 to the wide world of eSports, the show devoted to all things eSports. I'm your host, Catherine Noor. Today, we're talking about the upcoming Casino eSports Conference. With me today is Ari Fox. Ari, welcome. Hey, thank you, Catherine. Thanks for having me. I'm very excited to be here in this crazy pandemic world. Absolutely, and I'm actually really looking forward to being on a panel at your conference. I had it in my mind that I was actually going to attend it and fly to Vegas, meet people in person like I do for all of these conferences I go to and speak at. But unfortunately, we're not in that situation, right? Well, listen, you know, like every business today and every entrepreneur today, you know, we started the Casino eSports Conference four years ago, and it was an in-person conference. It's been an in-person conference for quite some time. But, you know, with COVID and the pandemic getting us, you know, we were originally scheduled for the beginning of July, actually no, June. And then we had to postpone to the beginning of September, then we postponed again to the end of September. It's just about pivoting. It's about being able to turn on a dime that's what a good entrepreneur can do and that's what we're doing. And what is your position with the conference? I'm the chief operating officer. I guess if you want to give me a title or, you know, partner production, person, charge of all things, you know, and everything that goes on that comes in, mostly the educational content, all the topics, they just come out of my brain. I'm just, I'm a walking brain of information. Fantastic. Well, you know, what we're gonna do is show the video of the conference how it would be if we were there in person. Yeah, this is a clip from 2019's last year's event. And if you're a casino operator and you're trying to figure out how to approach eSports and you want to hear from the people that are actually doing it, then this is a place that you want to be at. My favorite thing about the eSports conference that I have four pages of notes checking out all these companies and what they do, it's just been very educational. The Casino eSport conference is a really great venue for people who are wanting to learn more about the eSport industry, whether it's from a legal perspective, an operations perspective, or a design perspective. My favorite thing about the conference has really been the panels. You know, they were super informative. The highlight for me of the CEC has definitely been the networking. This conference, to learn more, and it's been chock full of so much information, and it is the future. For us, it was very enlightening. The panels that we have attended, excellent speakers, people that you can see are extremely knowledgeable about all this information. You gotta see what's next. You gotta see what the next generation is gonna bring to the table, and more importantly, you gotta see how things are gonna be changing from what they are into what they're going to be. What I really enjoyed about the conference today was the depth of conversations during the sessions. It's really good to connect to smart people in this conference. It's really nailed it. If you're considering to come next year and you think there is any type of future for your industry or your business with either eSports or the casino industry, I would definitely recommend it. Well, Mr. Fox, this is the first time I'm here, and I love it. Wow, that looks like a lot of fun. I sure wish we were all there in person. In the part, the in-person event is actually quite a lot of fun, besides the educational parts that we have to it, the expansion of it has grown to include not just the education of the casino industry, but educating Hollywood itself and the emergence of a new entertainment. So we have people from colleges that come and talk about their eSports programs as well. So we're sort of segmenting the entire conference to include varying different industries because at the end of the day, what we really want to do is kind of be the CES, which is the Consumer Electronics Show for eSports. So it will cover all that education, all the things you need to do if you're in, if you're coming from a college industry or the universities or you're building an eSports program or you want to, if you're from Hollywood and you want to adapt eSports as a way to attract people to come to cinemas on nights that you don't have, there's nights during the week that cinemas out there, movie theaters have a slow business, so they can have eSports tournaments instead or viewing parties or something like that. There's a lot to talk about, there's a lot to cover because what we're learning is as far as, and I've mentioned this to you before, or I mentioned this also on my podcasts and other places, is that eSports, people have to understand is only a microcosm of the entire video gaming industry, which has really become a cultural phenomenon. So eSports itself is 10% of the video gaming world. The rest of that world is people who enjoy and engage in video gaming as almost a daily practice, like what you and I did as kids when we turned on the television. They would come home and to unwind and relax, you'd play a video game. This is part of the culture for people anywhere from 11 years