IAAPA Expo 2023: Best of

WEBVTT

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From our studios in Los Angeles and
Orlando, Tampa, Tampa. This week

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Los Angeles and Tampa. There we
go. This is green Tech. You

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don't know where we are. I
don't know where I am. We're just

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I don't know what's happening in this
world. I know though the green Tagnean

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Parking thirty. I'm Philip and I'm
joined by my co host, Scott Swinson,

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a Scott Swinton cred Development, and
this week we're going to recap some

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of the best experiences from the IYAPA
Expo twenty twenty three. For a background

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IYAPA, I'm sure everyone listening,
of course knows what IOPA is. But

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of course to give you some stats, this year broke records. They had

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thirty six over thirty six thousand attractions
professionals with a total registration of forty one

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thousand. There were one one hundred
and forty seven exhibiting companies. And these

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are exhibiting companies that sell anything you
could possibly need to run an attraction of

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any size. Really, there are
every really everything, like the ATM machines,

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cash machines, you know, not
just the theming and the rides,

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but really everything. So it was
a huge footprint. This year, the

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AYAPA estimates that it contributed over one
hundred million in economic impact to the region,

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and in their post conference press release, they did hint at future efforts

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to expand the square footage of the
exhibiting space. So that's exciting because something

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that happened this year is they ran
out of space yet again and they had

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a wait list of exhibitors, not
all of which made it into the show.

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So even at the size that it
was now, it's still has room

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to grow and has demand to grow. So it is the show, you

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know, the show. So a
big part of the show is a lot

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of companies will sign up to release
their new you know do do press conferences

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basically to talk about what they have
planned for next year and to literally unveil

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items, and they this year they
had three days of press announcements happening on

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the second and third days of the
trade show. And I tended some of

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the press conferences and we heard some
some information from others. So I've rounded

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up a group that I thought we
could talk about that are a mix of

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people that I've spoken to, that
I interviewed and some that we just looked

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up because I couldn't make it there
because it's a very busy show and the

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pressureleases are press conferences are basically back
to back. So the first one,

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which I'm sure again everyone listening is
also aware of, because I think it

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in our little space of themed entertainment
design and show, this one made the

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biggest splash, which was the SpongeBob's
Crazy Carnival Dark Ride that is going to

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Circus Circus. It's a partnership between
Paramount and Nickelodeon and Sally Dark Rides as

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the manufacturer. And check out the
videos for this thing. It is really

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cute. Basically, SpongeBob has turned
into a ride vehicle, so you are

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kind of boarding SpongeBob and you know, I've seen this reference before, but

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I think it's it's a it's it's
similar to you know, other shooter carnival

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rides like Tory story Mania. Basically
is what it seems like, but it's

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a SpongeBob version. And so you're
going through different carnival stalls and you know

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the premise is that you mister Crabs
is setting up a carnival to make extra

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money, and he, of course, Patrick packed the ingredients to the Kyrie

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Patty instead of the carnival games,
and so you're kind of like using those

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in place of the game elements.
And of course the you know, there's

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antagonists is going around trying to steal
the ingredients and whatnot. So so it

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does have a story. It's story
you know, kind of story ish story

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base. As you're going through it, will and they unveiled the Mister Crabs

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greeter, you know, kind of
the carnival greeter there at the show,

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which I think was received really well, and it's going to open pretty soon.

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It's set to open in spring in
Circus Circus and kind next to the

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Adventure Dome. So yeah, it's
I want to get Scott Soots on it.

