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FALL 2021 TRIBALNETONLINE.COM FALL MAGAZINE Together we can & WILL do more2 | TribalNetOnline.com Copyright © 2021 TribalHub® All rights reserved. TribalHub is the parent company of the organizations: TribalNet™, TribalWise™, TribalValue™ and TribalFocus™. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the information in this publication was correct at press time, the editor, authors and publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause. E: contactus@tribalnetonline.com P: 269-459-9890 TRIBALNETONLINE.COM As the TribalHub team wrapped up an extremely successful first ever Tribal Cybersecurity Summit, prepared to release this Fall magazine edition, and all while in high-gear planning mode for the 22nd TribalNet Conference & Tradeshow, I couldn’t help but think of how our ability to adjust to unexpected changes can really show us what we are made of. What I’m seeing time and time again, with tribes all across the U.S. right now, is that same awareness, that no matter how challenging, we can embrace the things that move us forward and it’s easier when we try not to do it alone! TribalNet has always been about bringing people together and after 22 years of this effort, it’s crystal clear that our story is your story. So while you flip through the pages of this issue, whether digital, or in old school print, I hope that you find value in what you read, discover something you can apply to your workplace, identify something or someone new and feel a sense of belonging to this great community we call TribalNet. Because together we can and WILL do more! Shannon Bouschor TribalHub, Director of Operations shannonb@tribalhub.com WELCOME TO TRIBALNET’S MAGAZINE FROM SHANNON BOUSCHOR TRIBALHUB’S DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS FALL 2021 AD INDEX 7 Dell 9 Cendyn 11 Tribal Data Resources (TDR) 13 Wells Fargo 15 NextGen Healthcare 16 NATRC/InfoTech 19 Summit Partners 21 RiteTrack 21 Microsoft 23 Amazon Information Security 25 Nokia 27 Intertribal Software 29 3M 34 Arctic IT 39 Kambi 43 Fiber Instruments 45 Acres Manufacturing 47 DruvStar 49 Nevotek 51 CHR 56 Cerner P. 33 INCREASE SECURITY AWARENESS WITH MEANINGFUL DATA by Sheila Mansolillo P. 8 Q&A WITH ANDREA STORM, CLINICAL APPLICATIONS & DATA MANAGER FOREST COUNTY POTAWATOMI HEALTH AGENCY UPDATES 6 CISA: Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency 10 FCC: Federal Communications Commission 14 IHS: Indian Health Service 26 NTIA: National Telecommunications and Information Administration 36 USDA/RD: United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development 50 FirstNet: First Responder Network Authority TRIBALHUB HAPPENINGS 4 TribalHub Industry Insights 5 Plug into the HUB 5 Hear from TribalNet Conference MC 20 What's Tribal-ISAC 30 TribalNet Conference Agenda 37 TribalHub Membership 40 TribalHub Regional Events 40 Partner Highlight- Microsoft and Softchoice 41 Training & Development 44 Hear from our Members 47 Consulting Services 53 TribalValue Working for YOU 55 Networking at TribalNet 2021 57 Associate Member Shout Out 58 BIG thanks to TribalNet Board Members 59 Thank YOU TribalNet Sponsors 60 TribalNet Conference & Tradeshow FEATURES 12 KEEPING THE COMMUNITY CONNECTED THROUGH DIGITAL CULTURE by Aaron Wheeler 18 YOUR TEAM, YOUR COMMUNITY by Christopher Orozco 22 HOW OUR BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE & DATA WAREHOUSE PROJECT BECAME AN OVERNIGHT SUCCESS AT FOXWOODS RESORT CASINO by Todd Williams 24 REMOTE U.S. TRIBAL NATIONS LEVERAGE EBS PROGRAM FOR HIGH-SPEED INTERNET IN MAJOR CONNECTIVITY by Ed Cholerton & Albert Kangas 33 INCREASE SECURITY AWARENESS WITH MEANINGFUL DATA by Sheila Mansolillo 38 THE HIBERNATING BEAR by John Fillipe 42 MAKE YOUR BROADBAND NETWORK SUSTAINABLE, FUTURE-PROOF, AND YOURS by Mariel Triggs 48 TEXT-MESSAGING AS THE PRIMARY TOOL FOR GUEST INTERACTION IN A HOTEL: WHAT SHOULD YOUR SYSTEM HAVE TO 10X YOUR GUEST EXPERIENCE by Karm Choudhry 50 HOW INFORMATION SHARING CAN REDUCE THE IMPACT OF BLENDED THREATS by David Pounder IT LEADER INTERVIEWS 8 Q&A WITH RENITA DISTEFANO, VP OF IT/CIO SENECA GAMING CORPORATION 28 Q&A WITH ANDREA STORM, CLINICAL APPLICATIONS & DATA MANAGER FOREST COUNTY POTAWATOMI HEALTH 46 Q&A WITH JERRY BEAVERS, IT DIRECTOR HO-CHUNK, INC. (HCI) PRODUCT SPOTLIGHTS 32 GAN 54 HANDEL IT P. 30 TRIBALNET CONFERENCE AGENDA P. 18 YOUR TEAM, YOUR COMMUNITY by Chris Orozco P. 22 HOW OUR BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE & DATA WAREHOUSE PROJECT BECAME AN OVERNIGHT SUCCESS AT FOXWOODS RESORT CASINO by Todd Williams FALL 2021 | TRIBALNET MAGAZINE P. 42 MAKE YOUR BROADBAND NETWORK SUSTAINABLE, FUTURE-PROOF, AND YOURS by Mariel TriggsQ&A with Renita DiStefano, VP of IT/CIO Seneca Gaming INTERVIEW WITH RENITA DISTEFANO VP OF IT/CIO, SENECA GAMING CORPORATION 8 | TribalNetOnline.com I had the opportunity to sit down and connect with Renita DiStefano, one of the FIRST women, Native American CIO’s in Tribal Gaming. Renita is a board member for TribalNet and has also been a writer and speaker at our events several times in the past, so we have many years behind us of working together. She is always open for connecting and conversation and I’m truly happy to call her a friend. As you read on you will see that Renita has some exciting technology