ICE visitors were undeterred by the London Underground strike this week, with the organisers, Clarion Events reporting numbers easily up with 2013’s second day – and record numbers of visitors on the first day of the show.
Concerns that the industry would be put off attempting to reach ExCeL by the Tube strike disappeared with the thousands passing through the exhibition centre’s doors immediately upon opening.
Exhibitors reported a show easily up to expectation and one or two suggested that the crowds on day one were expressly to avoid the strike which began at 9:30pm on Tuesday evening for a 48-hour run. But it did not mean fewer numbers on Wednesday, unexpectedly.
Visitors got to ExCeL using taxis, private cars, buses, even scheduled river transport services to the nearby Canary Wharf, as well as making use of the much-reduced Underground services and the fully-functioning DLR.
“We have to pay tribute to the endeavour shown by the visitors,” said Clarion’s marketing director gaming, Jo Mayer. “They have made a real effort to get here and no-one has said that it was anything other than well worth the effort. We have had a lot of feedback from exhibitors to the effect that the visitor-quality has been excellent and a great many orders written.”
The view was backed up independently from the floor, where there was a marked trend towards mobile gaming and an even more noticeable influx of “street market” operators and their customers. This year has seen the two separate “sciences” of gaming machines, the street market’s AWPs (Category C in the UK) and the higher payout B3 machines coming together with the casino and i-gaming sectors.
Major operator Ken Turner, CEO at Sceptre Leisure, which has over 20,000 Category C machines out in British pubs, said: “This show has become a major event for the street market. I have seen an amazing number of retailers here and had far more meetings with pub groups here than I have ever had at a trade show before.”
The view was backed around the hall, not just for British operators, but with all of the developers of casinos slots now widening their product base to take in machines for the street market and for mobile gaming, the ICE Totally Gaming show has significantly broader foundations than ever before.