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But that's you know, that's the
background at least of the of the

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ride. So I think it's kind
of cool actually that and again kind of

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shows what we've said over and over
and over again that everything old is new

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again. I think the interesting thing
is that a dark ride is what is

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the hot ticket to talk about from
from Iappa. You know, for years

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it was dark rides are dead and
nobody, you know, nobody wants to

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ride them, and we just need
a bigger, faster, more terrifying coaster,

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et cetera, et cetera, et
cetera, which by the way,

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was also announced and uh and teased
at the show. But I think that

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the the idea that if you're if
you've already maxed out your thrill rides and

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you need to keep your your audience
growing, there is a place for dark

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rides, you know there is.
I think it's just a great reminder that

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you have to you have to understand
your brand, but you're also have to

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understand your market. And when you've
saturated one market, you may need to

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look at the possibility of reaching out
into others and make sure that they overlap

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just slightly so you're not abandoning your
success market. But yeah, so I

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went by the Sally booth several times. I didn't really talk to anybody,

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but I got a chance to see
some of the video and some of the

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animation, and again, it looks
super cool. It looks great quality.

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I mean, Sally is known for
doing dark rides really all over the world,

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and this one, I don't think
it's going to be a disappointment at

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all. But I do think it's
an interesting It's interesting that this trend is

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so very strong and so very popular
amongst the industry at this point in time.

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Yeah, I agree with that.
I would take it a step further

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and says it is I don't know
if this is exactly a trend, but

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somethingly I'm noticing is this is not
a theme park that's doing it. And

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it's similar to what we talked about
with Treasure Hunt, which was the last

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year's big ride reveal, which opened
late. You know, it was delayed

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for construction and whatnot. But Treasure
Hunt opened in Cannery Row, right,

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and that's not a theme park either, and it I think to your point,

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even to the extent that these are
dark rides that are going into places

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that are not you know, I
don't think you normally think of Circus Circus

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as having a full dark ride and
and maybe back in the day that's the

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thing. Back to your point about
Pendulums, I think it's going back to

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what it used to be, you
know, like several decades ago, of

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the type of entertainment that you would
find. But I think you're going to

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see this expansion again. We've talked
about the competition for theme parks that is

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coming from all angles. Well,
you know, now, now if a

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circus circus and if Cannery Row,
you know, can build dark rides that

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are the same quality as Disney and
Universal, that that begins to be a

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competitive note to pay attention to for
those rides. It's like, well,

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you know what we what do we
really offer me by creating a walled garden

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if you can just walk into circus
service for free and then buy a ticket

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to go on this ride. And
and the other trend it hits on is

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that you know, this is SpongeBob. I mean, this is a popular

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ip and again it's it's it's these
brands that are I think I think I

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think the more we go out,
the more we're gonna start to see more

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and more brands for the same reason. You know, how are you going

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to compete with Netflix and Disney and
the streaming and whatnot. You're going to

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need to invest in physical touch points
to remind to remind people to go watch

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your stuff. And like that's you
know, it's a Disney playbook, But

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other brands, any brand can do
it. And I think they're discovering that,

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as we'll talk about later with Mattel. But you know, it's you

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see these brands more and more for
the first time ever doing something disambitious.

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Yes, I also think it's interesting. You know, you talk about the

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h the idea of doing high quality
rides outside of a theme park environment with

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this particular year, and I think
it was I'm guessing it was probably true

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least year, although I wasn't I
didn't I wasn't able to attend the show,

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or no, I did attend the
show last year. That's not sorry,

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that's a lie. I did attend
the show last year. I think

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it's even more so this year.
Is that being able to incorporate a ride

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experience in a non theme park environment
like an FEC or even a retail establishment

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or a restaurant is something that I
think is going to become more and more

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viable simply because there is so much
VR and the the trade show floor especially

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was filled with motion simulator VR experiences, and some of them are pretty dern

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intense, you know, some of
them they complete, complete with you know,

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inversions and full on. You know, it's it's a way to create

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thrill, a thrill ride experience without
the giant footprint, so you know,

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you can conceivably through virtual reality.
Again, I think that's going to wear

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thin quickly. But but the idea
is this is not rides are not just

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for theme parks anymore, and even
the v R experiences are building these gigantic

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You know, there was a full
chassis of a four x four truck that

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you got into and then put goggles
on so you couldn't even see it.