projects happening at Seneca Gaming and is always pushing for continuous improvement. Her leadership style puts people first and it really was a pleasure to meet with her for this interview. Here is a look into our discussion! -SHANNON BOUSCHOR, Director of Operations, TribalHub QUESTION & ANSWER | Q&A WITH RENITA DISTEFANO, SENECA GAMING CORPORATION Q A Q: WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE SIZE OF YOUR IT DEPARTMENT AND AREAS YOU OVERSEE? A: At full staff we have 65 team members in our department and oversee IT for three gaming properties, two of them with a hotel, and one golf course. Our flagship property, Seneca Niagara has the largest footprint with roughly 2500 slots; we have about 5,000 slots in total. There’s also event/conference center and full resort-style offerings. Q: HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE SENECA’S CYBERSECURITY FOCUS? A: Every member of the IT team has a role in information security, however, roughly 10-15%, of our team is dedicated solely to information security and assurance. Cybersecurity is a big focus for Seneca; this cascades all the way from the top down. I am asked regularly to deliver our state of cybersecurity to the Board of Directors and also field questions and provide input to the Seneca Nation. We have several products and layers of protection and information security is baked right in at the start of every project. We don’t want to do a vulnerability assessment AFTER implementation and see reports dripping in red. It’s been unfortunate that during a time when tribal properties have had less staff and resources to dedicate to security, that the threat landscape and associated risks have increased. Every week, we see the headlines with tribal entities hit by ransomware. And, then there’s a lot we don’t see publicly, but we know it is happening. We’ve recently joined the Tribal Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Tribal-ISAC); we’re excited to be a part of it. As information security practitioners, we all try to think like the bad guys - but we aren’t the bad guys. The threat landscape has exponentially increased and we need to come together to fight this. Q: WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR JOURNEY AS A LEADER DURING THE COVID PANDEMIC? A: I think for every IT leader, it’s been about our ability to respond quickly and decisively to the changing needs of the business and our leadership. I am so grateful for a being part of a team that has a good incident response process. We were exceptionally “ready” to support a full remote workforce from a technical perspective. More importantly, we have a culture that is founded on building strong relationships and staying engaged with the team. In the beginning, when we were all scattered, I really tried to stay as much in contact and connected with my team as possible. It wasn’t just about connecting on a professional level, it was on a personal level. The work that we do in technology is already challenging, so you can’t ignore the human side of things. I genuinely care about my team and their well-being and throughout this whole thing, I have made sure they know that. It’s about listening more, individualizing relationships and thinking employee-centric as a leader and as part of the bigger picture. Throughout the last 18 months, technology has allowed us to feel part of a team no matter where we are, but leaders still need to foster environments that help us continue to engage, be creative and collaborative. BY AARON WHEELER IT DIRECTOR, SUQUAMISH TRIBE ABOUT THE AUTHOR Aaron Wheeler is the Information Technology Director for the Suquamish tribal government. Aaron has been with the IT department for over 15 years and has been serving as its director since 2015. Aaron leads a team of 8 IT technicians and engineers, who support and maintain the systems for the nearly 400 government employees. Aaron has a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology Administrative Management from Central Washington University, and recently graduated from Washington State University with his Executive Master’s in Business Administration. Keeping the Community Connected Through Digital Culture A sk anyone about the growing importance of technology throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and the conversation will most likely include the standard topics we have all been discussing since early 2020: the act of transitioning a workforce into a telecommuter status, the pain of trying to supervise kids’ schooling from home, the lack of broadband in rural areas, etc. These are all very important topics that I believe we will be talking about for decades to come. However, I have noticed that one thing rarely gets mentioned: the major impact technology is having on tribal communities by keeping them connected — not just on an individual level, but on a deep, societal one. Gathering for events is an important part of life for most people, in tribal communities even more so. Traditional gatherings, ceremonies, and other events with roots that reach back thousands of years often involve the whole tribal community. Then along comes a global pandemic and we were all told to stay inside and as far away from each other as possible. So out of necessity, the gatherings that create the bonds and hold tribal