Volume 2, No. 22. November 26, 2002
IAAPA Report
Ending
on a high note
Simply put, wow!
Pundits suggested the industry was feeling upbeat and bullish, but discerning
whether that prediction derived from true assessment or baseless optimism was
difficult heading into last week’s 84th annual International Association
of Amusement Parks and Attractions Convention and Trade Show in Orlando, Florida.
Within minutes on Wednesday, the exhibit hall’s opening day, the answer
was obvious: people had come to study, to negotiate, to buy.
Here are the hard figures. At close of business Saturday, IAAPA had counted
29,427 attendees, a number which included guests and the people working for
the 1,295 exhibitors. Of the registered buyers in attendance (IAAPA does not
release figures broken down into categories), 83.4 percent came from the United
States while 57 countries comprised the remaining 16.6 percent.
Those last two figures were low compared to previous years, but a couple of
noteworthy trends emerged. One, greater numbers of Asians attended than the
show had seen in the previous three years, an indication that the Pacific Rim
economies are almost fully recovered for amusement venues. Two, sellers saw
fewer Middle East customers than usual, which may be more a result of travel
and visa constrictions by the U.S. government than an economic indicator because
reports of several projects continue to come out of that region.
As for the showing by industry sectors, few discernible trends emerged—more
good news for suppliers. All sectors seem to be on a growth curve: large parks,
small parks, waterparks, zoos, aquariums, haunts. Theme, hardware, software,
entertainment and customer service vendors all performed well around the floor.
Family rides and economical thrills outdrew big-ticket rides for the majority
of buyers, but while some exhibitors reported slow-going with their large-scale
thrill rides, others were aglow with the results of their four days in Orlando.
It was an action-packed four days in the exhibit halls. Several vendors reported
brisk business. The team at S&S Power agreed they had more productive meetings
the first day than they had all of last year. A Stageworks rep contended its
booth had more traffic in a few hours Thursday than in the past three shows
combined. Longtime exhibitors used such adjectives as “slammed,” “they
came in waves” and “best show ever.”
The general mood throughout the floor seemed upbeat until Friday afternoon when
a boy’s fall from a tower ride (see Extra!
Extra! for details) instigated unwarranted rumors that the teen had died,
news that cast a pall over the show. Saturday morning as the accurate account
of the incident circulated and MONTIC Fischer, site of the accident, reopened
its ride to steady business, the enthusiasm returned to the exhibit hall aisles.
The hum of business continued steadily well after the show floor closed Saturday
afternoon.
And from many accounts, that hum will likely result in most suppliers and facilities
whistling their way through a successful 2003.
Choicest
choices
Many of history’s greatest success stories came about by second choices.
England's Queen Elizabeth I, Ringo Starr with the Beatles and Coach Tyrone Willingham
of Notre Dame football fame were all bypassed at first and called upon after
the chosen ones faltered.
History has not had enough time to accord a suitable place for Clark Robinson,
but in his interim tenure as president of IAAPA, he turned a disintegrating
program around and helped deliver a big hit show. After first deciding against
Robinson and then watching him ably handle the reins of the association when
first-pick Brett Lovejoy’s suddenly resigned last June, the search committee
finally recommended the former Lagoon amusement park general manager to be IAAPA’s
new president, a recommendation heartily accepted last week by the Executive/Finance
Committee and the full membership.
“I have to say he really rose to the challenge, and that gave me all the
faith and all the hope that the search committee would choose him,” said
the newly installed IAAPA Chairman of the Board John Collins who called Robinson
an “absolutely superb president.” “I promise you, Scout’s
honor, I didn’t influence them because they were their own people, their
own committee. That’s the way it should be. I was so thrilled when they
came up with the right candidate.”
Outgoing chairman Alain Baldacci gave Robinson the lion’s share of credit
for getting the association through a period of turmoil that resulted in Baldacci
working with three different presidents during his own one-year tenure, starting
with longtime president John Graff who retired at the end of 2001. “Clark
started June 7 and hasn’t stopped since,” Baldacci said at the Changing
of the Gavel Ceremony Saturday. “You need some vacation,” he told
the new president.
