Trade fairs and industry events happen all the time, all over the world. No matter if it’s agriculture or data processing, printing or building, food or video games, trade fairs are the perfect way for stakeholders and customers in certain industries to meet, reveal their latest innovations, network, and meet new customers. Some of the most famous trade fairs, which always make the headlines, are CES in Las Vegas, Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, CeBIT (Germany), and other technology events. There are many others, though, usually only mentioned in the specialty press – agricultural and consumer electronics events, toy shows, book fairs, and auto shows. And then there is one that is hardly ever mentioned – on one hand, because its topic is a “hush-hush” industry, on the other, because its industry has far fewer specialty publications than others. The event is called ICE Totally Gaming, and it’s the largest iGaming conference of the world.

A different kind of gaming

A casual game – say, a slot machine – is one that people play for fun but without too much dedication, and only for a short while at a time. Some of the best known such games are freely available on smartphones and tablets, as well as desktop computers via social networks – think Slotomania, Big Fish Casino, and many others. If in turn, the slot machine happens to involve real money wagers, the game stops being a casual game. It suddenly shifts into another realm called iGaming – a shorter, friendlier name used for the internet gambling industry.

There are a handful of Canadian casinos online, offering their players a limited variety of games to play. In other countries, in turn, players can access hundreds of gaming venues with thousands of games provided by tens of game developers that form the industry. The games are not restricted to the virtual world, though – slots and other gaming machines are built for the thousands of real life gaming venues all over the world. And the people who invent, build, and design these games, as well as all the procedures and policies that make them run like clockwork, meet in London each February at the ICE Totally Gaming event.

Topics and exhibitors

ICE Totally Gaming covers all gaming sectors providing services through all channels – online, mobile, and land-based – covering specialties like software, game development, services, payments, business services and hardware. Among the exhibitors of this year’s event, you’ll find companies like IGT, the developer behind most land-based and online gambling venues in North America, AMD (provider of embedded chips for gaming hardware manufacturers), along with game developers, equipment manufacturers, and even regulators all over the world.