Capital is place to be for fans of frozen desserts.

Lunch is yet to be served at London's Churchill Hotel, but Sudhir Chavan is already on dessert. His Croatian-made, chocolate-dipped pistachio and hazelnut ice cream is the first of 80 he will sample over the next two days at the International Ice Cream Consortium's annual conference.

"We don't eat the whole thing," says Chavan, who is director of UAE-based dairy company Unipex and president of the IICC, "but you can't eat lunch afterwards."

Comprised of 13 major independent ice cream manufacturers from Europe, China, Iran, the UAE and Australasia, the consortium meets once a year to discuss emerging trends and issues in the world of ice cream. The knowledge-sharing is geared to help them take on their key competitors: Nestlé, the largest player in the global ice cream market and Unilever, the third largest.

"It provides a forum for independent businesses to stand up against the might of the behemoths," said David Taylor, MD of Lancashire's Frederick's Dairies, which makes ice cream under license for Cadbury and Del Monte.

"It's been a bad year for British ice cream," says Taylor. Poor summer weather, combined with the economic downturn, saw sales drop 3 per cent, industry-wide.

Rising sugar costs and growing public concern about obesity – including the Prime Minister's talk of a fat tax – have created further headaches for the industry, which has struggled to respond to health concerns.

"Whenever someone tries to launch a product around health, it just doesn't work," said Taylor. "Ice cream – by definition – isn't the healthiest thing on the planet."

Nevertheless, London was the ideal location for the consortium's 25th anniversary conference, he said, as it was currently "the ice cream capital of the world".

"There's a gelato parlour opening every week," he said. "The focus and the creativity here is what people are doing differently."

The hosts planned to show visiting delegates how to bring theatre and "sexiness" to what could be a staid, traditional product. Enter "ice cream evangelist" Matt O'Connor, the creative director of boutique gelateria The Icecreamists, whose business card features topless, gelato-spattered women scooping the product from a silver skull.

Known for selling breast milk ice cream at his Covent Garden parlour,

O'Connor has invented popcorn-, ginger cake- and donut-flavoured ice creams. "We're full fat and getting fatter," he said proudly, launching into a tirade against the fat tax.

"Obesity is about a sedentary lifestyle, sitting in the car all day. People just want a bit of comfort during the economic hard times – but as soon as you start enjoying something, the Government wants to tax it."

Back in the tasting room, Chavan claims chocolate, strawberry and vanilla still dominate globally, but sampling the Croatian hazelnut and pistachio offering – winner of the most innovative product award at last year's conference – he hails its "international potential".

He says: "If people from all around the world like a combination of flavours, then you know it's a winner."