“ICE is unique within the gaming sector”
In an exclusive interview with Focus Gaming News, Kate Chambers, Managing Director at Clarion Events, reveals impressive facts and details about the upcoming Gaming Technopolis.
ICE 2016’s inauguration is only one day away and Focus Gaming News shares exclusive material about the most important event of the year.
Every year, ICE updates the theme for the show. This year we’re seeing the “Gaming Technopolis” theme. What is the meaning of this year’s theme?
Our creative campaign, which is set in a surreal gaming city of the future, invites industry professionals wanting to see the very latest innovations and solutions to ‘Enter The Gaming Technopolis’ – a pop-up gaming city where connections are made, where ideas flourish and where conversations are all about the future.
The message that we are sending to our international community of stakeholders is that the journey they make to Gaming’s Technopolis will be their most productive and successful of the year comprising over 500 exhibitors drawn from a record 62 nations, embracing both the online and the offline worlds. We think it’s an intoxicating proposition for anyone involved in gaming in any part of the world!
Once again, ICE will have a full learning programme running alongside the exhibition. Can you first provide an outline of the ICE Conference programme?
ICE is unique within the gaming sector in that it delivers invaluable commercial/product exchange opportunities for our 25,000 visitors, as well as the opportunity to participate in high level information or knowledge exchange at ICE Conferences and the free to attend ICE Seminars. We know from our customer research, that our visitors value the opportunity to learn about the key contemporary issues impacting gaming and then be able to meet with the industry in action on the show floor. We think it’s the biggest learning and knowledge-exchange event in world gaming with over 70 hours of learning opportunities, delivered by 200 thought leaders drawn from both within and outside the international gaming community.
Dealing with ICE Conferences first, the subject matter has been developed to help prepare international business for the technological, regulatory and social challenges and opportunities which lie ahead and the eight strong programme for 2016 opens with the International Casino Conference (ICC) on Monday 1st February. Organised in partnership with the European Casino Association (ECA), the ICC is being held at the award winning Hippodrome, which is the UK’s busiest and most popular casino, and is located in Leicester Square, central London.
The ICC is followed by Modernising Lotteries: Retail & Digital; Data Insight & Business Intelligence and a programme dedicated to Cross-Platform & Multi-Channel Gaming (all Tuesday 2nd February). Wednesday 3rd February, the final full day of ICE Conferences, will feature Game Design & Development; World Regulatory Briefing (organised in partnership with IAGA); Betmarkets (organised in partnership with SBCNews) and Cybercrime, Security & Regulatory Compliance (organised in partnership with GAMSHIELD). The threat of Cybercrime and the importance of combating it, is reflected in the decision to include an add-on workshop led by the specialist Organised Crime Command based at New Scotland Yard. The workshop will run from 10 – 12.00 on Thursday 4th February.
“ICE is unique within the gaming sector in that it delivers invaluable commercial/product exchange opportunities for our 25,000 visitors, as well as the opportunity to participate in high level information or knowledge exchange at ICE Conferences and the free to attend ICE Seminars.”
What about the Seminar programme and what’s the difference between the two streams?
The ICE Seminars are a free to attend learning programme which are being run in addition to ICE Conferences. Each of the seminars are being curated in partnership with leading authorities comprising, the National Indian Gaming Association and Victor Rocha of Pechanga.net (US Tribal Gaming, Tuesday 2 February), Spectrum Gaming Group (Millennials & Gaming, Wednesday 3 February), FICCI (India Briefing, Wednesday 3 February), SiGMA (Affiliate to Operator, Thursday 4 February), WrB Africa (Sports betting in Africa, Thursday 4 February) and Juegos Miami (LatAm Briefing, Thursday 4 February).
Whilst the primary objective of entering the Gaming Technopolis is to see the very latest ways in which the industry is adapting and deploying new technology, information exchange or learning, also ranks very highly.
Can you give us any further information about Pitch ICE? Which are your expectations for this event?
Pitch ICE was launched in association with GamCrowd at last year’s ICE. Designed to help identify and support start-ups in the gaming industry, it’s competition based with shortlisted finalists given a platform at ICE to pitch their ideas to a panel of gaming entrepreneurs and successful business people. Last year’s winner, Gamevy, has succeeded in building the value of the business by an incredible 900 percent in less than a year and is back at the 2016 show as a fully fledged exhibitor. I am extremely proud of the fact that ICE can play an important role in not only providing a showcase for many of the biggest names in gaming but also in providing a platform for start-ups which may be small in size but which have massive ideas. There are 14 finalists, it is a free to attend event with presentations taking place at ICE on Tuesday and Wednesday (2nd and 3rd) at stand N7 460
Recently, ICE signed an agreement with Sports Betting Community (SBC) to provide two Official Sports Betting Tours on the exhibition floor during the event. Could you explain the main goals of this agreement?
The tours are designed to give delegates the opportunity to mix with key industry suppliers and to discover the latest products that will help their business thrive in a competitive market. The tours start at 11am on the SBC stand SD2-C/D and will run on Tuesday 2nd and Wednesday 3rd. Visitors attending the Tuesday tour will also be able to pick up tickets for SBC’s London Baby! networking event in the evening.
“I am extremely proud of the fact that ICE can play an important role in not only providing a showcase for many of the biggest names in gaming but also in providing a platform for start-ups which may be small in size but which have massive ideas.”
Year after year, the show is getting larger and better, not only by the increase of the audience but also measured by the square meters you are using in the venue. Why do you believe ICE’s growth has been sustained?
ICE 2015 was a significant success for the industry with a record attendance, which was independently audited at 25,497 and a hugely positive Net Promoter Score – the universally adopted metric which measures customer satisfaction. In fact, the scores ICE received from both exhibitors and visitors were equal to the very highest achieved by the best performing business-to-business exhibitions staged internationally.
Exhibition organisers, as a rule, try to avoid descriptives such as ‘biggest’ and ‘best’ but when it comes to ICE that’s exactly how our stakeholders describe their experience of the event. Clearly ICE is a big show which means that it has momentum and has become a meeting place for the international gaming community. It’s unique because it brings together both the online and the offline gaming worlds in a way that no other event does. It’s also the most international gaming business event on the calendar with 133 nations represented at the 2015 edition. Furthermore, we have a fantastic learning programme in place and we work extremely hard to maintain the highest possible business standards.
However, whatever we do as event organisers, the ultimate reason for our sustained success is the quality of our exhibitors – and I have to say that ICE has the very best in the world!
Clarion recently bought iGaming Business. Which is the aim of this purchase? And which are the company’s plans for 2016?
Clarion already works closely with iGaming Business and the acquisition will enable us to combine the strengths within the two groups. Simply put, iGaming Business will remain run by the current team and there are no immediate plans to change how the business is run. Where there are synergies which benefit the industry it would make sense to talk these through and agree changes to working practices, but apart from that, it’s business as usual.
By any standards, ICE is an event-packed three days – what’s the best way to keep informed of what’s going on?
In addition to the web site, we also have the dedicated ICE app which is available for free on Android and iOS devices. The app allows visitors to access the full event schedule, browse the latest product launches, receive information on all of the speakers taking part in the ICE Conference and Seminar programme, as well as develop a personal event planner to remind them of appointments, business meetings, and other events. It also features a detailed interactive floor-plan to help attendees navigate the Gaming Technopolis. The app was hugely popular last year with nearly 40,000 visits. The free app can be downloaded by visiting the Apple App or Google Play stores – search for TotallyGaming.
