Daily Business Report: Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023
Record attendance expected for the 2023 Indian
Gaming Tradeshow & Convention in San Diego
The Indian Gaming Tradeshow & Convention is expected to have its biggest trade-show floor ever when it is staged at the San Diego Convention Center on March 27-30. Panel discussions will be held on topics such as tribal sovereignty and the potential effects of gaming.
Conference Chairman Victor Rocha expects attendance to be greater than 2022’s event, given that San Diego is a popular venue among attendees. Last year’s event took place in Anaheim and attracted an estimated 6,500. Meanwhile, between 8,000 and 9,000 attended the Las Vegas convention in 2018.
This year’s exhibition promises to be bigger than ever, with over 380 exhibitors showcasing the latest innovations, services, and technology. Of these, more than 60 will be new to the event. Featured will be slot machines and table games, hospitality, and facilities services, sports-betting and payment-processing technology, and marketing, security, and surveillance solutions.
The conference gets underway at 1 p.m. on March 27 with four classroom sessions on Class II gaming. The traditional part of the conference, with varied panel discussions, starts the next day. The tradeshow will be held over the final two days. This year’s major themes will be Texas, tribal sovereignty, and legal cases impacting gaming.
Other panel discussions include mobile gaming, cannabis, responsible gaming, crypto in gaming, 2023 trends, the labor crisis, tribes pursuing commercial ventures, digital payments, regulation, construction, and expansion, combating human trafficking, sports betting, cybersecurity, and slots and table games.
Top photo: The San Diego Convention Center. (YOGONET Gaming News)
California community college
enrollment starting to pick up
CalMatters
Californians are increasingly returning to the state’s community colleges. After nearly three years of a sustained enrollment freefall, the 116 community colleges are educating roughly 2 percent more students in fall 2022 compared to the previous fall, when the schools enrolled about 1.3 million students, according to new preliminary headcounts the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office shared with CalMatters Tuesday. Two campuses have yet to finalize their latest numbers, so a final statewide total is unavailable.
Overall, the colleges are still roughly 250,000 students short of fall 2019 levels, but the enrollment collapse since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic appear to be plateauing.
Progress is uneven: While 69 colleges showed positive growth compared to fall 2021 — and 45 posted enrollment gains of 5 percent or more — 48 colleges or campus centers shed students, according to a CalMatters analysis of community college system data.
Greater San Diego Association of Realtors
forges new partnerships across Europe
The Greater San Diego Association of Realtors (SDAR) is expanding its bilateral partnerships with real estate associations across Europe to create greater access for its members to do business beyond the regional market. In the past year, SDAR established partnerships with real estate associations in nine European nations to help maximize client growth for its members and build stronger ties to global real estate markets.
The accelerated adoption of new digital technologies and marketing tools in the real estate
industry have made it more convenient than ever to connect to international markets. SDAR’s Global Real Estate Department is leveraging these innovations by negotiating reciprocity agreements with foreign real\ estate associations that will lead to greater client collaboration while upholding the highest standards of practice.
While participating in foreign and domestic real estate conferences throughout the year, SDAR leadership, along with International Real Estate Committee Chair Matias Susel, worked vigorously to forge relationships with associations in the following European partner nations: Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Turkey, and Ukraine.
San Diego Oasis receives $500,000 gift
from the Bridge Club of North County
San Diego Oasis, an award-winning local nonprofit whose mission is to change the way people experience aging, received a $500,000 gift from the Bridge Club of North County (BCNC). The donation will help fund “The Game Room” in San Diego Oasis’ new Rancho Bernardo center set to open later this summer. “The Game Room” will be the future home for BCNC, as well as other social games like Mah Jongg, another popular game among older adults.
Founded in 1970, BCNC is a local nonprofit that operates as a social club for playing bridge, and promotes, grows and sustains the game of bridge. In addition to social games, BCNC also hosts sanctioned games. The nonprofit welcomes all generations to get involved, meet with other bridge enthusiasts, and learn how to play the game.
San Diego Regional Policy & Innovation
Center adds four economic researchers
The San Diego Regional Policy & Innovation Centerr announced four additions to its interdisciplinary team of research scientists: Daniel Enemark, chief economist; Karen Boyd, economist and director of research; Alicia L. Jurek, economist; and Gabriela Gonzalez, economic analyst. The nonprofit organization is dedicated to helping solve the region’s biggest problems through equity-centered research, policy analysis and collaboration-building among regional leaders and stakeholders.
Daniel Enemark heads PIC’s research team as chief economist and is a leading voice advocating for a more equitable labor market in San Diego. He brings 15 years of experience as an academic, consultant and executive.
Karen Boyd is an economist and director of research at PIC, responsible for developing and sharing actionable, equity-focused research. Her work has appeared in many academic publications, and she has been invited to numerous talks and panels.
Alicia L. Jurek, as an economist for PIC, uses her expertise in research design, quantitative data analysis, and data visualization to develop and implement research-driven solutions to address San Diego’s most pressing challenges.
Gabriela Gonzalez serves as an economic analyst for PIC. Bilingual in English and Spanish, Gonzalez is an accomplished data analyst with additional skills in survey distribution and report writing.
