Did you miss out on some workshops in Orlando? Well, here’s a can’t miss opportunity for you to get dozens of ideas on ways to keep your managers and your facilities in tune with the best thinking in the industry.
Most of the workshops are available on audio-tapes and CDs. They make a great learning resource for your staff. You can:

• Use tapes like building blocks for an “Effective Ride Operator Training Program” to guide you as you structure your own training.
• Incorporate them into your training programs. The building block sessions are particularly useful and cover topics a diverse as cash control, sexual harassment, and various interviewing techniques.
  
• Use them to reinforce your own training; at the end of an employee’s first day, for instance, you might give that new cashier “The Fundamentals of Cash Control” and the new dishwasher “Welcome to Food Service” to listen to at home or in the car.
  
• Give them to your managers to listen to before a brainstorming session on, say, “Fishing Out Groups: How to Reel Them in and Keep Them in the Boat.”
  
• Give your marketing department all the marketing-related tapes to listen to before they prepare the strategic plan for next year. Who couldn’t learn a thing or two from Lego about “Building a Brand”?
  

Many of the workshops had supplementary handouts that you can get from our office to support your training program.Most of the tapes are useful to everyone, but some can be of special help in certain types of operations. Here are a few:

• “Culture Shock—Bridging the Gap between the Business and Non-business Sides of Zoos and Aquariums”
• “Systems and Routines for FECs”
• “25 Years of Waterpark Management”
• “Build It and They Will Come: Designing a Themed Retail Area”
  
• “Concession Go-Kart Track Management”
• “The Future of Video Games Is Now!”
  

The conference workshops this year were organized in the categories of Building Blocks, Best Practices, and Industry Trends in addition to keynote speeches on “The Experience Economy,” “Disney Management Practices,” and “Lighting the Fire Within: Making the Salt Lake City Olympics Work.” The networking sessions, information exchanges on topics like Small Parks, Entertainment, and Marketing and Public Relations, were for the most part not taped, but that still leaves plenty to learn.

Building Blocks
I’ve already mentioned the sessions on cash control, ride operator training, food service, interviewing, and sexual harassment, but the tapes that offer other opportunities for you to refresh your knowledge of the basics are: “In the Beginning There Was Nothing,” a guide to training new employees in games operations, for instance; and “Retail Fundamentals,” an awesome introduction to the world of retailing in the attraction business.

Best Practices
Workshops in this category ran the gamut from “Media Relations: Be Prepared and Bring a Smile to Their Faces,” and “Using Humans in the Workplace” to “Global Maintenance Philosophy from a World Perspective” and “Building Shareholder Value.” This area was particularly strong in guest relations, with sessions like “Customer Service the Ritz Carlton Way” and “Guest Relations: Raising the Bar and Winning the Prize.” And wouldn’t you like to know what “Snooze and You Could Lose” is all about?

Industry Trends
Every attractions manager today needs to be aware of “KidClout: How Kids Influence Purchases at Amusement Facilities,” since children represent an increasingly large consumer group in the industry. Another issue that has come to the surface is the Americans with Disabilities Act, of which it is necessary to stay informed on what you, as an operator, can be held liable for. As you plan for the coming season, it also couldn’t hurt to get the broad perspective provided by “Travel and Tourism and the Road to Recovery” so that you can be more confident that you can form realistic and valid projections.

Ordering Information
Recordings of the IAAPA workshops are available in two formats. A complete set of all recorded sessions is available on CD-Rom and includes the handout material, where available. It is a great reference tool and costs just $289. Individual cassette tapes of each session can be purchased for $13. A complete set of tapes can be purchased for $350. Workshop tapes and the CD-Rom can be ordered from Conference Copy: Phone: 570/775-0580, Fax 570/775-9671, or visit their web site at: www.conferencemediagroup.com. See order form on pages 76 and 77 for a complete list of all available titles.