Accenting
the obvious
For almost an hour Thursday at the General Managers and Owners Luncheon, IAAPA
spoke in a distinctly British voice. After IAAPA’s annual service awards
presentation concluded with the Lifetime Service Award going to Geoffrey Thompson,
managing director of Blackpool Pleasure Beach Group in England, incoming IAAPA
Chairman John Collins (head of a Wales-based amusement company) introduced the
keynote speaker, Roger Moore (aka, The Saint and Bond, James).
“Three Brits in a row,” Moore said to the audience of 310 as he took
the podium. “Very good.” He then congratulated Thompson, entertainment
colleague to amusement colleague, bearer of the Order of the British Empire—an
honor bestowed by the Queen— to fellow OBE holder.
IAAPA continues to nourish a strong link with its British contingent in electing
Richard Pawley of Drayton Manor Park in Tamworth, England, to a three-year term
on the board. Small parks also got an added voice in the association as Rob
Norris of Seabreeze Park in Rochester, New York, was selected as the new third
vice chairman. He will take the association chair in 2005, succeeding Jane Cooper
of Grupo Magico USA, who in 2004 will succeed Six Flags’ Gary Story, who
is set to follow Collins at next year's IAAPA Convention. Lake Compounce’s
Bobbie Wages was reelected as treasurer.
Small parks likewise got a fair share of new seats on IAAPA’s board of
directors last week. Elected to three-year terms were Christine Ulaky of Canobie
Lake Park in Salem, New Hampshire, Chip Cleary of Splish Splash in Riverhead,
New York, and Lee Buttle of Golf ‘n Stuff in Norwalk, California. Also
elected were John McReynods of Universal Orlando in Florida, Bill Haviluk of
LEGOLAND California in Carlsbad and Greg Hale of Walt Disney World Resort in
Orlando. Monty Lunde of Technifex was elected to the three-year term representing
manufacturers and suppliers on the board.
Click
on the following categories for the full list of award winners at this year’s
IAAPA.
Service Awards
Hall of Fame inductees
Brass Ring
Exhibitor Awards
Big E Awards
Spirit of Excellence
Souvenir of the Year
Live
and help live
To have one of the longest-playing James Bonds in the house addressing the International
Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions membership at the 84th Annual
Convention and Trade Show in Orlando, Florida, the same week the latest edition
of the spy franchise was opening at movie theaters around the country was apropos
synergy. It was one Roger Moore himself stumbled upon during a press conference
following his appearance at the What’s New Theater opening the IAAPA Trade
Show last week.
Moore, the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, recalling childhood memories of visiting
Dreamland amusement park in Margate, England, described theme parks as “a
children’s world, for grown-up children as well, like Bond films.”
Moore called the 40-year, 21-film franchise “quite amazing,” and he
likened the special effects and escapism fantasy of the movies to the special
effects and escapism fantasy of theme parks, with both mediums taking audiences
“right to the edge, yet knowing they are secure.” Then he brought
those similar missions of Bond and amusements back to his personal mission of
saving children’s lives in the poorer corners of the world.
“It goes to that point that children are entitled to the right to play,
the right to listen to fairy stories, and Bond is one,” Moore said.
Moore was at IAAPA promoting the association’s new partnership with UNICEF
in a campaign called “Your Change for a Real Change,” a charity drive
that allows individual facilities to set their own ways and means of raising
money to support UNICEF’s food, immunization and education initiatives.
Moore contended that IAAPA is uniquely suited to such a mission. Amusement parks
and zoos are a safe haven for children of all ages in the more affluent societies.
It is fitting, then, that such attractions can share some of their and their
patrons’ affluence to help give children in war-torn and disaster-shorn
societies a meal, a hospital, a schoolhouse—safe havens in their particular
situations.
