The Future of Amusement, Right Before Your Eyes Just one look at the miles of booth space made clear that the largest trade show in the industry was poised and ready for action. And if one thing was for sure, the best hot new products had their debut at the IAAPA Convention and Trade Show. Some highlights included Hydrophobia, the world’s first waterfall rock climbing wall, made by Innovative Rock Climbing; Zamperla’s Disk-O, which guaranteed guests a thrill; and Lick’em Lights’ glow-in-the-dark icepop, the first of its kind in the world. These and many other new products made their debut as more than 30,000 industry professionals gathered at the 85th annual Trade Show and Convention. The floor buzzed with activity as leads were generated and contract negotiations were finalized. Rides and Attractions World-renowned Italian ride manufacturer Zamperla provided attendees with unforgettable thrills with the unveiling of Disk-O. This rocking and rolling thrill ride was actually set up for use indoors to demonstrate its portability. Disk-O combines a breathtaking dual rocking/spinning motion with a new, patent-pending seating style that was unlike anything spectators or the 15 television camera crews present at the show had ever seen. Zamperla’s public relations director, Lucy Murphy, describes it as “a gentle thrill ride, where everyone gets a front row seat!” Matthew Sachs hoped to make a splash at IAAPA Orlando 2003, even if a wipeout on his Booty Board landed a rider on a foam pad rather than water. The Booty Board is a skateboard on a series of springs and a ball-bearing joint, surrounded by foam padding. The twist, literally and figuratively, is that this allows the average rider to try some hotshot tricks including 360-degree spins, tail grabs, and handstands, which are moves normally limited to skateboarders of significant skill. Field-testing of the product has been overwhelmingly successful, so the 26-year-old Ottawa resident brought his unique invention to the IAAPA exhibition, looking at amusement facilities as potential licensees. Fabbri Amusements debuted the Eclipse thrill ride whose 3.5 G-force rating on this year’s “Magical Midway” wowed thousands of lucky visitors who took a free ride. This might be the only thrill ride that rotates both clockwise and counterclockwise simultaneously at 20 RPMs! If you were wondering about those crowds of attendees surrounding exhibit 2534, they were there to be thrilled by Sally Corporation’s Scooby-Doo and Shaggy dark ride. Instead of just sitting and riding, this interactive ride gets the park visitors involved in the ride as some very recognizable cartoon characters, activated by hidden sensors, join riders on their way through the tunnel of fun. The good feelings Scooby engendered with this year’s attendees even rubbed off on Sally Corporation/Animatronics Dark Rides President John H. Wood. “It was a good, good, show,” says Wood, a well-respected industry executive who was making his 25th appearance at the IAAPA trade show. “Good foot traffic every day—excellent activity.” After noticing how sweaty kids can get on dry rock climbing walls, Annie Buchanan, a partner in Innovative Rock Climbing, got the ball rolling on a wet twist to fun. Hydrophobia, a waterfall rock-climbing wall, allows three rock climbers to safely climb and conquer a 25-foot-high waterfall, allowing for a thrilling and wet experience! “It’s a bit more challenging to climb, but definitely cool!” she says. Q-Bowl is a new and challenging coin-op game that combines elements of billiards and bowling. Players stand at their “lane,” which is actually a one-third-scale replica of a bowling lane set at waist-high level. Then they use a billiards cue ball and stick to knock down the 10 miniature bowling pins. Each lane comes complete with a fully automatic pinsetter and computerized scoring. Invented and patented in Korea, Q-Bowl is being distributed in the U.S. by Rick Braden & Associates of Nacogdoches, Texas. New Technology FogScreen was a new 2003 exhibit that attracted a lot of attention on this year’s showroom floor. A thin, smooth fog surface is used for image projection, and it allows actors and/or objects to float into or out of view. “Objects seem to appear and move in thin air,” says Vice President of Sales and Marketing Ron Johnson, who described the new product as having limitless multimedia and amusement applications. Another unique and perhaps eerie feature of this product is that viewers can walk through the screen and seemingly into the moving picture. The FogScreen is based on patented technology developed by Dr. Ismo Rakkolainen and Dr. Karri Palovuori, who is a professor at Tampere University in Finland. When Micoy joined the trade show floor at IAAPA Orlando 2003, attendees weren’t able to tell whether they were standing in the company’s actual booth or just a lifelike simulation. But that was the whole point. The hi-tech firm from Des Moines, Iowa, has created the world’s first technology that is able to capture 3D video and sound with up to full 360-degree