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Way to go, Orlando! IAAPA Expo breaks 30,000 barrier
A blast of cold air engulfed Orlando, Florida, for the beginning of IAAPA Attractions Expo back in November, but activity inside the Orange County Convention Center was heated, buoyed by the largest attendance in 17 years. Paul Ruben and Owen Ralph report from the big industry get-together
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n estimated 30,500 amusement park and attractions industry professionals (19,400 of them classed as potential buyers) from 116 nations attended the even from 17 to 21 November, an increase from the 29,000 attendees in 2013. In fact, it was the second largest turn out in the event's history, exceeded only by 1997’s 31,500 attendees, also in Orlando. “We saw a lot of new faces, and that’s very important," observed Gerardo Arteaga of Fantasilandia, Santiago, Chile, inducted during the week as the IAAPA chairman for 2014/5. "There was a lot of excitement, with people trying to see as many suppliers as possible. Exhibitors are improving their booths every year, and there was so much out on the floor to see.” Well over a third of attendees – 12,500 – sat in on an education session, of which 110 were offered, up from 80 last year. These
included multiple-day institutes, behind-the-scenes tours, panel discussions, half-day symposiums and a couple of lunch/breakfast keynotes, including Thursday morning’s GM and Owners' Breakfast, when Ripley Entertainment president Jim Pattison invited an audience of almost 800 to set a new world record for flying model planes (Ripley’s, for the uninitiated, owns the Guinness World Records brand).
This was the fifth straight year of the current run that the largest conference and trade show for the $39.5 billion global attractions industry was held in Orlando, where it is committed to stay for many years to come.
As well as the traditional Thursday night social, which this year took in the complete Wizarding World of Harry Potter experience at Universal Orlando, there was a new event called IAAPA Connects, held at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom park on a rainy Monday night – not that it could stop the Disney magic of course. Expo participants raised approximately $120,000 for Give Kids The
World (GKTW), the local Florida charity for children with life- threatening illnesses, via a golf tournament, motorcycle ride, fun run and walk, a drawing contest, plus several individual and corporate
JANUARY 2015
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