Themed attraction and experience design company Katapult have launched a new homeschooling workbook for children, to inspire creativity and consider a career in the leisure and attractions industry in the future.
A Case for Wholesome There was a time when we had a plethora of things presented before us that contained the ingredient of wholesomeness – anything from television shows to movies to theme parks — all had a wholesome spirit to them. As Christmas approached and then swiftly left us (as all things in life…
Coney Island sends guests to hell During my recent interview on coasterradio.com, the show host asked about some classic Coney Island attractions that didn’t get much detail in my Imagineering an American Dreamscape book. One of these was Creation, a thematic, immersive experience that was moved to Dreamland park in 1905 after the St. Louis…
Mad Systems Inc. Adds Toni Losier to Business Development Team The new hire will extend the audio-visual design and integration company’s reach to cover East Coast clientele. ORANGE, CA (January 18,2021) – Mad Systems Inc. is delighted to announce the addition of Toni Losier to their growing team. Losier will be representing the award-winning Audio-Visual…
“We are at the dawn of a new period in human existence. Faced with challenges great and small, how can we assist cultural institutions in breaking through the fractured transmedia landscape to grow their audience, make a difference in the world, and ensure their financial viability.” – Louis Alfieri
Picture this: You’ve just endured countless hours (or has it been weeks—months, maybe?) of creative charrettes, late nights of design revisions and updates to the proposal for your next big guest experience project—and now you’re ready to get organizational buy-in. One of your key stakeholders—and most critical partners—is the marketing team. Sure, it’s their job…
ATRAX & THE HAPPY CITIES PLATFORM As the Turkish business platform for a global industry offering huge investment potential and providing solutions for the increasing demand for attraction, game and sports facilities and parks and recreational areas as a result of increasingly active life styles of urban people, ATRAX EXHIBITION will be opening its doors…
Join us tomorrow December 2nd @ 12:45pm for the ITTT Showcase featuring Ultraleap. Invitation To Tomorrow Today (ITTT) was founded by TEA Master Roberta Perry, NormaLynn Cutler, Susie Ogihara and Heidi Hirsch. We present monthly virtual series, on Zoom to showcase people and /or companies with innovative market ready solutions targeting known or unknown challenges…
The awarded slide is located at Aquapark Reda in Poland and was put into operation on January 10, 2020.The team of Aquapark Reda named the slide Aquaspinner. The SlideWheel – developed by wiegand.waterrides – is a combination of a Ferris wheel and a water slide offering a unique dimension of sliding which is not comparable to any other existing slide.
Partner PortAventura World Honored by TEA Thea Awards for Dark Ride Sesame Street: Street Mission JACKSONVILLE, FL: Sally Dark Rides, a leading creator of family ride experiences around the globe, today announced its partner PortAventura World was awarded the prestigious Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement for dark ride Sesame Street: Street Mission. Named by the…
ATRAX 2021 to be held 8-10 April in Istanbul Tureks International Fairs Co. has announced news dates for ATRAX-International Amusement-Attraction, Parks-Recreation Exhibition which will be held on 8-10 April in Istanbul, Turkey. The reason for postpone is in order to offer a healthier and more effective event experience. With this update made with the goal…
Orlando, FL, November 16, 2020 – The newest addition to Falcon’s Creative Group’s expanding portfolio of patented and patent-pending offerings is the GameSuite™ product, an immersive gaming environment for friends and families to play, lounge, and connect. Each GameSuite™ unit combines an enveloping game bay and an adjoining lounge area, where the experience can dynamically…
ITEC Entertainment Contributes to Once-in-a-lifetime Industry Collaboration Highlights Themed Entertainment Strength During Time of Turbulence ORLANDO, Fla. – (November 13, 2020) – ITEC Entertainment Corporation, an industry leader of worldwide entertainment solutions, today announced its contribution and partnership with Give Kids The World Village, a nonprofit resort that brightens the lives of critically ill children…
Mad Systems Inc. Announces Issuance of U.S. Patent Covering Recognition Based Media Delivery Revolutionary Audiovisual Systems Deliver Personalized Content using Color, License Plate, and Facial Recognition Orange, CA: Mad Systems Inc., an audiovisual design and integration company specializing in interactive exhibits, today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued U.S.…
Prayer Networking Invitation Friends! Please join us for the annual Prayer Networking Event on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020 at 12 noon EST. This industry event will be both live and in-person as well as virtual and on-line, featuring guest speaker Theron Skees, Portfolio Creative Executive of Walt Disney Imagineering. Although the International Association of Amusement…
A gripping, new horror dark ride experience has been unveiled by themed attraction designers Katapult, in collaboration with simulator ride manufacturer, Simworx.