communities together did what everything else had to do: moved into a digital space. For the Suquamish Tribe, one of the traditional events that transitioned to an online platform was the Lushootseed language program. Lushootseed is a Coast Salish dialect, spoken by the first peoples of the Pacific Northwest region, which was nearly lost after failed assimilation practices of the late 19th century. Today, the teaching and learning of Lushootseed is a way of connecting the past, present, and future of the tribe. Since October 2020, the Suquamish Lushootseed Language Coordinator, Lena Maloney, has transitioned her traditionally in-person language classes to an extremely popular digital series. I was able to meet with Lena and gain some insight on how successful this transition has been, and the importance of this to the Suquamish people. Early in the pandemic, Lena and her staff decided to move their classes to Zoom, and the response was extremely positive. “Once we got past some of the technical issues — elders on iPads, poor connections — it really started to flow,” said Lena. “We use the idea of a language nest or a place where the language can live. [From home] students can select a room where only Lushootseed is spoken.” Lena and her five- person team recorded pronunciation videos which were posted to the program’s YouTube page so students could listen to the exact way a phrase was meant to be spoken. By Fall 2020, she had begun a “Phrase of the Week” email, which was sent to tribal members and tribal government employees so everyone could be involved. Each email includes a short phase with its spelling in Lushootseed, an MP4 recording for pronunciation, and a link to their YouTube page if anyone is interested in more information. The program always had a strong following, but after moving online, interest has been massive. Lena stated that “Our last 8-week class had 62 students. Tribal members living in Idaho and Florida now get to join us.” Before, in-person classes were always seen as a difficult time commitment. Now, tribal members can enjoy these events from the comfort of their own homes and don’t even need to live in the area. When I asked Lena the all-important question of if she were considering ever returning to a pre-COVID program, she replied, “No, we’ll continue online forever.” Lena went on to tell me about her growing list of ideas for what she’d like to do next with technology and the language program. This includes everything from QR codes to mobile apps for pronunciations on the go, and even some physical products like interactive children’s books with buttons that play recorded phrases when pressed. As someone who is about to become a first-time father, I love that idea and would be first in line to purchase this book from Lena’s team. As we continue to fight against the pandemic, I believe it is important to find these positive examples of digital transformation. Something as essential to the Suquamish people as their language now has a new home — a home where it is thriving and growing every week. And once the pandemic is far behind us, the Suquamish Lushootseed Language Program will still be bringing people together from all over the country and keeping that community spirit flowing across the internet. FEATURE | DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION18 | TribalNetOnline.com FEATURE | WORKFORCE B ack at the 2020 TribalNet Conference & Tradeshow, I had the opportunity to (virtually) speak about the long-term impacts the COVID-19 pandemic would have on our workplaces. I admittedly viewed those impacts through the optimistic lens that we’d hopefully see the end of the pandemic sooner rather than later, and we’d be able to put words into action to transform our workplaces. Fast forward to Fall 2021, and it’s clear we are not living in a post-pandemic world yet; we are still very much in a battle against COVID-19. Despite this, it is still a powerful time to take a hard look at our workplaces and to honestly question what we’ve learned from this pandemic and how we can put these lessons into action. Essentially, an employer is building a community when they are hiring people. With each hire, your community grows and the chance to change lives also grows. When you think of a community, what comes to mind? For me, I think of fellowship, belonging, acceptance, love, and connection. Communities come in all shapes and sizes, but they all share some of the same characteristics. By the very definition of the word, community is a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals. Sound familiar? It should, because the signature of a great workplace is the ability to bring people together around a common vision and mission, in pursuit of the same outcomes. And this is all built around human connection. Now, building connection may seem like an impossible task when the world seems to be built on keeping people apart in the name of safety and health. But this doesn’t have to be the case. A pandemic does not present a rigid barrier to creating a connection among workers. Believe it or not, there has never been a better time to build connections between people. At a time when folks may feel the most alone and are experiencing some of their greatest struggles in everyday life, an employer can step up and truly build their