International Standards Meeting Held in Paris The IAAPA International Standards Harmonization Group, which is working to bring consistency to areas of safety standards throughout the world, held its second meeting on January 13, 2004, in conjunction with the Euro Amusement Show. Representatives from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States attended. The group agreed to a structure for discussion. Each national amusement ride safety standard organization designated an official member to serve with the IAAPA group. While contributing experts from around the world will be invited to attend the meetings, only the official members will be entitled to vote. The group will address specific areas of ride safety standards for discussion. Once a consensus is reached in each area, the members will take that agreement to their respective standards organization and work for its adoption as part of each standard. The next meeting of the group will be held on July 14, 2004, at the IAAPA Asian Expo in Singapore. The final meeting of 2004 will be held on November 16 at IAAPA Orlando 2004. A password-protected web site will be provided for the posting of each standard. The site will also allow discussion about the specifics currently being addressed by the group. Join IAAPA’s Online Communities What is an online community? The IAAPA online communities are a great member benefit that will allow you a closer peer-to-peer informal communication for specific topics. It is not a traditional chat room, but a more robust software that offers three different features to better manage the information flow: a discussion forum, a news archive, and a document archive. The “Forum” is the place where community members can post a discussion topic related to the purpose of the community and get feedback from their colleagues. The community administrator posts news and event announcements in the news section, and downloadable documents in the documents section. How do you join and access a community? Log in to www.iaapa.org using your individual member ID number and password, then select “Communities” from the top blue bar. The Communities start page will give you detailed instructions to subscribe, unsubscribe, change your preferences, and access your existing communities. You can also set up the Communities start page as your home page. In the Forum section, click on “Create New Topic” to pose a question for all community members. EAASI Show Held at Disney Paris Wieland Schwartzkopf reported that the Paris show was the biggest the amusement industry has ever arranged in Europe. This number reflects exhibitor and visitor attendance, which clocked in at around 7,000. The show had 217 exhibitors, covering an area of about 107,000 square feet. This is a 10 percent increase from the previous year. The exhibitors also had positive things to say about the show. A number of deals were closed on the show floor, and there were plenty of new contacts made, which confirms that EAASI is on the right track with servicing a specific market need. Schwartzkopf says, “EAASI is also aware of the need to become more professional, especially as far as the atmosphere is concerned. In Paris we partly suffered from the temporary arrangements, like the tents, and also were not very lucky with the weather conditions. Paris taught us not to arrange our shows in tents again, and, moreover, we shall also revise the visitor registration system.” CAAPA Throws Hat into the Ring for IAAPA Asian Expo Bob Lamb gave a presentation to a select group of IAAPA members consisting of the executive commitee, finance commitee, and key members from the manufacturer and supplier committee during the European Amusement Show held in Paris from January 13 to 16. Lamb represents the Chinese Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions. His presentation was a straight-talk, no-nonsense session that ended with a question-and-answer segment. The objective was to alleviate any concerns there may be about doing business in China. Bob pointed out many things that have changed over the years: for instance, the various types of permits and registration requirements. IAAPA Orlando 2003 Garners Significant Media Coverage The association’s Communications Team partnered with numerous exhibitors and industry experts to generate a high level of press coverage of IAAPA Orlando 2003. Approximately 344 reporters from 156 media outlets of 15 nations covered the show, and at least two dozen exhibitors were highlighted in various reports from the event. The show was featured in a live “Squawk Box” report on the national/international cable television network CNBC. The segment also repeated on the network’s evening program “Business Center” and will repeat monthly in syndication during 2004. On a local and state level, at least 30 television placements were secured. The show was also the subject of a report that aired on radio station WMFE-FM, the Orlando-based National Public Radio affiliate. In addition, more than 100 consumer print and online placements occurred, including a cover story in the “Life” section of USA Today and a lengthy, positive piece in the Los Angeles Times. Substantial stories also appeared in the Orlando Sentinel, the Orlando Business Journal, and the St. Petersburg Times, the last of which was picked up by CNNMoney.com. As in past years, trade outlet coverage of the show was extensive and positive. Ten New IAAPA Products Now Available IAAPA’s Education, Professional Development, and Training Department partnered with the National Restaurant Association, Sagamore Publishing, Birthday University, and Workamper News to make these groups’ top-selling products available to IAAPA members. New Product Development Manager Eamon Connor, describes the partnerships as “the first steps in a major overhaul of our product offerings. We aim to significantly expand the current list of IAAPA training products by both producing new products in-house and sourcing new products through third parties like the National Restaurant Association.” The titles of the 10 new products are Workamper News’ Guide to Recruiting and Retaining the Right Workampers; The Complete Swimming Pool Reference; ServSafe Essentials, Featuring the 2001 FDA Food code Updates; ServSafe Manager Toolkit; Servsafe Food Safety Signs; Food Security: an introduction; Food Security Poster; Birthday Party Manual; Birthday Party Team Development Manual; and Birthday Party Marketing Manual. The products can be ordered online from the Marketplace section of www.iaapa.org or by phone at 703/836-4800. Download the 2003 Workshop Program Resources The workshop offering at the Orlando 2003 convention provided more than 100 hours of seminars, round tables, and educational sessions. If you missed the 2003 event or any individual workshop, you can still receive some of the handouts from the particular workshop. IAAPA has gathered many of the resources from the workshop program and made them available on the IAAPA web site. The information from almost all the workshop sessions is available in four formats and can easily be downloaded. The literature is available in MS Word, MS Excel, PDF, or PowerPoint formats. For more information or to download, please visit www.iaapa.org/workshops03.htm. Upcoming IAAPA Events IAAPA Asian Expo July 14-16, 2004 Suntec, Singapore IAAPA Asian Expo 2004 is your gateway to the region’s amusement, leisure, and entertainment sectors. Now in its twelfth year, this is the proven event for buyers and sellers in the amusement industry. IAAPA Asian Expo is a must-attend for those dedicated to doing business in Asia. Information on floorplans, educational sessions, and social events will be available soon. For exhibiting information contact Sylwin Ang at sylwin.ang@terrapinn.com, and for attendee information contact Diane Vidoni at dvidoni@iaapa.org. Summer Meeting 2004 September 14-17, 2004 Europa Park, Germany Can you imagine visiting all of Europe in just a couple of days? It can be done at IAAPA’s 2004 Summer Meeting, being held at Europa-Park, situated in the heart of Europe, and offering the opportunity to explore the spirit of a dozen European countries all in one place. Europa-Park is located in the Black Forest of Germany, close to the borders of France and Switzerland. Mark your calendars for September 14-17, so that you to can experience the excitement of IAAPA in Europe. For more information, visit www.iaapa.org/summermeeting04.htm.