Volume 1, No. 16. September 7, 2001
Meeting time
I am posting this LOOP and writing this column from St. Louis on the eve,
literally, of trade show season for our industry. Tomorrow the American Zoo
and Aquarium Association's annual conference and exhibit kicks off. I get back
home next Wednesday in just enough time to travel, with Sarah, to Cedar Point
in Sandusky, Ohio, for the annual IAAPA Summer Meeting. This is a busy time
of year for all of us in the industry, but it's also my favorite time of year.
The trade shows and meetings give me a chance to get together with my colleagues
and competitors—dear friends all—catch up, learn and laugh. This next
week is particularly appealing to me because of the locations of the AZA and
IAAPA meetings.
I'm a graduate of the University of Missouri (the number one School of Journalism
in the country, I must boast) and feel a strong affinity for this state and
this city. The AZA's host this year is the St. Louis Zoo, which I've visited
often and always enjoyed. Geographic fealty aside, I consider it one of the
best zoos in the world, and I'm eagerly looking forward to our "Zoo Day" on
Monday when I'll get to see progress on the zoo's innovative River's Edge multi-use
habitat. As for Cedar Point, professionally I consider it the benchmark park
of our industry, but personally I just love soaking in its atmosphere, the mingling
of happy sounds, smells and sights, and the pervasive friendliness that always
seems to settle over the crowds there. Add all that to the good camaraderie
that is the hallmark of the IAAPA Summer Meetings and I look to stockpile cheeriness
that should last more than a year.
Another reason I'm so eager to get into trade show season is it affords me the
chance to personally thank all the people who have supported and endorsed THE
LOOP in its fledgling first year. I've been writing professionally more than
27 years, I've published more than 600 articles in 100 different publications
ranging from niche trade magazines to Good Housekeeping. Nothing has generated
the response that THE LOOP has. I average more positive feedback per issue of
this newsletter than I received in long stints with various magazines, and the
comments I've gotten over the course of just 16 issues is far greater than I
heard over the previous 27 years combined as a publishing writer. I know I'm
bringing news, reflection and smiles to many people in an industry I'm particularly
enamored of. May we all continue to do well.
Corrections
In the last issue of THE LOOP (August 24,
2001) we printed the wrong closing date for Mitchell Barutha's photography
show on Kennywood. "Bits and Pieces of Kennywood: Hand Colored Photographs by
Mitchell Barutha" runs through September 27 at John Stobart's Three Rivers Gallery
in Pittsburgh.
Also in that issue, in our report on how Magic Waters Waterpark in Rockford,
Illinois, repaired an accidental release of hypochlorous acid at its wave pool,
while the story correctly named Magic Waters, a headline in the index misidentified
the waterpark. We regret the error.
Both have been corrected on that issue of THE LOOP and the indexes