Sweetwater Investment Management awards
the Sweetwater Leadership and Innovation Award
SAN DIEGO — Sweetwater Investment Management is holding its fourth annual investor meeting at Torrey Pines Lodge where it will announce Priya Abani, CEO of AliveCor, as the 2022 recipient of the Sweetwater Leadership and Innovation Award.
Each year, Sweetwater selects one of the most innovative and inspiring leaders from its portfolio companies for this honor.
Since joining AliveCor as CEO in 2019, Abani has led the growth into enterprise markets with reimbursed monitoring services for health care providers, partnerships with pharmaceutical companies and clinical research organizations for remote cardiac safety testing and is overseeing the development of a comprehensive condition management service offering for cardiology.
Channel Equity Partners leads funding for Mappedin
WATERLOO, ON — Mappedin, the leading platform for creating and maintaining indoor maps, has raised a Series A round of funding led by Channel Equity Partners, a San Diego-based growth equity firm specifically focused on emerging category leaders in B2B SaaS. The investment funds will be used to support Mappedin’s growth mission, enabling the business to scale its team, bolster its go-to-market efforts, expand into new industries, and continue investing in its cutting-edge technology and products.
Primordial Genetics launches
high-performance RNA polymerases
SAN DIEGO — Primordial Genetics Inc., a synthetic biology company, announced the launch of its proprietary RNA polymerases to advance safe, viable mRNA-based vaccines and therapeutics. The collection of enzymes is now available for evaluation and licensing and pave the way for the clinical viability of mRNA-based medicines. Primordial Genetics is a synthetic biology company founded in 2013 with the mission to impact the treatment, prevention, and diagnosis of human diseases via efficient and streamlined systems for manufacturing RNA and DNA.
SOCi selected as platform of record for Pet Supplies Plus
SAN DIEGO — SOCi Inc., the marketing platform for multi-location brands, has partnered with Pet Supplies Plus as the franchise brand’s platform of record for localized social media marketing. With over 665 stores across 41 states and counting, Pet Supplies Plus needed a platform and team to support the development and execution of a localized social media strategy that highlighted the brand’s high level of engagement within its local communities. With SOCi, Pet Supplies Plus empowers its franchisees to grow their location’s online presence and showcase what makes each store unique.
Sequoia Consulting Group acquires 42 North Solutions
SAN DIEGO — Sequoia Consulting Group, a leading provider of technical and full life-cycle services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients, announced the acquisition of 42 North Solutions. Based in Scituate, MA and founded by Robert DeCoste and Daniel Ramsey, 42 North supports capital project execution and management, technical operations, and facilities management needs of pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients. Sequoia and 42 North provide a broad range of services to help clients manufacture life enhancing and lifesaving therapeutics.
Heron Therapeutics enters into cooperation
agreement with Rubric Capital and Velan Capital
SAN DIEGO — Heron Therapeutics Inc., a commercial-stage biotechnology company, has entered into a cooperation agreement with two of its shareholders, Rubric Capital Management LP and Velan Capital Investment Management LP. As part of the agreement, Heron has agreed to appoint Craig Collard, former president & chief executive officer at Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, and Adam Morgan, chief investment officer at Velan, to the company’s board of directors.
Cordial taps industry veterans to executive team
SAN DIEGO — Cordial, the cross-channel marketing and data management platform for brands to communicate in personal, intelligent ways, has hired Matt Howland as chief product and engineering officer and Daniel Incandela as chief marketing officer. Howland leads Cordial’s product and engineering team. Incandela brings more than 20 years of experience to help transform Cordial’s marketing engine.
Wrike joins the HubSpot App Marketplace
SAN DIEGO — Wrike, a powerful work management platform, announced that it is now listed in the HubSpot App Marketplace. The two-way sync between Wrike and HubSpot, the customer relationship management (CRM) platform for scaling companies, connects end-to-end workflow automation for marketing, sales, and service departments, resulting in improved alignment, project execution, and customer experience. HubSpot tasks, deals, and tickets are synced with Wrike tasks in real-time, providing teams with full visibility to properly manage the entire customer journey, from marketing initiatives.
Radionetics Oncology appoints
Istvan Molnar as chief medical officer
SAN DIEGO — Radionetics Oncology, a pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel radiotherapeutics for the treatment of a wide range of oncology indications, announced the appointment of Istvan Molnar, M.D. as chief medical officer. Molnar is an industry veteran bringing 15 years of experience in oncology clinical development, including significant expertise in radiopharmaceutical drug development. Molnar was most recently chief medical officer at Lantheus Medical Imaging and at Fusion Pharmaceuticals.
Luminia acquires New Hampshire Solar Garden
SAN DIEGO — Luminia has executed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to acquire the assets, development resources and project pipeline of New Hampshire Solar Garden,
including 15 MWs of community solar that the companies jointly closed in 2022. Luminia will now control and manage the developer’s community solar portfolio totaling over 218 MWs. New Hampshire Solar Garden founder Andrew Kellar has joined Luminia, bringing along extensive community solar expertise and a proven track record of Northeast solar development.
