Funworld January 2008

Attractions Expo 2007 HIGHLIGHTS

» Absence Makes the Show Grow Fonder
» A Blossoming Partnership
» Gadgets, Games, & Goodies for All
» The Disney Brain Trust
» Learning from the Best

The Disney Brain Trust

Leaders and veterans from The Walt Disney Company share tips, insight, and some funny stories during IAAPA’s week in Orlando

by Jeremy Schoolfield and Amanda Charney

DisneyWorld President Meg Crofton’s Four Keys to Management

AS PRESIDENT OF THE WALT DISNEY WORLD RESORT, Meg Crofton oversees a work force of 60,000 “Cast Members.” Judging by her keynote address at theGM andOwners Breakfast at IAAPA Attractions Expo 2007, it’s clear how much she values their collective abilities to make Disney dreams come true.

Crofton’s focus on her employees is fitting, since it’s the frontliners who’ve taken on a lion’s share of the responsibility in making The Walt Disney Company’s “Year of a Million Dreams” campaign a success over the past year. In this unique marketing effort, Cast Members are recruited into “Dream Squads” that are then sent out into the Walt Disney World property to grant prizes at random to lucky guests. In its first year of operation, these Dream Squaders granted 1.25 million wishes; the program was so successful, it’s been extended for another year into 2008 (the Disneyland Resort in California is also participating).

But this “Dreams” idea didn’t just happen; Crofton and her leadership team had just four months to prepare before the campaign debuted in October 2006. Crofton laid out the four basic principles her managers relied on when working with Cast Members to get the campaign up and running:

Communication. To get the word out, managers hosted hundreds of town hallmeetings to discuss the intricacies of the program in an informal setting.Disney alsoused e-mail blasts, internal web pages, and other employee messaging.
Education. Crofton said the goal of the campaign—to literally grant fantastic wishes—wasn’t difficult to instill becauseCast Members already “know in their hearts that Disney parks are places where dreams come true.” She said within hours of posting the initial Dream Squad casting call there were more than 6,000 responses.
Motivation. Disney created a new program called “Magic Backstage,” essentially a smaller version of the “Dreams” campaign exclusively for Cast Members. Prizes included limo rides to work, impromptumassages, complimentary park tickets, and meet-and-greets with Disney upper management.
Empowerment. This is the foundation for “The Year of a Million Dreams,” Crofton said, because Cast Members were given the freedom to do what they could to make each and every guest at the park feel special

FACE-OFF: Legends share anecdotes from their years working with Walt to build the Disney empire

ONE THING’S FOR SURE—Expo attendees love to hear Disney veterans tell funny stories. That’s exactly what they got during the “Classic Face-Off,” a freeform panel with Disney legends Buzz Price, Marty Sklar, and Dick Nunis, appropriately moderated by Bob Rogers, also a veteran of the iconic company. The panel collected questions from the audience and answered them through several comical anecdotes:

The gentlemen all agreed that fulﬁlling Walt Disney’s philosophies and visions was paramount during their careers. “What Marty and I have tried to do is carry on the great traditions and philosophies of Walt Disney,” said Dick Nunis, inducted into the IAAPA Hall of Fame at Expo 2007, who under-scored the point that Walt valued the people behind the attractions. “It takes people to make a dream a reality.”

But that’s not to say it was always pleasant: They admitted butting heads with Walt from time to time, but Nunis believed good things always came out of those disagreements. “It takes friction to make motion,” he said. “Walt wanted to hear ideas, then make the decisions.”

Then there were times when Walt just wouldn’t budge. Price told a story about when he approached Walt about selling alcohol in the park one too many times: “He said, ‘I don’t want to hear about this anymore,’ with his eyebrow WAY up.”

Dick Nunis When posed a question about what central Florida was like back when they were just beginning plans for WDW, Nunis said he flew there in a twin-engine plane, boarded a four-wheel-drive jeep, and traveled down a country road. “Thank God we had a compass,” he said. When the surveyor showed them the entrance amid this vast expanse of nothingness, Nunis couldn’t believe his eyes. “You have got to be kidding me,” he remembered saying.

Price agreed that things were very different: “We were in a primitive motel. It was very, very primitive.”

Sklar remembers another hotel, the Gold Key Inn, which became a regular spot to stay when the team made their visits. “I remember staying at the Gold Key Inn with the artist [of the park plans],” he said, remembering there were some other guests there looking strangely at them. “They said, ‘Those people are from Hollywood—they must be movie stars.’”

Then the panelists turned their attention to the future of the industry. Asked what the biggest challenge is right now, Sklar stressed keeping up with technology as a major concern: “Think of all the things people bring to a park. You can’t expect them to leave cell phones and Gameboys at home. You have to deal with it and take advantage of it.”

Audience members dutifully took out their pens as Sklar shared his “Wisdom of Walt,” lessons he learned from the master that still apply today.

Marty Sklar’s ‘Wisdom of Walt’ Marty Skalar

• Be optimistic
• Quality is Job No. 1
• Follow the four C’s: curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy
• If you can dream it, you can do it
• It’s kind of fun to do the impossible
• Just do something people will like

Imagineer Joe Rohde on the Origins of ‘Theme’

JOE ROHDE IS VERY PARTICULAR about the way he uses the word “theme.” It’s a term commonly used for more things than it actually should be, theWalt Disney Imagineer said during a keynote address entitled “Theme, Theory, and Practice,” for the Museum Specialty Track at IAAPA Attractions Expo 2007.

Rohde is the lead Imagineer over Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida. He has been with the park since its beginning, and his most recent project, the sprawling and stunning “Expedition Everest,” has met with high and widespread acclaim for its extraordinary attention to detail—literally from the ground up.

While he deals primarily in works of fiction, Rohde said the roots of his craft are based in theme. He said determining a core theme for an exhibit or facility will inform every other creative choice.

The mythical yeti creature at the center of “Expedition Everest” represents the park’s theme because he is a protector of a forbidden and pristine land, guarding against intrusion. “That was the story we focused on,” Rohde said. He also encouraged the audience in creating “layers and layers of depth,” so that an exhibit or attraction maintains a long, healthy life.Visitor interactions with the project will most likely change over time, he warned, so there needs to be enough there at the outset—even if people don’t catch it all at once—to sustain interest over the long haul.

“There is a focus on physical experiences that are happening to you,” he said. “It all comes down to a quest for authenticity. That is something well owned by museums.”

But he cautioned museums that even though people are thirsting for genuine experiences, they still process information in a narrative fashion—“it is intrinsic to the human brain.”