Nearly 400 Oasis 360™ customers traveled to the Las Vegas Palms this September—the highest attendance in the event’s history—for Aristocrat’s Oasis 360 Summit, a product education conference formerly known as the Oasis User’s Group. “We were thrilled we had record attendance at this year’s event,” said Aristocrat’s North American President Nick Khin, “particularly given the current challenging economic climate.”
While September might have marked 12 months since Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy—months pocked by government bailouts and a 500-point drop in the Dow—the atmosphere in the Palms Hotel & Casino Ballroom was marked by confidence and hope. Attendees were hopeful that the conference would show them how to get the most out of their system, and summit organizers were confident that it would.
“Our mission for the event was to help our customers get the most efficiency possible out of their Oasis product,” said Kelly Shaw, vice president of Aristocrat’s systems sales & marketing. “To do that, we changed the format of the event and really focused more on hands-on education through lab environment classrooms.”
Attendees gained valuable information about all the applications built into the Oasis system during 22 different sessions that were scheduled over the course of the two-day event. Conducting the workshop-style presentations were several Oasis 360 experts, including business partners, users and Aristocrat system executives.
“It was all about bringing in our product experts and our customers who truly have expertise in their respective fields and tailoring all the breakout sessions and workshops to focus on the key issues they have discussed with us over time,” Shaw explained. “We actually walked them through the applications to make sure they received the best training to truly maximize their investment in our Oasis solution.”
There was a wide range in skill levels among those in attendance, but even the most sophisticated users still found value in the summit. “Some attendees have been our customers for 15 years or more, yet they realize there are still areas where they can improve and gain more knowledge about the system,” Shaw said.
Along with classes and workshops, Aristocrat integrated fun, interactive activities to teach customers about some of its system tools, including the Total Promo product. During lunch on the first day of the conference, Aristocrat demonstrated the power of this virtual drawing software by setting up a mock promotion, “Crack the Safe,” for all conference attendees. Six lucky users won prizes ranging from an iPhone speaker kit to a 120 GB iPod after the system randomly drew six names from the database of conference attendees.
No one knows for sure what’s in store for the markets in 2010, but one thing is for sure: The Oasis customers who attended this year’s summit will be better prepared to take on any challenges the New Year brings. “Whether our customers have been using our system for months or years,” Shaw said, “they all share the common goal of wanting to increase their level of knowledge so that when the economy turns around they can be at the top of their game, and our Oasis 360 Summit is the perfect place to do it.”
Krista Reiner is the Managing Editor of Casino Enterprise Management Magazine. She can be reached at (701) 293-7775 or editor1[at]aceme.org.
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