Clarion Events, producer of London’s ICE Totally Gaming trade show, report that this year’s event set a new attendance record. Ticket and registration data shows that the 2017 event passed the 30,000-attendee level for the first time in the show’s history, with official attendance posted at 30,213.
The figure represents the sixth consecutive year of growth and is 5.7 percent up on the previous best, which was set last year.
“While these are outline figures and are subject to independent audit, we are confident that they represent an accurate snapshot of the three days of intense business, networking and learning which took place at the Excel Exhibition Centre (last) month,” said Kate Chambers, managing director of Clarion’s gaming division. “The upward trend has coincided with our 2013 relocation to London Docklands. In fact, the ICE attendance is now 42 percent higher than that recorded for the last edition held at Earls Court.
“Not only are more gaming professionals attending ICE than ever before, encouragingly, they are also spending more time within the show. Our figures demonstrate the average time spent within the exhibition is 1.96 days, an increase of 0.5 percent on 2016. When this figure is extrapolated out, the number of visitor days at ICE 2017 totaled 59,217.
“Although the attendance figures are extremely important, my attention is now on the data we obtain from the post-show independent research that we commission each year and, in particular, the results of the net promoter score (NPS) metric which gauges the willingness of participants to recommend the event to a friend or colleague. The NPS, which is used by serious consumer brands including Amazon, Apple and eBay, is a measure of customer satisfaction which in turn reflects the ‘mood music’ of the industry and the relationship they enjoy with the ICE brand.”
The audited attendance, including a country analysis, will be available late March.
