It is gratifying to wrap up the year with an acknowledgment of work well done. With the annual Brass Ring Awards, IAAPA rewards innovation and helps bring it into the spotlight for the benefit of everyone in the industry. The Awards were a highlight of IAAPA Expo 2023 as they are every November in Orlando. Here, we share a selection of Best New Product Awards highlighting rides and technologies, and Impact Awards recognizing outstanding exhibitions on the IAAPA Expo tradeshow floor.
IAAPA itself also deserves heartfelt appreciation here. As the pre-eminent association serving the international theme park and attraction industry, the organization and its people work year-round to provide an enormous range of opportunities and services – and recognitions such as the Brass Ring Awards, which on their own represent a significant undertaking. InPark extends warm congratulations to all the Brass Ring honorees and sincere thanks to IAAPA.
This is an industry where no one can rest for long – innovation is and must always be on the horizon to keep guests coming back for more, year after year. The Brass Ring Awards are to be celebrated in their own right – but also (and always) as a door to the future.
Another coveted IAAPA honor is the Applause Award, which singles out a venue to celebrate for management, operations and creative accomplishments. The 2024 Applause Award will be presented in March at the IAAPA Honors event in Las Vegas. At this event, the 2023 Brass Ring winners will again be celebrated, along with the 2024 IAAPA Hall of Fame inductees and the 2024 IAAPA Service and Young Professional honorees.
Best New Products
Intamin Ltd.
- Hypersphere 360 – First Place, Major Ride/Attraction over $3M
The Hypersphere 360 manufactured by Intamin is a unique, immersive dome ride theater, introduced in May 2023 at SeaWorld Abu Dhabi. Intamin touts “uninterrupted 360° imagery surrounding view in any direction for each guest,” stressing “comfortable, floorless seats with a range of special effects” and no need for headsets as “visitors travel the world’s seas and explore the ocean’s depths on a fully rotating and tilting ring inside the LED sphere, supporting the illusion that the sphere is gliding through liquid space. Intamin developed the ride in collaboration with Attraktion! Learn about Thinkwell’s media design for SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, including the Hypersphere 360 show.
Sally Dark Rides
- Uncharted: The Enigma of Penitence – Second Place, Major Ride/Attraction over $3M
- Treasure Hunt: The Ride – Second Place, Family Ride/Attraction
Located at PortAventura World in Spain, “Uncharted” is a novel combination of dark ride and roller coaster, was created in collaboration with Intamin. Complete with an interactive puzzle-solving queue and Sally’s technologically advanced animatronics throughout, since opening in June 2023 “Uncharted” has earned multiple accolades, including the European Star Award, and the award for European Top New Attraction by ParksMania.
Treasure Hunt: The Ride is a pirate adventure dark ride, a standalone attraction at Cannery Row in Monterey Bay, California, created in collaboration with Daniels Wood Land. Read Joe Kleiman’s detailed feature article here.
Triotech and BoldMove
- Smash & Reload: Second Place, Major Ride/Attraction under $2M
The teams from BoldMove Nation and Triotech collaborated on the Smash & Reload media dark ride, the first of which opened in theme and animal park Le PAL (France) as Champi’Folies, and was honored with the European Star Award and German Parkscout Plus Award. The attraction is based on BoldMove’s Smash & Reload concept and theming, with TooMush IP and gameplay by Polymorph, ride technology and interactivity by Triotech. Read more here.
RES (Ride Engineers Switzerland)
- Vertical Dark Ride – First Place, Family Ride/Attraction
RES was honored for their Vertical Dark Ride, which has premiered at Conny-Land Switzerland. The Vertical Dark ride is a 20-meter, immersive indoor drop tower combined with media, storytelling and special effects. The drop tower includes multiple sensory effects like ankle ticklers, back pokers, air blast, fog and tilting seats. Read more about the ride and RES products in this InPark story.
ProSlide
- “Saifa” Dueling RocketBLAST® – First Place, Water Park Ride/Attraction – more than $2 million
The “Saifa” dueling water coaster at Siam Water Park in Tenerife, Spain provides racing thrills with ProSlide’s RocketBLAST uphill water ride technology. Read more here.
WhiteWater
- AquaForms 12 – First Place, Water Park Ride/Attraction – under $2 million
Elevated AquaForms 12 is part of a highly configurable aquatic play system designed to fulfill the different needs of children, parents, operators, as well as aquatic designers. It was engineered with standardized parts that are interchangeable and upgradable. Read Martin Palicki’s InPark feature article on WhiteWater Complete Play Systems and Aquaforms here.
wiegand.waterrides GmbH
- Rain Shield for AlpineCoaster – Second Place, Technology Applied to Amusements – Product or Service used by Consumers
- Xslide – First Place, Best New Product Concept Award – Attraction
Xslide introduces a new waterslide feature – the crossing. Inspired by children’s marble runs, slide guests travel through the intersection at fast speed, only to cross the same passage again after a turn.
Red Raion
- EECO Voyager – Second Place, Virtual and Augmented Reality
EECO Voyager is a featured attraction at the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium in Draper, Utah. Red Raion developed the attraction concept and digital content, including supervision, management, expertise, scheduling, labor, materials and tools for the development of the 2 VR movies and the pre-show content for the attraction. EECO Voyager integrated some patented technology from MediaMation. Access the case study on EECO Voyager here.
Impact Awards
Technifex
- Second Place – Best Exhibit: 700 – 900 Square Feet
Read Judith Rubin’s feature story on Technifex, specialist in special effects, here.
L3DFX
- Second Place – Best Exhibit: 400 – 600 Square Feet
Read more about this creative studio and design and fabrication firm here.
S&S Worldwide Inc.
- Second Place – Best Exhibit: 1,600 and Larger Square Feet
S&S Worldwide is a leading roller coaster manufacturer under the umbrella of Sansei.