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So it was all about attracting the
outside viewer to come and join the to

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come and join the ride. And
you know, whether that is in a

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non traditional entertainment environment like Circus Circus
or somebody's somebody's four x four themed restaurant

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and they add this ride as an
additional revenue stream. I think what you're

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going to see is more and more
rides outside of the the walled garden and

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uh and giving guests an opportunity to
experience what are thought of as traditionally theme

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park attractions in a non theme park
environment. Mm hm. Now, there

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were still plenty of of big rides
and big announcements from the theme parks about

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right vehicles. That's that's always court
Ayopa, and it's going to always I

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think always be. And I think
Scott and I don't focus on that as

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much because we focus on the theme
entertainment space much more because that's our that's

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you know, where we come from
and our expertise. There is one I

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wanted to mention just because I think
it talks to our trends. But Hershey

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Park unveiled the ride vehicles for Commet, and I thought it was interesting just

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because Commet is their oldest ride there
at Hershey Park and this will be the

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fifth ride vehicle set that has been
commissioned for it, and it was it's

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being done by the oldest Iyapa exhibitor
who has been exhibiting at Iopa for one

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hundred years, like one hundred years
of exhibiting, and I just I think

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that kind of stuff is really just
shows the industry that if you're always going

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to have throw rides, like I
mean, just I think that's the proof

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right there, even though we can
talk about the trans go in and out,

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but you're always going to have these. And I also I like that

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shows another thing that we talked about, which is reinvestment. You know,

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it doesn't it doesn't need to be
necessarily a whole new coaster, but you

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could redo their ride vehicles and you
can keep the history and just reinvigorate it

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so it's not a terrible experience for
your guests. And I think Harshi is

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excellent at these types of things.
They really they really do a good job

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of, you know, balancing that
balancing act. Like, yes, they

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had a new a new they have
new stuff, they have the new Haunt

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stuff. They have a lot of
new stuff that's coming in, but also

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they're gonna they're gonna reinvest in one
of their oldest assets and keep the asset

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because they recognize it as an asset
and they're gonna build upon the nostalgia of

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it. You know, nostalgia in
theme park. There's a growing trend right

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now about trying to save some of
the older coasters, trying to save some

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of the older attractions and rebuild them
because there's an emotional connection to them.

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You know, this is this is
something that has been that has been both

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a well I would say, a
double edged sword for Disney for many years.

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You know, they want to do
new things to bring in a younger

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audience, but you know, the
moment they get rid of something, there

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is a huge backlash of oh my
gosh, I explored that as a child,

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or I discovered that when I was
young and I wanted to take my

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kids or my grandkids to see that, and now it's gone. But the

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reason I say this trend is coming
back. Not only did Hershey Park do

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Comet, but also Bush Gardens Williamsburg
was talking about Locknest Monster and they're doing

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a refirb redo remount of Locknest Monster
over their down season to reopen in twenty

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four and were recognized by American coaster
enthusiasts for taking that effort. And of

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course American coaster Enthusiasts is very closely
tied to Locknest Monster because that was kind

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of their inaugural coaster when that whole
organization kicked off. So so I mean,

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I think that's I think that's interesting, even you know, close to

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me here in Tampa, Bush Gardens
took Guasi and remounted into Iron Guasi.

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Granted it, they replace a lot
more, but they still kept they still

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kept the basic footprint, basic location
footprint. They didn't they didn't just wipe

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wipe the earth of its existence and
then build something completely new and fresh.

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So I think I think we're going
to see that a bit more as a

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trend. But I will say I
think that that sense of nostalgia is very

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regional. In in Florida, for
example, it's very difficult to to say

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to market something as here's here's an
old ride, only now it's better.

