by Charles Morrow of Morrow Sound
IAAPA 2014 is the amazing confluence of everything attraction. Roller coasters, hotdog stands, new food opportunities, design, production, infrastructure, insurance, operations, ticketing, polling, new rides, funhouse and theme park scare machines, lighting and sound systems, devices, new media and more.
The press meets those who put the rubber to the highway. The buyers meet the makers and the public is amazed.
What brings this together? Obviously the conversations between the far flung members of the attractions community now under one vast roof in the great market of Orlando. But there is more to it, something quite fundamental and traditional if not ancient.
Ours is a marvelous global community of people dedicated to real world, attraction experiences. We are the carney folk of past, present, future.
While media is part of the scene, it is media embedded in rides, special theaters, head mounted devices. While there is invisible data and wireless devices, they are in the service of the material world. The real world and the virtual world entertain and entwine. This is the steel and glitter of attractions and the dazzle of museums and amusement parks.
It is the annual crossing of the paths of all the amusement tribes and species, sparking new business and gathering the embraces old friends.