summer. We have to give consistency to the market, or we will be spending the rest of our lives talking about where ICE should be held, as opposed to how we can build a better show.


How big a role in the success of ICE does the city play in which it is located?


It’s massively important. We look at accessibility, evening entertainment, the costs of the city in terms of travel, accommodation and living costs. London is one of the best cities in the world when you consider all the metrics. Tere is a reason why ICE has been so successful to date. So, if we’re going to move the event then we need to find a city that ticks the same boxes. It needs to be as good if not better than London. And you must remember that London is also changing. Cross Rail - at last - will open in October 2022. It will be too late for ICE 2022, but it will fundamentally change what ICE looks like in London. It won’t be a massive warehouse on the outskirts of the city that you only travel to when visiting the O2 or ExCeL. And we also can’t dismiss that fact that one of the most important aspects is the venue.


Finding a venue that’s available in a city that ticks those boxes is difficult, because ICE consumes the entire venue. And if we tick the availability box, we also have to make sure that it’s the right type of building. Many of these exhibition centres are ancient with low ceilings and obtrusive columns spread across many halls. Does this deliver the type of experience visitors want? Do you want to spend 20 minutes walking through a maze of corridors to find other halls? When you start to consider the alternatives -


what is more important overall? It is not a simple answer and it’s not something that I thought I’d be having to consider in my first five months in this role.


Clarion Gaming needs to keep growing and expanding its business as part of the Blackstone investment portfolio. Outside of the ICE London show, how is Clarion Gaming expanding its offer and what sectors/markets are of particular interest?


Blackstone does need to exit, that’s their business model, but that’s unlikely in the near- term in which our focus is fixed on strengthening the core and building resilience. I realise that sounds counter intuitive in terms of private equity but using non-financial metrics like NPS (Net Promoter Score) and customer satisfaction scores, these are the most important metrics to illustrate how the business has fared through the pandemic. We haven’t been able to deliver the product in 24 months, and so we need to show that we can grow back the business.


I’m entrepreneurial and I love opportunity. I’m hungry for that - and so if we’re given permission by the market and there is an opportunity to grow our business, we will go after it. But that’s not necessarily in the format that we’ve seen before. Part of our role is to find innovation in this market and innovate ourselves and I think this will influence our move into new segments and new products. What they look like - I’ll show you in 12 months.


How important is it to get that first show under your belt?


“We look at accessibility, evening


entertainment, the costs of the city in terms of travel, accommodation and living costs. London is one of the best cities in the world when you


consider all the metrics. So, if we’re going to move the event then we need to find a city that ticks the


same boxes. It needs to be as good if not better than London.”


I’m not fresh to the gaming market. I understand it - I know it. And I also know ICE. I’ve worked with Kate for the last four years and I still work with Kate. What I’m doing now is listening and acting and taking incremental steps. When we went to our supplier base and they told us that costs were a real problem, ROI is getting harder to prove and that’s only going to be more important in 2022 - we went away and came back with a whole set of changes around reducing costs at the show. We are now talking to the operator side of the market to implement further changes to add additional support.


I am trying to walk the walk slowly, but if I don’t deliver upon what I say, I know I’ll be held to account by you and by our customers. But so far, I’ve delivered everything I’ve promised and that will continue throughout the lead up to ICE. For me, it’s hugely important to gather the industry together under one roof and celebrate after two long years apart, but I also know I’ll have one eye on the next show in 2023, which is just as vital.


WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS P17


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184  |  Page 185  |  Page 186  |  Page 187  |  Page 188  |  Page 189  |  Page 190  |  Page 191  |  Page 192  |  Page 193  |  Page 194  |  Page 195  |  Page 196  |  Page 197  |  Page 198  |  Page 199  |  Page 200  |  Page 201  |  Page 202  |  Page 203  |  Page 204  |  Page 205  |  Page 206  |  Page 207  |  Page 208  |  Page 209  |  Page 210  |  Page 211  |  Page 212  |  Page 213  |  Page 214  |  Page 215  |  Page 216  |  Page 217  |  Page 218  |  Page 219  |  Page 220  |  Page 221  |  Page 222  |  Page 223  |  Page 224  |  Page 225  |  Page 226  |  Page 227  |  Page 228  |  Page 229  |  Page 230  |  Page 231  |  Page 232  |  Page 233  |  Page 234  |  Page 235  |  Page 236  |  Page 237  |  Page 238  |  Page 239  |  Page 240  |  Page 241  |  Page 242  |  Page 243  |  Page 244  |  Page 245  |  Page 246  |  Page 247  |  Page 248  |  Page 249  |  Page 250  |  Page 251  |  Page 252  |  Page 253  |  Page 254  |  Page 255  |  Page 256  |  Page 257  |  Page 258  |  Page 259  |  Page 260  |  Page 261  |  Page 262