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In this issue:
(To go directly to a story, click on a blue keyword below):

We preview the IAAPA Convention and Trade Show with a forecast of what to expect, a primer on what sessions to attend, a place to party for free, and a picture perfect moment for the senior exhibitor;

Wonderland Sydney plus a magical couple spells international acclaim;

A Tucson FEC gains market share through community giving, and Universal Orlando gives of itself in adopting a school in trouble;

Caribbean Gardens gives guests something to see at night;

Alton Towers proves to be a popular quest on the Internet; and,

THE LOOP ponders the meaning of IAAPA and other mysteries.

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Illusions of grandeur
When Tony saws Juleen in half, everybody can see the whole thing. She’s lying in a clear, plastic box, not a wooden one, an update of one of the oldest tricks among magicians.

Such effective illusions landed the couple magic’s highest award this year, a Merlin Award from the International Magic Society in the category of International Illusionists of the Year. The Merlins are the Oscars for magicians with a long line of famous winners including David Copperfield, Siegfried and Roy and Joe Labero.

That line takes an abrupt detour with Tony and Juleen, however. For one thing, they are Australian, a hitherto hinterland for illusionists. For another, their award-winning show has been the resident entertainment at Wonderland Sydney for three years. “We’d love to think we’re setting new standards for theme park entertainment,” Juleen said. “Just because you are in a theme park doesn’t make a show any less quality. The fact we’re in Australia might have been more of a challenge because (the Society) had not heard of us before. But as soon as people walk into that theater, they could be in any theater anywhere.”

Well, not quite. When Wonderland hired the duo, the park renovated its theater to custom-fit Tony and Juleen’s show, with computerized lighting responding to more than 1,000 cues during the 40-minute, 13-illusion program. In terms of quality production, Tony and Juleen have proven via the Merlin Award from the New York-based society that they have a world class act. At the same time, the couple has taken every chance to show off their Australianess, even having a koala accompany them at the October 29 awards ceremony at Wonderland.

A koala joined Tony and Juleen for their magical moment. Photo courtesy of Wonderland Sydney.

Ironically, it was only by joining the ranks of Las Vegas and Broadway mainstays that Tony and Juleen gained appropriate respect among Australians. “A lot of times you have to travel overseas to get recognition in our own country,” Tony said, citing such pop music examples as Savage Garden, Olivia Newton-John and AC/DC. “If you’re playing Sydney all the time, for the people here you’re just a local act. It’s nice to get that international recognition without going overseas.”

The honor, bestowed upon Tony and Juleen by Society World President Remington Scott and the Society’s Australian and New Zealand President Peter Balyck, attracted national coverage. After receiving the award the duo’s week was filled with radio interviews and live television appearances. About 150 VIP guests, including other Australian magicians and Wonderland sponsors, attended the ceremony then stayed for the show, which Tony and Juleen perform 364 days a year (the park is closed on Christmas Day).

Tony calls their presentation “power illusions. It’s bang, bang, bang, with a contemporary style of music. Most of the illusions don’t take us more than three minutes.” Striving for such a modern feel, they long avoided that saw-the-girl-in-half trick. “But the first question people ask when they meet us is, ‘Do you saw Juleen in half?’ We didn’t want to do the traditional thing, so we searched for a long time to present the sawing in half in a new way.”

Breaking new ground clearly is the couple’s neatest trick.

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A rewarding marketing plan
CPA firms, engineering firms, telecommunication companies, computer retailers, restaurants, hospitals, mortgage companies, retailers: such businesses made up this year's finalists for the Wells Fargo Copper Cactus Awards honoring excellence in small businesses around Tucson, Arizona. One business that pulled down the honor in two different categories, including community service, was Funtasticks Family Fun Park

Unusual? Not for this 6-year-old, six-acre (2.4-hectare) FEC with go-kart track, bumper boats, batting cage, kiddie land, arcade, two miniature golf courses and a 5,200-square-foot (483-square-meter), three-story laser tag arena. Funtasticks seems to be a perennial winner of such awards, a list which includes the William M. Clements Award for Community Service from the local Ad Federation and the Humane Individual of the Year Award from the Humane Society of Southern Arizona.