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Iron Guasi, they actually did change
the marketing completely. They changed the animal

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it was representing, they changed they
changed a lot of things. But but

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I think that in the up North, in the Midwest, for example,

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in the in the the East,
on the Eastern Seaboard, there's a lot

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of a lot of heartfelt connection to
a lot of the older attractions, and

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I think that the the theme parks
are starting to recognize that and finding that

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they can continue to tie into their
core demographic, their core audience generationally,

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you know, generation after generation after
generation. Yeah. And of course beyond

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all this, one of the best
reasons I think to go to go to

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Ayapa is to see the stuff that
is completely surprising, which there's not always

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you know, that's not all to
be honest, Most of the show is

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the same vendors, you know,
in the same relative areas because they're organized

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by pavilions, and you know,
I mean there's only so many things you

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can you know, things you could
do, right, So, but one

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of the really new things I did
not expect came from SUBC Systems, and

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I interviewed the founder CEO of that, you know, to ask some questions

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about their what they were unveiling and
and essentially it is a like a track

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system that starts off above water and
then submerges and goes underwater. So when

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you get into this system, effectively, like the chassis that lowers, effectively

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goes over you. It's a two
person ride vehicle and it goes over your

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your heads, so you can breathe
underwater, you know, but you can

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also so you can talk to each
other, so you and your neighbor can

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kind of talk about the experience together
and then you and then as the ride

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goes, it submerges underwater, so
you actually do get wet. Everything from

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your shoulders down is in water and
you're going through the water environment, and

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you know it. There's videos showing
it there the show, they were kind

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of showing the testing and showing what
it looks like to go through. And

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on their website there's a there's a
mock up, but they had real videos

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at the show. And what I
didn't realize that I've learned in the interview

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is that it's already been installed.
I mean, this is opening soon in

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the in the Dubai, the UAE
region, I think it's I think it's

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Dubai region that's opening there. And
it's just which I thought was so funny

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because it's exactly what you know.
It reminds me of c WORL Dabi Dhabi,

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and it reminds me of just the
crazy water based attractions that are going

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into the desert over there where you
can explore this. But it's such an

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interesting concept and the thing that the
that the CEO stressed me was that what

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they wanted to replicate was you sharing
the experience of going underwater with a friend,

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which you could never do otherwise because
you know, unless you're in like

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a submarine or in something where you
can talk, you know, if you're

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scuba diving, you can't really talk
to the person next to you. So

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it's it's that's what they were trying
to bring to life here and I thought

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that was interesting, again, really
heavy in interaction like that they really are

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relying on people wanting to interact with
the person they're with when they're going underwater,

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and then to be able to do
this hybrid experience that was interesting.

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And one of the things too,
So I was in the UE when they

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did the announcement, and one of
the things over there at least that they

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were putting it in and one of
the things they talked about too is they

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said, this also gives them the
opportunity perhaps in the future, to not

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only make it so that it's interacting
with each other, but also interacting with

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other creatures that might be in the
water. So you're from the shoulders down,

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you would literally be in the same
environment as the sea creatures, but

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from the shoulders up you could obviously
continue to breathe and enjoy the experience with

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the person writing with you. So
yeah, this is I think this has

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the potential of being something really,
really fun. I'm curious. I'm curious

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to see how it all plays out
in real life from a loading standpoint and

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an operational standpoint. But it is
certainly unique. But again, that's what's

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happening pretty much throughout the Middle East, not just in the UAE. One

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of the other announcements that was made
at Iappa, they showed the picture of

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the new Falcon coaster car, which
is going to get six flags in in

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Saudi and talk about a cool looking
car. But there's been some there's been

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some things online too about the the
height comparison of the the first drop being

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just slightly shorter than the the the
gateway arch in San Francisco. I'm sorry,

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it's in Sorry, yeah, in
Saint Louis, which you know right

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there kind of terrifies me, but
uhm, but it's it's it's interesting because

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there, when it comes to being
willing to be groundbreaking, that's happening,

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it seems more and more outside the
US simply because they are well, they

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have they have deeper pockets number one. Number two, they have more to

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invest in because they have to.
They have to truly draw attention away from

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the established markets, either in the
US or in you know, in Japan

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or you know throughut Asia, because
they're they're trying to establish themselves. So

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they have to do something with an
st at the end, biggest fastest underwaterist.

