Feature: ICE London
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Clarion Gaming’s Stuart Hunter explains how a pandemic-buffeted ICE London was revived. By Peter White
ou recently announced your new April dates. Can you explain the process by which you arrived at these dates and the practicalities of moving events the size of ICE London and iGB Affiliate London? Working alongside and in the best interests of our customers has always been and will remain at the very top of our agenda, so when it became clear that the original February dates for ICE London did not give the industry sufficient confidence in terms of the Omicron variant we set in motion a reach-out programme to connect with our community of exhibitors, sponsors and attendee groups. Migrating events the size and scale of ICE and iGB Affiliate London represents an enormous challenge. This, coupled with the popularity of ExCeL London as a venue and the return of inperson events in the UK, amplified the challenge of securing dates that worked for the industry. We have Volume 18: Issue 149
a great relationship with the senior team at ExCeL London and with ICE being one of the flagship events in their calendar, we worked tirelessly during the run-up to and through the Christmas period to identify and secure an alternative date. Due to the size of ICE, we only really had two potential solutions, both sitting either side of the Easter break in April – neither of them perfect solutions, but our only chance to ensure ICE would be able to run in 2022. ExCeL’s support was essential and involved the migration of several other events to enable ICE to have the entirety of ExCeL, which is the space required to operate at full capacity. Whilst we have been really encouraged by the support that we have received from individuals, companies and organisations including the European Casino Association, The Gambling Business Group also appreciates that the new dates will not suit everyone and we will continue to work through any remaining challenges with our clients, 37
