In the dynamic world of sales, where strategy meets execution and innovation drives success, individuals like Irene Chow stand out as beacons of excellence. As the National Casino Sales Manager at Uniguest, Irene brings a unique blend of expertise, passion, and vision to her role, reshaping the landscape of sales with her remarkable leadership and dedication.
Irene’s journey has been marked with significant milestones – from pioneering digital signage initiatives to leveraging her expertise in market analytics and vendor management – all contributing to the principles that guide her approach to sales, and the tremendous impact she has had within Uniguest and beyond.
Learn more about Irene in this in-depth Q&A:
Throughout your career, what significant milestones or experiences have shaped your professional growth and development?
Significant milestones or experiences that have shaped my professional growth and development include working in technology right out of college. I recall working for a health technology company where the solution enabled women who had experienced high-risk pregnancies be able to carry their child to a healthy term (36 – 40 weeks). The technology was based on monitoring through a dial-up modem at the time – if you can believe that! I also found that working for a leading telecommunications manufacturing company with 14,000 employees gave me the knowledge to learn about networks. I worked in the market analytics side and learned how to connect-the-dots in identifying new markets. At that time, I was also getting my MBA, which also opened doors to more strategic roles in category management and vendor management with a Fortune 100 and leading global distributor with about 12,000 employees as well. I will say that working for larger companies gave me access to many resources, analytical tools, and valuable industry connections. This enabled me to start an initiative called Digital Signage back in 2005, when the focus was on setting best practices for customers across many different verticals and has now become mainstream. That’s one thing I will say about working in companies that focus on technology solutions is that everything is truly connected and always evolving!
How did your journey in the hospitality industry begin, and what motivated you to pursue this career path?
My journey in hospitality happened as soon as I focused on helping to set best practices for casinos to deliver true IPTV and digital signage via a converged platform with Tripleplay in late 2021. Casinos have been challenged with a plethora of solutions tied to displays that are not on the same network and cannot be centrally managed – many of these solutions were inherited over the years and even outlasted their product warranties. These displays reside not just on the casino floor, but also the conference centre, sports book video walls, and live events arena. The Tripleplay solution enables secure remote and browser-based content management and viewing of content on any display on the network. I saw this as a benefit and similar with the stadiums and arena that have to manage content for hundreds of displays.
What excites you about working at Uniguest?
Uniguest is one of the top 5 leaders in digital signage globally as of 2023 and that is very exciting! I have been championing digital signage solutions and services – specifically the central management system for 20 years across different industry verticals and I’m excited to be doing this in the casino and gaming world. I’m excited that Uniguest offers a true AV+IT solution in a world that has finally reached market acceptance of this solution.
Could you share some insights into the challenges you’ve faced in your career, and how you overcame them?
Usually, the biggest challenge I see is that people don’t understand the technology and look at you as if you were speaking a different language all together. The other challenge is logistics in execution. Most of the time this does happen within my own work environment. The way to move forward and through these challenges I have found is to try not to take things personally and develop a playbook or a “how to” guide that is easy to understand internally. Keep it simple. Once your internal constituents understand where you’re coming from, they can become advocates for you. Your playbook involves staying on top of the market trends, customer feedback, and other vendors’ feedback. I’ve been lucky to have my managers – and even executive mentors who were not my managers, act as my advocates. At the end of the day, we shouldn’t be working in silos. We should be working as a strong team to be able to execute successfully.
What advice would you offer to individuals aspiring to advance their careers within the hospitality or AV industries?
Learn by doing – not just reading about it. With digital signage and complementary technologies, you do have to know the details to be successful, you have to know how the technology is used and how it will evolve, which are the adjacent applications and utilization. I’ve learned that with the hospitality industry, customer support is critical. These are environments that are running 24 x 7 and need solid support and responsiveness. We have to be just as hospitable in supporting these customers.
As a leader in the AVIXA Women’s Council, what strategies do you employ to empower and support other women in the industry?
As I had mentioned before, we learn by doing and we also learn – even the hard stuff – from each other. I’ve learned from my own experiences that women can feel marginalized or feel that their voice doesn’t count in a meeting room of men. They can feel as if people are talking over them rather than working with them, mentoring them. I’ve been there too. I was an AVIXA Women’s Council Group Co-leader in San Diego. That was prior to and during the pandemic (2019-2020). We had a great group of women and even some men at our quarterly meetings. We had great support from a number of organizations including Samsung, Sony Commercial, and Diversified. What I learned from that experience is that sometimes true appreciation of our skillsets can be found outside of our own work environment, when we network with like-minded individuals. I am looking forward to co-leading the Houston, TX AVIXA Women’s Council Group with the same like-minded individuals – intuitive, creative, and technical. What a powerful combination!
Can you share a piece of wisdom or a mantra that has guided you throughout your career journey?
We all have a purpose in life that aligns with our values and what we naturally gravitate to, which are our innate skillsets. In your current role, think about how you can improve or expand those skillsets while finding ways to increase revenue and improve operational efficiencies. Don’t just chase after a job title – find ways to make the job your own and a legacy you would be proud of. Make it a true win-win!
Learn more about Irene Chow and solutions by Uniguest at InfoComm 24 in Las Vegas. Irene will be there at the Uniguest booth #W2365 from June 12-14.
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