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I don't know, but they've they've
got to do something that the wettest.

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Yes, they have to do something
to grab the attention. So I

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think that's why we're starting to see
things like the subsea systems, ride vehicle

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and ride experience and the biggest,
tallest, fastest roller coaster, et cetera,

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et cetera, et cetera. Because
again it's it's over there. It's

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not about nostalgia, because there is
no nostalgia. These parks do not exist.

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So they have to find new and
different things to draw, draw attention

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and make people want to go.
Well, I can't do this anywhere else.

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Let's go there. M I agree
with all that. I think again,

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just to your point, it's going
to be interesting to see how they're

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maintained, because you know, having
a vehicle go in water. Water is

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corrosive. I mean that that is, water is very difficult to work with.

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You know, as an environment it
seems easy, but it's not.

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There's so many elements in that,
you know, especially if you if the

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marine life is living in it,
because it needs to sustain the levels to

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keep marine life, which is really
by its nature corrosive onto metal, and

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so I don't that's gonna be weird. The same thing with the coaster.

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It sounds great to have a tall
coaster, but the taller it is,

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the more intense it is, the
harder it is to maintain, the harder

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it is on the ride, vehicles
as well, So yeah, we'll see.

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Yeah, anytime you're anytime you're quote
unquote bleeding edge, chances are good.

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There there's at least one thing that's
gonna go slightly awry or that you

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didn't seem to plan for. Having
opened Rhino Rally at Bush Gardens in Tampa,

278
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there were all kinds of things about
those vehicles that we had no way

279
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of anticipating how and specifically, as
you say, how corrosive the water was

280
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going to be on the vehicles and
how much maintenance it was going to require.

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Yeah, yeah, well we'll see. Of course, the brass rings

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are also a big deal at Ayapa, and they do brass rings for exhibits

283
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as well as products and shows and
and experiences as well. And the one

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I just wanted to call out because
we because Scott got to experience it last

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year was a Froggy has received a
brass ring for their Thanos fog gun as

286
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the best new product choice. So
it's it basically is that if you saw

287
00:21:32.400 --> 00:21:34.559
a video last year, it's it's
the handheld fog gun. It's a pretty

288
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big gun, but it's basically like
a handheld fogger that has a thirty second

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blast charge on it and can change
colors. So yeah, there were there

290
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were several products that were nominated for
the Brass Ring this year that I thought

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were remarkably clever And just to give
you an idea kind of to tie back

292
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to what Philip was saying earlier about
this trade show, and that is that

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you can experience almost anything you could
imagine that might possibly work in any attraction.

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Some of the other some of the
other well, one of the other

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recipients and one of the other nominees, one of the other recipients was a

296
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rehearsal basically a rehearsal program that breaks
down audio tracks and you can you can

297
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actually teach singers at home, so
it helps reduce the the rehearsal time.

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And another one was very simply an
edible straw, which you would think that

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that would have been done, but
that is being implemented in all the Sea

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World parks right now. It started
at SeaWorld Abu Abi, but is is

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continuing in all of the Sea World
parks around the country. And uh,

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you know, we did. We
for those of us who who are able

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to participate in NAPA Celebrate SeaWorld Orlando
actually had them and was distributing them with

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the beverages for that party. It's
interesting because it completely reduces waste. They

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they people are thinking, well,
it's a straw that the moment you stick

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it in water, it's going to
fall apart. But they last significantly better

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than paper straws and are safe for
animal life. So you know, there's

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all kinds of great innovations, like
the froggiest fog gun, like the edible

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straw, like the harmony app.
It's really neat to see that when there

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is something new, it really stands
out because if you go for several years,

311
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you know, I've been going for
over twenty years, and it's interesting

312
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when you see these kinds of unique
things. If you saw the video from

313
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last year where you saw how tickled
I was with the fog gun, that

314
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was exactly that feeling. It was
like, here's something we've never seen before,

