After the conclusion of ICE 2016, event organisers Clarion Events have confirmed they will renegotiate its contract at ExCeL for the 2020 show onwards, by which time the show organisers expect that ICE Totally Gaming will be occupying the entire site.
Clarion also confirmed that this year the show grew by another 4,000sq.m. Only 12 halls were not occupied, but Chambers estimated that in four or five years the current rate of growth will see the exhibition fully occupying the entire site. In 2017 four more halls will be taken, amounting to another 8,000sq.m, edging the show towards total occupancy.
Kate Chambers, Managing Director at Clarion Events, said: “We will have to look at it in the light of what is best for our exhibitors and our visitors. We have enough space for the next few years, unless something dramatic happens within the industry, either positively or negatively. Our current contract with ExCeL runs out in 2019, so clearly we will have to re-evaluate everything before then.”
Into that mix also comes the recent purchase by Clarion Events of rival show organisers, giving it control of Super Show, the internet gambling event held in Amsterdam.
Chambers commented: “We have only just completed that acquisition, so with this event coming on so quickly after that we have had no opportunity to sit down and look at what happens with those events, whether we run them as one perhaps moving to London, or keeping them as they are for the moment.”