Borrow one of Chandler’s sweaters, because The FRIENDS™ Experience has blown into the Windy City for a limited time! Originally created for the show’s 25th anniversary, fans can celebrate their favorite friends and revisit some of the series’ most iconic moments with this two-story, enhanced experience created by Superfly X, Warner Bros. Consumer Products and Warner…
Cornelius Vanderbilt Wood Jr. is the singular definition of an enigma. Few Disney fans have ever heard the name. The ones who have, have read anything from genius, showman, shuckster, to con man. The self-confident kid who got into college on a rope twirling scholarship was pure Texas and a born leader. His friends were…
FEC open at Shenzhen OCT Happy Harbor at the end of the year SHENZHEN, CHINA – China Leisure Development Co., (CLDC) and ViacomCBS have inked a deal to develop a Nickelodeon-themed Family Entertainment Center (FEC) in the city of Shenzhen, China. Comprising four attraction zones featuring SpongeBob SquarePants, PAW Patrol, Dora the Explorer, and Teenage…
Falcon’s Creative Group Teams with Eric Calderon to Create New Animated Series Based on Katmandu® IP Beloved characters from Katmandu Parks will be brought to life through an animated series developed by two entertainment powerhouses Orlando, Fla., September 22, 2020—Falcon’s Creative Group, a leading experience design and animation company in the world of themed entertainment,…
(Lake Elsinore, CA, September 22, 2020) – Storyland Studios announced today the hiring of three new leaders and promotion of one across multiple disciplines. The announcement comes as Storyland sees continued growth in the experience design business. The four strategic positions will play key roles in supporting the company’s rapidly expanding client portfolio. Storyland…
Storyland Studios, an experience design firm that helps brands connect their stories in three dimensions, congratulates Children’s Hunger Fund (CHF) for receiving the Themed Entertainment Association’s (TEA) Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement on a Limited Budget for Poverty Encounter, a permanent exhibit, at the non-profit’s Los Angeles headquarters. Storyland Studios contributed concept development and design…
In a year where nothing is going right, it’s hard to find a silver lining to 2020. With dozens of theme parks shut down and even the entertainment behemoths like Universal and Disney struggling, everything seems to be in freefall. As we move closer and closer to October, us at Gilderfluke started wondering, what is…
Why water parks can attract so many tourists? Water park equipment is the key point. In the initial stage of investing in water parks, investors should find water park equipment manufacturers to customize the equipment according to the topography of the scenic area and other relevant geography to achieve the desired effect. The following are…
Storyland Studios Opens UK Branch, Hires Former Disney Leaders Spatial storytelling design firm Storyland Studios announced Thursday that they are expanding their availability to clients by opening an international branch in London. Disney alumnus Ben Thompson will run the office just outside of London, England as Chief Strategy Officer and Head of International, effective August…
Offering exclusive insight, education and rarely-found, direct accessibility to a senior level creative leader. Florida July 30, 2020: The founder of The Designer’s Creative Studio, Theron Skees, announced today the addition of learning content to the company’s recently launched website and gave a sneak peek of the many offerings in development. These expanded features will…
July 17 is such a special day. Disneyland opened 65 years ago…and Imagineering an American Dreamscape went on sale, well, a little less than that. It’s finally done, and what a fun journey it’s been putting it together. The book traces the evolution from the grand world expositions to Disneyland, laying the groundwork for…
Well, they finally made it. After several weeks of wondering if they’d be able to open at all, Hershey unveiled the brand new expansion we’ve been anticipating for so long. And who was worried? It was only the largest expansion project in park history, adding twenty-three acres and clocking in at $150 million. It’s a…
In the early years, regional theme parks offered souvenir maps for sale. These were beautifully illustrated works of art with lots of fun details to discover. One of the ideas for the park history book was to include excerpts from these opening/early season maps to help visualize the walk-through descriptions. That would have made the…
Two of the four Busch Gardens properties live on to this day. The first, in Tampa, started out in 1959 as a free, fun thing to do while touring the brewery; it was intended to promote the brand. But it became so popular the company decided it was worth more as a gated park, and…
One of the great stories of conservation and animal advocacy in the past century is Jane Goodall’s action to protect chimpanzees and inspire action to preserve the natural world. And that story continues as Becoming Jane: The Evolution of Dr. Jane Goodall, an exhibition for National Geographic Museum has been named an overall winner of…
Themed entertainment industry professionals from all backgrounds gathered May 29th on a public ZOOM call to listen as entrepreneurs, industry veterans and newcomers pitched their new concepts and ideas for potential investment. Organized by Cary Jardin and Lexington Blood, the event’s goal was to offer creatives and innovators an opportunity to present their ideas before…