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here's something completely new. The fact
that it doesn't have a cord or

316
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a cable attached to it, it
was it was just mind boggling. But

317
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it's again why people go to the
iapp at expost is to see what is

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the newest of the new and how
is it being applied. Yeah, yeah,

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we're gonna speed up a little bit
here to get through some of the

320
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other stuff we have to. But
just to throw out some very quick things

321
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created, Visions had a throne that
was a big basically translucent so you could

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change the color inside of it so
it could be more easily adapted to different

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holiday events, which again playing back
that themes we've talked about, the fact

324
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that they brought up big photo op
as a thing because you know how important

325
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photo ops are and being able to
reskin stuff different holidays, all that stuff

326
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we've talked about. And then the
ride vehicle for the one of the new

327
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Matels was there and it was just
interesting because again back to the nostalgia thing

328
00:24:33.960 --> 00:24:37.680
that's got talked about, the whole
ride vehicle was made to replicate the most

329
00:24:37.680 --> 00:24:41.559
popular Matel matchbox car that they had
there. And of course they also had

330
00:24:42.119 --> 00:24:48.480
renderings and a little discussion about the
Barbie dream House following up with the movie

331
00:24:48.519 --> 00:24:52.680
and you know how they chose what
to go in there. So yeah,

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00:24:52.720 --> 00:24:56.319
just some other quick trands we saw. Yeah, and it's interesting because again

333
00:24:56.559 --> 00:25:00.839
the whole Mattel and Barbie just once
again shows how retail movie theme park,

334
00:25:00.960 --> 00:25:07.200
all helping to reinforce one another for
the first time. As we enter into

335
00:25:07.359 --> 00:25:12.960
the holiday season, Santa Claus and
those people who are friends of Santa's are

336
00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:18.359
looking at what the toy trends are, and Barbie's Dreamhouse is back on top

337
00:25:18.680 --> 00:25:21.920
when it comes to what are the
cool new trends. So it's just all

338
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reinforcing one another. So of course
AYAPA is more than the show floor.

339
00:25:26.599 --> 00:25:29.319
There is a lot of education,
which I don't think we're going to get

340
00:25:29.319 --> 00:25:33.599
today because it's a lot. It's
a whole I mean, there's classes packed

341
00:25:33.640 --> 00:25:37.480
everywhere continuously. There's educational tours,
but there's also events that bring the whole

342
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industry together. There are official events
and there are plenty of unofficial events.

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00:25:41.279 --> 00:25:47.480
There's a mixer everywhere you look,
basically with different companies. And some of

344
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the highlights I think for me at
least, was this year they did a

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big drone show. I think it
was Tuesday and Wednesday at six fifteen,

346
00:25:55.440 --> 00:26:00.079
and it was you need to look
up videos, you need to go online.

347
00:26:00.359 --> 00:26:03.279
I didn't make a video because I
don't know, for whatever reason,

348
00:26:03.319 --> 00:26:07.839
I was not I was not like
videoing at that time for some reason.

349
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But it is. It is incredible
what they were able to do with these

350
00:26:12.519 --> 00:26:15.920
drone shows, and it did break
two records, but it was it was

351
00:26:17.000 --> 00:26:22.480
almost sixteen hundred drones that were flying
together in formations and they did they did

352
00:26:22.480 --> 00:26:26.480
a bunch of stuff, from logos
to dragons. But what struck me about

353
00:26:26.519 --> 00:26:30.480
the drone show watching it is that
I never imagined there'd be so much animation

354
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and life and fluidity in it.
And for the first time, I was

355
00:26:34.079 --> 00:26:40.319
like, Oh, this really should
be the future of fireworks. We really

356
00:26:40.359 --> 00:26:42.480
shouldn't be doing fireworks anymore. Not. I mean, fireworks actually are pretty

357
00:26:42.480 --> 00:26:45.640
bad for the environment. They're also
bad for the people that you know,

358
00:26:45.680 --> 00:26:51.880
there are a lot of the micro
metals that are exploded out there, you

359
00:26:51.920 --> 00:26:55.759
know, can you can actually inhale
them. It's bad for people with asthma.

