Volume 1, No. 21. November 16, 2001
Here we are
Charlton
Heston said it best. In a video message to the annual gathering of the International
Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions in Orlando, Florida, the actor
encouraged the audience of the What's New Theater to rededicate themselves to
the spirit behind their brand of commerce, "the commodity of fun." He inventoried
the often wearying tasks and challenges of building and maintaining amusement
parks, waterparks, zoos and attractions, and compared these day-to-day hassles
of the job to their day-to-day impact on the lives of families around the world.
"No place on earth provides more smiles per square foot than your amusement
parks," Heston said. And, he noted, "This is a world that needs you more than
ever."
The message was an inspiring moment as IAAPA opened under unusually cloudy skies,
both literally as cold drizzling weather displaced days of sunshine Tuesday,
and figuratively as the industry struggles through an economic malaise and works
out the impact of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the latter uncertainty
further compounded by Monday's American Airlines crash in New York City. If
a predominate theme is emerging from this week's convention, it's the international
language of laughter, from the trio of clowns who performed at Give Kids The
World's village on Sunday evening (see story below) to the
What's New Theater's comedy heavy program with Martin Short as emcee and Mr.
Doubletalk giving the keynote speech. "When I asked Jane Cooper (Paramount Parks
CEO and newly elected third vice chairwoman of the IAAPA Board of Directors)
about her strategic vision, she said, 'Wherever we go, there we are,'" Mr. Doubletalk
said.
That is a truism that seems to be governing the industry right now. The most
anticipated element of this particular show among the people attending was learning
just how many people would be attending. The number of exhibitors declined,
but preregistration for overall attendance was at record levels, and by Wednesday
the association was anticipating a total turnout of 31,000. The seminars were
seeing good crowds, with the sessions for zoo and aquarium members overflowing
their rooms. In a most encouraging note the participation of non-U.S. attendees
was strong, reaching almost half of audiences in some sessions and escalating
the International Reception Wednesday night into a multilingual babble of collegial
partying.
As we post this issue, it is too early to tell how strong the trade show will
be for vendors or whether the activity here bodes an industry recovery sooner
than later. If nothing else the convention is proving just how resilient this
industry is, summed up in another inspirational message from the What's New
Theater; before presenting a series of hilarious interviews he taped with industry
leaders the night before, Mr. Doubletalk said of his audience, "You all can
solve problems that don't even exist."