Summary
- E3 organizer ESA announced a new gaming event: the Interactive Innovation Conference, or Iicon.
- Iicon is an invite-only event that will take place in Las Vegas in late April 2026.
- Iicon will be significantly different from modern E3s in that it will be an entirely industry-focused event.
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), best known as the organizer of E3, has announced a new gaming event called the Interactive Innovation Conference. The first confirmed details of the upcoming event suggest that its concept will be significantly different from that of E3, at least compared to the trade show’s most recent editions.
The last Electronic Entertainment Expo happened in 2021. ESA reportedly lost millions of dollars on E3 2021, then canceled the subsequent two iterations of the trade show. In December 2023, the Washington, D.C.-based organization announced it had decided to discontinue E3.
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14 months after officially killing E3, ESA is now back with the announcement of another gaming event—the Interactive Innovation Conference, or Iicon (stylized as “iicon”). Much like its moniker suggests, Iicon has been envisioned as a forward-thinking conference where industry professionals can learn from and network with one another. ESA describes it as “a first-of-its-kind event designed to connect visionaries, thought leaders and innovators from across industries,” all with the goal of helping them “harness the power of interactive entertainment.”
Interactive Innovation Conference (iicon) Overview
- Dates: April 27–30, 2026
- Venue: Fontainebleau Resort, Las Vegas, NV
- Confirmed keynote presenters: Amazon Games, Disney, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Microsoft, Nintendo of America, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Square Enix, Take-Two Interactive, Ubisoft, Warner Bros. Games
Iicon will take place between April 27 and 30, 2026. Its venue of choice is the Fontainebleau Resort, a five-star hotel in downtown Las Vegas. Plenty of long-time E3 partners have already agreed to send representatives to host keynotes at the event. The list of confirmed Iicon 2026 keynote presenters includes officials from Nintendo of America, PlayStation, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, and Take-Two Interactive, among others. The conference will be invite-only, and prospective attendees can already sign up for updates from the organizers on the official Iicon website. Most invitations will likely function as exclusive paid tickets, though it’s currently unclear when they will become available.
Iicon Will Be Different From Modern E3s
The invite-only nature of the event makes it significantly different from the modern iterations of E3, which were largely consumer-oriented. At the same time, this exclusivity and the event’s focus on innovation and networking make it reminiscent of the E3’s original concept. Between 1995 and 2016, the Electronic Entertainment Expo was an industry-only event, and its 2017 edition was the first that was open to the public.
A first-of-its-kind event designed to connect visionaries, thought leaders and innovators from across industries to harness the power of interactive entertainment.
As far as game announcements are concerned, that aspect of E3 was already effectively replaced by Summer Game Fest and publisher-specific events—the latter of which ESA cited as the main reason for discontinuing its long-running trade show. However, the Iicon announcement suggests that ESA still sees a place for an industry-focused gaming event.
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