old all the way up to 44, 45 years old now. So what has to happen in all industries that offer an entertainment value is they have to now offer those types of connected video gaming type cultures into their properties and into their offering. Right, okay, so before we go further, I want to show the next video, which will be how the conference is going forward in September. Right, this is a tutorial video about what we've done and how we've pivoted during COVID. So I can, and we'll get back to how this is gonna lead into a lot of other things, so. Right, and then we'll talk about that after we take. This introduction to the new CEC 3D online space shows you how this unique format keeps attendees engaged and helps make the same meaningful connections as you would in our land-based conference. The CEC 3D environment is available on your desktop or laptop via the Chrome or Firefox browsers. The first step is to create your profile and tailor the look of your avatar to best represent you. The profile will be viewable by all other attendees and includes business information that you want to convey as well as your LinkedIn profile. Once you've created your avatar, you'll drop into the lobby of the convention hall. You will also view a pop-up window with a tutorial to remind you of how to get around. On the bottom of the screen are a couple of basic controls for interacting. You'll see mute, deafen, share video, share screen, raise your hand and announcement. On the right side of this bottom toolbar, you'll see buttons that allow you to exit the space or request help from the supportive staff. On the right of your screen, you'll see a sidebar. This provides you with information about the event and the other attendees. The top of the sidebar shows you the zone you're in and the other attendees who are there to chat. The black box at the top of the sidebar shows you with whom you're in a private chat. Everyone in the same zone you're in will show up on the sidebar with their name and their company displayed. You can click on their name to see more information and to invite them to a video or text chat. The controls on the bottom of the sidebar allows you to choose what kind of interaction you have. You can instantly chat using video or text. Walking around the environment is easy. You can use the arrow keys, or if you don't have those, the W, A, S and D keys. Let's look at how exhibitor booths work. When you walk up to an exhibitor booth, your screen will look like this. In front of you is a desk in front of a display screen. On the desk are interactable links, which can be clicked for more information. The screen above the desk will display a slideshow or video presentation about the company. On the left top of the screen is a drop-down menu of information provided by the exhibitor. You can see that the booth space is delineated by a glowing green line. When you enter this space, you enter a special chat zone that includes only those within the booth space. Sales personnel can staff this area to converse with attendees who enter their zone and can respond to questions about the company. In the center of the hall, you will see high-top tables, each with this own green line carving out separate and unique conversation zones. This is an area to arrange a private meeting with several others. There may also be marked as a place to chat with others on a particular topic. The event space is designed to mimic the feel of actually being at a convention with several fun activities added in to allow you to enjoy your time together. You'll see a bar where you can order a drink or a dance floor, where you can practice some cool moves. I hope this tutorial gave you a useful overview of the new CEC 3D space. We can't wait to see you there on September 29th. Ari, that looks fantastic. I'm gonna dance at the conference. Yeah. Have you been to a conference on this platform before? Yes, actually, we partnered with them, the company called GamerJive. And the CEC was developed, and my brother and I, who's my business partner, is been developed so to look to the future. What are we really trying to achieve? Where are we going in the future? And the way, basically what's happened with the pandemic is it's kind of thrusted us into this world of the future. And this type of platform will not go away when we're done with COVID and after the pandemic. This is actually gonna be something where people will be able to not only utilize the platform alone, but then do hybrid events where you have an in-person and a virtual ability to enter into the event. Now think of this for a moment. If you entered into this event on the virtual side, and you wanted to speak to somebody in the physical realm, we're going to create situations where you can beam in as a hologram. And then you can talk to people in the space as if you were actually in the space. Now, you're physically not there, but your hologram is. And you can have business talks and have private talks and conversations based on what you're looking at right now is sort of the seeds of the eventual building of something really incredible. Eventually you'll be able to use the VR headsets, but we can even go beyond that. So there's so much here that we're doing with the Casino eSport conference to facilitate