IAAPA Attractions Expo 2014

[ECG]

Sorry for the delay and the quality of the photos, but here it is. I'll start off by stating that this year's IAAPA Attractions Expo was the first time Ian and I attended the event. It was a bit overwhelming tbh, just so much to see and do that there was no way I could do everything I wanted to and hurried through everything, but at least now that I have one under my belt next year's should go much smother and I'll take better photos.
The event is held annually in the Orlando Convention Center. The place is massive as you can see from the view out of our hotel window:

The day before the event started it was cold and rainy, but the weather improved and it was warm and sunny the rest of the week.

The first day started off with the huge Kickoff event where the IAAPA bigwigs patted themselves on the back, had some almost embarrassing "entertainment" and most importantly, Dick Knoebel was inducted into the Hall Of Fame.

Here's yours truly with the latest Hall Of Famer a few minutes after the Kickoff event ended:

After chatting with the Knoebel family and employees (they had 34 people attending) I went to check out the new ride Zamperla donated to Give The Kids The World. The ride is handicap acessable. You can even ride it in a wheel chair! Even Antinio Zamperla himself was on hand to take the first ride. Hopefully I'll get some videos posted before too long including his ride before this photo was taken.

Day one is also all about new ride announcements, which took place every hour throughout the day. I had just enough time to get from one press event to the next without being able to do anything else the entire day. The first announcement was at the Sally Corp. booth where Six Flags held part one of their Justice League dark shooter introduction...

... by unveiling their Joker animatronic.

Here's the entire announcement:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ndfa4KY8fCw[/youtube]

Everyone hustled over to the Oceaneering booth next for part two of the announcement, where Oceaneering Entertainment Systems Vice President/General Manager Dave Mauck, Six Flags Senior Vice-President Tom Iven and Sally Corporation founder John Wood...

... unveiled the new Justuce League dark shooter cars.

Here's the entire announcement:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJRcVQneXl4[/youtube]

Next on the agenda was the SBF/Visa International presser with Quassy Director of Marketing & Public Relations Ron Gustafson and Park President Eric Anderson showing off their new Twist’N Swing 360 ride called Frantic.

From there it was off to the S&S booth with Six Flags Fiesta Texas unveiling the Batman: The Ride train.

Park President Neal Thurman and Jeffrey Seibert, the Marketing Director for Six Flags Fiesta Texas, check out the seats:

Rear view:

The track layout for those of you not familiar with this 4D coaster:

Here's the entire announcement:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jJfQqLgGpI[/youtube]

I got to hang out with Alan Schilke for a few minutes after the announcement and arranged to get a one-on-one interview with him the following day.

As we talked Alan and I headed over to the RMC booth where Six Flags Magic Mountain President Bonnie Rabjohn and Rocky Mountain Construction founder and owner Fred Grubb unveiled the train for Twisted Colossus.

That's RMC COO Jake Kilcup to Fred's right along with Fred's wife Suanne Dedmon on the far left in the photo below.

Here's the entire announcement:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGrIq85upv0[/youtube]

Next up on the schedule was Triotech and Cedar Fair's press announcement for Knott's Berry Farm's new-for-2015 Voyage To The Iron Reef dark ride shooter that promises to be even better than the companies' Wonder Mountain Guardian. Please watch the press event video I filmed for more info about the ride.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp5QzQCb6Uk[/youtube]

Soon it was time to move on to the Gravity Group booth where their Design Engineer Chad Miller and ZDT's Amusement Park's Sarah & Danny Donauser unveiled the locomotive themed Timberliner train for Switchback...

... the company's first wooden shuttle coaster that is a throw back to the old Switchback Railway coasters like they had in the 1880's.

ZDT's Amusement Park is a small family friendly park near San Antonio Texas and this will be the park's first coaster.

Here's the entire announcement:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkh8aUFYbFQ[/youtube]

The final announcement of the day was held at the B&M booth where the Koch family showed off Thunderbird's trains. It really wasn't much of a press event since all that happened was this photo op, so I didn't have anything to film.

That pretty much concluded a long day and the busiest of the week. My favorite announcement was by Gravity Group since I had no idea of what was coming and am very anxious to see what the smallest new coaster of 2015 will be like. Here's the animation that they showed during the presser, in case you want to get a better look than what I filmed:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPq6kCqB5mo[/youtube]

I'll call it quits for now and wrap up the rest of the week in my next post tomorrow. Please feel free to ask any questions you might have and I'll do my best to answer them.

 

[ATTACKHAMMER]

Great report!

This might be a bit of a silly question, but. Can anyone go to the expo? Or do you have to have a connection to the industry, that is more than just being an enthusiast?

