WALL-BOUND NO MORE Clarion lacked the scope to grow because the event at the ExCeL had been wall-bound, meaning customers weren't able to be quite as ambitious as they’d like to be in showcasing their increasing spectrum of products. ICE London 2024 had 50,000 visitors which is the maximum crowd density that you’d want at the ExCeL for that type of show, with around 24,000 people within the first four to five hours which is really pushing towards the maximum limit. Fira de Barcelona Gran Via is approximately twice the size of ExCeL London and they're building in new hall space. Clarion, who has made an initial commitment for five years,
were specific during negotiations that they must have sole ownership of the campus during ICE and iGB Affiliate. Because it's a bigger venue, they didn't want to be competing with another event. One of the best things about the ExCeL was that gaming professionals were the only people at the event, creating that hub like feeling. “Coming here, I didn't want us to be mixing with different industries or experiences in another part of the hall,” underlines Stuart. “Even if we're not using all the halls, we need to make sure that we have them at our disposal. Tis gives us the opportunity to be exclusive in the campus, but also as and when we need new space we can grow. We've already started designing the 2026 edition which is growing and pushing on based on customer need.” Te 2025 event is going to be 120,000 gross metre squared.
However, if Clarion had fully accommodated all the exhibitor requests it would have comfortably been at the 150,000-plus mark. Taking the sensible course, it was deemed a foolhardy exercise to grow the event too quickly until an opportunity was had to review how everything's working, whether the crowd density fits within the new space, how the flow works, and so on.
“Even if we're not using all the halls, we need to make sure that we have them at our disposal. Tis gives us the opportunity to be exclusive in the
campus, but also as and when we need new space we can grow. We've already
started designing the 2026 edition which is growing and pushing on based on customer need.”
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“ICE needs to grow in a sustainable way in line with the industry and the volume of customers we can attract. I'm hopeful we will see significant growth in the 2025 event. Until we've had that experience, we want to be a bit more
cautious. We've allowed some customers to grow because that's what they've
been asking for, but in a controlled and sustainable manner.”
“Inevitably there will be parts of next year's show that we
will need to be changed and tweaked. Tat's just how it will have to evolve, but hopefully we get most of it right. ICE needs to grow in a sustainable way in line with the industry and the volume of customers we can attract. I'm hopeful we will see significant growth in the 2025 event. Until we've had that experience, we want to be a bit more cautious. We've allowed some customers to grow because that's what they've been asking for, but in a controlled and sustainable manner.” Tis growth is expected to come from a variety of sources.
Some will be organic as the industry continues to grow. On top of this, Clarion is receiving significant interest in ICE from sub- sectors that sit neatly alongside gaming in the technology industry. Tere are opportunities in European street gaming that weren’t represented at ICE London, as well as domestic Spanish based customers bringing more of their street orientated equipment to the 2025 show. “On top of this, Barcelona is a start-up hub,” adds Stuart. “We're thinking about how we can harness that across technology, coding, game development, software.”
REDUCED COSTS & LESS WALKING London is an expensive city full stop, but exhibitors were seeing their operational costs growing exponentially across the board. For the big players at ICE who have huge teams, complex builds and substantial investment, operational costs, hotels and transport cost increases were becoming unsustainable, in some cases six-figure increases over the last decade. Hotels are a classic example, explains Stuart. “Tere was a case at the 2024 show where, during build up alone, there was a hotel on the campus that was contracting staff up to £800 a night and that's just not sustainable. Te costs for hotels in Barcelona are 20-40 per cent more economical than London for lot of our big customers and for the first time ever, we as organisers and our new relationship with the city of Barcelona have some level of control.”
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