There’s no such thing as not being allowed to touch. You have to touch each exhibit to see how it works


Merlin to Ripley’s. Boris, in contrast, is a Hungarian investment banker with exten- sive experience in funding entertainment projects. They met five years ago while exploring potential real estate deals in eastern Europe and immediately estab- lished a strong professional rapport. “We started working in a client relationship,” says Waschk. “But [we had] the same opinions; we were looking at this busi- ness from a similar point of view.” At any other time, the meeting of minds might have ended there. But macro-economic circumstances deemed otherwise. “Before the financial crisis, Andy and I advised real estate develop- ers on different attraction projects in Hungary,” says Boris. “When the crisis came, those projects were put on hold. For us that was an opportunity to come up with a different story.”


ROTATING CONTENT The story the pair came up with is one that maximised their skill sets: Waschk’s development and operational know-how combined with Boris’ investment experi- ence and contacts. By getting investors on board before pursuing specific projects, the pair could hit the ground running. “Many edutainment projects are difficult to find the equity for by time the idea’s there,” says Waschk. “That was the advantage I had,” adds Boris. “I have a very good relationship with a wide net- work of private equity investors.” With financing in place, Waschk and Boris were free to concentrate on finding and/or developing the kind of attractions


AM 2 2014 ©Cybertrek 2014


Odysseum will be only the second European venue to host Harry Potter: The Exhibition Read Attractions Management online attractionsmanagement.com/digital 35


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