Themed Design

Monday, December 14, 2009 Theme Parks: IAAPA Expo photos. From 17th to 20th November 2009, and for the first time in its 91 year history, the IAAPA (International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions) Attractions Expo took place at the Las Vegas Convention Center, USA. For the first time ever, the world's biggest event in this sector was held in the capital of gambling and entertainment...
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Tuesday, November 24, 2009 Theme Parks and Cultural Attractions: Judy Rubin reports on IAAPA in Las Vegas, Part 2 From Insecticide to Coney Island, Flip books to running machines, Blooloop Editor Judy Rubin reports from the show floor at the year's biggest bash and meets an industry leader who is just not what he was..
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Friday, November 20, 2009 Amusement parks:Overheard at IAAPA, Las Vegas Seen and heard by Blooloop's Judith Rubin at the biggest annual trade event of the Themed Entertainment Industry....View more

Friday, November 20, 2009 Themed Design: Lagasse's Stadium hits a home run for sports-themed restaurants Checking in here live from the IAAPA Attractions Expo in Las Vegas...

The concept of themed dining—sometimes referred to as “eat-ertainment—has been around the amusement industry for several years in several different formats. You’ve had character breakfasts, dinner shows, and restaurants with audio and visual experiences like the Rainforest Cafes from Schussler Creative......View more

Friday, October 09, 2009 Theme Parks: Weighing in on Blackstone's purchase of the Busch parks Ever since the international beverage giant InBev acquired Busch Corp. a little over a year ago , it has been expected that InBev would spin off the parks division. Swimming rapidly through the industry is the news that the private equity firm Blackstone has stepped up......View more

Saturday, September 26, 2009 Themed Entertainment: Blue Sky Adventure at TEA's SATE Conference After a briefing and introduction from George Wiktor, Karen Armitage, Larry Tuch, Jeff Mayer, Chick Russell and Linda Smith, attendees of the 3rd annual SATE Conference (Storytelling-Architecture-Technology-Entertainment) in Orlando split up into five groups to conduct two-hour mini-charrettes......View more

Thursday, September 24, 2009 Theme Parks: Fun For Mom at Manta SeaWorld Orlando helped the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) kick off its annual SATE (Storytelling-Architecture-Technology-Experience) Conference in style last night with an industry mixer behind the scenes at the new Manta roller coaster/aquarium attraction.
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Saturday, September 19, 2009 Themed Attractions: Talking Pirates Today Why are pirates so fascinating? They just arrrrr! An old joke of course but appropriate as today is National Talk Like a Pirate Day* in the US. My little boy did all the Orlando parks and attractions last Autumn, saw Spider-man, Shamu, Mickey and a host of other magical characters......View more

Friday, June 19, 2009 The Business of Audiovisual Technology: Steve Thorburn's InfoComm diary, day three Get a bunch of techies together in Orlando in June and their thoughts turn naturally to the invention of fantastic new personal air conditioning devices......View more

Thursday, June 11, 2009 Themed Design: Building a Brachiosaur- Video It’s not every day you spot the largest animal to walk the earth trying to break into a building, least of all an august institution such as the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. But watch the video, look again, this is no 50 tonne felon …...View more

Tuesday, June 02, 2009 Museum Design: Blistering Barnacles, it's Tintin and Magritte! There are famously not any famous Belgians. However, today sees the opening of a museum each for two of the Kingdom’s most celebrated sons: the acclaimed artist - and painter of floating pipes - Magritte and that intrepid boy reporter and comic strip character Tintin....View more

Wednesday, May 20, 2009 Museum Design: Who is this Man? A photograph caught my eye today. It shows a man on the roof of a men’s lavatory in a California State Park. Why is he there? Why is he in black and white? Is he spying on someone through the skylight? ...View more

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 Museums: An Outpouring in Paper and Pencil - Visitors to Calif Academy Get to the Point on Climate Change For the new California Academy of Sciences, my company, Cinnabar Inc., produced the exhibit “Altered State,” which focuses on climate change and California....View more