horizontal and vertical fields of view. When played back, the 3D imagery, together with corresponding directional sound, immerses a person in the center of a “real” environment and allows the rider to look in any direction. According to the company, the realistic effect goes far beyond what other immersive or panoramic video technologies can achieve. Micoy CEO Joe Stevens says, “People can see the artworks of the Louvre or lie on a sunny beach without actually traveling to either place. Other than being there in person, nothing compares to our 3D true immersive video experiences.” Sampling hundreds of tempting treats seemed to be a popular activity for everyone this year. If you had a hankering for a chocolate bar emblazoned with your picture, a slice of chocolate-covered key lime pie on a stick, or an icepop that glows in the dark, this was the place to find it. An exhibitor since the late1980s, Jim Clark, president of Poppin’ Glow, Inc., debuted his latest new invention, Lick’em Lights, a frozen ice pop on a glow stick! After enjoying this delicious confection, as did CNBC’s Mike Heddagus and several local television reporters, you have a great toy to enjoy! “We got a lot of attention from buyers who never visited us before,” Clark says. “People from dozens of countries talked to us, and we gained hundreds of business leads.” Flava Puff is a fat-free cotton candy in a cup that could make obsolete the stick on which this sugary substance is typically found. “We hope so,” said Flava Puff’s owner, Brian Couture, who, along with partner and co-founder Bill Erwin, took this popular candy confection first made famous at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904 and put it into a “resealable” plastic cup. “It’s come a long way since 1904. Flava Puff is a cotton candy revolution.” Couture estimates that the company gave away 4,000 samples of Flava Puff to IAAPA show attendees and generated more than 400 sales leads for the company’s tracking software. When deciding on the amusement park and attractions business as an attractive new market for its super premium ice cream business, Double Rainbow Ice Creams, East Coast Sales Director William Fish knew what he had to do. “I was told by people in the amusement park industry that we needed to be at the IAAPA trade show if we were serious about this market.” And after meeting more potential customers in four days than he could have in four years of personal sales calls, he was glad he listened. He had been told to expect that Double Rainbow would need to exhibit for at least three years to gain a suitable industry profile. “But after this week, I don’t believe it,” said an ecstatic Fish. “I can’t wait for next year.” As more and more U.S. amusement facilities face challenges to fulfilling their seasonal staffing needs, New York City-based InterExchange thought it was the right time to exhibit at IAAPA Orlando 2003. The firm expected that a growing market for qualified overseas seasonal help, combined with the recent changes in American’s visa regulations, would make their booth a popular one. The InterExchange Work & Travel USA program provides English-proficient and hardworking non-U.S. students with a J-1 visa, which allows them to work for up to four months in an amusement park, family entertainment center, waterpark, etc. In exchange for providing this opportunity, the facility gets a motivated and mature worker who brings an international flavor to its staff and can often stay later in the season than many American students. Whether you’re looking for a few international staff members, potential clients, a full-sized model of a NASCAR stock car, or a glow-in-the-dark anything, the IAAPA Convention and Trade Show is the place to find it. New California Amusement Park Association (CAPA) Is Formed During the convention and trade show in Orlando, the California Attractions and Parks Association (CAPA) officially announced its formation. This signifies an important development for the California amusement industry. On Wednesday, Opening Day, CAPA Board Chairman John Robinson, of Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, and representatives from several other founding facilities, conducted a press conference regarding CAPA’s formation. “This is the first time the California parks have truly joined together to work for common goals,” said Robinson. “We are confident that CAPA is going to be a very effective association in protecting our industry.” CAPA is the first statewide group to represent all facilities, from the small family-owned ones with just a handful of rides to the more famous theme parks of Southern California. According to Robinson, its formation is long overdue, as the amusement park industry is one of the most critical cultural and economic forces in California. The association is based in Sacramento and will work closely with the state legislature on issues of commerce and regulation. It also plans to provide educational programs, seminars, and ride safety information for both industry employees and the public.