In addition to celebrating the UNICEF initiative with Moore’s presence—after
What’s New Theater the erstwhile Bond cut the ribbon for the exhibit hall’s
opening and the next day addressed the General Managers and Owners Luncheon
with a rollicking recounting of his career—IAAPA unveiled another social
service initiative: partnership with the International Institute for Peace Through
Tourism. The not-for-profit organization was founded in 1986 as a counter to
terrorism targeting tourism venues. It stages international forums and promotes
programs that help dismantle barriers to tourism around the world. IIPT does
not seek funds, just awareness, which parks can do by celebrating different
cultures or organizing activities encouraging visitors from other cultures.
Introducing IAAPA to both initiatives was John Graff, who upon retiring as president
of IAAPA last year has since volunteered to serve as an officer in IIPT. He
has also taken the job of coordinating IAAPA’s three-pronged social services
efforts, the third prong being Give Kids The World. “Nothing will be a
diminution of our enthusiastic support of Give Kids The World,” he said
at What’s New Theater.
Bonded
Waiting for his moment in the spotlight, Roy Gillian, chairman of IAAPA’s
Hall of Fame Committee, stood in the wings of the What’s New Theater next
to IAAPA Second Vice Chair Jane Cooper. On stage, as a video montage showed
the new attractions installed in the past year, performance artist Jean Francois
was making his flourishing conclusions to one of his paintings, then headed
off stage.
Seeing Gillian, the painter enthusiastically approached the owner of Gillian’s
Wonderland Pier in Ocean City, New Jersey, and said, “I love watching you
as 007.” Gillian, a little shocked to learn he was being mistaken for Roger
Moore, didn’t respond, but Cooper said, “Oh, no, this is our 007.”
Roy was slightly embarrassed by the incident, but his wife, Patricia, was pleased.
“I’ve always said he’s my James Bond,” she said. “I’m
glad somebody else said it because I’ve been saying that for years.”
Mime your
business
The characters may
change—and, boy! do we mean characters—but a tradition is developing
on the eve of IAAPA, thanks to Michael Getlan’s penchant for clowning and
caring in equal doses. For the second straight year, Getlan of Amusement Consultants
assembled a team of talent to perform at Give Kids The World Village in Kissimmee,
Florida, on the Sunday before the IAAPA Trade Show.
“I will probably do it every year we’re ever in Orlando,” said
Getlan, a man who draws an almost transparent line between his persona as a
clown and his own personality. “I’ve made Give Kids The World my personal
charity and I try to give them whatever I can.”
This year he gave them another troupe of amateur clowns who wowed the children
and their volunteer escorts, all unaware the group—Kelven Tan, deputy director
of events at Sentosa Development Corporation in Singapore; Gena Romano, president
of Nellie Bly Amusement Park in Brooklyn, New York; and Denise Weston, director
of imagination for Creative Kingdoms—rehearsed for the first time just
that afternoon.
Whereas last year Getlan was joined by novices Tan and Ben Jones, this year’s
additions were experienced showwomen. Romano has acted in children’s theater,
presents puppet shows at her park and has taken clown classes with Getlan. Weston,
whose father was a clown, was a professional dancer after college and, because
of her pre-amusement industry experience working with deaf children, performed
pantomime. The women brought a variety of talent that supplemented Tan, reprising
his role from last year as a “shy friend” transforming into Ouch the
Clown, and Getlan the “jack of all trades,” as he described himself.
“I do everything very, very badly.”
For Romano, the afternoon rehearsal was one of the event’s highlights.
“The best part was spending the day with those three. I was in my element,
being with goofy people just like me.” Weston asserts the four are quadruplets
separated at birth. “I always look forward to the IAAPA Show, but never
as much as this year because I knew I would be doing this,” she said.
She spoke while still wearing her white face, the now-emptied theater still
echoing the show’s big finale—a belly-laughing competition among members
of the audience. “This is what we do,” Weston said, referring to her
day job creating amusement venues. “I could sign some really great deals
this week and it won’t compare with the deal of making these kids do belly
laughs.”