In addition to being a corporate core value for the company, which also owns FECs in Scottsdale and Tempe, Arizona, community outreach is Funtasticks’ most effective marketing tool. Director of Marketing C. Jill Hofer arrived in 1997 after working for nonprofit organizations, an experience which taught her how far just a little help goes for a community charity, and how much publicity that help generates.

She spends much of her advertising budget on radio, a local children’s newspaper, rack cards and a restaurant and recreation guide. Meanwhile, she spends much of her time arranging and organizing community events at the park and publicizing those events. “The publicity and positive image you will gain is more valuable than all the advertising budgets in the world,” she said.

The basis of Funtasticks’ outreach is the Community Support Calendar with which the park highlights a different nonprofit each month. The selected agency can schedule a fund-raiser at the park, set up a display or staff an information table, or the park will donate a gift. Additional to these monthly programs the company puts on special charity events, like the pancake breakfast Funtasticks hosted for Tu Nidito, an organization devoted to families of sick and grieving children. The Scottsdale FEC, Fiddlesticks, staged a Christmas party for the Thomas J. Pappas School for the homeless, which drew so many children—about 700—it required four Santas each manning a North, South, East and West pole.

“It’s so valuable, and so positive,” Hofer said of the publicity those events generate. “It keeps us in (the public’s) mind, and I can’t afford to advertise with high frequency on television or radio.” Then, to further maintain the community service publicity frequency, Hofer nominates Funtasticks for every possible community award she can. “Each of these awards resulted in increased exposure in the community through television, print media and awards banquets,” she said.

Such community outreach and awards also boost staff morale, Hofer said, an important consideration for a business open every day of the year but Christmas. “We have a great 401K, excellent benefits, competitive salaries, really good educational benefits, and we do so much in the community it helps keep the employees happy.” The center has eight full-time employees and 25 to 45 part-time depending on the season, mostly high school students. Hofer is convinced the community outreach spirit helps with retention.

Evidence? Well, the other category for which Funtasticks won a Copper Cactus Award this year was for “Best Place to Work.”

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A class act
While a small company like Funtasticks thinks big, here's a big company that thinks small—albeit in a big way.

Universal Florida’s charitable activity earned the company recognition yesterday as the Outstanding Philanthropic Organization from the Association of Fundraising Professionals. The themed resort in Orlando, Florida, won the honor thanks to its ongoing work with the Children’s Advocacy Center, including a $250,000 grant; with the Crisis Nursery at the Children’s Home Society, including a $100,000 donation; with the Orlando Boys and Girls Club, including a $1 million donation for the naming rights to the club nearest the theme parks; and with Give Kids The World, including participating with its partners in the construction industry to build a $2.2 million miniature golf course which opens next month.

That seems like a lot, but Universal nevertheless maintains a narrow focus when it comes to its philanthropic efforts: the company simply carries a big wallet and a large pool of eager employees into all its charitable endeavors.

Case in point is the resort’s current campaign helping a nearby school. Eccelston Elementary School was one of ten schools in Orange County that received a failing grade—an F—in a Florida-wide comprehensive assessment program. “Rather than try to help all ten we thought we’d focus on one where we could make a difference,” said Jan Stratton, Universal Orlando’s vice president of community and diversity relations who was hired 6 1/2 years ago to form a department dedicated to charitable giving. “The way we like to do things here is to focus our efforts where we can see a measurable difference. It’s something you can touch and feel and see.”

Her team chose the school nearest the resort, a school that happened to be in such an economically strapped neighborhood that 96 percent of the children attending qualify for lunch subsidies. Stratton approached the school not just with a check in hand but with a whole resort behind her. “The least creative way is to write a check and walk away,” Stratton said. “Most of the giving we do is very hands on and very involved.”

