By Walter Jonker

Related: Themed Entertainment: We make the magic at SATE 2011 in Amsterdam / World's Fairs: Expo Beginnings (part 1): Bob Simpson on the EXPOs of the 19th century

There is still a lot of work to be done before the official opening by the queen on April 4. General manager Paul Beck is confident that everything will be ready before this date.
 
With the 2 million visitors the operation will work cost neutral. The total budget for realizing the park was 25 million Euro. The Floriade 2012 Expo is a mixture of a leisure park and Horticultural exhibition.

The building ‘Innovatoren’ will be the meeting place for the international horticultural business.

The National Trade Organisation for Horticulture wants to get the guests of the park acquainted with the origin of their food and other products that are provided by horticulture.
 
There are several leisure activities in the park aimed at introducing young and old into the World of Horticulture. For children there is a lot to do in several workshops and games at the park.

The park offers a real learning experience about healthy living, sustainability and green innovation. The shows and exhibitions are almost too much to visit all in one day.
 
Since Venlo is very close to Germany, the organization expect that 40% of the visitors will come from the region Nordrhein Westfalen; another 40% will be Dutch. And since there is a lot of international media attention, so the rest of the visitors will come from all over the world.

More info: http://www.floriade.com
 
(Credits: www.pretwerk.nl / www.levendland.nl/english )

by David Manwarren

I was, and still am known for my use of the run on sentence. I try to pack as many words as I can before I am forced to use a period. The good news is nowadays we have spell check, so the words might not make a lot of sense, but they will be spelled correctly!

Anyway how did I get stuck - I mean honored - to do a blog on Zoos and Aquariums? When Charles Read called me, he told me that Blooloop was going to work with the International Aquarium Congress (IAC) this year in Cape Town, South Africa. Now I am sure they have some very good reasons to, but the first thing that came to mind was "Road Trip!". Who would not want to go to South Africa? Charles asked me to give my insight to the Zoo and Aquarium World as we lead up to Conference in September. Being that my bags are packed, I said of course. Seriously, we are looking forward to attending our 5th IAC. Every four years we have one and they have been excellent for exchanging ideas and getting new contacts.

So what is my take on 8th IAC being held in Cape Town? Who in the heck picked the dates? The dates coincide with the Association of Zoos and Aquarium's Conference. We have been going to the AZA conferences for over 30 years now. This is usually our big conference of the year, so it is a shame that it is at the same time as the IAC. It really is a shame for people in our company, who now have to go to Phoenix, because I will be in South Africa. I hate doing it, but I have to make an executive decision.
So what is my take on the Zoo and Aquarium world? What are its trends, who is building what? Who cares! I am going to Cape Town. I can write about that stuff on the next blog...

With “resort positioning” a key strategy for Merlin Entertainment’s continued expansion, the hotel turns the hugely successful theme park into a destination resort.

Related: John Jakobsen sets out Merlin Entertainment’s strategy for LEGOLAND parks  / Nick Varney, CEO of Merlin Entertainments Group sets out his six point growth driver plan

From the moment we walked through the entrance to the hotel, guarded by a giant “fire breathing” dragon, my little boy was in LEGO heaven and any disappointment that the hotel was not actually made of LEGO bricks was quickly forgotten.

The whole hotel is themed with LEGO, from the reception desk with 6,000 minifigures (and a large moving magnifying glass to view them), to the walls, carpets and rooms. 

There is LEGO everywhere: over 15 million LEGO bricks were used to create the hotel’s 1,600 models.  The three floors of the hotel each have an iconic LEGO theme, Pirates, Kingdom or Adventure and each of the 150 themed bedrooms has hand-made LEGO models of parrots, monkeys, spiders and ladybirds. 

The rooms are fantastic – cool theming but also really well thought out.  Ours had a Pirate theme – skulls, buried treasure and cutlasses.  The adult’s area is separated from the kids’ bunk beds so that bedtime can (theoretically) be enforced, and each area has its own TV.  A nice touch is a room-based game where the solution is the combination for a safe containing LEGO goodies.  There is even a big box of LEGO - it was hard to persuade our son to leave the bedroom.

In the restaurant a lot of planning has gone into creating an area where kids can play safely while their parents relax.  The centrepiece is a huge castle play structure with other areas to play and build LEGO with new friends.  All the kids seemed to be having a blast and getting on together. 