360
00:26:55.799 --> 00:26:56.960
I mean, it's not it's not
it's not great, you know,

361
00:26:57.039 --> 00:27:00.319
it's you know, I'm sure we're
always going to have them. But in

362
00:27:00.400 --> 00:27:04.880
terms of like a repeatable show that
could fire multiple times per night, and

363
00:27:04.920 --> 00:27:08.279
I mean it was drizzling and the
drones were going off, I mean it

364
00:27:08.400 --> 00:27:11.839
was not perfect weather conditions. I
think Jones are going fine, and I

365
00:27:11.839 --> 00:27:15.920
think this could. I really saw
the potential in this being something that happened

366
00:27:17.079 --> 00:27:21.720
that could happen every hour on the
hour in the evening at a park,

367
00:27:21.759 --> 00:27:25.799
and then you could supplement it with
fireworks. Yeah, that's and that's exactly

368
00:27:25.799 --> 00:27:27.799
what I was going to say.
I think I think drones are another tool.

369
00:27:27.880 --> 00:27:32.200
The thing about drones that impressed me
is, as you say, the

370
00:27:32.599 --> 00:27:36.400
animation and the sheer magnitude. The
fact that you can control an image and

371
00:27:36.440 --> 00:27:41.200
make it literally stand still in the
night sky is pretty impressive. The thing

372
00:27:41.240 --> 00:27:47.880
that I think drones lack is the
moments of excitement and the moments of the

373
00:27:47.960 --> 00:27:52.039
explosiveness of a fireworks show. And
excuse me, I think using drones in

374
00:27:52.119 --> 00:27:59.720
conjunction with fireworks and lighting and other
special effects can be pretty could be really

375
00:27:59.759 --> 00:28:03.519
pretty amazing, But the shadow of
a doubt pointed out the possibility of it.

376
00:28:03.519 --> 00:28:07.640
The thing I will also say is
having worked on smaller drone shows before

377
00:28:08.759 --> 00:28:15.480
the fact that not a single one
of them dropped out Because drones when they

378
00:28:15.599 --> 00:28:19.319
when they lose power or lose connection, they are programmed to go internal and

379
00:28:19.480 --> 00:28:22.680
flash and slowly drop to the ground
so that they can retrieve them. Not

380
00:28:23.160 --> 00:28:29.480
one dropped out, which was pretty
amazing. It was incredible. Go go

381
00:28:29.559 --> 00:28:32.720
watch a video. It was actually, it was actually, it was incredible.

382
00:28:32.960 --> 00:28:36.640
We also Scott also attended the Dragon
was in Gas part the drafts.

383
00:28:36.640 --> 00:28:38.400
One was yeah, go look at
the drag. I agree because he shot

384
00:28:38.440 --> 00:28:42.279
fire, which is crazy. So
Scott and I also went to i APPA

385
00:28:42.279 --> 00:28:47.839
Celebrates, which was the annual party
on Thursday night, which was at Sea

386
00:28:47.880 --> 00:28:52.680
World this year, and it despite
the thing I thought about that was,

387
00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:56.279
you know, i APPA celebrates as
always, you know, the event and

388
00:28:56.319 --> 00:28:59.960
the park always does great stuff.
This year, I thought it was interesting

389
00:29:00.039 --> 00:29:03.079
that it was raining, so they
had to do show B B B show

390
00:29:03.440 --> 00:29:08.240
made for it. Yeah. Major
pivots, Yeah, major pivots. Which

391
00:29:08.319 --> 00:29:12.319
kudos to them for pivoting on that
so quickly. But what I thought was

392
00:29:12.359 --> 00:29:17.119
cool was that they really put a
focus on their seasonal entertainment because they had,