that future growth. And what else does that mean? That means to utilize our ideas for platforms to create virtual casinos. They were hit very hard, the casino industry. Even the movie theater industry was hit very hard. I mean, but there's Netflix and stuff that they have to compete with. But with the casino industry, imagine being able to recreate the inside of any casino around the world and be an avatar to walk through and play slot machines and blackjack and walk up to an actual table and face to face like you and I are doing right now with the dealer or with other people that are sitting at the table. So there's a lot to do. There's a lot of possibility. And I think that this is the future. We're looking at something that, you know the movie Ready Player One. My brother and I are creating that. That's what we want. I mean, nothing beats in person. I got to tell you, I would never turn away a handshake or a hug. But this is the next best thing. Sir, I would much rather meet people in person, have that energy with them there and be able to explore Vegas and the strip and play games while being there. However, this kind of makes sense that eSports would adapt this new technology for a conference. So it is very consistent with eSports. And so at what point did you feel that you had to go that way and that you didn't really have an option and couldn't do it in person? Well, I've attended a lot of other virtual events this past year. And it's basically a Zoom call that you're watching on your screen. I think there was an enormous amount of networking and there was lacking in that department of being able to network. And as you saw from the tutorial, that you can actually walk around as your avatar and engage in chat and video conversation instantly and also go to a booth space. The only really difference between our platform and physical platform is the actual physicality of being in person, like you said. And of course, everyone would wanna be in person. But this opens up a whole new world for those eSport companies that are just startups that are small, they can't afford the plane ride and the hotel stay that could then come to the event virtually and still get the same type of networking ability than they would as they would if they were there in person. Meet venture capital people at a conference but do it in a virtual sense that they don't have to outlay hundreds and hundreds of dollars for the flight and to ship their stuff over and all of that. So it does give an opportunity for the startup communities to have better access to those that attend those events than just the elite people that can afford to come to the event in person. It's definitely a plus. And as far as the eSports communities are ago, you have to understand that eSports is, it isn't an infancy, everyone always says that. But beyond the eSport attraction, the competitive play, which is what eSports is, it's competitive video gaming play, the outside of the arena is really what we're looking at. We're looking at eSports, yes. Of course, there's always eSports where my brother and I are in the middle of starting something called the World eSports Tour which is going to be sort of like the World Poker Tour, same thing. But it's with eSports, it's connected to the casino industry. Big games that offer competitions for amateurs, as semi-pros, even professionals, to win prizes and money and stays at some luxurious casino hotels around the world. And this is gonna be part of our commercial offering of GameCon. But the way Ben and I, my business partner and I, see eSports is not just the eSports, it's the entire culture of video game. So eSports, if you imagine for a moment, they do that at conventional sport fields. For example, if you go to a baseball game, outside the baseball game of what's happening on the field, there's all the food vendors, some stadiums even have museums in them. Yankee Stadium has a museum in them. So there's extra things around outside the actual baseball game that's going on. Some stadiums have slides and there's fountains and pools, I think, in some stadiums in Kansas City, I think. So there's all kinds of things from the outside of what the offering is of the actual eSport tournament. So we're creating on our commercial offering, which is the GameCon conference in the World eSports Store, the eSport venture, but outside of that, the festival around it. So imagine if you will indie games and other things that people can interact with while their favorite players, professional eSport players, aren't up there on the stage. They can then participate in other things. And when their favorite team is up there, then they could go watch them play. So there's a lot of things that I think that the eSports industry is missing as a whole because eSports really came out of the video gaming industry. The video gaming industry didn't come out of eSports. So we have to understand that the entire ecosystem lies within the video gaming industry. And eSports, again, as I said, it's a 10% of that ecosystem. So I think the CEC, and as I'm talking to you, it's this education to teach people who always hear the word eSports, and then all of a sudden, oh, it's eSports. Everybody should get involved in eSports. eSports is definitely gonna be huge and