ICE Barcelona: The Spanish Effect

When ICE announced it was leaving its longtime home in London for Barcelona, there was some surprise from exhibitors, but Stuart Hunter, the managing director of the ICE parent company, Clarion Gaming, says the move was made in response to exhibitor feedback. Hunter, who was promoted to lead Clarion Gaming five years ago, spoke with GGB Publisher Roger Gros in November to talk about how the decision to move was made and why it will result in a bigger and better ICE as well as added benefits for the gaming industry worldwide.

Roger Gros:  ICE is moving to Barcelona for the next five years at least. Can you give some reasons why Clarion decided to move ICE from London?

Stuart Hunter:  While it was a fairly recent decision, and the decision-making process was recent, I think the conversation with our universe of customers had been going on for quite some time—two or three, maybe four years pre-Covid. These conversations started because of some early challenges as the show was expanding, as well as their wants and needs for more space to present more product ranges, but also the applicable costs that were growing in terms of exhibiting in a city like London. So I think the opportunity that occurred during Covid, when we obviously weren’t running events, was to spend more and more time with our customers to better understand what their wants and needs were. And it became really evident to us that it’s something that we should take seriously, in terms of their concerns around the future venue of ICE going forward.

So that’s when we made the decision collectively to work with a specialist agency to help us review that process. We kicked off that campaign with a newly formed advisory board of customers and started the journey to evaluate where it should be—should it remain in London, or should we explore different cities? The process was really robust, really detailed. It was customer-driven and it enabled us to look at all areas of ICE, not just in terms of procuring more space so the event can grow in line with the industry and our customer’s needs, but also trying to satisfy some of those issues they had around costs and around bringing their equipment in and out. The process short-listed four cities and ended up with Barcelona.

Tell us a little about the venue in Barcelona.

If you are familiar with ExCel in London, the venue in Barcelona is called Fira, and there are two venues in Barcelona. We’re in the Grand Via, which is the larger exhibition venue. It’s literally 10 or 15 minutes from the airport. So it’s very easy to access if you’re flying in. Obviously, ICE attracts a huge volume of international clients, so that’s a real win certainly over London, whereas it was always a bit of a challenge to get across to ExCel from the major airports. But we’re right on the doorstep of the airport now, and the venue itself is approximately twice the size of ExCel. So it’s given us the opportunity to really revisit and look at how we present ICE and engage with the universe of our customers.

How have your exhibitors reacted?

We are expanding the show, and it’s probably about 20 percent bigger than the ICE event in London in 2024, which was a record-breaker itself. But that’s not necessarily Clarion driving this agenda, it’s the industry. It’s our customers saying, look, we want to bring more product ranges. We want to showcase that we are more omnichannel now than ever before, so this new canvas has allowed them to really exploit that. So it’s going to be a big show, but we’ve designed it in a way that won’t feel too overwhelming unless you want to touch all corners of the gaming ecosystem. It will be a good experience with huge amounts to explore.

How about attendees? What does pre-registration look like?

Pre-registration is going really well, but we’re so far out that it doesn’t really indicate any particular trend right now. But if I told you we were 50 percent ahead of where we were in the ’24 show, which was a record-breaking show, that would be true. But I certainly don’t think we’ll be 50 percent up by the time we get to the show because that would be way beyond expectations. But I’m certainly hopeful and expecting this to be the biggest-ever turnout we’ve had for ICE.

For people who haven’t been to Barcelona, how far from the city center is the Fira?

It’s pretty close. Obviously being in Barcelona a lot the last couple of years during the process, you sort of realize that anywhere you are in Barcelona, you’re no more than a 20, 25-minute journey time away from the next thing you want to try and do. So in terms of the Fira, it’s really accessible. I guess a point for me to get across to everyone coming from London, we’re sort of used to that Underground element, but it’s a really simple process for you to get from the venue into all the major districts in Barcelona using the metro, irrespective of where you’re staying. So 20-25 minutes from anywhere. Taxis of course are widely available, but due to the huge volumes of attendees expected at ICE, we are advising customers to use the metro to get into town post-show. We are also providing free travel passes to support that.

Tell us about the hotel packages. Where can people find them and decide where they’re going to stay?