One of the chapters in the upcoming park history book focuses on entrepreneurs who took Walt’s concept and found a way to make it happen in their own part of the country. These individuals had the drive, determination, resources, and sheer guts to jump head-first into waters they knew little about. Storms loomed ahead, threatening…
The regional theme park history book keeps pushing right along toward completion (hint…it’s close). To hold you over in the meantime, I’ll be sharing bits and pieces from the book and my research while tossing in other interesting items along the way. Three of them, in fact. I’m extremely pleased to have some wonderful folks…
(Stevensville, Maryland): As parks around the world examine the ways to safely re-open their properties Ride Entertainment has services to help. Two key areas are Skycoaster® and attraction maintenance. “We know that things will look different as properties start to open,” said Adam Sandy, President of Business Development. “We want to do our part to…
Everybody knows pretty much everything about Disneyland—how it got started, how the Imagineers do their thing, and so on. But nobody ever talks about the parks that most of us across the country enjoy far more often. The regional theme parks, different from amusement parks, owe their existence to the magical land Walt built in…
Creative sculpture that crosses borders At Themed Attraction we have access to a growing network of artists from across the world. Recently, were were lucky enough to find a sculptor and painter named Manolo Rubio, based in Valencia, Spain. It was a fantastic discovery. We think you will be impressed by the quality of his…
Benoit Cornet launches BoldMove Corporation for high-energy and affordable digital attractions Unique vendor-independent service to prep for post-crisis era Benoit “Ben” Cornet is proud to announce the launch of BoldMove Corporation to the entertainment market. With his team he will be advising theme parks & leisure venues on selecting the best technology for their digital…
Theme parks and crowd handling may never be the same after the Covid-19 period. The Covid-19 epidemic makes us humans look differently at other humans. We keep our distance as the other person might be contagious. We are more suspicious of others. How will this affect our feelings and behavior after this Covid-19 is gone?…
Miziker Entertainment, the themed entertainment company behind dozens of award winning shows, parades, media-based attractions, and memorable guest experiences, will host a 3-day mentorship and professional development weekend for eight qualified students from SCAD’s (Savannah College of Art & Design) pioneering undergraduate and graduate programs in themed entertainment design and related disciplines. The weekend, known…
One of the springtime traditions I look forward to all year long is the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) Thea Awards. “The Theas,” and the TEA Summit that they cap off, bring together many of our cherished friends, colleagues, clients, and co-creatives to celebrate the great achievements of the themed entertainment industry worldwide. But just like…
(SAN JOSE) – VBO Tickets launches new QuickBooks™ Online integration for its cutting-edge event ticketing software, a development that further advances an accounting solution in their platform. This integration allows accountants to easily custom create GL account logic in VBO Tickets and replicate box office sales transactions from their QuickBooks Online account. Items in VBO…
Shandong Huaxia Cultural Tourism Group Named for 2 Prestigious Awards The magic and wonder of Chinese traditions are alive and well at Huaxia theme park resorts in China. The Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) and the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) have both named Shandong Huaxia Cultural Tourism group for two original, live…
DESIGNED/BUILD BY ADG, OPENING MAY 2020 February 20, 2020 (Cohoes, NY) Aquatic Development Group (ADG) has been contracted as design/builder of the 1-acre ‘Coconut Shores’ water play kid’s area renovation project at Kings Dominion Soak City Water Park (VA). The area is currently under construction and is slated to open May 2020. Kings Dominion approached…
One major chapter of my upcoming regional park history book deals with how these parks lost their original design intent along the way. Decades of ownership turnover, corporate management, current trends for IP overlays, and so on rendered most of these parks nearly unrecognizable from when they were first built. Carowinds opened in 1973 as…
February 4, 2020 (Vienna, Austria): The world’s first Booster Unhinged debuted in the spring of 2019 at Prater Park and added yet another element of thrills to this traditional amusement park. The new attraction, dubbed King Size, puts a new twist on the classic extreme ride. “After over 20 years of success with our original…
[Los Angeles, CA]: bohdri, LLC today announced the launch of bohdri.com, a new online job platform designed exclusively for the Themed Entertainment industry. bohdri offers a new way for individual talent and organizations in the themed entertainment industry to connect. It’s the new way to ‘gig’ in the industry. “Having run a design and production…
Efteling, the famed theme park in the Netherlands, has added the last two track sections for their new dual-tracked, powered roller coaster, Max & Moritz. Using nearly 5,000 bolts and nuts, the 59th and 60th track sections have today been installed. This completes the two different track courses of the new Mack Rides coaster. Located…