The impending return of IAAPA Expo means a surge of attraction vendors, suppliers and theme park operators that are meeting, greeting and taking care of business at the Orange County Convention Center.
The event is known for its sprawling trade floor, featuring more than 1,100 exhibitors and their wares, from stuffed animals and snack foods to enormous themed inflatables and on-the-move thrill rides.
Some Central Florida attractions exercise their home-court advantages to benefit beyond the booths by hosting tours, educational sessions, awards announcements and parties during the weeklong event. Some companies rent out venues along International Drive for networking opportunities.
“Those parties are client-driven, celebration-driven and a lot of times the events, those in particular, are actually more impactful than the trade show, which is a blitz,” said Phil WIlson, chief development officer of Orlando-based Extreme Legacy, a design and manufacturing firm.
“I feel like where I’ve gained so much value – on a personal and a developmental perspective in my career – is parties, is networking events,” said Wilson, who marks his 33rd IAAPA Expo this year.
“I’ve done so many different trade shows and industries, and IAAPA has a very unique advantage where not only are you packing guests in the parks and giving them memories, but you’re impacting yourself with those you’re connected around,” he said.
For the first time, IAAPA is organizing a Water Park Day, a field trip of sorts to Island H2O Water Park in Kissimmee and Volcano Bay at Universal Orlando set for Sunday.
It’s more symposium than pool party, said Trisha Sissons, sales and marketing manager for Island H2O. It includes speakers about safety, special events and content creation.
“It elevates our brand on that big world stage and showcases, also, not just what the big three parks can do. Like, this is what we’re doing in the space,” she said.
The human connections can create sparks of ideas and support, even from far-flung attractions, Sissons said.
“Obviously, we compete with everybody,” she said. “But it’s also such a close-knit community, where if there’s something that happens, we call up someone that we’ve met at IAAPA or at one of these educational things, and be like, ‘Hey, have you ever experienced this?’”
Island H2O water park visitors cool off on a 288-foot slide at the Kissimmee attraction. Island H2O will host an EDUTour during the upcoming IAAPA Expo. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)
IAAPA – the acronym for International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions – offers extra-ticket outings dubbed EDUTours to explore Central Florida. One option this year travels to Legoland Florida Resort in Winter Haven.
“A lot of people don’t know where it’s at until we say it’s halfway between Orlando and Tampa,” said Julie Estrada, public relations director for Merlin Entertainments, which operates Legoland parks as well as Peppa Pig Theme Park, Madame Tussauds Orlando and Sea Life aquariums. “We realized the EDUTours were a great way to get them there.”
They usually involve about 200 participants, Estrada said.
“They pay to be able to see something that other people haven’t seen,” she said. Last year, Merlin’s EDUTour visited the construction site of Sea Life Florida Aquarium, adjacent to Legoland Florida theme park. This year, they’ll return to see the now-opened finished product and visit the site of Legoland’s Galacticoaster, a ride scheduled to open next year.
Merlin has used IAAPA Expo in multiple ways to promote products, Estrada said. It showed off future ride vehicles for Legoland and Peppa Pig parks. It revealed an Aquaman figure for Tussauds. Merlin announced a partnership with IBCCES to make all of its Lego-driven parks become certified education providers. Estrada will appear on a panel about autism this year, and Merlin Chief Operating Officer Rob Smith will talk alongside IAAPA CEO Jakob Wahl, Hasbro Inc. Senior Vice President Matthew Proulx and others about uses of intellectual property.
Dewayne Bevil / Orlando Sentinel
In 2021, a costumed Peppa Pig character posed in a ride vehicle during the IAAPA Expo to promote future attractions of Peppa Pig Theme Park, which is operated in Winter Haven by Merlin Entertainments. (Dewayne Bevil/Orlando Sentinel)
“It’s a great way to get in front of customers that you normally wouldn’t have. It’s a great way to share your standards throughout the theme park industry,” Estrada said.
“And it’s a great way to be able to test it out sometimes, too, because sometimes you’ll think a ride vehicle is just amazing, and then someone else will see it and be like, ‘Eh. … It’s a vehicle,’” she said.
Educational sessions run from Sunday through Thursday. The show floor is available Tuesday through Friday to IAAPA Expo registrants.
Merlin’s Smith also will head a news conference providing new details about the new Legoland Florida ride during IAAPA Expo.
He will “announce what makes Galacticoaster unique and how it uses interactive technology in a way that no other theme park does,” Estrada said.
Another press briefing will feature a new project for SeaWorld Orlando, which includes Vekoma, a coaster manufacturer. SeaWorld also plays host to an EDUTour delving into its Arctic and Antarctic areas.
Other tours include Fun Spot America, Port Canaveral to see Royal Caribbean’s Star of the Seas ship and a behind-the-scenes look at Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights.
Universal’s new Epic Universe theme park will make its presence known through a breakfast session featuring Mark Woodbury, chairman of Universal Destinations & Experiences, and a panel that features four Epic Universe masterminds. In addition, the Themed Entertainment Association will announce its Thea Awards winners at an event at Epic.
Attendance at IAAPA is “very critical,” said Wilson, the Extreme Legacy executive. About 60% of the company’s revenue is generated at the show, he said. This year, it will show off its new dunk cannon attraction on the Expo floor. (Think one-on-one Nerf guns versus carnival dunking machines, but dry.)
“That is probably our biggest reason why we go, to show what we’re doing,” Wilson said.
“It’s also to create credibility that, hey, Extreme Legacy is a bona fide company … These are the real, exact people that are on staff who are here to talk to you and work with you and partner with you,” he said.
“It’s kind of hard to do that over the phone or through a website. You’ve got to really show people that you exist.”