community in a way that delivers in the deepest ways for the people that are a part of that community. An employer can be such a powerful social force, and connection is an equally powerful force. Whatever the mission of your organization is, regardless of the products you sell or the clients you serve, there exists a chance to deliver a purpose that’s built on the fellowship and passion of good people. I personally know that being part of a community can be difficult at first. The fear of rejection can be incredibly daunting to overcome. But I know a force that’s too powerful for even fear to conquer, and that is compassion. Whether it’s kindness, empathy, or love, compassion in all its many forms is free to give and is relentless in its power to change a life. Discussions about mental health have now become commonplace within the modern workplace. It’s unfortunate that it took a global pandemic to get here, yet here we are. And we should not throw this opportunity away. We cannot talk about building communities without first acknowledging mental health. We often prioritize physical fitness in corporate wellness programs, but the conversation about mental health has to BY CHRISTOPHER OROZCO DIRECTOR OF TEAM MEMBER RELATIONS WIN-RIVER RESORT & CASINO ABOUT THE AUTHOR Christopher is the Director of Team Member Relations at Win-River Resort & Casino. He believes the fundamental purpose of HR is to improve the quality of life of every single person within an organization, both inside and outside the workplace. He’s passionate about purposeful leadership; listening to the needs of others, setting out to intentionally do good for others, and seeing the potential in someone to empower them to add something meaningful to our world. You can read more about Christopher’s thoughts on life and leadership by following along with him on Twitter. YOUR TEAM, YOUR COMMUNITY22 | TribalNetOnline.com T here’s no such thing as an overnight success, but let’s not let facts get in the way of a good story… I have been the humble Information Technology (IT) steward of three different generations of Data Warehouse (DW) and Business Intelligence (BI) Technology here at Foxwoods Resort Casino over the course of the past 20+ years. During that time, the DW/BI project has seen its share of successes and missteps. I have learned immensely and fallen “virtually” on my face more than I care to remember. My best lessons learned were usually a result of the hardest challenges I faced. IN THE BEGINNING: At the beginning of my career my directive from my then CIO was to implement a DW with Super User Analytical Tools and an Interactive Executive Dashboard to help drive and steer the business. It was branded as a Decision Support System at the time. At that point, we had no staff, no software tools, no clear requirements, and no DW Database. Additionally, no one, including most executives, was asking for this. What could possibly go wrong? The status quo of our corporate culture was to receive ad-hoc Excel reports via email from the analysts who culled the data in whatever way they could. Those organizational habits were difficult to break, but I won’t bore you with every twist and turn over those 20 years of software selections, leadership changes, waning and then surging interest in DW/BI, and billions of transactions loaded and analyzed. It probably makes more sense to share the lessons that I’ve learned through this odyssey. LESSONS LEARNED: 1. Don’t fall in love with a specific technology. Of course, perform your due diligence and research all of the relevant technologies out there. Score them based on your organization’s unique priorities, make a selection, and stay focused on getting the most out of that product suite. Squeeze the value out of it for as long as you can, but remember, all software products have strengths and weaknesses, and eventually evolve over time. Software company acquisitions also have a nasty penchant for throwing curveballs at you. Looking back, I can attest to the fact that 75% of the BI/ DW companies that we’ve used through the years have been acquired by other companies, which in many cases resulted in a product being phased out or morphed into something unrecognizable. There are some notable exceptions, which we’ve been lucky to bet on. 2. IT cannot be the primary driver of a Data Warehouse or Business Intelligence project. IT has and always will play a strong supporting role. The push needs to come from the Business Unit; Operations, Marketing, Finance, etc. Executive sponsorship is critical. When the “pull” comes from the Business Unit, the “dance” becomes so much easier. At times in my career, IT tried to “push” the BI project. Early on our DW/BI Team developed an interactive map of our Table Games Floor Layout with color coding and a drill-through by win/loss per day. It was cool, slick, and demonstrated well, but it was barely ever used. This may have been because no Business Unit specifically asked for these data, and the actionable value of it was limited. This was BY TODD WILLIAMS SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER FOXWOODS RESORT CASINO ABOUT THE AUTHOR Todd Williams has worked in Information Technology at Foxwoods Resort Casino for over 25 years delivering business solutions. He has served as the Systems Development Manager with a