Surrounded by mountains, and on the banks of the lake at Villa Erba, there can be few such attractive conference settings in the world.

The event was certainly more of a conference than an exhibition, though there was exhibition space. Several companies had stands, including event sponsor Aristocrat, who took the opportunity to show their newly-approved PokerPro Heads Up game. Lakshmi Kerr, Aristocrat Europe’s Marketing and Communications Manager, explained: “The Heads Up table is on a tour of Europe at the moment, and it’s the first time it’s been demonstrated in many places. This is the second venue we’ve shown it in after a stint at Aspers, Newcastle in England, where it was a huge success.”

Cantor Gaming also exhibited with an eye on promoting their superb curb-to-curb gaming platform to casino operators, and other exhibitors included Red Planet Gaming and MEI.

The conference was what attendance was all about though, it seemed. The exhibition area became rather quiet during talks in the conference rooms, to the consternation of exhibitors. On the i-gaming side, the conference was certainly well-attended and visitors certainly appeared to be satisfied and enjoyed the experience. It was less well attended on the casino side, but that’s not necessarily the kiss of death for the event. Most shows have difficult first years as their format becomes understood and accepted, and judging by the enthusiastic responses of the attendees, there is scope for IGE to grow and continue.

Steve Surch, Casino Technology’s Group Director for International Sales and Marketing was there, and he had a few words to say: “There is potential here, if it gets support from the larger companies. Hopefully next year the organisers will get a bit more support, because it’s a difficult market to get into . For the exhibition to work in any way, they need the main operators to come; if they do come, it has every chance of working.

“Three days is perhaps a little long though, two days would work better.”

Aristocrat’s Lakshmi remained supportive of the event too, adding: “I think it’s filling a gaping niche for the land-based casino industry. It’s been attended by some good groups like Casinos Austria, Olympic Casinos, Holland Casinos and more, so there’s support from the operators and there’s support from some of the manufacturers. I hope that it happens again in the future.

“The venue is absolutely incredible, and the show has the potential to grow. It’s a big venue, and it looks like there’s plenty of room to expand here.

“It’s a conference so it’s an educational opportunity. There’s nothing else that exists within Europe that brings all of the operators together to share information, so there really is a gap in the market for a conference and exhibition like this.

“We’re supporting it because we want to support education in the industry. We want to see people working together and to see people at all levels of the casino industry get together and discuss where it’s going, share ideas and move it forward.

“Maybe the venue location will be reviewed in the future because this area is exceptionally expensive in terms of hotels, and that might make costs prohibitive for smaller companies. The concept of IGE is fantastic though, and they should do it again, even if it is somewhere less obviously attractive!”

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