That was one of the big drivers. When I refer back to some of the concerns that our customers had, one was really the cost of hotels in London creeping up quite a lot. Looking at it for the last few years, especially in the vicinity of the venue, they were getting beyond a realm of being not great value for money. So moving to a city like Barcelona opens us up to a whole wealth of opportunities to start to secure rates at an early stage.

We have 40,000 hotel nights already on reserve with our partner B Network. We’ve got those rates to the lowest you can find anywhere. 30,000 of those nights are already booked and the average rate secured is just €205 per night. So I would just recommend anyone that is coming to just hop on the ICE website at the top right corner. There’s a tab, which is Book Hotel, which connects you with the B Network team.

Usually the conference started the day before the exhibit hall opened, but this year they start together. Can you explain how that happened and what we can expect to see in the conference program?

Yes, that was always a challenge. When you’re moving an event the size and scale of ICE, and then when you find those venues, trying to procure a timeline that gives you the right buildup time, the right breakdown time, the right open period is another big challenge. Like London, for example, Barcelona hosts a lot of huge, world-class events. You have ISE, which happens after ICE, and there’s a long tail of major events that continue into spring, such as Mobile World Congress, which attracts over 100,000 attendees annually.

Moving the conference launch to Monday puts us back to where the content used to sit, which was on deck directly alongside the trade show. So we’re just making some changes to make that work. We have slightly longer opening hours on Monday, so you can mix up the content with the trade show floor as well. And then we’re expecting a slightly different journey—rather than people doing one day on the content and then one day on the trade show floor, we’re expecting a longer trade show experience. So it just takes some adjustment. But I’ll just remind everyone that we are also earlier now; we are a couple of weeks ahead of the historical dates.

We are opening on Monday, January 20. That day we have the historical World Regulatory Briefing, which is our kind of main kickoff conference where all the big regulatory conversations and advancements of the industry are happening. We have our Casino and Leaders Forum, which happens on that day as well, which used to be the casino conference, but we’ve extended it out super C-level in terms of its focus.

And then we have our esports conference. We have our Master Classes. We always endeavor to cover some really groundbreaking conversations and content, bringing in speakers and experts that you don’t see on the normal event trail. We really pride ourselves in bringing something original and new to the conference.

Like every year, you have the updated ICE app that people can use. It’s probably going to be even more important this year in Barcelona because people are not used to going there. So what can we expect from the ICE app to help people organize their activities at the show?

The ICE app will be going live soon, which will contain all the usual hacks and tips and tricks to connect with people. I think that’s the main use of it these days—to make those connections in advance of the show. So it almost gives you your own little black book of meetings that you’ve pre-organized or connections that you’re about to make. So that’s really exciting. But a new bit of tech is that the app is using AI, using our own dedicted WhatsApp concierge tool. So you download the WhatsApp application on your phone, and then you link up with our ICE AI tool, and literally in your pocket you have your little AI robot. Ask it any question about anything—opening times, where to find the conference, what conference agendas are happening, where are the drinks, networking in the evening, what’s a local drink in Barcelona you should try, what’s one of the best hotels? You just say this information and you get an immediate response.

Responsible gaming is always a big part of the ICE program. What do you have in store for this year?

Yes, it’s one of the pillars of ICE and Clarion Gaming. It’s something that sits at the heart of what we do. A lot of our customers are obviously supportive and passionate about that, as is the industry. So it’s our responsibility to keep growing and developing that. And the Consumer Protection Zone, which was launched at ICE many years ago, is a cornerstone. I made sure that we continue to allow it the opportunity to grow and rebranded this year to Sustainable Gambling Zone, just to start to explore all of the initiatives that sit not just in player safety, but also everything in and around that player safety in terms of prevention, treatment and everything around sustainability. We believe in a healthy, robust and sustainable industry that is fun.

It’s almost time to cut the ribbon on ICE Barcelona. Any final thoughts?

I’ll just say the project has been hugely exciting. Will we get everything right with all the migration and all these moves? Probably not, but it’s going to be an exciting journey, and we’re really open to hearing everyone’s feedback when we get there. And I’m certain, we’re going to get 90 percent of the things spot on, and elevated from a learning experience, but we’re thrilled to see what the next few years are going to mean for us and for the industry worldwide.