In short, Universal Orlando adopted the school. “Our goal is to help them go from an F grade to a C grade in one year,” Stratton said. Universal executives visited the school to assess its needs. The resort’s landscapers—arguably among the best in the industry—are rebuilding Eccleston’s “pitiful playground,” Stratton said. Eleven of Universal’s Junior Achievement Advisors are paying extended visits to the school. The informational services department is helping hook the school up to the Internet and go wireless.

That means the school needs computers. In fact, it needs books, globes and other teaching tools. For that, Universal has given Eccleston a $25,000 grant. The resort also is paying the salaries of two teachers to provide Saturday tutoring sessions at the school’s media center. Noting that the school has trouble recruiting parents to serve on its advisory committee, Universal donated another $2,500 to pay for dinners during the meetings, making free meals an incentive for joining. Another $100,000 raised through the company’s annual employee Workplace Giving Campaign (out of a total of $750,000) has been earmarked for future expenses at the school. “We’ve got a whole year ahead of us and they have multiple needs, so we need to prioritize before determining what to spend the money on,” Stratton said.

Her office even brought other charitable partnerships to bear in Eccleston’s adoption. In exchange for a $25,000 donation to a Jacksonville, Florida, organization called Dignity U Wear that collects new clothes for underprivileged students, the organization committed $625,000 worth of clothing to the Orlando area, a hope chest to which Eccleston’s students will have access. The Universal Orlando Boys and Girls Club, located down the street from the school, will serve as an after-school gathering place for students.

Meanwhile, Universal Orlando itself has served as a laboratory for team building exercises for the school’s employees, and Universal merchandise will be used for performance incentives to both students and faculty.

“We’ve got so many resources we can bring to bear,” Stratton said. “And the employees are excited about it.” She cited human resources statistics that more than 80 percent of employees want to work for community-responsive companies. So, while Stratton will tell you her company has a corporate responsibility to give back to the quality of life in the community “where our employees work, live and play,” she also contends that charity fits in with the corporate mission. “Overall, our mission is to be the number one resort destination in the world. If our employees feel good about the company, they’ll be happier themselves.”

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Guests using night vision scopes (above) got a new view of animal behavior after dark (below) at Caribbean Gardens. Photo courtesy of www.napleszoo.com.

A visionary concept
Zoos have long mastered the year-round calendar, showcasing nature in all the seasons of the year; man, after all, can dress warm and imbibe in hot chocolate. But the 24-hour clock has been another matter; man, like many species, has a pretty poor capacity to see at night, which is why other species do their primary business of survival at night. Some zoos offer sleep-overs with flashlight tours, and some night-roaming reptiles and rodents can be seen by day via technological trickery of exhibitry.

Caribbean Gardens: the Zoo in Naples, Florida, has called on another form of technology, personal night vision scopes, to make the whole zoo visible, and therefore accessible, long after sunset. Thanks to the scopes from Night Owl Optics, up to 15 people can take after dark tours to watch animals of all types in their natural nighttime habitats and behaviors.

“One of the cool things is that there are a lot of nocturnal animals people don’t see doing a lot of things in the day,” said Tim Tetzlaff, the zoo’s director of education. Guests on the initial tours were “thrilled with the porcupines,” Tetzlaff said, immobile piles of quills by day who stamp their feet, dig at the earth and flex their quills by night. The tours also point out how diurnal animals get safe sleep at night, like the monkeys who bed down one per tree. “If you’re the only one in a tree of your species and a branch starts moving, you know it’s not somebody getting up to go to the bathroom,” Tetzlaff said.

Priced at $1,500 for up to 15 people—“It could be one person who has $1,500 or 15 people for $100 each”—the tours start with a lesson in using the night scopes. Then, Zoo Director David Tetzlaff leads the guests on a cruise into the darkness while staff place browse (hidden food) to make the nocturnal animals active. Part of the experience is using the night vision scopes. “After we train people, we go pitch black and tell people where to look and, bang, there’s a sloth,” Tim Tetzlaff said. One guest who had been on real safaris in the wild, responded that he was “wowed.” “We knew then we had a good thing going.”

