Pulse

ICE North America: free and big easy

By Lewis - 29 April 2020

On March 24, Clarion Gaming announced the postponement of ICE North America, the exhibition organiser’s flagship event for the international gaming community that was due to be held in New Orleans on May 13-14, 2020.

While the in-person event has been rescheduled for Spring 2021, the Clarion team has pulled out the stops to create a digital event over the same week in May (May 11-15), delivering a free online version of ICE North America. Bringing an entire week of live streams content, ICE Digital has been designed to deliver the comprehensive selection of discussion, expert insight and thought leadership everyone expected from this year’s in-person event, in an online conference environment.

High-profile representatives from land-based, sports betting, tribal and hospitality technology industries have already been added to the growing list of speakers including the likes of Sun Gaming & Hospitality, Chalkline, Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Maryland Lottery and Gaming, PointsBet and Edwards Technologies Inc. Looking forward to the event this month, Clarion Gaming’s Rory Credland, Event Director for ICE North America, spoke to G3 about the forthcoming digital event, and what this means for conference and show-goers as ICE Asia SiGMA also goes digital and iGB Live! is postponed into September.

Whose idea was the Digital event? What was the rationale behind the decision?

Gaming, in common with all sectors of the global economy, has been severely damaged by the impact caused by COVID-19. The current market situation has forced us to think more broadly in terms of what we can deliver to the gaming community. We didn’t want to simply postpone ICE North America and run it again next year without giving something back to the industry. As event organisers immersed in the industry that we serve, we wanted to deliver something of substance to the WFH gaming community, utilising a digital platform to create a unique event that embraces the ICE brand’s look and feel.

Could you tell us more about the Digital event? What are your expectations for ICE North America Digital?

Our expectations are two-fold. We are seeking to offer everyone who’d planned to attend the New Orleans event the opportunity to continue to engage with the planned original content, to discuss the latest trends and maintain their contact with the industry in North America. And secondly, the focal point of this event is the interaction between stakeholders in the American market and the importance of learning, understanding and keeping contact with the dynamic changes taking place in such an important geography.

When you stage an event physically, such as in New Orleans, it’s obvious it’s a US event. How do you geo-locate a digital event?

The key aspect is the focus on the North American issues and trends that are affecting the market at this moment in time. We aren’t creating a universal digital event, one with a European or Asian focus, this is squarely a digital week of ICE North America content. The in-person event in New Orleans was due to take place over two and a half days, so it made sense, as we’re restricted by time zones, to offer a week-long digital event that more closely mirrors the content we’d planned for the in-person show.

What are the reasons for extending the event over the course of a week?

Running the event over the course of a week ensures that event hours can be distilled down to a maximum of three hours per day. We’ve done this to cater for the American market while still offering a window for visitors from Europe, Asia and Africa, for example, to engage with the presentations and seminars. We want to be able to address all the important topics and issues, without necessitating that people spend their whole working week taking part in a virtual event, which we saw as an unrealistic prospect. It’s about finding the right mixture of high value content spread over a manageable period of time and we think this is the right balance.

What’s your expectation regarding the participation for this event and how you think people will connect with this digital offer?

One of the first things we sought to address was connectivity with our visitors across the five days. To achieve this, we’re focusing on three core elements: igaming and ilotteries; sports betting and performance marketing; and brick and mortar and hospitality, with days dedicated to discussions centred on these key areas. For example, we dedicate Monday to igaming and ilotteries, sports betting’s on Tuesday and hospitality and land-based will set the agenda on Wednesday. For Thursday’s event we are focusing on Training with short, sharp practical takeaways covering Responsible Gaming, Sportsbook and Casino Property Management. We hope that due to the condensed nature of this event, we can focus on high level, engaging and interesting content. We’re not going to be running the event like an extended webinar. We’ve poured time and effort with our technical partners into the process of engaging people in the unique proposition of this digital event.

What technical challenges have you faced in organising an event of this magnitude in such a short space of time?

As an exhibition business, shifting into a digital environment has involved engaging the team in a new challenge, but we are very fortunate that within our portfolio we have iGB North America. We’ve worked collectively and collaboratively with the iGB team to problem solve alongside the ICE North America production team and our platform provider to understand the challenges and find the appropriate solutions. It has very much been a team effort that’s put usability and connectivity of the attendees at the forefront of our efforts.

Does the platform you’ve adopted allow for an unlimited attendees or is there a cap?

Initially, it looked like we’d be restricted by the platform to a capped number of attendees, however, working with our technical partners we now have unlimited capacity. We’ve three weeks until the event goes live and already we’ve got 1,100 pre-registered attendees, which is a terrific start.

Which speakers and panels are you particularly excited about?

All the speakers have been very engaged in the process as we’ve brought them along with us on the journey into a digital environment that’s new for everyone. I think what’s been exciting is that we all want to learn more about this digital platform. The speakers have been very receptive to the change and it’s sure to shape some of the discussion points too. We continue to develop the programme, but as of now, Seth Young from Pointsbet, Michael Daly from Catena Media and Colin Birch from Cosmopolitan Vegas are just a few from the exciting collection of high-profile speakers I’m looking forward to listening to and engaging with in May. I’m delighted to bring this calibre of speaker to the ICE North America Digital audience.

How will the Digital event address the industry-wide challenges posed by COVID-19? And how do you steer the debates so that this isn’t the only topic of discussion?

We certainly can’t ignore the elephant in the room and it is sure to be a major point of discussion regarding its impact on the industry, but we also need to prepare for what comes next once things return to normal. While we have to address the issue of COVID-19 as it’s affecting everyone in all walks of life, not just in terms of the gaming industry, it’s also important to consider what’s next for the industry as we emerge from this crisis and I think that ICE North America Digital is a perfect place for those discussions.

How will the event attempt to replicate the networking opportunities for which your live events are renowned?

In designing this event, we’ve worked especially hard to ensure that networking is at the very centre of ICE North America Digital. We want people to have the opportunity to engage with each other throughout the five days, and so during the discussions we’ve deployed a tool that allows people, logged in to the event, to set their own meetings and join break-out rooms to connect with industry colleagues. And while we appreciate that we can’t bring the New Orleans Mardi Gras experience to online, we will be encouraging attendees to join us on the Friday for an informal gathering to meet and chat amongst friends and colleagues in a virtual networking event that will celebrate this weeklong industry-focused digital forum.

Should the event prove a great success, would you consider hosting additional virtual events in the future?

While I don’t believe that digital will initiate a move away from physical exhibitions, because they remain such an important part of our industry, there’s certainly potential for additional events across the calendar organised in this format. As the first of our digital events, with ICE-SiGMA Asia Digital next month (June 8-10), ICE North America Digital will set a template for brand extensions to continuously engage with the gaming community throughout the year and across multiple geographies. Certainly, this year we will see many digital events organised to replace in-person exhibitions and conferences, but in the future, as acceptance of this type of event grows, we could see supplemental digital events complement their physical counterparts.