 

[marc]

Great report so far am going to sit down tomorrow and watch the videos as I want to do that on a pc.

 

[GuyWithAStick]

^^ Well I saw a few kids at the expo, so I'd assume you can just buy an x-day ticket to the expo. I really want to go.

I can probably say the same for most everybody here.

Sent from my VS840 4G using Tapatalk

 

[Ian]

Great report!

This might be a bit of a silly question, but. Can anyone go to the expo? Or do you have to have a connection to the industry, that is more than just being an enthusiast?

There are several ways you can attend.
1. Be part of the industry (attraction owner or exhibitor).
2. Press coverage.
3. Pay.

To pay you need to join IAAPA (about a hundred quid), then pay to attend (about another £100).

Having seen an IAAPA event from both sides of the fence, as an visitor and as an exhibitor, I'm glad it's not open to the public. The event is quite serious. Attraction owners are looking for new ideas and deals are being made. When I was exhibiting this year, there was this really irritating guy who is a Dark Ride Fanboy. We politely engaged with him for about 15mins, and then he returned to our booth several times throughout the week, taking up another 10mins each time. During this time, possible clients would have been walking past the booth and jogged on because we appeared busy. He could have potentially cost the company I work for £1000's in lost business. Engaging people face to face is the best way to work towards a deal.

Call me arrogant, snobby, whatever, but this is an event where deals happen. If it was inundated by hundreds of enthusiasts, the industry would be stifled.

The reports you might read on here, Screamscape, TRP etc are all well and good and do highlight the big announcements and what is on the show floor. What you don't see if the work that goes on to make it happen and the actual business that takes place. If anybody is interested in the nuts and bolts side of the expos, next year I will do a "behind the scenes" trip report, although it's certainly not as glamorous as media reports make it out to be!

It's tough work hobnobbing in penthouse suites, eating free food and galavanting around Universal Florida in the name of business

 

[ECG]

^^ Well I saw a few kids at the expo, so I'd assume you can just buy an x-day ticket to the expo.

As Ian stated, there's more to it than just buying a ticket and there are no individual day tickets, even for members. As for the kids, their parents are in the industry and members of IAAPA who have paid a lot of money just for them to be able to be there.

Now to try and finish off the rest of the week, since I got distracted with Youtube and creating the Social Media Team yesterday.
There are more press announcements throughout the week, but not of the quality or importance as those on Day One. Day Two started off with Merlin's press announcements, which was the only one I attended that day. They didn't have a booth on the exhibition floor, so they held it in one of the rooms that are generally used for educational functions. It was a bit boring tbh as they just discussed the new I-Drive complex (Madame Tussauds, Sea Life aquarium and the Orlando Eye) and the new Legoland hotel. It was so long and drawn out that I quit filming it, so I don't have that to offer, but here is a photo of the 60,000+ piece Lego scale model they showed off at the end of the presentation:

When I got back down to the exhibition floor I was greated by these guys...

... but I didn't have time to chat because I had to get back over to the RMC booth...

... where they had their I-Box and Topper track on display for everyone to see.

Alan Schilke was waiting to give me the interview he promised and if you haven't seen it, it's well worth watching.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7jzb5DYKqs[/youtube]

After the interview I had the chance to speak with Fred Grubb and Jake Kilcup and asked why they had a booth setup since they're not taking any orders as they are fully booked through 2017. They explained that they do that because all of their clients over the next two years are in attendance at the Expo and it's more convenient and much cheaper to be here to meet with them at one location than having individual meetings at all the various client locations. So I made sure to stop by often throughout the next few days to see who they were having meetings with so that I would know who those clients are.
They noticed me of course and confirmed that I would keep what I observed to myself, but they knew I would since they've told me a lot of confidential info in the past that I never leaked.

Here's Fed waving at me to let me know he sees what I'm doing...

... and Alan even did a little dance for me. :lol:

Day One is a fairly light business day at the Expo and Day Two is when the wheeling and dealing really kicks off, so I decided to spend the rest of the day keeping and eye on all the major booths to see who was talking with each manufacturer to get an idea of what would be happening in the coaster world over the next few years. I also managed to have a chat with Siegfried Gerstlauer, who remembered me from when I interviewed him years ago at Canobie Lake Park. I also spoke with Roland Mack, who I noticed standing next to me near Ian's booth. I was really surprised how much people are willing to tell you as long as you are willing to keep it to yourself.

