Inside Asian Gaming

FEB 2019 INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 61 digital age. Hence, we have exhibitors developing content for bricks-and-mortar gaming who also deploy those games online. It’s all about the content. BB: Is there anything you are particularly looking forward to seeing at ICE in 2019? KC: We have put a great deal of energy and focus on the ICE VOX conference program. We have ripped up the rule book and approached the learning experience in a totally different way, with formats designed to challenge and engage with an audience that wants something different and an alternative to conventional learning. We have also addressed something close to my heart and that’s the issue of single-use plastics and their impact on the environment. In the first initiative of its type, we have partnered with Ecobooth to collect discarded stand graphics, which are the most common stand waste materials. They will be recycled into a sheet material and used to make an array of products and outdoor furniture for the local community and used in communal spaces surrounding ExCeL London. It’s a good initiative and one which will show gaming doing its bit for the planet. BB: Do you have any advice for those whomay be reading this and are planning on attending ICE for the first time? KC: I think there are three key pieces of advice that I would offer. Firstly, it’s extremely difficult to do ICE London in a single day. Unless you are coming for a single meeting at a pre-arranged time, you will only be scratching the surface of what ICE London has to offer. If at all possible, add another day to your schedule. Secondly, do some preparatory research. Use the ICE London website and newly launched mobile app to see who is exhibiting and where they are located. Thirdly, bring comfortable shoes and under no circumstances wear new shoes! One PR person attending his first ICE damaged his feet so badly wearing new shoes that, on the second day, he had to wear slippers – and that was when ICE was half the size it is now. It’s a great show, but it does leave you physically and mentally exhausted! “One PR person attending his first ICE damaged his feet so badly wearing new shoes that, on the second day, he had towear slippers – and that was when ICE was half the size it is now.”