Even though the exhibition hall didn't open until 10 a.m., the lobby (or concourse, rather) and sessions were buzzing an hour before. Compared to yesterday, day two -- the expo's longest and generally biggest day -- proved to be a much calmer experience on the exhibition floor.

This absence of mass hysteria was duly noted by a random passerby. He shouted to another attendee: “Seems like there's a lot less people here than last year!” Although I have no previous shows with which to equate it, G2E appears to be not so much of a ghost town compared to the rest of Vegas. That's a plus, right?

Gaming CFOs keepin' it real.

And that brings us to one of the first sessions of the day, “State of the Economy: Gaming CFO Roundtable,” which continued our current recession obsession by dedicating an hour to the economy and its current state of “fiscal uncertainty.”

Moderator Bill Newby, a board member of American Gaming Association, pointed out that expected panelist Johnathan S. Halkyard, CFO and treasurer of Harrah's Entertainment Inc., would not be joining us this morning.

“Harrah's has gone into a quiet period,” said Mr. Newby. Apparently a very quiet period indeed. I wonder why that could be...

Panelists still willing to vocalize included:

• Simon Dewhurst, executive VP and CFO, Melco Crown Entertainment
• Bill Clifford, CFO, Penn National Gaming Inc.
• Daniel D'Arrigo, CFO, MGM Mirage
• Jeff Hartman, Mohegan Sun

“It's been nothing but brutal,” Mr. D'Arrigo said about the liquidity situation. “There are less banks out there today than there was last year; there are less banks willing to lend.”

More glamor, more appealing headdresses.

Not only did the roundtable broach liquidity concerns, but equity, deleveraging, and everything else  that made me wish I'd taken a few more business classes in school and a few less write-about-your-thoughts-and-feelings classes. Overall, it was a very dry but honest discussion with a few intermittent laughs -- it was extremely evident these men didn't think the current economic climate was anything to be droll about.

Near the end, Mr. Newby brought up growth and asked how the metrics have changed.

“Things have dramatically changed,” Mr. D'Arrigo responded. “There's going to be a lot less pure development growth, especially in this market place. We suspended two projects -- one in Atlantic City, another in Vegas. A lot of others are doing the same … gone are the days that we can put up a nice story board … now you are going to want to scrutinize (development plans) more so than ever.”

He continued by calling the downturn “a game changer” and said he doesn't see new developments coming to the Las Vegas market for another five to seven years.

When Mr. Dewhurst was asked the same question, he said there's a lot more at play in Macau than the downturn. The difficulty, he said, is due to  fuzzy regulation translations -- going from Portuguese to Chinese and so on.“It's just bloody painful."

Lounge singing: a must-have for any gaming expo.

Once the exhibition hall did open, I met with folks from Konami, Matsui America, Spectrum Gaming Group, EMM and a bunch of others whom I'm forgetting at this hour. Many meetings included a short audio interview, which I will be posting in the coming weeks.

Today's winner of "Best Dressed Brit."

BMM took the simple yet elegant booth approach.

Afternoon sessions were of the online variety and included “Web Marketing: Channels and Online Approaches.” John Taylor, president and CEO of GameLogic Inc. and Brian Best, corporate director of e-commerce for Boyd Gaming Corporation, discussed all the important acronyms: SEO, CPC, CPL, CPA. Although, they forget to mention what most of them stand for. I guess that's why man invented the Google.

“Funding is scarce for a lot of these things,” said Mr. Best. “The low hanging fruit is definitely the search engine optimization.” (That's SEO for those of you still Googling.)

GameLogic and Boyd Gaming talk web marketing. 

And as for answering the are-we-required-to-have-a-Web-site question:

“It doesn't matter if you are small or big: You need to have a web presence,” Mr. Taylor explained. “Your customers expect it. Supply exceeds demand for the first time ... the old paradigms aren't going to work anymore.”

One of the most powerful pictures Mr. Taylor painted was of the out-of-touch vice president making the mistake of ignoring the web. He told the group of about 40 a true story of how one VP expressed concerns because he didn't want customers “loitering” on his Web site. Uh, because they were creating such a ruckus with all that unique clicking? I do have a deep sympathy for those dealing with upper level execs who don't quite get the Interwebs.

Don't be anti-social networking around these guys.

The day's final session, “Social Networking: Implications for Casinos,” turned into three mini-sessions starring Joe Wall of JJWall Associates, Richard Becker, president of Copywrite, Ink. and Michael Corfman, president and CEO of Casino City.

Basically, social networking the most powerful marketing tool out there, and it's OK if you're over the age of 30 to engage in it. Really, it is. The only way to truly understand how it works is to become a part of it. (And while you're at it, join our IGamingNews Facebook group!)

That's it for now. Until tomorrow.