393
00:29:17.200 --> 00:29:22.039
you they had a haunted house open
from Halloween and then they like a

394
00:29:22.079 --> 00:29:25.799
full full with actors walk through everything, and they had a photo op with

395
00:29:25.839 --> 00:29:30.960
the Sirens with the actors from the
actual Sirens, you know, and they

396
00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.319
also did Christmas activations. They saw
you know, we saw part of Christas

397
00:29:34.319 --> 00:29:38.759
on ice, and we also got
to watch the Christmas entertainment in a pavilion,

398
00:29:40.119 --> 00:29:41.160
you know, the singers and one
out they brought in the pavilion,

399
00:29:41.160 --> 00:29:45.000
and they had food from their food
festival and from Christmas and from Halloween.

400
00:29:45.279 --> 00:29:48.839
So I thought they did an excellent
job in trying to give us samplings of

401
00:29:49.000 --> 00:29:52.519
their seasonal year out entertainment. Yeah. I wish the weather weather had cooperated,

402
00:29:52.599 --> 00:29:56.720
and more so than me wishing the
weather had cooperated, the entire SeaWorld

403
00:29:56.799 --> 00:30:03.079
or Lando team wish the weather had
cooperated as they were pretty much I won't

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say punting, because they did have
a second you know, they obviously had

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a rain contingency, but getting everything
shifted over there was a huge herculean effort,

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and kudos to them for making it
still a great party. I will

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say before we go off here,
I will say that one of the things

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that still hits me about i APPA
every single time, and it happened in

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two of the different workshops that I
helped facilitate, is there were people who

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were young, young and new to
the industry who got to brainstorm, participate,

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sit next to rub elbows with get
to know people who've been in the

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industry for many, many, many
years, and I had one guest from

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one of our seminars come up to
me and say, here, I am

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from this little podunk theme park,
and I'm doing a brainstorming session with people

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from universital Universal and Disney right here
at my table. That is over and

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above all the things we've talked about. In my opinion, that is the

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reason that i APPA Expo is so
incredibly impactful because it gives you the opportunity

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to not only and I'm gonna say
this, not just not just to manage

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00:31:04.359 --> 00:31:07.200
up, but also to see what's
fresh and new, to see what the

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new people in the industry are looking
at, what's important to them, and

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what they're looking to grow upon.
Because for outside contractors like me that's really

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important as well. So there's all
kinds of reasons to explore and experience.

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I will say that things are changing
with IAPPA after this expo, and there

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are quite a few things that will
be different, you know. For example,

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we mentioned the Brass Ring Awards.
These are going to be incorporated into

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a new event, a new festival, which will be taking place on March

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00:31:37.039 --> 00:31:41.920
third of next year in Las Vegas. And then we'll move around the world

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to help embrace the internationality of IAPPA
and that's called IAPPA Honors. So that's

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where they will be taking all of
the awards and recognitions and putting them under

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00:31:49.480 --> 00:31:56.119
one umbrella. And I think that
that will give the opportunity for people all

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around the world to feel as though
they are invested and can be part of

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00:32:00.640 --> 00:32:06.279
the International Association of Amusement Parks and
Attractions. So that's it. That was

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00:32:06.319 --> 00:32:08.079
AYAPPA Expo. As far as what
we saw, actually we just scratched the

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surface. I'll be completely honest.
I would strongly recommend search through social media,

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00:32:14.359 --> 00:32:19.119
search through YouTube, find find those
videos because this is just two people.

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00:32:19.279 --> 00:32:21.759
And you know, as you say, this was a record breaking year,

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so there were tons of people there. Find those videos and if you're

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lucky, you get your plans together
so that you can attend next year.

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00:32:30.480 --> 00:32:35.279
On behalf of Philipernandez with the Haunted
Attraction Networking, Gantum Lighting and myself Scott

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00:32:35.279 --> 00:32:38.960
Swinson with Scott Swinson Creative Development.
This is green tagged theme Park in thirty

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and we will see you next week.