The tours have yielded an unexpected surprise, too: it’s not just the zoo that performs, but the indigenous wildlife of the area. “Several people were watching the bats grabbing insects out over the lake,” Tim Tetzlaff said. Staff get a kick out of the experience, too, not only from working at the zoo in unusual circumstances but also “to see the excitement on the guests’ part,” he said.

That excitement is the key point. With only four such tours a month planned and each limited to 15 guests, the after dark tours is not so much a revenue producer as it is a buzz builder. “It’s already generated fantastic word-of-mouth around town,” said Tim Tetzlaff, who added that several groups are inquiring about adding on shorter versions of the tour to their scheduled events at the zoo. “It’s not just, ‘I went to the zoo today,’ no, no, no. It’s ‘I did a night tour at the zoo!’”

See?

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A search party
People, it is said, are always in search of something. In the Internet Age we can discern exactly what that something is. In the United Kingdom they are questing for Alton Towers while in Italy they are seeking Gardaland.

This bit of insight comes courtesy of Google, Inc., the popular Internet search engine, which monitors the most popular keyword searches around the world. Called the Google Zeitgeist, this research of research is delineated into topics and regions that provide a snapshot, week-to-week and month-to-month, of cultural trends. For example, in September the Top 10 Gaining Queries start off with, not surprisingly, “world trade center” and “september 11” followed by “kelly clarkson” of American Idol fame.

In the United Kingdom’s list of September’s most popular queries, “alton towers” ranked fifth behind “nell mcandrews,” “ryder cup,” “football” and “eastenders.” In Italy, Gardaland came in fourth on the “Popular Children-Related Terms,” behind Topolino, Harry Potter and Shrek, but ahead of Teletubbies.

Why did Alton Towers, the theme park in Alton, England, inspire so many searches? The park’s Public Relations Manager Liz Greenwood is at a loss for a suitable explanation, though she noted that overall hits on the Alton Towers web site in September were 71,000 more than the site received during September 2001. The park’s ranking is all the more baffling when you consider that the other top ten keywords had to do with sports (Ryder Cup, Football and, at nine, Ayrton Senna), media entertainment (McAndrews, FHM at seven and Monsters Inc at eight), and practical matter: the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency came in right behind Alton Towers and the Universities and Colleges Admission Services completed the top 10.

That last entry might provide a clue, Greenwood suggested: students returned to school in September and had more access to computers. That might explain the UCAS at 10 and the Tomb Raider model McAndrews at number 1, but Alton Towers at five? The park also launched a revision of its web site in August, and in September it began running an on-line competition promoting the October opening of its new Terror of the Towers Maze. The contest for free tickets attracted 7,000 entrants, Greenwood said, a record for the park’s on-line contests. “However, this doesn’t really explain why people were going to a search engine,” she said.

The Terror of the Towers Maze itself seems to be the likeliest culprit. Produced by Lynton Harris’ Sudden Impact! Entertainment Company, the haunted maze was the first Halloween attraction of its kind in England. “We can only guess that perhaps the general amount of PR around in September about Halloween may have encouraged this,” Greenwood said. “We’ll certainly continue to monitor the situation.”

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Eric's Turn

Photo courtesy of the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens.

And in the end
As this issue of THE LOOP developed, I was focusing my attention almost wholly on Florida. Sure, I had some other stories developing from as far afield as Sydney, Australia, and Alton, England, but it was the upcoming IAAPA Convention and Trade Show that was shaping this LOOP into an Orlando-centric edition.

Even so, another theme emerged more prominently with this issue, one that is, pardon an obviously referencing pun, universal. That theme is community service. In one story “Rewarding marketing plan,” I profile the charitable efforts of an FEC here in my new home town of Tucson, Arizona, efforts that have made Funtasticks a business leader in the community. In another, “A class act,” my Florida focus honed in on Universal Orlando’s “adoption” of a local elementary school in an attempt to improve the school’s academic standing while shoring up its facilities and rejuvenating its spirit.

