Keynote speaker, Disney legend Marty Sklar
as it’s much harder to create your own IP from within a park, and to pick IPs backed by strong marketing programmes. He also stressed the importance of using the IPs to create strong experiences, but not let them take over the whole park. Wouter’s presentation led into a debate
on the role of characters and IPs within attractions. Marty Sklar told us that time- less stories are very rare, so you need to be confi dent that an IP-led attraction will be able to pay back on its investment while the appeal of the IP is still high. He also told us that George Lucas pushed for Star Tours to be put into Disneyland, as he saw it as a way of keeping his characters alive.
ARCHITECTURE With the importance of storytelling fi rmly embedded in our thoughts, we progressed to Architecture, chaired by Ray Hole of Ray Hole Architects, with co-chair Evelyne Villame of Loisirs et Marketing. Denis Laming opened his talk on Futuroscope by admitting that the fi rst mistake was to design the main Futuroscope building before having a clear view on its content. While this wasn’t ideal from an attraction experience perspective, it did result in an iconic structure which helped establish the associated business and education parks – 26 years on the attraction continues to expand and grow its visitor numbers. Michel Linet-Frion from Center Parcs and Jacques Ferrier of JFA Architecture argued the case for architecture which puts the guests fi rst. Peter Slavenburg of Northern Light challenged the audience with a future where experiences no longer need new structures to house them, as augmented reality allows stories to be played over existing buildings.
AM 3 2011 ©cybertrek 2011
Session panellists discuss the importance of putting storytelling before technology
Timeless stories are very rare, so you need to be confi dent that an IP-led attraction is able
to pay back on its investment while the appeal of the IP is still high
The opening day of the fi rst SATE
Europe ended with a tour of the Heineken Experience, the fi rst of many glasses of Heineken, and a boat trip ending at Boom Chicago. Courtesy of Kees Albers of Unlimited Snow, we were treated to a hilari- ous evening of improvisation in the world of social media, which proved that good humour is truly international.
TECHNOLOGY The second day started with Technology, but not as you know it! Dave Patten, head of new media at the Science Museum, UK, explained how the role of technology is to enable a story to be told about an object. His presentation was a pragmatic look at the ways technology is helping the Science Museum to improve how it tells the stories of its collections and how he’s seeking to add other senses, such as sound and smells to enhance the experience. His message was echoed by David
Willrich, the session chair, and the other speakers, including Rob Wyatt of Artisan Design and Chris Conte of Electrosonic, who all stressed the importance of starting with a story and letting technology follow.
EXPERIENCE As my co-chair, Juliana Delaney, of the Continuum Group, reminded us, our indus- try is nothing without visitors. Together
we ran the fi nal session of the confer- ence, Experience, which considered how to ensure success at both the launch and over the lifetime of an attraction. It also stressed the importance of listening to potential and actual visitors to achieve this. Duncan Campbell, of Merlin
Entertainments, gave us an insight into which factors are really important in evaluating the potential for the develop- ment of new visitor attractions. Tim Baker, of Touchstone Partners, explained the methods he’s using to help attractions determine the audience potential for tem- porary exhibitions. And Tony Sefton of Vision XS quizzed the audience on the infl uence of culture on behaviour. Dirk Lubbers from Heineken then showed that he had a good understanding of his audi- ence when he illustrated the importance of brand immersion by handing out glasses of Heineken during his presentation. So did the fi rst SATE Europe achieve its aims? Bob Rogers of BRC Imagination Arts sums it up by saying: “The fi rst SATE in Europe succeeded beyond all expecta- tions and has already established its own uniquely European fl avour. “The attendance, the quality of the speak-
ers and the intelligence of the dialogue was remarkable.” ●
Lesley Morisetti, director , LM Associates Read Attractions Management online
attractionsmanagement.com/digital 77
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