venue FUNCTIONAL SPACES While it’s convenient to have the infrastructure all housed at one site, it’s important to point out the quality of that infrastructure also helps position casino properties as being a great option for corporate functions. At the Club Regent Casino, Dumonceaux points to the event centre’s use of Gala Systems technology, which allows it to reconfigure the space quickly into different layout and seating options. With 12 floor plan options, it only takes eight to 12 minutes to change the floor configuration, which gives the centre lots of flexibility and allows it to combine “business and fun” in the same space, says Dumonceaux. In a banquet setting, the event centre can seat 600 people, while it’s about 1,400 people in a theatre setup. Casinos by their very nature are about more than just gambling — they also have a strong events component that means they attract entertainment such as musicians and comedians, so if a corporate meeting requires entertainment, casinos often have the expertise to handle those kinds of requests. “No other venue in the city has the built-in infrastructure we have, so all of those are extra costs that most other convention planners would have to factor into their budgets, whereas for us, we have basically everything built in, in-house,” says Dumonceaux. “It really is an opportunity for them to look at spending those budget dollars in different areas, maybe enhancing their food service, adding some other component that they just may not have had the budget for otherwise.” 34 CORPORATE MEETINGS & EVENTS corporatemeetingsnetwork.ca