Some of the leaders in North American gaming will show the way forward from the COVID-19 disruptions when Clarion Gaming produces a digital version of ICE North America that starts Monday.
The free digital conference and tradeshow that runs May 11-15 replaced the original conference and tradeshow in New Orleans that was postponed until spring 2021 y. The digital conference will include the Southern Gaming Summit that was combined with this year’s show. https://registration.n200.com/survey/3t1tkug5vdtxr
ICE Digital will feature more than 80 speakers, including Sandra Douglass Morgan, chairwoman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board; Ellen Whittemore, executive vice president and general counsel for Wynn Resorts; Ernie Stevens, chairman of the National Indian Gaming Association; consultant Tom Mikovits, former marketing director at the South Point Hotel; Kresimir Spajic, a senior vice president of online gaming and sports betting at Hard Rock International; Christopher Hebert, director of the gaming division for the Louisiana Office of Attorney General; Bobby Soper, president and CEO of Sun Gaming & Hospitality; Jesse Chemtob, general manager and vice president of the FanDuel Group; and Scott Warfield, managing director of gaming for NASCAR, which will return to racing May 17.
Each day’s session, which starts at 11:30 EST, will feature a designated topic: iGaming and iLottery on May 11; sports betting and performance marketing on May 12; brick-and-mortar and hospitality on May 13; and training for reopening and staff retention on May 14. May 15 is a wrap of the previous four days with a discussion of where gaming is heading. It will broadcasted live and on replay. https://www.icenorthamerica.com/ice-north-america-digital-agenda
Michael Caselli, non-executive chairman of Clarion Events who kicks off the conference Monday, says it will be both engaging and help deliver solutions to what the North American gaming industry is facing with the shutdown.
“We’ve re-written the script for digital conferencing and done something never done before,” Caselli said. “It’s more like a BBC news program. We’re going to be delivering content in bite-size chunks, and people will be able to target their experience and go after the topics they want to see.”
A session on sports betting, for example, could be for sportsbook marketers while different sessions may be held for sportsbook odds compilers, Caselli said.
“We’re going to target each session for people for what they see as valuable to them,” Caselli said.
The format ends each day with what resembles a nightly news show; an anchor will tie together all of the day’s segments, but at a higher quality than a webinar, Caselli said. The segments could be a feature, exposé, one-on-one interview and even an expert panel. When there’s an expert panel during the conference, there will be graphics and popovers, he said. The longest segments are 15 minutes, with 15 minutes of questions and answers.
“We have two-minute segments called Quick Takes where a solution provider can answer a question that will concern a lot of our audience,” Caselli said. “A Quick Take could be asking a sportsbook odds provider to enumerate the most popular betting options with all the major sports shut down.”
For those who want more information, it will give them a contact point, Caselli said.
“It’s highly valuable information, but at the same time, a direct call to action and provides a solution to the viewer. A virtual expo booth is not the solution to a live expo booth. A Quick Take is. A virtual networking area is not the same as networking drinks at a live event. We provide broad-based branding experiences.”
Caselli said their content is more bite-size than what’s provided by competitors running 30-minute webinars with open topics and speakers that cover many areas.
“We’re going to have two-minute segments and eight-minute exposés that are more YouTube-size, where you can find the answer in the title,” Caselli said. “Our archives are short and consumable, searchable and tagged correctly for Google, and cover single specific questions. People like that. It’s a much more searchable experience than 30-minute webinars with five people on a panel. Maybe two-thirds of the value is long-term. It’s directly quantifiable by the sponsor, so just like a trade-show booth where you’re trying to get business opportunities, if someone googles this in a week or two, they’re going to hear your answer in a Quick Take, then contact you directly to get qualified leads.”
Caselli said the conference will feature casino executives talking about reopening casinos and how that looks in the aftermath of COVID-19; discussions on what has happened to share prices of gaming stocks; and who are the winners and losers and a look at iGaming that has increased in popularity.
“We’re going to look at the most popular games in North America and even globally during this period,” Caselli said. “We will talk about Indian gaming and sports betting and touch on the lottery. We want it to be consumed by people who are only concerned about that particular topic and find a supplier who can find a solution.”
More than 2,000 people have registered so far, with the goal to have up to 5,000 participate during the week. Caselli said the conference is free as a way to promote the industry and provide people an opportunity to come together and talk about what’s happening to gaming in light of the vast disruptions of the pandemic.
“We want to provide information and focus for people,” Caselli said. “We feel we owe it to the industry and want to be a good corporate citizen.”
