The choice of Barcelona for ICE in 2025 ahead of London, Paris and Madrid was driven by a number of factors and not just Brexit, according to Clarion Gaming’s managing director, Alex Pratt.
Clarion revealed on Tuesday that the Spanish city's Fira de Barcelona was to host its flagship event after London in 2024, with iGB Affiliate also moved.
The event will also change date to January 20-22, which is two weeks earlier than the London dates, and is running Monday to Wednesday, instead of the traditional Tuesday to Thursday. These factors were due to operational considerations.
On the whole, though, the result of exhaustive investigations and negotiations had led the Clarion team to the conclusion that Barcelona offered the “most fertile opportunity” for ICE in the future, said Clarion’s Stuart Hunter.
Speaking in a Q&A after the announcement, Hunter added: “It was very much a customer-led decision. Over the past 20 years ICE has changed and grown to the extent that it is a very different event now, even compared with 10 years ago.
“We had to decide where ICE needs to be in terms of what it offers the industry over the next 10 years. A city like Barcelona allows us and our suppliers and visitors the opportunity to flex where we need to flex.”
Capacity and savings key
Pratt and Hunter pointed out that Fira de Barcelona had over twice the capacity of ExCeL, allowing the potential to expand. Fira de Barcelona offered 240,000sq.m of space – with 120,000sq.m available immediately – compared with ExCeL’s 90,000.
What's more, the company has already earmarked 40,000 hotel rooms with capacity for more if needed.
Pratt said: “We looked outside of Europe too, but ICE has representation from 97 per cent of the world’s countries and of those, 86 per cent are in Europe.”
He added that Clarion is not interested in a show that would “hide behind a venue with no signage” and that it is vital for the show to “be part of the city when people get off the airport.”
Indeed, creating a “relationship with the city, not just the venue” was key in the decision, Pratt said, as he declared Clarion is looking to create a “festival feeling” and an “environment more friendly to the event.”
“We have talked with the representatives of the venue, of the responsible government ministry and to gambling authorities in Catalunya to come to this decision."
Pratt said that research had shown that Barcelona as a venue for visitors was distinctly less expensive for hotels and entertainment and that would be of some benefit to exhibitors too. Pressed on the impact on exhibitors from Asia and North America, he said the average cost saving would be €600 if travelling from Asia and a “similar sort of number” from the US.
“London is more accessible than Barcelona,” he said, “so it may take more time to get there, but there are significant other cost savings."
Before then, though, Pratt urged the industry to create the "biggest send-off to London" in 2024.
Clarion will unveil further details of the ICE transition to Barcelona from September onwards.