Team of five and a focus on hospitality software solutions for the past 12+ years. He also performs the role of Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence Program Manager. FEATURE | ENTERPRISE DATA WAREHOUSE/BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE How our Business Intelligence & Data Warehouse Project Became an Overnight Success at Foxwoods Resort Casino (never mind the 20+ years in the making)internal security awareness training pivoted to include new messages and methods of communication. MAKE A CONNECTION Over the last year, we have seen varying effects of not only the pandemic, but of data breaches, including supply chain shortages, property closures, and missed work. Regardless of our job, we have all experienced at least one of these challenges during COVID. Our training awareness tools help our team to identify training gaps, particularly from phish campaign data. It was clear that users needed to hear more from us than best practices and campaign data – our users needed to be assured that they play a vital role in our security. We realized that it’s easy for a user to half-heartedly read or listen to training initiatives if they believe they are not a target due to their specific role or level of responsibility within their team. We wanted to reinforce that every team member is critical in the effort to keep our environment secure — that they are important enough to be phished, and that their actions matter. A recently-run campaign warned users of a missed Zoom meeting. The number of clickers, multi-clickers, and clicks from team members that don’t attend online meetings as part of their role was really eye-opening. During the course of the campaign, the missed meeting link continued to be clicked multiple days after the original email was sent. This is a clear indication that our teams are not thoroughly reading their emails, which means we must make some changes in the way we disseminate our training topics. The third piece of the Train, Test, Train model is a follow-up email to all clickers of the phish campaign link. We map out the phishing email with callouts to all red flags that should have warned the user that this was, in fact, a bogus email and potentially malicious. The message was and always is – slow down, read the messages, verify the information. In an effort to express M eaningful data should ultimately make an impact on behavior and awareness, induce an ah-ha moment, and increase curiosity. Phish awareness has been a consistent topic of our organization’s security awareness training program. In the past, we’ve created newsletters, online training modules, videos, and more to spread awareness. Our security awareness tool allows us to run mock phish campaigns to test the effectiveness of our instruction. This combination of tools has served us well, but there is always room for improvement. When returning to a full workforce after the COVID-19 closures, there was a higher need than ever to make a personal connection with the topics we had already been addressing. TRAIN, NOT TRICK The goal of our mock phish campaigns is always to train, not to trick our users. We are very clear with our team that although phish tests are an integral part of our training arsenal, the goal is to use these tests to reinforce awareness. The TRAIN, TEST, TRAIN model provides us the opportunity to identify a threat, test training retention through the use of mock phish campaigns, and follow up with a play-by-play of the test. By calling out the intended lesson, we hope to increase user awareness of threats that are common in our environment and in industries similar to ours. UNDERSTAND THE ENVIRONMENT During the COVID-19 pandemic, the world increased its use of technology. Some members of our enterprise had not regularly utilized mobile devices prior to the pandemic, so device security was not at the top of their minds during this already uncertain time. As employees made their way back to the office in 2021, our information policy guidelines became more important than ever. Security breaches littered our media and revealed the potential for real threats. As a result, this data in a varied, and potentially more meaningful way, our Technical Training Team created a podcast. In the podcast, the team reviewed the purpose of the phishing program and the methods for selecting and running campaigns. Then, they touched on the meat of the communication – the numbers, what they mean to IT, and how they can directly affect our community. Curiosity and panic were big factors in the increase of clicks in the missed meeting campaign. We are hoping the podcast will hit home with our email users. Perhaps presenting the information in a conversational setting will help the data sink in deeper than it would if users simply skimmed (or deleted) a newsletter. We sure hope so and will continue to layer our training materials for maximum efficacy. BY SHEILA MANSOLILLO INFORMATION SECURITY BUSINESS SYSTEMS ANALYST SALT RIVER GAMING ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sheila serves as the Information Security Business Systems Analyst at Salt River Gaming Enterprises in Scottsdale, AZ. As an inaugural member of the Information Security Team, her role supports the Team’s effort to develop Security Awareness training initiatives, and assist