Five years ago the Barcelona Affiliate Conference opened its doors up for the first time in a country where the online gaming industry was unregulated and the industry purely decanted there for sun, sand and sangria. Fast forward to 2012 and it’s the conference’s most important year to date. When it gets underway on October 11, the market will have been open for around four months and with iGB España now a part of BAC it’s value in the Spanish market will be unmatched.
“A lot’s happening in the Spanish market right now and it gets all the affiliates and operators together so they can really develop the Spanish market,” Michael Caselli from iGB told CalvinAyre.com’s Becky Liggero.
BAC reflects the growing trend that has seen iGB events start to change the way they’re laid out. Instead of the affliates and operators acting as if they’re girls and boys at a Primary School disco there is a lot more mingling brtween each side and it’s something, as Caselli explains, that will increase even further in future.
“We have bar on the floor and places where each side can meet,” he said. “You’ll see the industry coming together and not being affiliates on the one side with operators on the other. That’s going to be our job for the next few years.”
In BAC’s case this has been aided by iGB Espana being integrated into the conference. Those hoping for a specialized Spanish offering have nothing to fear either, as Alex Pratt admitted that a conference inside a conference will be “purely dedicated” to the Spanish market itself.
A big favorite at past iGB events has been the mobile offering available and this year is no different. Pratt explained that a dedicated app is in the pipeline and to say it’s in depth would be an understatement.
“It not only lets you who’s speaking but also what the agenda is,” Pratt said. “You can create your own agenda within the app and see all delegates that are attending and arrange interviews with them.”
Amongst the busiest sessions every year are the Google “white hat” and “black hat” ones. Each includes experts explaining what Google wants you to do to improve your page rank and also the tricks that the search engine doesn’t want you to know. Caselli stated the latter session is sometimes even better attended than the conference keynote itself.
Spain’s market is sure to see plenty of twists and turns over the coming year and BAC will be the perfect way to set you up for all of them. The last booming words from Caselli are that “everyone wants a piece of this pie, so you’d better be there now!” Add this to the sun, sea, parties and plenty of booze, and we couldn’t have put it any better ourselves.