Like many items in THE LOOP, these two stories have best practice relevance for other operators. Funtasticks uses community service as a marketing tool, Universal Orlando sees community service as essential to employee satisfaction and, by extension, customer service. C. Jill Hofer at Funtasticks and Jan Stratton at Universal readily admit, and even boast, of these self-serving reverberations from being charitable. However, to talk with each is to hear two people who are passionate about their jobs and passionate about serving their communities, and you realize the two passions are intertwined.

As they are for so many people in our industry. For what is our industry if not one of community service? To paraphrase Michael Getlan, Give Kids The World clown and FEC impresario, we are in the business of smiles. If you are devoted to this industry, you likely are the kind of giving soul who simply loves to make other people happy. If you can make money doing it, great; if you can give a little money, that’s fine, too. Notably, more than money, both Funtasticks and Universal Orlando give of their talents, time and, more importantly, the resources of their very existence. What is the most valuable commodity we have to give our community? What we are.

This theme of community giving also factors into our IAAPA Show preview. Actor Roger Moore will be on hand at the trade show to promote the association’s partnership with UNICEF, a program we’ve touted twice before in THE LOOP (May 10, 2002 and July 26, 2002). The man who pushed for that initiative, outgoing IAAPA Chairman Alain Baldacci, is as passionate talking about social responsibility as Stratton and Hofer are. He recognized that the community IAAPA serves is international, and he too pursued up a program that could tap into the ready resources of the association membership and its community-relations spirit.

All of you have a long week’s worth of walking, talking, selling, buying, meeting and schmoozing (and hardly any snoozing) ahead of you at the IAAPA show. I urge each of you, still, to take just a little time out of your schedule to visit the UNICEF booth (#1236) on the trade show floor and check out how, with just a little effort you, too, can feel the passion.

Cheeting on you
So what’s with the picture of the cheetah cub at the top of this column? I posted it for three reasons.

— The cub is a male cheetah born at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Ohio, a rare birth for the species. The full story is in Extra! Extra! on www.amusementtoday.com, where I posted it as soon as I learned of it. If you have not been checking in to Extra! Extra! regularly, you’re missing out on a lot of breaking news from across the attractions industry.

— The successful breeding of the cheetah came about thanks to a gift from one country to another, and thanks to the unqualified cooperation among zoos. This notion of international and industry cooperation that’s second-nature among zoos is also the very essence of the IAAPA Convention and Trade Show. May it breed success for you, too.

— Third, well, the picture is cute, and I’m entitled to indulge myself at least one just-because-it’s-adorable picture per year in my newsletter.

Have a happy IAAPA! See you at the show (Booth #3123; mobile phone 1-937-321-8290).

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IAAPA Preview

For exhibitors listed alphabetically, click here.

For exhibitors listed numerically, click here.

Editor's Note: Our next issue of THE LOOP will post on Tuesday, November 26, to report on the news from the IAAPA Convention and Trade Show.

Shop ahead of time by clicking on the advertisements below, and be sure to link up with these vendors at the IAAPA Trade Show:

Unlimited Snow
Booth 1560

The Vitala Group

Zebec Inc.
Booth 5073

Gateway Ticketing Systems
Booth 7373

Ecolad Corporation
Booth 411

CBC Advertising

Stinson Band Organ Company
& Doyle International
Booth 3853

Amusement Today
Booth 3123

Bull-headed
The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions offers members and the industry on the whole a number of services, from education programs to lobbying efforts around the world, from networking opportunities to safety guidelines. But mention IAAPA to people within and on the outskirts of the industry and they immediately think Trade Show.

Among those who have been—and even many who have never attended an IAAPA but have only heard of these shows like bards' tales handed down from generation to generation—the word “IAAPA” first conjures mental pictures of rides, games, techno-gizmos, the scent of foods and the sound of bells and whistles filling an expanse of convention hall. The mental visual then likely shifts, like a slide show of memories, to seminars, to social gatherings in ballrooms, hotel suites and nightclubs, to impromptu meetings in corridors, to bus rides.

