RoboCoaster, from the robo-brains at KUKA Robotics Corporation, uses for the first time robotics technology for the purpose of an amusement ride. The RoboCoaster whips riders around at one of five levels of intensity ranging from smooth to brain rattling.

Although KUKA, a 100-year-old company, debuted the ride at last year’s show, this was the first time people could actually ride it, and managing director Gino De-Gol said the reaction was fantastic.

The show was so successful for the company that Legoland Denmark signed on for 10 units and it is in negotiations with other companies around the world to install RoboCoasters in their parks.
“This show has been great; my God. We made more contacts in two days than in a year,” De-Gol said at the show.

Participating in the show and joining IAAPA were essential for success of their product, he said. “We’re serious about bringing robots into the entertainment industry and about the RoboCoaster as the world’s robotic ride. And if you’re serious you’ve got to be in IAAPA for credibility,” he said.

RoboCoaster received certification just in time for the show, which was a relief because the ride is a major part of the company’s plan to propel robotics into the entertainment industry.

Beyond RoboCoaster, KUKA, which makes 8,000 robots a year, wants to target the entertainment industry in a variety of ways. Robot rides are the first major method, which has been successful up to this point with RoboCoaster. Show equipment and robots in motion pictures are two other aspects of this plan. For example, in November’s release Die Another Day, the most recent Bond movie, Halle Berry and Pierce Brosnan fight off robots made by KUKA.

For now, the company plans to focus on RoboCoaster’s implementation, targeting big parks like Universal and Disney, medium parks worldwide, family entertainment centers, along with robots for movies and shows.

Based on the reaction to the ride at the show, De-Gol said he believes by this time next year they’ll have installed 50 units worldwide and have plans to build many more.

Create a Segway

The other new exhibit that sprouted
significant interest was Segway, which debuted for IAAPA attendees its personal transportation device, Segway iSeries, which senses the user’s center of gravity to maintain balance and direction.

The sophisticated technology is “currently being used by a large park to help its employees and cast members get around,” and is a possible alternative for parks that have large parking lots or
enormous facilities that are difficult for people to negotiate.

The response was sensational, said Jolene Greer, a Segway marketing employee. “From the time we get in to the time we leave we have people
at the booth,” she said. “Obviously [amusement parks and attractions] are something we look at as a great application for our product.”

Currently Segway products are utilized in post offices, the national park service, Atlanta police stations, by meter maids, and at General Electric Plastics, among others. The show was especially timely for Segway because the company simultaneously launched its latest product, Segway Human Transporter (HT), which is a self-balancing, personal transportation device that’s designed to operate in any pedestrian environment.

Lost and Found

Another technology that debuted at the show was a system called NeverLost. Using the Wi-Fi network, this device, which is due to launch in the first quarter of 2003, allows park visitors to keep track of the other people in their group.

“Users would rent these devices at a park if they wanted to keep track of their family,” said James Adams, president of NeverLost. “They could rent these devices at the door and the users would press a little control button and select a member of their group so it would be very difficult to get lost accidentally.”

The device runs on the same wireless network technology people use in their homes—80211B—and has been in development since last June.

Although the product is not yet ready for consumers, the first-time exhibitors offered attendees an opportunity to interact with a simulation on screen of what the device does and how it works.

As a result of the positive reaction at the trade show NeverLost is in negotiations with two California parks to offer other parks worldwide an opportunity to come and test the technology, Adams said.

The NeverLost system also offers a particular feature geared toward children. The device can be programmed to alert a parent or guardian if a child wanders a specified distance away, said Adams. Other features like instant text messaging would allow groups to separate and still be in communication or choose a rendezvous point for later in the day.

Adams plans to be at the show next year as well. “You can’t miss this show; if you’re not there, you don’t exist.”

For the companies that don’t have high tech options or a high budget, product samples are an obvious choice to lure attendees. Although samples like food and plush are easy to come by on the show floor, ultimately, giving attendees a chance to experience different companies offerings made a significant difference among new exhibitors, said Belinda Jones of Music City Recording Studios, a Nashville, Tenn., company that provides fully equipped recording studios.