Getting
carded
The clown missing
from this year’s performance, Ben Jones, nevertheless was doing duty for
a terminally ill child during IAAPA. His Congo River Golf and Games in Kenosha,
Wisconsin, hosted a fundraising event for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and through
that Jones learned of Craig Sheppard, a 7-year-old boy with an inoperable brain
tumor. “I identified with that one child, and I asked the foundation how
I could do more,” Jones said.
He learned that Craig wants to get into the Guinness Book of World Records as
the holder of the most business cards. “I told the liaison that I was coming
to IAAPA and I’ll do what I can,” Jones said outside the What’s
New Theater Wednesday. Though arriving in Orlando only the day before, Jones
had set an ambitious goal of collecting 1,000 cards by show’s end.
But his own popularity did him in. Each card came with an explanation of his
goal, plus the general conversation that occurs when meeting friends and colleagues.
Jones left Orlando with only 248 cards.
Nevertheless, he still hopes his colleagues will help Craig attain his goal.
Anyone wishing to contribute a business card (one per company) can send it to
Mr. Craig Sheppard
c/o Make-A-Wish Foundation
30 Perimeter Circle East
Atlanta, GA 30346, USA
Lunch
money
No question, a visit
to the Give Kids The World Village is an inspiring thing. People come away willing
to do just about anything to help fund the village, support the foundation or
carry out the mission. Plant that fertile seed in the weird minds of British
roller coaster enthusiasts and you get things like the messiest coaster ride
on record.
The event was a re-creation of a stunt aired on British television in the 1980s
when a pack of Scouts ate their lunch on Blackpool Pleasure Beach’s Revolution
shuttle coaster. The European Coaster Club approached the park about doing the
stunt for GKTW, and the park jumped aboard.
The enthusiasts raised money through pledges, including one that club Chairman
Richard Foster nabbed that would collect a Sterling Pound for every individual
food item stuck to his shirt at the end of the ride. “I thought it was
quite an original pledge,” he said. That pledge accounted for 12 Pounds
(US$18) of the total 1,000 Pounds (US$1,600) raised by the event, which took
place last July. “We bought milk shakes and hamburgers and cream cakes;
everything messy,” Foster said. “We got on the ride and shouted ‘Give
kids the world’ and went upside down. It went everywhere. It was just a
mess.”
“It’s so unusual,” GKTW President Pamela Landwirth said after
receiving the check from the European Coaster Club during a ceremony at IAAPA.
The check also included 1,500 Pounds (US$2,400) raised through an auction. “To
want to do something for those that are facing some of life’s biggest challenges
and to have fun doing it and be so creative, it’s such a passion.”
Foster said the club plans to continue its fundraising efforts for GKTW next
year with a bigger auction and a repeat of the coaster-riding lunch stunt. “This
is a really nice tie-in with the club,” he said. “The charity is sending
kids around to theme parks. We’re obviously great fans of theme parks.
We get that feeling of escape from reality for a few hours of joy and pleasure
an awful lot, because that’s what we do as a hobby. For these kids, without
Give Kids The World they might not ever get that chance.”
Golden
age
On the American
side of the Atlantic, another roller coaster club was making a significant contribution
of its own at the IAAPA Trade Show.
The American Coaster Enthusiasts kicked off a fundraising campaign for the National
Roller Coaster Museum and Archives by donating a $250,000 check, the first step
in a campaign that aims to raise $500,000 over the next three years. The museum,
operating as a separate not for-profit entity, will house and exhibit the extensive
archives already in ACE’s possession, a collection that includes more than
a dozen roller coaster cars, a variety of publications, videos, photographs
and signage, and other artifacts dating back through the decades.
The ACE Executive Committee voted to make the donation and will help solicit
funds through the club’s membership and as memorials for deceased members.
The museum’s board of directors—currently comprising five ACE executives
plus Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters President Tom Rebbie and Amusement Today
publisher Gary Slade—is seeking to fill two vacant seats with industry
representatives.
