ICE Totally Gaming 2018 will be up and running at ExCeL London from the 6th – 8th of February, and organisers are expecting more than 30,000 attendees and representatives from the full range of the gaming industry, including a notable presence from both online and land-based operators. We’ll see hundreds of product launches and tremendous networking opportunities across the three days. All show-floor seminars will be free to attend, with many key players in the industry speaking.
To give you a taste of what’s to come, let’s focus on the events occurring in just one room, on one afternoon, and take a close look at the line-up for “Round-the-World Casino Trends,” which is running on Tuesday the 6th in South Gallery Room 9. The day’s theme is emergent and future trends in the casino industry.
Following welcoming remarks from Stowe Shoemaker, dean of UNLV’s School of Hospitality, the first talk will begin at 10:45am and cover non-gaming revenue sources, looking closely at the US, Singapore and Macau markets for inspiration as to how European casinos can potentially expand on their approaches to generating non-gaming revenue. Amongst others, Ramesh Srinivasan, the CEO of Agilsys, will be speaking here.
Following on from this, at 11:30am, there will be an hourlong seminar on eSports in casinos, which will explore a series of case studies for this revenue stream. Panelists will include Melissa Blau, President of iGaming Capital, and Alex Igelman, CEO of Millennial Esports.
At 1:45pm, after lunch, Room 9 will feature a presentation on the relation between chance and skill in casino gaming, looking at what the industry may have to learn from content development methods in the wider world of gaming, as well as from social gaming and iGaming, particularly regarding skill game development. Christian Stuart, Executive Vice President of Caesers Entertainment will be speaking, as will Pete Rangley, Casino Sector Specialist at GBGC.
The final talk of the day in Room 9 will run at 2:45pm and cover integrated resorts, examining why these have worked well in some locations and not in others, and how casino-resorts have evolved into IRs over time. The presentation also aims to nail down the key factors needed for a successful IR. Simon Thomas, Chief Executive of London’s Hippodrome Casino, will be speaking, as will our own Andrew Tottenham, Managing Director at Tottenham & Co, and Erica Young, Casino Sector Specialist at GBGC.
This is just a small slice of all the action going on at the conference. As you can see, there will be an awful lot covered in a few short days. It’s sure to be a (slightly exhausting) smash.
