The long-term diversification of Macau’s IR industry will require closer cooperation between the public and private sectors, according to Associate Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration of the University of Macau, Professor Glenn McCartney.
Speaking to Inside Asian Gaming at the 2nd Mastering Cotai Seminar, sponsored by IAG’s parent company O MEDIA, at MGM Cotai last Friday, McCartney said that greater tightening of the regulatory framework alone would not ensure meaningful progress in diversification of the local industry.
“You have to have a partnership together between the public and private sector going forward,” he said.
Regarding the coming retendering of Macau’s gaming licenses, McCartney added, “It’s a window of opportunity for the government and for the private sector to take note of the last 10 to 15 years of growth and see where we have come from, what we have achieved, recognize those achievements, but also recognize where are the gaps.”
Mastering Cotai, which ran under the subtitle “Bridging the Gap Between Academia and Macau’s Integrated Resorts Industry,” saw students from the University of Macau Faculty of Business Administration’s Master’s Program in Integrated Resort Management present their research papers to more than 100 Macau gaming executives.
Andrew W Scott, CEO of O MEDIA and MC of the event, said the seminar provides “a unique opportunity here in Macau where you have got this University of Macau running this Master in Science in International Integrated Resorts Management just few kilometers away from the place that has the most IRs in the world.”
The seminar included six presentations delving into major topics related to the gaming industry such as labor force, data analysis, visitors’ behavior, satisfaction measurement and social media strategies.
“We have a lot of this type of research rolling out, the problem is how do we get this information to the industry and to the government?” McCartney added, “because it is very relevant and can really help.”
McCartney provided his own presentation during the seminar exploring the nature of data and its use. For McCartney, it is important to recognize that how data is analyzed and used might be key to further development of local IRs.