Thursday, April 30, 2009 Amusement Parks: Let's talk about Marty Sklar Marty Sklar has been with Disney for 53 years. Five decades. Half a century. Longer than I've been alive...
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Thursday, March 05, 2009 Museums: Unique Underwater Museum for Egypt's Famed Ancient City In the news this last week, The UNESCO backed giant underwater museum, designed by French architect Jacques Rougerie, a specialist in water based construction, is to be located on the site of Cleopatra’s Palace in Alexandria and is set to break ground/water in 2010 and be completed in 3 years.
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Tuesday, March 03, 2009 Amusement Parks: Not Just a Monorail Alton Towers' monorail always did what it said on the tin, took you from the hotels to the park entrance. The views are pretty, the ride smooth but it was a pretty functional experience. Not now. For this year the trains have had a makeover…...View more

Friday, November 14, 2008 Amusement Parks: Queueing for Devon's Finest Fudge at the IAAPA Expo Queues on my mind this week. This is not just because I am English and queuing is a national pastime...
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Wednesday, November 12, 2008 Themed Entertainment Design: BRC’s Chuck Roberts Gets Bemused Back when I was the young designer with the crazy ideas, somebody (I'm trying to remember who) came back from a meeting and handed me this piece of paper headed “Details, Dimensions, and Specifications Are Not The Real Thing.”...View more

Friday, October 24, 2008 Amusement Parks: Will Dubai be the new Orlando? Will Abu Dhabi be the new Dubai? Having just completed my magnum opus, an article about the UAE and factors in its growth as a leisure destination, to be published in the 2009 TEA Annual (which will be available in TEA's booth at IAAPA next month), my head is still buzzing with the topic......View more

Wednesday, September 10, 2008 This Is - and Isn’t - Your Grandfather’s Science Museum Update from Jonathan Katz, CEO of Cinnabar, and executive producer of 35,000 square feet of new exhibits for the Kimball Natural History Museum at the new California Academy of Sciences....View more

Tuesday, September 09, 2008 Halloween Risk Management for Amusement Parks: Curbing the Scary Specter of Legal Liability Now that Labor Day has passed, many parks are gearing down for the close of this year’s season. However, a growing trend within the industry has been to keep certain operations going through the Halloween-time....View more

Monday, September 01, 2008 Life in Dubai : Cranes, Waterparks and Atlantis... Hello all, my name is Scott Deisley and I am a part of the Management Team at Atlantis, Palm Jumierah in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. My responsibilities specifically include the safe and profitable operation of Aquaventure, the waterpark at Atlantis. ...View more

Friday, August 29, 2008 Giant Tortoises and Museum 2.0: Cinnabar Installation Diary We’re now completing installation of exhibits on the east side of the Kimball Museum of Natural History at the new California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Those exhibits include “Islands of Evolution,” some 10,000 square feet of displays illustrating Academy research expeditions to Galápagos and Madagascar, while explaining key concepts about evolution and biodiversity....View more

Wednesday, August 27, 2008 Amusement Law : Theme Park Trends in Central Florida and the Game of "What-If?" I sat down last weekend to write about local government regulatory issues that have slowed, stalled and even stopped new projects from opening, and which vex a wide variety of operators. Then, a fascinating conversation with an industry insider prompted a quick change in direction ....View more

Saturday, August 23, 2008 Museums: More news from the installation front! Here is the latest entry of Cinnabar’s installation diary, by Jonathan Katz (Executive Director) and Jeannie Lomma (project manager)...View more

Monday, August 11, 2008 Cinnabar Installation Diary: The California Academy of Sciences Here’s a report from Jonathan Katz in San Francisco, where his company, Cinnabar, is in the process of installing new exhibits at the California Academy of Sciences. This will be a weekly diary for the next several weeks (the new Academy opens Sept. 27).
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Wednesday, June 18, 2008 Amusement Parks: Genesis of Nemesis A quintessentially British couple of days, one spent at a Dorset garden party the second sitting in the rain at a kid’s sports day. Met one of the men behind Nemesis (my favourite coaster) and an old friend from India…...View more

Friday, March 21, 2008 Planetariums and Science Centres. Two New Attractions Debut this Easter This Easter weekend sees the opening of two brand new attractions, The Australian Museum's permanent dinosaur exhibit and here in the UK, Britains biggest Planetarium.
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Friday, March 07, 2008 The Future of Themed Design; a Search for Identity? Jack Rouse writes... Jack Rouse, Chairman and CEO Jack Rouse Associates- set to receive a Life time Achievement award from the TEA this weekend- has contributed a fascinating article to Blooloop in which he examines the trends and developments in themed design over the last 50 years....View more

Saturday, November 03, 2007 Amusement parks : Welcome to Bemusement, the Blooloop Blog View the post