it's growing astronomically, but we gotta remember where it's roots were from and it's roots were from the video gaming industry. So we have to start there. So I always bring people back to that to understand because once you understand the culture of the video gamer or the gamer themselves, then you all understand the entire ecosystem. I give a perfect example, I have three boys and boys happen to be big gamers. Only one of them is a competitive video gamer. And he played for the Rutgers University's Super Smash Brothers team in New Jersey. And he was really good, but he likes to play fighting games. So the fighting games that's in the Smash community, that's what they call the FGC or the fighting game community. And then the other two, one plays Skyrim and the other plays, I don't know, Fortnite or Minecraft. But Fortnite, I guess, is more eSports, but the two other ones are more interested in the exploratory games. Skyrim is like this game that you can keep going for days and days and days. Oh, and the other son likes to play Arkham City because he's into DC and Batman. So there's a lot of kids out of those three boys, only one of them is a competitive video gamer. And we do have a question from a viewer. Hosting things on the internet tends to summon troublemakers for people hacking into other people's Zoom calls. Are you worried about inappropriate people going to your event? We have a monitor in place, a full-time monitor who tracks everybody that's coming in and coming out of the event. So we've already have people in place that if they create problems, they'll be kicked off the platform, muted, and asked to never come back. But there is, it's not like live TV, where it's pre-recorded, everything's live. So, I mean, they have been talking about a six-second delay, so possibility. Yeah, and, you know, eSports by its very nature is electronic and you are on these kind of platforms and have to deal with things like that all the time. So I think you're perfectly capable of doing that. The platform is very capable of doing it. Sure, and I'm sure that there are security codes that people use to get in it. But the way I look at this is it seems to me, this opens up the conference to so many people who would ordinarily not be able to attend for various reasons, financial, they have jobs that they have to be at, they can't get away. And, you know, I've definitely attended quite a few virtual conferences since the beginning of the pandemic in various positions, even, you know, speaking at the conference or just attending it. And it really allows me to attend a conference that is coming from London, rather than only being able to be involved in conferences that are US or whatever, without even having to travel. So as much as I'd like to travel, you know, it is kind of a treat to be able to attend more conferences and more webinars and things. So, you know, I see a lot of advantages to this. Well, again, we don't even like to use the word virtual because when we think of virtual, everyone thinks of those boring Zoom calls. This is more like a video game. Oh, okay, right. You know, this conference, we call it 3D. So it's a 3D conference. And reason why we call it that is so that people can associate it and understand that you've become an avatar. You're like an avatar. You're walking around a virtual exhibit space, going into different exhibit booths. As you saw in the tutorial, you cross over when the color of the floor is a different color. That actually takes you into a private chat with the owner of that exhibit space. So you won't hear the rest of the room. So if you're in an exhibit hall, and sometimes if you're in a live exhibit hall and you're trying to talk to somebody in their exhibit, if it's too loud, you can barely hear what the person's saying. In this situation, you're gonna walk into the exhibit and you won't hear the rest of the room. You will hear is just you and the sales rep that's at that exhibit space. And that's wonderful because I think everyone's kind of sick of the Zoom format or whatever. And we're involved in that all the time. Now, can you tell, before we sign off today, can you tell people how they can sign up for the conference? Sure. The conference, to be an attendee, you go to the casino, Esport. That's C-A-S-I-N-O, Esport, E-S-O. Oh, wait, Esport. I'm drawing it like Esport. Esport, actually there's a smaller version. It's C-E-C-O-N-S.com. Perfect. C-O-N-S.com. It's $179 to attend. Now again, Katherine, that's another reason why people aren't gonna just go in to be disrupted because if you're gonna pay $179 to attend the event, I don't think you're gonna go in there just to make trouble. Perfect. But our website is on the screen. So if anybody would like to join and come as an attendee, there's a lot to learn and a lot to cover. Fantastic. Well, Ari, thank you for being here today. And I look forward to seeing you, your avatar. I look at seeing your avatar dance on the dance floor. And I will be doing that. All right, thank you everyone for watching today. Look forward to seeing you next week. Brian Prokes will be my guest and he will be talking about Esports giving back. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me, Katherine. Have a good one. All right, thank you, you too. Bye.