Following an ongoing customer-consultation program, Clarion Gaming has responded to requests from its international community of stakeholders and made the extremely difficult decision to postpone the co-located 2021 editions of ICE London and iGB Affiliate London, which were scheduled to take place at the end of June.
Based on requests from its customer base, the next edition of ICE London will be held at ExCeL London on Feb. 1-3, 2022, alongside iGB Affiliate London on Feb. 3-5. An expanded edition of the flagship iGB Live! will retain its traditional dates (Sept. 28-October 1, 2021, RAI, Amsterdam) and in the process help kick-start the recovery for gaming communities in Europe.
Stuart Hunter, Managing Director, Clarion Gaming, said, “The ongoing conversations we are having with exhibitors of all sizes across both events have shown continued and significant uncertainty about the year ahead. Exhibitors have expressed a desire to put the experiences of the last 12 months behind them and instead focus their collective energy and creativity into making the 2022 editions into memorable in-person celebrations.”
The decision to return in February 2022 has been welcomed by the industry. Aristocrat Gaming’s General Manager – EMEA, Erik van den Berg, said, “We are fully behind Clarion Gaming’s view that people’s safety and comfort must always come first. Returning ICE to its traditional February window offers much more chance of a return to normality.”
Andrew Ludlow, Managing Director of gaming technology provider, NRM Group, said, “This is a pragmatic and sensible response from the organisers. I’m pleased that we have this clarity and can instead plan for ICE London ’22 when the immunisation programmes will have taken place, travel will not be such an issue and the world will be a lot safer and a lot calmer. ”
Adam Azor, Global Head of Marketing at Sportradar added, “Given the current landscape, we believe that working toward ICE London in February 2022 represents the best option for everyone.”
Reflecting on the announcement in relation to iGB Affiliate London, Shona ODonnell, Head of Strategic Events at Better Collective, commented, “While we are very sorry that this year’s postponed edition will not take place, we fully support the team at Clarion Gaming in making this difficult decision.”
Stuart Hunter concluded: “Thanks to a significant financial investment in the development of new commercial channels for our customers, our team has spent the last nine months developing, market-testing and refining an integrated technology platform to serve the international gaming industry year-round.
“Our next major live trade shows will be IGB Live and IGB Affiliate Amsterdam. Everyone is excited to get the gaming community back together at a physical event and our autumn shows are well placed and on a safe timeline to do that. We will be vastly expanding the product offering at those shows and introducing many new features.”
