ICE London 2022 goes forward next week: ‘Together never felt so good’

April 7, 2022 6:01 PM
Photo: Shutterstock
  • Hannah Gannagé-Stewart, CDC Gaming Reports
April 7, 2022 6:01 PM
  • Hannah Gannagé-Stewart, CDC Gaming Reports

After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, ICE London is set to make its long-awaited return next week.

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The show, which moved from its usual early February slot to 12-14 April 2022, will take place at London’s ExCeL Centre as it has done for the last 10 years.

This year, it will take a slightly different form, placing its emphasis squarely on getting the industry back together. The exhibition will be smaller, without the usual large-scale stands from land-based exhibitors, but the opportunities for attendees to connect, share best practice and make deals have been ramped up.

The conference element of the event, ICE Vox, will run as usual starting on Monday 11 April. Again, the format has been adapted to offer delegates a more bespoke and tailored programme.

Instead of conference sessions being split into the usual thematic streams, the agenda has been broken into ‘masterclasses’ hoping that it will enable delegates to access only the most relevant content for their role, leaving them more time to network elsewhere.

Clarion Gaming executive advisor Kate Chambers described the theme of this year’s event as “together never felt so good”, admitting that this is a tentative return to scale after the pandemic but an innovative approach to getting the industry back under one roof.

“It’s a celebration of bringing people back together. The main thing is creating spaces for people to actually talk face to face, so there are a lot of lounges; business lounges, VIP lounges, and other feature spaces that will draw people together. As much as people have a need and a desire to do business, they actually just want to catch up with contacts in the industry they have been unable to see in a long while”, she explained.

Technology is likely to be another central theme at this year’s show as businesses have been busy with R&D over the past two years; this will be the first opportunity to showcase their innovations to their peers.

A regular feature, Pitch ICE, will return with its elevator pitch format showcasing new developments and start-ups from across all verticals, while the Esports Arena will also be back, bigger and better than ever before.

Stand N1-510 will host an entirely new show element, with ICE365 Live broadcasting from a dedicated studio on the show floor. The studio will feature high-profile industry figures, including chief executives, regulators and some of Clarion Gaming’s industry partners live in conversation for attendees and streamed to digital viewers who are unable to attend in person.

Chambers said that while land-based is less represented from an exhibitor perspective this year, she believes it is a great year for business leaders from the land-based sector to attend the show.

“If the pandemic’s shown us anything, it’s that businesses need to be able to adapt. They need to have a strategy to cope with big, monumental shifts. So, I think that if you’re a land-based attendee or operator, it’s a really good year to come because the focus is more on igaming. If you want to talk about how to take a brand online, how to create an audience, team up with an affiliate, then this is a really good year to come”, she said.

It is also likely the only year that will have such a deep emphasis on igaming, as Chambers predicts ICE 2023 will back bigger and better than ever before, with exhibitors from across the industry in a position to reconnect again.