For the amusement industry, IAAPA is a week-long Super Bowl on an Olympic-like scale of international participation with the emotional fervor of a high school class reunion and the intimacy of a Friday afternoon happy hour gathering. If you’ve never been, you should go at least once; and then you’ll always strive to return at least one more time.

It is because of IAAPA’s emotional drawing power, competing nose-to-nose with economic reality, that forecasting how well the show will do in any particular year is problematic at best. For this year’s Convention and Trade Show slated for November 18-23, in Orlando, Florida, predicting the outcome with any certainty is well nigh impossible.

IAAPA officials say registration numbers are on pace with last year’s, and the number of exhibitors has picked up since the summer to almost equal last year's floor residents. The association is forecasting an attendance between 28,000 and 30,000. Industry veterans look at the trade show floor plan and note its many gaps. They point to additional discounting on room rates among convention hotels, and they cite anecdotal evidence—i.e. talk among colleagues—that suggests traffic will be off; after all, the economies on most continents continue to slide or are only tentatively rebuilding. The most optimistic say that at least the serious buyers will attend, and a few of those is better than a lot of tire-kickers.

Yet, one trend suggests that IAAPA may have solid cause for its optimism. Other annual industry trade shows/conventions this fall—the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, Fun Expo, the World Waterpark Association—far exceeded their expectations. Rather than being inflated, IAAPA’s expectations might be too conservative, for the could easily meet or improve on its five-year average of 29,900.

As for the amount of business that vendors will see, that depends on what sector of the industry they service. High-tech amusements, theming, video and large-scale ride systems continue to struggle, but smaller rides, customer service technologies and redemption appear to be growing.

What economic trends can we map in the wake of a weird 2002 season? It is a map filled with alternate routes. Zoos continue to be a growing market though one that may be hampered by government budget restrictions and tighter purses among philanthropists. Waterparks will see similar government budget issues dampen growth in the public sector, but resorts are providing an exploding market. Small amusement parks and family entertainment centers are wholly dependent on the health of local economies: some are growing, some are stagnant. As for the big chains, both Paramount and Six Flags continue to spend, albeit not at levels of recent years, while Cedar Fair has embarked on a bullish series of investments at several of its parks, and Palace cautiously considers capitalization of its new properties.

That spectrum sums up the mood of many individual operators. Even those running facilities in under-performing economies seem to be countering caution on one side with a desire for bullishness on the other as they set their courses of action for the 2003 season. Put kids like that in the candy store that is IAAPA and the winners among the trade show’s exhibitors should outnumber the losers.

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Bonding experiences
Most things at the annual IAAPA Trade Show and Conference stay the same: its size, the camaraderie, the onset of an affliction common to all known as “IAAPA legs.” One other thing that doesn’t change is a schedule of events so impossible to manage that even James Bond could feel defeated; and this year one 007 will at least challenge IAAPA.

Roger Moore (the second of the major Bonds) is scheduled to appear both at the What’s New Theatre that officially kicks off the trade show and the General Managers and Owners Luncheon on Thursday. A longtime UNICEF ambassador, Moore will be promoting IAAPA’s new partnership with the international charity.

Though much remains the same, for its 84th edition IAAPA has made some significant changes. The seminars have been labeled according to one of three tracts: Best Practices for veteran amusement professionals, Building Blocks for industry newcomers, and Industry Trends for everybody. The seminar schedule will also be supplemented by a series of vendor presentations in two Exhibitor Pavilions on the trade show floor, one in Hall A, the other in Hall E.

In addition to these ongoing presentations, the Hall E Exhibitor Pavilion will serve as the site for the annual Changing of the Gavel Ceremony at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, when Chairman of the Board Alain Baldacci hands over IAAPA leadership to John Collins. Hall A's Pavilion will host the exhibitor awards at 5 p.m. (17,00) Wednesday, and the plaques will remain in the pavilion throughout the rest of the week.