The adjacent Skyline bar area had LEGO skyscrapers – complete with the odd bathing stormtrooper- set against a setting sun.  The designers have done an excellent job incorporating the quirky humour of recent LEGO brands into the designs.  The children’s entertainment, helpful staff and design of the space together with lifts that only work with room keys, means that parents can enjoy a pre-dinner drink and grown up snacks whilst the kids are having a great time in a safe environment.

The restaurant is bright and cheery with loads more funny LEGO figures to look at, and holes in the partitions to be climbed through.  Dinner is buffet style, another huge relief for parents of fussy eaters.  The kids’ food is at a low level with child-proof bowls and plates so little ones can help themselves.  The food is good too – a nice selection, fresh and good quality, healthy options and an ice cream maker and LEGO shaped chips.  Breakfast was also wonderful with gorgeous waffles. 

Tables have paper tablecloths with crayons provided.  The whole thing is just fun and relaxed and about having a good time as a family.  No-one was bored and fidgety, and even if they did get fed up there was no problem with leaving the table, climbing through a wall or helping themselves to another bowl of cheesy pasta. There also were plenty of meet and greet LEGO characters for photo opportunities.

The only regret I have is that we were having such a good time we didn’t get to have a movie and popcorn back in the room. 

I do have two older daughters (12 and 14) who although they have enjoyed playing with LEGO did wonder whether they’d like the weekend.  In fact, they had a ball largely thanks to the lovely Karen (Customer Service) who was just brilliant at talking to them and making the whole experience fun. 

The next day we hit the park.  My son got his driving licence which he took for show-and-tell on Monday and we went on Atlantis (the park’s underwater aquarium experience/ride) twice –wide eyed amazement that we were under water.  Staying in the hotel meant that we got in an hour early and being able to beat the queues for our favourite rides was much appreciated.

We had an illustration of why LEGOLAND is just so great at providing a perfect environment for younger children.  We were standing in a (small) queue for a ride and my son was playing at being Ben 10 watched by another boy of a similar age.  Suddenly my son slapped his wrist, saying “It’s time to go Ultimate!” with an appropriately grave countenance.  The other little boy looked really impressed. “Uh, oh,” he said, realising the seriousness of the situation. This is a place where boys can be boys and LEGOLAND understand.  A refreshing change from hanging around with a bored small boy while my “cool” daughters queue for some mega coaster whilst listening to hip hop on their ipods.  It was wonderful to be in a place just for pre-teens.

For the older kids, however, the dragon coaster was thrilling enough to be fun and we all absolutely loved the Star Wars film.  Even in 2D LEGO have taken a brick from Pixar’s model and made family films with enough humour in to appeal to adults.   We enjoy the LEGO Wii games at home for their humour as much as the hours of gaming fun. It’s a great move for LEGO to branch out into movies and ultimately create their own IP, for instance with Clutch Powers, star of LEGO’s first feature length character film.   There is more of a link to the video games in LEGOLAND Billund, with a Wii area and I will be interested to see if this will be extended to the other parks as it’s definitely an element of the brand that our kids enjoy.

In an interview with Blooloop last year, LEGOLAND MD John Jakobsen explained that the appeal of LEGOLAND is to provide a “completely differentiated experience based on interactivity and engagement by all family members”.  With this in mind, we battled as a family on the firetrucks, a race to put out a fire and get your fire engine back first.  Like many families, the inter-family competition is fierce and we struggle to play games harmoniously: there was much taunting and jeering as the girls romped home to an easy victory.

In the shops the Star Wars range was a hit.  Again the customer service is top notch.  A very helpful girl at the Castle shop rang around to try to help me in my ultimately hopeless quest to get a Bellatrix minifigure.

With prices starting from £247 in low season to £337 in high season for a themed family room (2 adults / 2 children), including breakfast and park tickets for two days, this isn’t a cheap night away.

However, I would say that our trip was one of the best 24 hours we’ve had as a family with something for everyone.  My little boy now wants to live at the LEGOLAND hotel and even the girls want to work at LEGOLAND when they grow up.

What’s a happy memory worth after all?

Thankfully the real magic of  Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter lay inside its underwhelming  exterior.

Related: Harry Potter at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London: Could it be Magic?

I was fortunate enough to visit last week with the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA)’s European branch.  With the prestigious Thea Awards taking place just 2 days later and the TEA summit starting on the same day, it was only the most glamorous globetrotting members of the TEA community who could do both (David and Lynn Willrich), with the rest of us Muggles missing out on the magic over in LA.

