SiGMA Group COO, Jonathan Shaw on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahaed as the company navigates the current pandemic

You were appointed as SiGMA's COO last December, what were some of your personal objectives when you took over the role?

Since its first expo in 2014, SiGMA has grown into the world’s largest event dedicated purely to iGaming. Yet, rapid growth for any organisation also comes with its downsides and certain limitations or, let’s say, business areas needing to be addressed. In my case, just to mention a couple, I built structures to enhance cross-departmental communication and instilled a stronger commitment towards forward planning within the various teams.

How has COVID-19 altered 2020's prospects for the iGaming and emerging tech sector? Is this a period of opportunity for the industry?

Covid-19 has in some way or another affected everyone. It’s the manner and extent that differs between organisations with varying degrees, even for companies in the same sectors, like iGaming and tech. Necessity is the mother of all inventions and organisations have been pushed to a critical survival mode that has made them take decisions, quickly and boldly. In the long run this is definitely a period of opportunity for the industry - including new start-ups, product lines and service offerings. But it’s also a grim reality that some individuals and organisations will be hit hard. It’s critical that these do not spiral out of control but work to cope, contain, and emerge as best as they can from all this.

How has SiGMA, as a company, navigate the current health crisis? What strategy is in place for both present and post crisis?

This crisis was and still is a tough one to handle. As an events company we took a number of decisions which keep both safety and quality of our attendees and exhibitors in mind. We postponed a number of events, including our inaugural Manila expo and a number of satellite events.

Besides, we also had to take some quick and tough decisions in reducing our headcount in some departments. Letting people go, especially valid team players is never easy. Yet, I believe that if done with full respect, honesty and dignity, it makes it slightly easier to handle for the employee.
Post-crisis it’s all about utilising this time to organise and optimise with some internal development projects being brought forward given the time and capacity to do so. We’ve been actively in touch with our clients to maintain the necessary rapport and updates.

If there is on thing that you would like to see from the emerging tech industry what would it be?

One of the areas where many could use some improvement is communicating technical and emerging tech information to nontechies. Most times such information focuses more on the features rather than the tangible, consumer-focused benefits. It’s not that the technical features are not key but if the industry learns how to flip the focus to a consumer-non-techie focus, then there could be a greater onboarding from the general public, investors, management and consumers.

What treats are in store for AIBC Manila? Why should this event be on eveyone's calendar?

In line with the sector itself, AIBC is constantly evolving. We bring people together and in doing so we act as a catalyst to help propagate innovation and also create the right environment for people and organisations to create business alliances. Besides the latest developments from our exhibitors in emerging tech itself, at AIBC Manila one can also expect a good mix of internationalisation - especially with our drive to bridge Europe and Asia closer together.

Besides this, AIBC Manila will also be held on the same dates as SiGMA Manila and ICE Asia. It’s the same venue but with separate and dedicated areas, which means that attendees and delegates can easily move around and explore opportunities in emerging tech, iGaming and land-based casinos. Albeit traditionally separated, there are definitely business opportunities across these sectors within these verticals.

What lessons can SiGMA and the industry at large learn from the global crisis?

There are many lessons to be learnt and this global crisis is a wake-up call.

My top three are the following:

1. It’s what you don’t see that matters the most.

2. Agility in taking decisions is critical.

3. Identify what can wipe out your business model overnight and use it to drive innovation before you need to do it out of necessity.