Ewa Bakun talked about upcoming Virtual Ampersand Assemblies

"We have been holding the Ampersand Assemblies for a number of years as live events. As we are not able to meet physically now, we've decided to replicate the same, Open Space format in the online space. There are three stages of the process: registration and topic generation (we are in that stage now), then sign-ups for specific discussions (after an agenda gets published with the topics proposed by members), culminating in virtual conversations on those topics happening over the two last weeks of May. But I want to make clear that this is not a conference and there will be no speakers or moderators as we don't want any one person to dominate the discussion - this is about all members contributing in a series of informal and free-flowing conversations," said Ewa Bakun, Head of Content at Clarion Events.

She then added that the online conversations will have a maximum of 10 members all encouraged to exchange views and experiences. As organizers, Clarion Gaming will add some structure to them in terms of collecting the topics, putting them into an agenda, collecting registrations and offering an online platform.

"We are asking the Ampersand members to put forward the topics and that is still happening. So far I have had around 70  topics around innovation in sports betting; eSports; regulatory changes, including around safer gambling, as a result of the pandemic; cooperation between regulators and the industry to mitigate the negative effects of the pandemic; social distancing measures to be implemented in land-based operations; casual gaming and so many more. I will take this week to go through the topics and group them into individual online discussions for people to sign up for," she pointed.

Finally, she said: "We have around 150 members registered so far. I would expect to have around 20, maybe 30 conversations scheduled to take place over the space of two weeks, with maximum 10 members participating in each. Members can participate in more than one discussion. It's difficult to predict the numbers and level of interest as this is something we are doing for the first time - what we are providing with this initiative is an opportunity for random and informal conversations, similar to what happens at coffee breaks or other social, networking functions at live events."