Announcing the Themed Attraction Student Showcase

Important: Please continue to check this post for updated information. We will add to this post as more information comes available.

Introduction

Themedattraction.com exists to inform, encourage, educate, and expand the themed entertainment / location based entertainment / attractions industry. We are pleased to announce the inaugural “Themed Attraction Student Showcase” for the 2020/21 academic year.

The Themed Attraction Student Showcase is a celebration of the 1) creative, interdisciplinary nature of immersive and themed experiences in the built environment, 2) the faculty that shape future makers, and 3) the emerging talent of students in the themed attractions and environments industries. It’s been said that over 140 disciplines are involved in the creation of themed and immersive environments. The integration of creative arts with business, engineering, and technology is crucial to an immersive experience and enable a joyous society. Students from a wide range of academic programs with interests in the themed attractions andexperiences are encouraged to showcase project-based student work.

All students currently enrolled in a college or university are eligible to submit work. Individuals may submit work produced while enrolled as a student within the previous 12 months, up to 10 months after graduation. Students may submit team or individual projects. All submissions must have been produced while the individual(s) were higher-education students as part of assigned coursework or under the supervision of a faculty member (such as a thesis project or sponsored club activity). All submitted work must be original in design and content (no existing intellectual property).

Submissions should fall into one of three categories:

• Showcase – Design, Story and Visualization of a themed experience or attraction
• Showcase – Hospitality, Planning and Management of a themed experience or attraction
• Showcase – Engineering and Technology pertaining to a themed experience or attraction

Recognition:

Submissions may be recognized in, but are not limited to, the following sub-categories.

• Best in Show – Overall
• Best in Class – Storytelling/Show Writing/Guest Experience Narrative
• Best in Class – Application, and Use of Technology
• Best in Class – Concept Art/Graphic Design
• Best in Class – Master Planning / Area Development / Landscape Design
• Best in Class – Show Set Development / Attraction Design
• Best in Class – Architectural Development / Ride Envelope
• Best in Class – Audio Visual Design
• Best in Class – Ride & Show Systems (engineering the ride)
• Best in Class – Show Animation (animatronics and live actor use)
• Best in Class – Operational Management plan

Registration Period and Project Instructions

Individuals and teams wishing to participate are encouraged to register their participation by creating a profile at themedattraction.com and indicating their team or project affiliation within their profile at the appropriate prompts. Individual and team registrations will remain open until 3/31/21.

** Important ** – All teams should also submit the form at the bottom of this page to register their team.

Submissions will be evaluated by a veteran panel of impartial industry professionals. Students will receive feedback on their submitted work when the results of the judging are announced. Reviewers may give anonymous critique or serve as themedattraction.com industry mentor

We will make available a board of professional student mentors to serve as a resource for students. These mentors will have direct knowledge of the design, conceptualization and implementation of themed entertainment projects. Contact us if you are interested to serve as a judge or industry mentor.

Submissions & Deliverables

Submissions shall consist of an 8 – 12 minute video presentation presentation and may include supplemental attachments such as images, plans, illustrations, animations, etc… All work will be submitted online in digital format at themedattraction.com. Further submission instructions will be provided to registered participants.=

Nothing excites us more than seeing emerging professionals showcase their talents so come one, come all and show us what you and your classmates have been working on with your themed entertainment faculty!

Timeline

• Registration deadline 3/31/21 (now closed)
• All students to start uploading their documents on 4/1/21 – 4/30/21.
• The upload portal will close Friday 4/30/21.
• Showcase opens to public display on 5/03/21, posted on themedattaction.com.
• Judging to commence Monday 5/3 – Friday 5/14/21
• Results posted week of 5/17/21.
• Feedback Q&A with judges on 5/24/21 – 5/28/21. We will probably have 2-3 sessions based on the number of entries.

Academic Advisory Council

• Dr. Jesse Kamm, IAAPA Academic Symposium / PMP / Licensed General Contractor 
• Peter Weishar – Professor University of Central Florida / TEA  Eastern North America Board member / TEA Academic Society
• Christian Rogers – Associate Professor Computer / Themed Attraction Design & Motion Design IU / PUI – (Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianpolis)
• Jamie DeRuyter – Faculty Entertainment Design / Ringling College of Art + Design

Faculty wishing to participate with your program please contact us at themedattraction.com or Dr. Jesse Kamm.

Registration:

“Even beavers need deadlines….”  – Walt Disney

The registration period for the 2021 Themed Attraction student showcase is now closed.

Team Entry Confirmation:

The following teams and individuals have been received. Please email us immediately if you see any errors:

Instructions to submit:

To upload your project, create a profile. (Click Join Us). Then login and navigate to your profile. Click blog > Create.

• Add a Title “Project name followed by school”. For example,  “Project Time Warp – UCLA”
• Add your or embed HTML code, toggle the the TEXT tab on the top right of the screen. (not VISUAL)
• To paste in written content: Use the VISUAL button on the top right of the page. (not TEXT)
• Click add media to add images or pdf files to the page.
• Add featured image (bottom of page).
• Select a category so that it will display properly here. Select  team or individual.
• Excerpt – optional. This is text that will be displayed on the gallery page.
• Tags – optional – for SEO purposes. These are essentially key words.

Hit Save Draft to continue to work on this project without anyone seeing it. You can then see edit your draft at a later time by going to your blog section.

Alternate Instructions: You can also go to /wp-admin and login to the back end. Click post > edit to see your saved post.

With great power comes great responsibility:

Important: Once you click publish, this will auto publish to the home page of themedattraction.com as well as the gallery page and also be visible on social media pages (automatically).

Contact us to set up a zoom tutorial or a phone call.