine or newspaper in which cigarette vending machines were referred to as “ubiquitous.” I had to look the word up to learn that it meant “all over the place.” Well, cigarette machines aren’t ubiquitous any longer, but it’s starting to look like cranes are. This resurgence of a class of game that was once popular way, way back…but then sort of disappeared for a while…has been slow but steady, unlike a tsunami but more like the moon tide that creeps up the beach and keeps…