parkworld-online.com
ParkWord December 2012/January 2013
During the recent IAAPA Attractions Expo, I attended a very thought-provoking presentation by the Themed Entertainment Association entitled TEA Presents Future Legends 2012: Engaging The Senses.
Starting before the main Expo opened, the same session last year was a lockout, so I made sure I was there in good time on this occasion by grabbing a coffee and a pastry rather than the usual breakfast buffet back at the hotel. Frankly, after one week, I’d had enough of queuing each morning for the toast machine. You know the kind: you place your bread onto a conveyor and about 10 minutes later it pops out onto the tray below, slightly warmer than it went in but still not toasted. So you put the bread back in, wait another 10 minutes ... and then it comes out burnt. So you go and get a pastry instead. Free of such toast-related trauma, I arrived ready for what I thought would be a showcase of new creative talent within the themed entertainment industry. Now, BRC Imagination Arts’ Christian Lachel, Susan Bonds of 42 Entertainment and Thinkwell’s Dave Cobb are relatively young, but nevertheless they’ve got a good few years’ experience behind them. It turned out the session was in fact a round-up of new attractions and events that the panel thought worthy of our attention. As with the TEA’s Thea Awards, it was the projects rather than the people that were the ‘legends’.
Those chosen ranged from haunted, location-specific theatre productions (smarter than your average scare attraction) to an endearing penny arcade created from cardboard by a 9-year-old in LA, and then elaborate, multi-channel marketing campaigns for the Tron Legacy and a new brand of chewing gum. Starting off with online activity and then building towards real life meet-ups and events, the latter two projects attracted a following from between 5 and 8 million people. That’s more than most amusement parks receive in a single season. However unrelated such activities may seem to our traditional idea of an ‘attraction’ – and one that has a physical location – they are nevertheless competing for the same people’s leisure time. The challenge in future will be how to monetise those millions of followers. It can’t be any more difficult than toasting bread.
Editor Owen Ralph (+44 161 438 2934)
parkworld@btopenworld.com
North American Editor Contributors this issue
Paul Ruben (+1 585 381 1012)
parkw@rochester.rr.com
Dennis Speigel, Justin Garvanovic, Tony Catanoso
Sales Manager Mark Burgess (+44 1622 699124)
parkworld@datateam.co.uk
Publishing Director Paul Ryder
pryder@datateam.co.uk Data Development Manager Alex Wetton
awetton@datateam.co.uk Managing Director Parvez Kayani
p.kayani@datateam.co.uk
Publication Secretary/ Subscriptions
DECEMBER 2012/JANUARY 2013 ISSN 1462-4796
© Copyright 2012. All materials in this publication remain the copyright of Datateam Business Media and no part of it may be reproduced without the written permission of
Jennifer York (+44 1622 699109)
parkworld@datateam.co.uk
Head Office Datateam Business Media Ltd London Road, Maidstone, Kent ME16 8LY, UK Tel: +44 1622 687031
datateam.co.uk
Member of:
the proprietors. A request to insert an advertisement is deemed to be an acceptance of Datateam Business Media Ltd’s conditions of trading, copies of which are available on request.
Owen Ralph – Editor
@ParkWorldMag
DECEMBER 2012/JANUARY 2013
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50