ICE London has been rescheduled for April 12-14 at the ExCel Centre. Two weeks ago, Clarion Gaming, the organizer of ICE, announced that the show would be moved from its original schedule of February 1-3 because of concerns about the uptick of positive Covid cases around the world. In addition to moving ICE London, Clarion also said the iGB Affiliate London will be held April 13 and 14, and ICE VOX, which includes the World Regulatory Briefing and the International Casino Conference will be held April 11 and 12.
“What for many buyers and brands is becoming the most influential week in world gaming succeeds in bringing together upwards of 700 exhibitors to the ExCeL Exhibition Centre and I would like to pay tribute to the ExCeL senior management team which has worked tirelessly alongside us over the Christmas break in order to accommodate events of this magnitude and help us to deliver the best possible solution to our stakeholders,” said Stuart Hunter, managing director, Clarion Gaming.
“During all of our intensive discussions we have been resolute in our commitment to avoid a clash with the Indian Gaming Tradeshow & Convention (April 19 -22) in Anaheim, California, USA and have been in close contact with colleagues at the National Indian Gaming Association who in turn have been extremely sensitive to the circumstances caused by the Omicron variant. Again, I would like to put on the record my thanks for their understanding and support. We will continue to work through any remaining challenges with all of our clients and stakeholders and support them with their preparations and planning for what is the world’s biggest and most influential gaming industry gathering.“
Last month, Clarion announced a long-term agreement with NIGA to produce the trade show.
Clarion doesn’t believe the current restrictions on travel to the UK will impact attendance from either exhibitors or attendees. According to Clarion these include:
- Isolation on arrival – 3 hour PCR tests are available throughout London and the airports. In addition we will implement 3 hour PCR testing in the hotels at Excel. This means you can still arrive at the same time as you would normally for the show and will at a maximum be in your hotel room for 3 hours.
- Proof of vaccination/negative test – This is a standard practice for Clarion already and would have been implemented at the show regardless so will not have an impact on the show as seen at G2E where this was a requirement.
- Mask wearing – If this is still part of the guidance we will implement it but as per other events in the industry we do not believe this will impact the success of the event again as seen at G2E.
Clarion says there may be a slight drop-off in attendance, citing the following statistics.
“As an industry we are seeing an attendance rate of 10 percent-20 percent below in terms of conversions, so based on current trends we would expect to see 85 percent of ICE’s normal attendance. Importantly though of the current registered delegates 75 percent have stated they either make the final purchasing decision or are part of it.”
Already confirmed, according to Clarion, are 700 exhibitors from more than 50 countries.