At the Music City booth, attendees got the chance to record their own albums in the studio and received a free copy with their picture on the cover.

Just a few rows down, Pretzelmania had a successful show, too. The Salt Lake City pretzel vendor has been in business for eight years, although it was their first show. Gordon Kraus said the show is the best place to get leads.

Method to Their Madness

But some new exhibitors had a different agenda altogether.

A host of exhibitor booths like Australian Amusement Leisure and Recreation Association (AALARA), which is hosting the IAAPA 2003 Summer Meeting, UNICEF, which announced the details of its recent alliance with IAAPA, and Birthday University, which offered a workshop at this year’s show to educate attendees on giving memorable birthday parties, were all new to the floor. However, these exhibitors were mainly there to spread their messages and inform IAAPA members about upcoming events.

The American Safety and Health Institute was another first-time exhibitor that used the opportunity to inform members and attendees about its mission—to deliver cost-effective instructional programs in the areas of first aid, CPR, workplace safety/disaster preparedness, child and babysitting safety, driving safety, aquatic training and rescue, and pet first aid, among others.

Other organizations, like Zephyr Environmental Corporation, a consulting, training, and data solutions firm that assists with air and water quality, incident management, waste issues, and safety, as well as the New Jersey Amusement Association, exhibited for the first time at the show to give attendees the chance to learn about important social, environmental, and legislative issues.

Shedding Some Light

For several exhibitors, the trade show presented some difficult challenges. OptiLED, which debuted LED lights—an unbreakable lighting alternative, that lasts 100,000 hours and promises 10 times the efficiency of the average light bulb—had high hopes for IAAPA Orlando because “amusement parks are a typical application for this product, where they need a lot of shock resistance.” However, the location of their booth at the very front corner spot made it difficult for them to get enough pedestrian traffic, said John Nylander, president of OptiLED.

In spite of booth placement, however, Nylander said the response from the large parks was very positive. “They see something like what we have as something they could buy in volume. Engineering and designers at Walt Disney are really excited because they see what [LEDs] can do. They withstand 50 Gs of force—there is no ride in existence that is 50 Gs.”

In spite of the colorful and inviting look of the booth, another reason that OptiLED experienced difficulty, Nylander said, is because they just launched their product six weeks prior to the show, so only 10 percent of the attendees knew about their technology.

But Nylander thinks they’ll come back for one main reason—“It’s the best show we’ve seen in that it has the broadest group of international buyers.” Next year Nylander hopes they can draw more people to the booth.

Beyond the details of booth placement and timing, one new exhibitor in particular realized the attendees of the IAAPA trade show just aren’t the clientele they are hoping to draw: JDK Products, makers of Trash Talkers, the same dolls that were banned by both the San Francisco Gift Show and the Boston Gift Show, but were fantastically successful at the Las Vegas Show. These dolls—with varying ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientations—make offensive and off-putting remarks when you hit them in the head.

What these dolls are all about, according to Frank Makan, vice president of JDK, is a new generation of talking dolls that are in tune with American culture. They are not intended for kids under 14 years of age, but they seem to have fans ranging from 14 to 79 years old.

However, it didn’t take Makan long to realize that Trash Talkers were not going inspire major orders from the attendees at IAAPA Orlando because they target their products at kids and young adults, where JDK is looking to a more mature age group for sales.

However, Makan said they did sell quite a few individual Trash Talkers but did not get the big orders.

Born Winners

Several first-time exhibitors had such a successful initiation that they even won first-place awards right out of the gate. In the category of “Best New Product” Fun2Learn Children’s Rides was awarded the exhibitor award for best coin-operated kiddie ride for Bear Riverboat Ride, and Excel Dryers won the equipment and supplies award for the Xcelerator Hand Dryer.

Ashley Heron of the U.K.’s Fun2Learn, which recently partnered with Give Kids The World and the Jim Henson Company, said he had a memorable show. “We’ve had a terrific response from everyone and it’s really been an incredible first go.”