ICE Round the World Winner takes the campaign to Uzbekistan!

LONDON (6 July 2015): It’s not often that you attend the world’s most international and largest gaming exhibition only to find out that you’ve won a free round the world trip, but that’s exactly what happened to Simon Beacham, Head of Electronic Gaming for Grosvenor Casinos / Rank Group at February’s ICE Totally Gaming event held at London’s ExCeL Centre. 

Simon, who won the golden ticket in a mammoth Around The World in 80 Days, Jules Verne themed direct mail campaign in support of ICE 2015, lost no time putting his prize to good use and has just returned from a journey of discovery to the Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan.  “I was flabbergasted when I was told that I’d won, as I’d never won anything worth talking about previously” he said.  “I booked a 12-day trip to Uzbekistan, with guide, which has long been on my ‘must visit’ list. I returned on 9th June, having visited Tashkent, Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand: it was a fascinating trip, to a country which everyone has invaded and occupied over the centuries including Alexander the Great, the Persians, Genghis Khan, Russia (twice) and more.

“My wife and  I  try to take a least one trip like this each year, so we’ve already crossed off China, much of the Middle East, various bits of the US, parts of South America, the Baltic States and most of Europe, I also travel quite a lot on business. I always attend ICE and I’m fortunate that the best gaming show in the world just happens to be the one on my doorstep!”

ICE Marketing Director, Jo Mayer added: “ICE is a once in a year meeting of the industry’s smartest minds and a place where innovation, creativity and new technology merge, providing visitors with a chance to discover the unexpected. The ICE 2015 Jules Verne-themed Discover campaign reflected these unique, stand out credentials and the Round The World  promotion represented a fitting and exciting finale to what was an epic campaign for an epic event.  I’m delighted that Simon had such an enjoyable time.  Ironically, Uzbekistan is one of the very few nations not included amongst the 133 represented at ICE 2015 – but we’re working on it!”