One program continuing to evolve this year is the daily “Information Exchanges” sessions, a chance for you to bring a lunch and join your career-field colleagues for discussions of the challenges you face. All scheduled for noon starts, Wednesday’s gatherings include human resources professionals and financial management and information technology workers; Thursdays meetings are for the zoo and aquarium operators, the entertainers, and the marketing and public relations people; and Friday’s conclaves are geared toward lawyers, family entertainment center operators and waterpark operators, while Latin American operators will meet for a roundtable at 2 p.m. (14,00).

On Wednesday and Friday at 1 p.m. (13,00) the small parks and attractions folks can gather in their own “Chat Room,” while on Thursday 4 p.m. (16,00), the Small Parks and Attractions Town Hall Forum has emerged as one of IAAPA's most important traditions, this year being moderated by Vic Nolting of Coney Island in Cincinnati.

Of course, you’ll have to make room on your schedule for such essential tasks as, oh, selling and purchasing equipment and networking with colleagues. However, here are a few other scheduled events for the week you should try to shoehorn into your schedule.

Monday, November 18—Zoo and Aquarium Day starts with what might be the most significant seminar of the entire week, “Culture Shock: Bridging the gap between the business and non-business sides of zoos and aquariums” featuring scheduled speakers Beth Stevens of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Thad Lacinak of Busch Entertainment, and Gregg Hudson of Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden in Ohio, and moderated by current AZA President Mark Reed of the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas. That night, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park hosts the invitation-only zoo and aquarium social and AZA Conservation Endowment Fund auction.

Tuesday, November 19—The workshop schedule begins in earnest, and, wouldn't you know it, two of the most appealing compete in the 2:30 p.m. (14,30) time slot. Steve Hix, executive director of the International Recreational Go-Kart Association, will give a presentation on management for go-kart operators, including a look at new ASTM F24 standards. Meanwhile, Fred Lounsberry, national chair of the Travel Industry Association of America, will give a presentation titled “Travel and Tourism and the Road to Recovery” looking at trends in travel tendencies among consumers. Afterward, repair to the Brass Ring Awards where you can hear and see the best in industry marketing.

Wednesday, November 20—This year, IAAPA has scheduled a series of daily “keynote addresses” featuring speakers which transcend the normal workshop arena. The originally scheduled speaker for this day, Paul Pressler, who recently left his position as chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts to become CEO of Gap, has been replaced by Al Weiss, president of the Walt Disney World Resort. The address will be at 3:30 p.m. (15,30). For your evening social event, purchase the $25 ticket for the International Reception at the Peabody across the street from the Convention Center.

Thursday, November 21—This day’s keynote speech is at 9 a.m. and features Scott Givens, the creative director of the Salt Lake City Olympics, who will relate some of his “war stories” about staging the Olympics. If you are not a small park operator attending your Town Hall Forum at 4 p.m. (16,00), check out the session “Kosher in Kansas but Banned in Botswana,” an intriguingly titled look at local cultural issues among zoos with speakers from Germany, Singapore and Uganda. The annual Thursday Night Social this year will be at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World.

Friday, November 22—A 4 p.m. (16,00) Bill Havilek, president of LEGOLAND California, and John Jakobsen, CEO of LEGOLAND Deutschland, will present a workshop called "Building a Brand." Taking place in the convention center's auditorium—the venue for What's New Theatre—the seminar will include a showing of the parks' LEGO Racers 4D movie among other presentations. Considering the marketing innovations the LEGOLAND parks always seem to be introducing on a monthly basis, here’s a chance for operators from all industry sectors to pick up some inspiring ideas.

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Matrix and its sister club, Metropolis, hope to attract IAAPA nightlife with free admission. Photo courtesy of Metropolis/Matrix at Pointe Orlando.

Club do’s
As if all the IAAPA-sponsored socials and exhibitor parties weren’t enough to weaken your trade show legs throughout the week, now two nightclubs near the Orange County Convention Center are offering attendees an incentive to party at their places: free admission. Anybody wearing an IAAPA Trade Show badge will get in free to either Metropolis or Matrix in the Pointe Orlando Shopping Center on International Drive, a savings of $5 to $15 in cover charges depending on the night.

