Covid has had a huge effect on Clarion’s business. We have not been able to fundamentally operate our business in 18 months, which has given us a long time to step back and consider our approach to the market. In the medium-term our focus is entirely on the core business, our European events that include: iGBLive, iGBAffiliate London and, of course, ICE. In addition, we have added our digital product solutions to form a platform to help grow and accelerate those live events.
For the next two years our heads are down focused on these shows, however, that doesn’t mean we won’t seek out partnerships and collaborate on initiatives in new territories. We are very much focused on that core right now, but once this has levelled out, we will look at other opportunities and when we come to the market, with its permission, we will launch whatever the industry wants, if it delivers value. What we won’t do is say we’re going to launch across multiple continents with a view to taking over the world, because without permission there’s fundamentally no point.
Alex, what’s been your journey both in the gaming industry and within Clarion Gaming? How did you get the top job?
My journey in gaming started on a Friday. In September 2004, I started working for iGaming Business magazine in the burgeoning igaming sector. On the Saturday I flew to Las Vegas for G2E and my eyes popped open. What it gave me was insight into one of the most exciting, fast moving and dynamic sectors I have ever discovered. I made a ton of friends in a matter of days and from there I never left gaming. We grew iGaming Business from a quarterly magazine through to other publications in the sector, including the first affiliate magazine and affiliate event. We went through a whole world of adventures before 2016, at which time we’d grown to a size of business and earned the respect of the industry to the degree that Clarion came along and acquired us.
P14 WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS
“There’s a lot of pressure, both
internally to recover and bounce back, and externally too – since this event is more than just a product, it is an important part of this sector. There are a huge number of
stakeholders that quite rightly have a major interest in this show, which puts a lot of pressure on me to deliver on that expectation.”
I’ve exhibited and attended every Clarion show over the years, and ICE was this epic gigantic show I’d watched evolve alongside EIG and GIGSE. My role working with Kate saw me growing out the publishing side of Clarion’s business and I spent the next few years focused on the digital marketing sector, acquiring the Affiliate Summit and the Traffic & Conversion Summit to build out a division within Clarion focused on digital marketing. I was working in this area in October/November last year when we went through Covid enforced change. Clarion sought to restructure the business, whereby I took the MD chair overseeing all gaming products as we emerge from the pandemic.
Is this an opportune time to take on this role - or the worst time?
It is an opportunity. I think fresh eyes on any business is good - especially if they’re looking at things from a new perspective. I can’t deny that it’s been tough, especially with a much smaller team. We’ve had to make some really hard decisions about people within the business, which is never easy. And there’s a lot of pressure, both internally to recover and bounce back, and externally too – since this event is more than just a product, it is an important part of this sector. Tere are a huge number of stakeholders that quite rightly have a major
interest in this show, which puts a lot of pressure on me to deliver on that expectation.
Only a handful of the original team that organised the ICE 2019 show are still with Clarion Gaming. What have been the factors in the turnover of staff and who are the new key team members running the show - and do you have the numbers to manage the show at this stage?
We made the hard decisions and let some people go, but most of the team involved with the operations side of the event are still here. Eva Bakun, who oversees and runs TEN and Ampersand is still involved, but we recognised that we lost experience and knowledge, which is why Kate Chambers is back as an advisor to ensure we’re not missing low-tech items that are really important to the audience, but might not be obvious to us.
In addition, Greg Saint, who used to be ICE’s Event Director is again helping us with the continuity of knowledge. Stuart Hunter is a new face having joined the Clarion Gaming team in the last 18 months, but he’s spent 17 years in Clarion’s consumer division and has huge experience running consumer facing events. He understands all the elements that make those shows successful and just because ICE is a B2B event, doesn’t stop us from delivering a consumer experience.
We have also brought in a new head of marketing, Jeannette Gilbert. She has a lot of experience with big audiences driving customer-led strategies and she is building out an experienced team as we staff-up rapidly across the business. We need to expand with investment into new capabilities in data and customer success ..
Te final element is our ICE Ambassadors - people that aren’t necessarily the biggest names in the industry, but are well connected, experienced and who will hold us to account.
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