with planning and analysis of future Security-related projects. SECURITY AWARENESS/TRAINING | FEATURE Increase Security Awareness with Meaningful Data TribalNetOnline.com | 33 statistic that was traditionally repeated was that if you go non-smoking, you will lose 15% revenue in that space. Well, revenues are skyrocketing, and smokers are now getting smoking areas that are equivalent to non-smoking areas of the past. Could it be that the game selection in those old non-smoking areas was so poor that non-smokers were willing to move into smoking areas? I don’t know, but I think we are all looking around and wondering if, like the hibernating bear, we closed our eyes to this non-smoking trend and were unwilling to try something new for fear of lost revenue. It’s possible that because of this pause and instant move to non-smoking we got the chance to change the players’ habits. Will we end up slowly changing back to smoking floors out of tradition? I’m not sure, but the guests will always let us know what they want. Cybersecurity has found renewed interest during this pause as well. ISAC membership has grown across the board. When everyone went home, IT professionals had to figure out ways to guard and protect the properties and the remote workforce, in some cases without funding. When you don’t have money but you have time to spend on independently increasing your knowledge. From what I gathered talking with colleagues around the country, their cybersecurity awareness, which was extremely high already, took a leap into the stratosphere during the pandemic. For example, I took the time to go through Certified Ethical Hacking certification and joined two ISAC’s. Before the pandemic, keeping a remote workforce was always a bit taboo — then it became necessary. The argument was that people wouldn’t work or be nearly as productive when working from home. I think the jury is still out, but from what I have seen and heard, the productivity levels of remote workers are not much different from on-premises workers. In fact, the acceptance of remote work has opened up a new pool of available resources and talent. Single mothers and fathers now have options for employment that were unavailable based on child-care needs. IT professionals who live in large cities don’t necessarily have to move to small towns and vice versa. I don’t know about you, but I still dread my days of commuting in San Francisco. Painfully, the world gave us a chance to step far outside our comfort zone. It was horrible in many ways, but from horrible things we can sometimes find a way to make something positive — that is what humans do. In this moment of painful pause, technology didn’t stop advancing, I think the world just took the time to figure out how to use it better. S ometimes I feel like a bear who has been hibernating, and upon awakening and crawling out of my cave in Spring, finds that someone has built a bustling city around me. This “new normal” seems to look a lot like the old normal, but I am still reeling over the last year and a half and trying to figure out what has changed or progressed. Did the world just stop, or did we progress in some ways? The last eighteen months have been like a long hibernation for all of us, and we have emerged from our slumber into a new world, in which everything has been touched by the COVID-19 pandemic. The cynical side of me says that we seem to be right back to where we started circa March 2020. The positive side of me says that something good came out of the last eighteen months and that we were not stopped along the side of the road, losing time and halting progress. Maybe it is a little of both. Technology has been exponentially growing for the last couple of decades, so maybe a pause in that growth allowed us to catch up a little. Maybe we were able to stop and look at current technology holistically and push forward on initiatives that might have been skirted over. In gaming, the push for sports betting has never been stronger than it has been in the last eighteen months. It was always being pushed but not with nearly as much success as during the last year and a half. Was that part of the pause? I think everyone agrees the growth of sports betting was inevitable, but the speed with which it became a reality for so many tribal casinos suggests that the pause in everything else helped us get enough people focused on what needed to be done to get sports betting passed in so many states. Non-smoking floors have become a huge reality in many of the tribal casinos. So many of our guests are now non-smokers — more than ever before. We are still gathering numbers, but the BY JOHN FILLIPE AUTHOR, SPEAKER AND AN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY ABOUT THE AUTHOR John Cash Filippe has been a technology leader in the world of Gaming and Entertainment for twenty-five years. His experience spans across all gaming environments and locations, from Operator to Vendor, from National to International, from On-premise to Online. He is an author of a book called Soulbraider still awaiting release, as well as a contributor for several industry magazines. He also writes a fun weekly blog called Vegas in the Morning which being circulated for a potential sitcom, and can be read at johncashfilippe.com. The Hibernating Bear FEATURE | NEW NORMAL Next >