Walking through my neighborhood recently I saw a large appliance box in a driveway with marker scribblings all over the sides. I thought back to my days as a kid, when a simple box could provide hours, sometimes even days, of enjoyment. I’m not so sure that children need anything more sophisticated to be entertained. I’m guessing that many of our industry’s best and brightest creative leaders started off creating forts and buildings out of boxes and other garage discoveries.

And yet, we are still driven to enhance technology and push the boundaries of our knowledge bases. Part of that is certainly the result of a competitive industry trying to attract attention and revenue amidst a widening sea of entertainment options.

But the heart of what drives technological advances, I believe, is the desire to share experiences. Our imagination is an incredibly powerful tool, and at the essence of “play.” But imagination is not as adept at sharing that creativity with others. Words, pictures, music, narrative all help describe what one imagines, but to truly experience what emerges from a person’s imagination, we need technology. Technology bridges the gap between dreams and experiences. Without shared experiences we are not a community, and our very social structure begins to unravel.

What I find particularly encouraging, however, is that even as we push technology further, the leaders of our industry seem to understand that at the heart of every attraction, exhibit or project are the basics: We share experiences. We play. We learn. We grow. -MARTIN PALICKI