venue SIMPLE LOGISTICS For corporate event planners, the on-site infrastructure many casinos offer comes with a number of perks. “You’re gonna get more bang for your buck out here,” says Grimes. “Plus, it’s also a one-stop shop, which a lot of organizers like, so instead of having to call a hotel to book it, calling one of the excursion companies to book that, we can handle that internally for you and get everything all on basically one event order, so everything’s all together and you see a finalized price rather than adding this cost and calling another company and adding that cost.” Alain Dumonceaux is the Director of Food and Beverage and Events for Casinos of Winnipeg, which is the umbrella group for the Club Regent Casino and McPhillips Station Casino. He says corporate meeting planners appreciate having one contact person when they are looking to book an event with a casino. “My sales and event co-ordinators are really the hub of what makes everything tick for us, so our clients have one solid contact person and if they don’t have the answer, we have the colleague sitting next to them that has it, so they don’t have to look at getting outside services or resources,” he says. “We’re able to take care of all of that for them, so it makes it much easier on an event co-ordinator or planner; they don’t have to necessarily get lots of other services to put in, we can take care of that on their behalf, especially if it’s things we can do in-house.” 33 Spring/Summer 2019 CORPORATE MEETINGS & EVENTS Scenic mountain hiking views of Barrier Lake, Kananaskis Country, Alberta, Canada.