The Indian Gaming Association (IGA) is gearing up for its annual tradeshow and convention that returns to San Diego at the end of March, and is planning major changes for future shows with the expectation of substantially boosting attendance.
The event at the San Diego Convention Center that runs March 30 through April 2 brings tribal leaders, regulators, operators, and industry partners together for four days of education, strategy, and business development. The trade show floor is open April 1-2.
IGA Executive Director Jason Giles and Conference Chair Victor Rocha gave updates on the conference this past week during their webinar featuring Brian Sullivan, vice president of gaming U.S. for Clarion Events, and Don Wells, senior account executive at Clarion.
The conference kicks off the afternoon on Monday, March 30, with a deep dive on prediction markets, focused on the emerging federally regulated category’s legal and regulatory impact on tribal gaming. Tuesday features all-day educational sessions, while Wednesday and Thursday focus on the trade show floor.
The DigitalPlay Summit returns on the tradeshow floor with sports betting and igaming programming included in all registrations. The Tribal Energy Summit enters its second year, and the Food and Beverage Showcase returns with a focus on hospitality and non-gaming revenue strategy, Rocha said.
The educational sessions have been finalized, and they will soon be posted on the conference website, Rocha said. Speakers are also being finalized.
“It was a long process, and there were a lot of great submissions,” Rocha said. “That makes it difficult to put together a smart, coherent and cohesive narrative, but I think we did a really good job.”
The tradeshow has more than 350 exhibitors, with 70 of them new to the show this year. Booth opportunities remain available on the 86,000-square-foot show floor. Sponsorship opportunities are still available as well.
“We’ve created a really dynamic floor at this point,” Rocha said. “It’s insane how much activity we have on the floor.”
Rocha highlighted what’s called TribalBond, a space for vendors to network with high-level tribal executives.
“If you are new to the industry and looking for some guidance to help you understand Indian Country, this is a really good place to go,” Rocha said. “I highly recommend it. It was a surprise with how well it turned out last year. We want to create as many networking opportunities as possible.”
The late IGA Chairman Ernest L. Stevens Jr. will be honored at Tuesday’s luncheon. He will also be recognized at Wednesday’s ribbon cutting to open the tradeshow. Stevens’s family will be in attendance along with dancers from his Wisconsin tribe, the Oneida Nation.
“On the floor we will have a whole bunch of remembrances going on for Chairman Stevens and our dear leader [former] Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell [of Colorado who died in December],” Giles said.
Other tribal leaders who died in the past year will also be recognized, Giles said.
“We lost a lot of folks unfortunately in the last year, and there’s plenty of folks we intend to honor as well,” Giles said.
Giles said this year’s tradeshow will be the last of this format. In the future, he said, they intend to free up more time for the tradeshow floor.
“Moving forward, this floor and everything that’s going on and the educational sessions have to be the focus,” Giles said. “We will have our elections, and our bylaw requires us to do the administrative functions of a non-profit corporation. For the industry, we’re taking all input. If you are an associate member of IGA, we’ll listen to your input. We will have a Thursday board meeting where associate members will be invited to come and talk and hang out with board members and give us some ideas. If you are not an associate board member, you are going to want to join. We have big plans for how we are working together with our companies in the industry and try to make this show as big as possible.”
The 2027 show returns to Las Vegas where changes will be rolled out before returning to San Diego in 2028, Giles said. The 2029 show hasn’t been finalized but will be in either San Diego or Las Vegas. The 2030 show will be in San Diego.
“We’re going to focus on taking this show to the next level, whatever that might be,” Giles said. “We’re focusing on the innovation in our industry and everything going on with crypto and the AI revolution that’s going to take up more of our space and time.”
Giles mentioned the ICE Barcelona show and the International Gaming Conference, and talked about the new machines coming out, describing them as being like a barcalounger.
“You never have to get up and if you want to go over to that bank of slot machines you can bring it up on your screen,” Giles said. “You can virtually join a craps table from where you are sitting in the casino and not have to stand with 20 other people. That is going to be the future of gaming, and we want to be right on top of it. We want our manufacturers to work with us and get everybody ready for this transformation that is coming whether we like it or not. We want the gaming companies to feel comfortable rolling all of this stuff out, and we have the perfect show floor. We are early enough in the year where we can get ahead of this stuff.”
Giles said future IGA Tradeshows may have the same days and hours, but there’s discussion of having a soft opening the night before with DJs and drinks if companies can get set up in time. “It’s about creating those opportunities for people to go to your sessions, networks, and bringing in other tribal organizations participating in the show and bump the attendance to well over 10,000 but 20,000 and maybe the 30,000-range,” Giles said.
Attendance historically approaches 8,000.
The Food & Beverage Showcase on the final day of the conference will feature six sessions in the morning talking about the business of dining, Rocha said. Using food to keep people on properties is important, he noted.
The two tradeshow floor stages will continue to have different identities, Rocha said. The Chairman’s Lounge focuses on retail politics and honoring and celebrating people. The Tribal Leader’s Lounge is a place where people in the industry can show their products and present their services, he added.
This year’s conference’s educational sessions will focus on casino gaming operations, table games, marketing and player development, profitability, ancillary facilities, human resources, economic impact and development, and cashless gaming and impact on slot machines. There will be discussions about social media, tariffs, cannabis, partnerships with universities, innovation and technology, emerging trends, training tribal leaders of the future, gaming apps, entertainment, and interactive wagering.
“We’re excited to share the emerging technology aspect,” Giles said. “There is a lot of growth for casinos with this new technology that’s going to take it to another level. You are responding to the younger customers accustomed to sitting down and charging a phone on the slot machine.”