Here's what all the major booths look like and tried to avoid taking the photos when meetings were going on. I was filming with my camcorder in my right hand while taking photos with my phone in my left, so once again - sorry for the quality. I'm still hoping to get some of my video footage uploaded and will add it to this topic when/if I get that done.
I'll post these alphabetically.

ABC Rides (who make all kinds of rides including that great little drop tower at Hunderfossen):

The B&M booth that I kind of already posted before:

Chance Rides:

Gerstlauer:

Gravity Group:

GCI:

HUSS:

Intamin:

KMG:

Mack Rides:

Martin Vleminckx Rides (probably the world's most underrated coaster manufacturer):

Mondial:

Moser Rides (including working swing and spring rides):

PTC:

Premier Rides:

S&S:

Sally Corp.:

SBF Visa Group (with operational spinning coaster):

Triotech (with one 3D ride and two 3D shooters, including one on tracks in the far building):

Vekoma:

Zamperla (with for working rides including the fab Air Race):

Zierer:

I'm afraid that I'm going to have to leave off here for now and will post days 3&4 tomorrow along with more details and my final impression of the Epxo.

 

[furie]

Okay, so the spinning coaster - is that one of the rarest and most elusive creds AND DID YOU RIDE IT????

 

[marc]

The guy from rmc seems really down to earth and just really enthusiastic.

 

[ECG]

^Alan is really great friendly guy, but that can be said of just about everyone at RMC.

Time to wrap this up before that kid from way back when's birthday. And yeah, I'm old as dirt, but I never met the bloke. :wink:

Day 3 had two press announcements that peeked my interest, the first being held at the CxC Simulations booth where they had these cool Motion Pro II racing sims that allowed four people to race against each other.

The presser consisted of a short announcement and Q&A session followed by a demo of the company's designers and engineers facing off against each other.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xENzPW8vwgE[/youtube]

After that race they held a three round tournament with 8 members of the press racing against each other. The top two finishers of the first two heats then faced off in the Final, the result of which is pictured here:

From there I had to hustle straight over to the Ride Entertainment booth for their AirSurfer announcement. I didn't know what it was about beforehand, so was a bit surprised when I got there and I'm still not so sure that this is actually going to work.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXQiTGy672E[/youtube]

There were more press events scheduled for the remainder of the day and the following, but I skipped the rest in order to check out more of what was going on across the nine miles of exhibits. Since I had such a great time and missed their press event on Day 2, I headed over to the Cruden booth and signed up to give their simulators a try. I had about a 30 minute wait, so I stopped by Ian's nearby booth to take a few photos of him for this report.

Here's IoC with a live robot:

... and a singing camel:

After chatting for a bit while he took a smoke break, it was time for me to drive an F1 car on Cruden's unbelievable racing sim.

I couldn't believe how real this thing feels and if I had the money and room at my house, I would definitely but one. According to Ferrari, these are the same simulators that are used to train their pilots and these babies are supposed to be at Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, Vortex Racing in Montreal, I-WAY in Lyon and the Grand Pier in North Somerset. So I know what I'll be doing if I'm ever near any of those locations.

Cruden has been demoing the F1 simulator at the IAAPA Expo for a few years now, although without all the refinements it currently has, but this year was the first for their powerboat racing sim.

It was also very, very good and really felt like you were flying across the water, but didn't blow my mind the way the F1 sim did.

After that I felt like riding the real thing, so I headed for the Zamperla booth to give the Air Race a go.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrOCGYmP0BE[/youtube]

I've ridden their larger 6.4 and 8.4 models at various parks, but this was the first time I had the opportunity to try out the 8.2 transportable version.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoM2WGZde2Q[/youtube]

Okay, so the spinning coaster - is that one of the rarest and most elusive creds AND DID YOU RIDE IT????

Still kind of rare with three opening this year, but I'm sure more will be popping up in 2015. This is the third one I've ridden after the ones at Western Playland and Myrtle Beach, but the first that I've filmed.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo7Wa369HXs[/youtube]

The issue I have with these are that they don't spin much if you ride solo, which unfortunately is usually the case for me, but since most kids ride with friends or family members it isn't that big of a problem.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YONMnKpgQzc[/youtube]

There was a booster max running outside the Expo floor (along with tons of giant inflatables), but I decided to skip it since I done plenty and much larger versions before. Plus the day was almost over and it was almost time to get back to the hotel and do work while Ian headed off to Universal for IAAPA's Harry Potter night. So I finished off the day at the obstacle course.

The final day began where I left off with more attractions to try out. There were always long lines waiting to try out the 3D dark shooters, so I decided to give them a try. The Valkyrie shooter was really good, but they wouldn't give me permission to film it...

