In the next five years, the ICE and iGB Affiliate trade shows are set to double in floor area and grow their attendance to as much as 100,000, according to Clarion Gaming managing director Stuart Hunter (pictured).
Hunter, addressing gaming industry trade press during a media tour of the Fira Barcelona, the venue for the shows from January next year, said that Barcelona represented “a world-class city for a world-class event in 2025.”
Supported by a Clarion team, Hunter entertained the 20-strong media group on a two-day visit to the city and its exhibition facilities. Addressing the group, he said that Clarion had a five-year vision for ICE.
The move from the traditional London home, he said, was customer-led. The last ICE London and iGB Affiliate in February this year drew 50,000 attendees, compared with a pre-COVID 36,000 in 2020.
The ExCeL venue has its space limitations, he added. The shows had all but exhausted the available space, yet Barcelona’s Fira complex could offer nearly 200,000 square metres of space, with another 50,000 set to be commissioned in time for 2026.
“We could have filled 150,000sq.m for 2025, but we felt it would be expanding too quickly, so we have kept it to 120,000sq.m for the first year.”
Hunter said that despite its near-capacity, Clarion had no wish to move out of London. The pandemic gave Clarion the opportunity to spend time consulting with its customers over a future destination.
The decision to move, for its customers, was a mix of the high costs involved in a London event, and the impact of Brexit. There were 12 to 14 cities in Europe with the capacity needed, but they were whittled down to four: London, Barcelona, Madrid and Paris, then to just London and Barcelona.
The 23-strong core of ICE exhibitors voted 18 for Barcelona, two for London, one for Paris and two were undecided.
The iGB Affiliate feedback was generally in favour of London, but that was overtaken by the feeling that it should go wherever ICE was destined to go.
As compensation, said Hunter, the iGB L!VE event, set for July this year in Amsterdam, will return to London on a similar date next year.
Statistics and key points revealed during the media event included:
- ICE brought £244m to London in economic spend and the gaming shows represented 18 per cent of Clarion Events’ business.
- In the first three to four hours of ICE this year, the ExCeL venue saw 24,000 visitors pass through the doors, almost half of the show’s total footfall for the three days.
- Clarion has blocked 40,000 room nights for the show period to exercise some control over hotel rates for its visitors, whereas it had no control over local hotels in the ExCeL area.
- “One hotel was charging stand builders’ staff €800 per night for ExCeL,” Hunter noted.
Hunter confirmed that fast-tracking from one sector to another at ICE 2025 will be facilitated by using elevated walkways.
There will be an outdoor eating and networking hall between Halls 2 and 3, while Hall 3 will have an elevated VIP area.
Purpose-built conference areas will be built for bite-sized seminars, while an esports arena will be accommodated.
Clarion has made a five-year commitment to the Fira Barcelona with plans to review that commitment towards the end of the period. The company had insisted that the exhibition complex should be available to Clarion in its entirety – no other shows are to be held in otherwise empty halls, giving Clarion a “future-proofing” for expansion.
How will Clarion fill up to 240,000sq.m in the future? “We will explore new synergies in wider technologies,” Hunter said.
He said that the move to Barcelona opened up the opportunity to reorganise the show floor to make it simpler for visitors to see all of their chosen exhibitors in one area. Those seeking companies in the casino sector would go to Hall 3, Hall 2 would offer online gaming, Hall 5 would accommodate the sports betting and esports community and affiliates would be housed in Hall 1.
Responding to questions, Hunter said that the ICE VOX conference would be redesigned under a new name and the conference sessions would be staged at the same time as the exhibition floor was open.
Another question referred to the Monday-Wednesday scheduling in 2025, rather than the traditonal Tuesday-Thursday timings. Hunter said that build-up and tear-down scheduling had dictated a day-earlier start, but it would be reviewed again at a future date.
There was also the prospect in the five-year vision of some consideration to be given to extending the show to four days.