A
different animal
Any professional
or political association, however gilded in camaraderie it may be, is prone
to internecine conflict. How an association handles those divides is the mark
of that association’s viability, relevance and ultimate success.
In
the attractions industry, one of the deepest and oldest rifts runs through the
zoo community, what current American Zoo and Aquarium Association President
Mark Reed calls the “animal side versus the dark side.” That would
be the husbandry and conservation professionals against the business managers
comprising accountants, marketers and guest services professionals.
Reed, executive director of the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas, feels
the schism is not nearly as pronounced as it once was, citing himself as an
example of a current financial and management professional who started his zoo
career on the animal side. Nevertheless, a rapt audience of about 200 zoo professionals
sat through a seminar last Monday titled “Culture Shock: Bridging the Gap
Between the Business and Non-business Sides of Zoos and Aquariums.”
One of the session’s speakers, Beth Stephens, vice president of Disney’s
Animal Kingdom and animal programs, summed up the situation facing zoo professionals
today as she provided a laundry list of “keys to bridging the culture.”
“I could really be here doing a diversity training,” she said. “It’s
the same thing.”
Pointedly, this session was part of IAAPA's seminar program. Reed fielded requests
from audience members to repeat the seminar at next year’s AZA annual conference,
and he expressed a keenness to see that happen.
IAAPA plays an interesting part in the animal vs. business equation. With AZA
traditionally focusing on its animal exhibitry, husbandry, breeding and conservation
programs, the business and guest services personnel at zoos have increasingly
turned to IAAPA for their professional education. It is an emigration AZA not
only endorses but encourages. “Right now, we look at the relationship between
IAAPA and AZA as a strong one,” said Reed, who at the session announced
a collaboration of the two organizations on a state-of-the-industry survey.
“There’s an awareness of AZA directors that more and more of them
need to get down here. It’s just keeping up with the industry. IAAPA is
providing something that we can’t. We can’t do it all.”
However, a group of guest relations and operations professionals at zoos want
the AZA to do at least a little more. They are petitioning AZA to create a committee
dedicated to that side of the zoo profession, just as organization has committees
for marketing, public relations, education and development. “The list of
committees that are non-animal is constantly growing,” Reed said, including
a trends committee that met at IAAPA. The petitioners’ argument is that
while IAAPA and other professional associations provide viable education and
networking opportunities, they lack a key ingredient in their mindset: namely,
animals. Operations at zoos are unique in the attractions industry because they
must perforce put animal welfare and the conservation mission ahead of all other
concerns.
Reed is willing to listen to the petitioners. He has asked them to provide more
information on “interest, desires, what they want to put in, what they
want to see out of it. We’ll see where it goes from there.” He said
he will move cautiously, however. One of the first tasks in his one-year tenure
as AZA president was to assign more than 250 members to various committees.
“That’s just vacancies and re-ups and new committees,” he said.
“Part of my theme (for the presidency) is accountability of volunteers.
Our association is what it is because of the passionate professional volunteers
we get. We’re getting close to being stretched too far on how much we can
demand out of our volunteers. Anything I’m looking to add has to have a
reason for it. That’s the bottom line.”
Networking
at the show
The U.S. cable network
that brought us Emeril, Iron Chef and Naked Chef was ready to bring us Knoebels.
Timing is all, though, and viewers will have to settle for a vicarious shopping
trip with Knoebels Amusement Resort’s food managers on the Food Network.
Researching a program on amusement park food, the producers were drawn by the
Elysburg, Pennsylvania, park’s winning of the Amusement Today Golden
Tickets Award for food. Producer David Sibila called Knoebels’ marketing
director, Joe Muscato, about filming a food feature on the park. But the show’s
deadline of March didn’t mesh with the park’s season.