... so I decided to give the Triotech ones a go and stopped by Ian's booth to see if he could take break and join me. I became friends with their Vice President of Marketing over the previous three days, so he allowed me to film their attractions. I posted a video of them on our Youtube channel, but somehow my camera caught some of their proprietary technology (even though he viewed everything I filmed at the time) during the Gigamon stationary shooter and I had to remove the video. I was also only allowed to film one screen (which was the same as the one at Tivoli Friheden) in their moving shooter (pictured below), but had to lower my camera every time the car swung around to the second screen.

Ian and I can't tell you about the new technology that they will be using for their future shooters that was on that screen, but it was really cool and will be making a huge impact to the ride type. I can tell you that Ian and I have done a lot of dark shooters together and I've never seen him have as much fun blasting away at stuff like he did with that screen. I'm actually more excited to see what they do with that technology than I am about riding their new Voyage To The Iron Reef attraction at Knott's Berry Farm next year.

Ian had to get back to work, so I headed over to the Holovis booth to give their colorful, more family friendly shooter at go and was pleasantly surprised with how much fun it was.

After that I went to the arcade area of the floor to try out the Star Wars Battle Pods.

Photos (especially mine) don't do these things justice.

They're very immersive and a ton of fun to play. They have four different "levels" and I got to try out the Hoth one (in these photos), the Endor one and the Death Star finale. I'm afraid I don't remember what the other one was anymore.

I decided to finish everything up with the haunted house walk-thrus. Pale Night Productions not only had the best looking haunted house and best walk-thru, but also this fab zombie that you could take a photo with while blowing its brains out.

I don't remember the name of the company that had the other haunted house walk-thru, but it was also good.

Neither one was as frightening as the stuff that was on display at the Scarefactory booth.

Everything moves and makes sounds, so I really need to get some videos I filmed of all this posted.

These guys were near the Scarefactory booth...

... and the Daniels Wood Land booth wasn't a haunted house...

... even though it had this guy outside, but it was one of the most impressive booths on the floor.

However that honor went to TAA Industries...

... who held their meetings on top of this Trojan horse.

You might have also noticed some of the coaster models...

... in the photo I posted of the Martin & Vleminckx Rides booth.

They're 'not really a high five' model. Watch the Alan Schilke interview video if you don't get the joke. :wink:

FantaWild had the largest park model on display.

One of the cooler models was of the Suspended Theater concept. Again, you really need to see a video of it in action.

Prime Industries had a ton of models of their slides.

And the world's largest water pump was pretty cool...

... but of all the water park stuff, White Water's Slide Boarding technology was the most impressive. It combines water slides with LED video gaming and Wet 'n' Wild Las Vegas is supposedly going to be the first water park to get one.

I only filmed footage of all the other stuff on display, like the aforementioned inflatables, rows and rows of fluffies, never-ending arcade and midway games, tons of food and drinks, waltzing water systems, hundreds of go-karts (which I did take one picture of some of them) and just about anything else you can imagine.

The only other thing I guess I should mention is all the free food and drink samples I got to taste. My favorites were the Honolulu Hot Dogs, Nation Pizza, all the different flavored Fries Seasoning french fries...

... and Mini Melts Ice Cream dots (Dipping Dots was also giving away free samples, but I like Mini Melts more).

Of course there was also the official IAAPA events and private parties that Ian mentioned. I didn't attend the IAAPA events like the Fun Spot America Facility Tour, New Fantasyland at Disney's Magic Kingdom and Backstage at the Walt Disney World tours, the facility tour of Aquatica (SeaWorld's waterpark) or the Harry Potter Celebration at Universal Orlando Resort that Ian went to. They were all upcharge and simply too expensive for my budget. I didn't go to the Harry Potter thing (for example) because I already have a season pass and didn't want to pay $150 (or was it $175?) for a few hours in the parks.
I did go to many of the private parties with Ian, however, even though schmoozing with (mostly) industry sales people isn't my thing although it's really a necessity for Ian. They were quite fun and while the the food and drink was good, I couldn't help but feel that my time would have been better spent back at the hotel doing CF work. Still I am looking forward to returning next year when I will be able to do a much better job of covering the event for CF and perhaps being able to enjoy myself a bit more now that I have one under my belt and know what to expect.

 

[Hixee]

Fantastic work Jerry! Thanks for covering this in such detail. I'm looking forward to seeing what the new tech is that you're (rightfully) unable to share with us.

Great!

And looking sharp Ian.

 

[DelPiero]

Really interesting report on the event, thanks for this Jerry.

 

[PeskyTrimBrake]

Great and detailed report, guys! Cant wait for next year!