“We’re nightclubs, but we do a lot of corporate convention groups,” said Tricia Jenkins, convention sales manager for the two neighboring nightclubs. She hopes that by exposing her venues, some IAAPA group or sponsor will book a future event there. “I know you guys are in town the next two years. As soon as people walk in the door they say, ‘This is it, this is where we’re having our event.’”

The two nightclubs, both 15,000 square feet (1,393.5 square meters), opened a little more than a year ago and offer two distinct styles of fun. Metropolis is a Moulin Rouge-look venue with purple billiard tables, mahogany wood-accented decor and chandeliers hanging over the dance floor. The music is ’80s and ’90s and contemporary Top 40. Matrix is the high-energy hot spot playing techno, Eurotrance and breakout. Last November the Matrix served as one of the social venues for the Lighting Dimensions International convention because much of the club's light and sound equipment was so new it had not yet been put on the market.

Opened Wednesday through Sunday, the two nightclubs offer further variety for IAAPA buyers and exhibitors. Metropolis will host a battle of the bands competition November 20 and continuing on subsequent Wednesday nights featuring three Latino bands per contest night. Matrix, drawing heavily from the 18-25 demographic, attracts the various celebrities who live in Orlando, the N’Syncers and O’Towners, et al. “On a regular basis we are 75 percent to 80 percent local business,” Jenkins said. “Being in the heart of the tourist district, that’s unheard of.”

For IAAPA week, however, she hopes to tilt the balance toward a certain group of out of-towners, now and in the future.

For more information about these nightclubs, visit their website, www.metropolismatrix.com.

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Alex Nagel gave PTC something to show off at the show. Photo courtesy of www.alexsplace.com.

They just clicked
If you want an example of how the amusement industry connects the generations, stroll by the Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters booth on the trade show floor. PTC is the show’s longest continuous vendor, this being the company’s 82nd straight year exhibiting at IAAPA. Its booth, however, features the work of what may be the youngest craftsman on display at this year’s show.

The work, a photograph of the Boulder Dash roller coaster at Lake Compounce in Bristol, Connecticut, adorns one of four wall panels in PTC’s booth. Shortly after the wood coaster opened in 2000, PTC owner and CEO Tom Rebbie saw a photograph in American Coaster Enthusiasts News of the coaster’s train emerging from the woods. “It was just a 2-inch-by-1-inch (5-by-2.5-centimeter) black-and-white photo, but it just looked nice the way it came out of the woods,” Rebbie said. He tracked the photographer down through ACE News, a “young man” named Alex Nagel in Pennsylvania. Rebbie called one afternoon.

“A lady answered and said he’s at school right now,” Rebbie said. “I figured he was a teacher, so I said, ‘Is this his wife?’ She said, ‘No, this is his mom.’” Alex was 16 years old at the time. When Rebbie explained who he was and what he wanted, it was, to coaster enthusiast Alex, like an entertainment idol or sports hero calling. “His mom told me he had thousands of pictures of coasters all over his room. He has his own web site (www.alexsplace.com) with photographs of his favorite coasters and from a lot of ACE Conventions.” At those conventions the Nagels had seen Rebbie speak, but never met him.

So, Alex’s mother put Rebbie in touch with her son, who sent the PTC CEO a color 8-by-10 inch (20-by-25.5 centimeter) version of the picture. Its quality was everything Rebbie hoped for, so he had it blown up to an 8-by-10-foot (2.5-by-3-meter) panel. "I’ve seen a lot of his work,” Rebbie said. “He’s very meticulous when he photographs things. He doesn’t just point and click and run, he takes his time. You can tell in his work. And he does it for fun, a hobby.”

Alex, now a senior in high school, aspires to be an engineering student. “He wants to design hydroelectric dams,” Rebbie said. Rebbie has since become close friends with Alex and his mother. “He’s come up to our shop. He loves going through our old photographs.”

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