However, when Muscato learned that Sibila is based in Orlando, he suggested
the producer do a feature on the Trade Show. “He got excited about IAAPA,
but he still said, ‘I want to find a way to fit you in,’” Muscato
said. So, a camera crew followed Ed Payeski, manager of the park’s Phoenix
Junction Steakhouse and several sweets and beverage stands, as he visited the
booths of J&J Snack Foods, Electro Freeze, Gold Medal Products and Quick
n’ Crispy.
“It was a typical television day,” Muscato said. “It took longer
than you think it should, it was slow, and there’s lots of standing around.
But I have to give these guys credit; I’ve done enough of these, I was
very pleased it didn’t go longer than it did.”
The only hiccup was Payeski’s shirt. He showed up for the opening interview
wearing a shirt he had borrowed from fellow food manager Tony Rodriguez because
it bore the Knoebels logo. But the navy blue shirt blended into the background,
so Payeski swapped for Muscato’s Hawaiian shirt. “I’m wearing
Tony’s shirt while Ed wears my shirt,” Muscato said. “All for
a plug.”
Return
visit
The two zoos
competing to be crowned top draw for Halloween (THE
LOOP, October 11, 2002) was won this year with an overtime gambit by one
of the zoos. The final numbers saw Louisville Zoo in Kentucky pull in 75,774
for the Kroger World’s Largest Halloween Party while Roger Williams Park
Zoo in Providence, Rhode Island, tallied 79,984 for its Jack O’ Lantern
Spectacular. Both zoos lost three days to rain, but Roger Williams got its rainouts
back by extending the festival three days beyond Halloween. That seems like
cheating, but even Louisville Zoo officials applauded Williams' pulling off
the logistics and no-budget marketing required to keep the crowds coming an
additional three days.
Splash Magazine is set to resurface as an on-line Suppliers Directory. Marilyn Turner, the magazine’s editor, introduced Splash on-the-net at the IAAPA Trade Show last week and announced plans to launch the new program on its web site at www.splashmagazine.com in January. Turner said she will distribute links by e-mail to 15,000 companies, amusement parks, waterparks, hotels and resorts. Suppliers will get complimentary listings the first six months and will have a place on the site to post press releases.
Eric's Turn
Slade.
Gary Slade
Walking out of the General Managers and Owners Luncheon Thursday, Gary Slade
clutched the plaque proclaiming him the winner of the IAAPA Service Award for
Public Affairs (that’s him above left receiving the honor from Will Koch,
chairman of the Service Awards Committee). “I still don’t know how
I got this,” Gary said, that aw-shucks Texas drawl of his sounding like
it came fresh off the front porch of a Hill Country ranch house.
Well, he got it in part for being a nice guy, someone well-loved on a personal
basis by men and women, park owners and suppliers, Texans and Germans alike.
He got it in part for the respect he generates among subscribers, advertisers,
colleagues and competitors. He got it because so many people recognize his tireless
efforts to make Amusement Today a viable, readable, responsive publication
serving the industry.
Oh, yeah, he also won the award because he deserved it. This was the Public
Affairs Award “given to an individual or organization in recognition of
outstanding efforts on behalf of the industry in the area of public affairs.”
Nobody could stake a higher claim to that job description the past couple of
years than Gary, the way he has supported the industry, especially the small
parks, through his newspaper and network of relationships.
The key component to his winning the award, as cited in the commendation Koch
read at last week’s ceremonies, is Amusement Today’s Golden
Tickets awards. Golden Tickets has become such a prominent award, people in
the industry are now regarding it as the amusement industry’s Oscars. It
helps promote individual parks and, thanks to the awards’ exposure on the
Discovery Channel and AOL.com, it has given amusement parks a nice public presence,
especially at a time when the industry is under fire on the safety and G force
issues.
Think about it. When Golden Tickets were announced last summer and this summer,
both times it pierced through the consumer media’s aggressive reporting
on safety issues with a spotlight of fun and respect. All the regulatory Malarkey
took a back seat to the clear-cut fact that people love their amusement parks
and rides.
So, congratulations, buddy. Well deserved.
©2002, Minton Enterprises
LLC
All rights reserved