This year there were 246 exhibitors, with 60 more than last year and thanks to the generous and well-designed loading docks at the new venue, “exhibitors reported that the bump-in for this massive event went smoothly and that the facilities were superior to anything else they’d experienced,” Ross continued.  During the show, visitors were able to optimise their time at the event because for the first time the Expo featured digital show bags, which allowed visitors to transfer information about exhibitors to their mobile device.  “In my view, Digital Show Bags are a great success.  There’s been a total of 11,967 badge “taps” at exhibitors’ stands during the first 2 days and 3,956 ‘daily digest’ emails sent to those who tapped,” said Ross Ferrar.  The Australasian Gaming Expo has exhibitors from broad spectrum of hospitality suppliers.

AGE 2017 saw a massive increase in visitors with the final count of 8,099 representing a 19% increase over 2016.

Caterers were well represented at this year’s show with Riva Ice Cream serving over 4,000 tubs of ice cream and CEO Jeff Cantor saying that “the volume of visitors seemed to be 30% up on last year and we had a particularly good showing from the hotel groups”, while around the corner at the Commercial Kitchen Company, Robert Van den Bergh commented that he too had given away about 4,000 slices of Pizza and “we achieved distribution agreements in Tasmania and New Zealand, directly as a result of the show as well as selling 6 pizza systems”.

With strong buying desires, buyers interacted and communicated with exhibitors in the exhibition.

Being a fully self-contained convention centre, the ICC allowed all associated events and functions to be held on-site and one such function was the Industry Leader’s Dinner and for the attendees, “this event was extraordinary - from the dazzling décor, to the impeccable service, to the outstanding food,”  continued Ross Ferrar.  Guests were very pleasantly surprised on arrival and their evening got better with every moment.  Given the high profile of the guests, it was important that they would find the event memorable, as well as of high quality.  The success of the event was assured as the staff of the ICC had “bought in” to that mission, which was obvious as guests were indeed discussing ICC Sydney’s excellence while attending the AGE on August 17 morning.

AGE 2017 - events packet