The draw of the Harry Potter attraction was huge and a record number of TEA members – over 80 -attended the event.  Skilled professionals in the themed entertainment industry from across the country convened at the Hertfordshire location, eager to see the world of Potter up close and personal. Whilst Nick Farmer was sadly missed (falling off his broomstick on the way down from Leicester), Phil Hartley, Annika Oetken , Bob Simpson, Alan Wilkinson, Simon Egan, Martin Barratt, Leslie Morisetti, Josh Miller, Donna Davidson, Greg Eccles, Ray Hole, Anthony Stubbs  and many more were in attendance, all eager to get a look at one of the country’s most hotly anticipated  new themed attractions. Two of the creatives behind Universal Orlando’s immensely successful Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Mark Woodbury and Thierry Coup also joined the group. 

It was a particularly busy day for Craig Hanna, CEO of the Thinkwell Group which had designed and produced the £100 million attraction. Not only was he hosting the TEA group but he was also welcoming the friends and family of the Thinkwell crew to the attraction.  Craig welcomed us all to the attraction and spoke immediately after the pre-show videos.  He stressed that Thinkwell had not reinterpreted  anything and that they were in fact “custodians” of the Potter world. It was, he said “a truly authentic experience”.  A real treat for us was that he had arranged for three heads of department on the films to be on hand to answer questions: John Richardson (special effects), Paul Hayes (Construction) and Nick Dudman (creature effects). Thinkwell’s creatives  were also with us, including Michael Finney (lighting and facilities) and Cynthia Blackstone, Project Manager.

The attraction, suffice to say is stunning.  With such rich source material and the skilled attention of the Thinkwellians, a truly ground -breaking attraction has been created. A full report will be published in these pages shortly. 

Although Electrosonic’s Gemma Fabian subsequently donned an invisibility cloak and disappeared immediately after the tour, many others gathered at the Watford Hilton for a traditional TEA networking/mixer event: disorganised, unstructured and immensely enjoyable.

Images: all except bottom, kind courtesy Alan Wilkinson.

By Greg Van Gompel

Hopefully that is why you can feel my frustration and disappointment when I read about a 3 year old child falling from a Techno Jump amusement ride at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in Houston, Texas last week.  I assure you that it is not for the same reasons that a majority of the public might feel these things.

You see, now the representatives in government are going to say we need stricter ride regulations, the media will now say the government needs to have stricter ride regulations and of course, my brethren who are personal injury attorneys will tell you that amusement rides are inherently unsafe. 

Related: SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment LLC vs. Marineland of Canada Inc. 2011 ONCA 616 /  A theme park may be liable in negligence for allowing head-on collisions on a bumper car

According to the facts, witnesses reported that "the mother decided she was too large to ride the ride and left the 3-year-old with her 8-year-old brother," according to a statement made by Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Chief Operating Officer Leroy Shafer (below left).  Let’s stop right there for a moment.  What’s wrong with this picture?  A 3 year old riding with an 8 year old and mom walks away.  Knowing what I know about the 3 year old in my life, if I did that, my 3 year old is bound to follow me, even if I’m at home.  That’s just the nature and curiosity of a 3 year old.  Now mix in being at an unfamiliar place with strangers on an amusement ride that purposely throws you up in the air and you have a recipe for a problem.    Why didn’t the mom take the 3 year old girl with her?  Have you ever tried to deny a 3 year old something?  She would scream and holler and make a scene.  No parent or grandparent looks forward to that scenario.  But parents, guardians and others responsible for a child need to make hard choices, smart choices, and right choices.

Once you start up a Techno Jump it begins in a circle and starts thrusting seats up into the air.  What do you think will happen to a three year old struggling to overcome whatever restraint you put in their way?  They will keep struggling until they are free for a three year old cannot comprehend what harm or consequences result from their actions.  What will happen?  I fully anticipate that the unthinking mother will file a lawsuit against the carnival, the Rodeo and the ride manufacturer for negligence and product liability, without even considering her own fault in the accident.  What happened during the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is tragic.  I hope the three year old continues to live a normal life and is not affected by accident for the rest of her life.  But as a society, as a community charged with helping to raise our children, we must become conscientious and help to speak for those too young to know better if their caretakers don’t or won’t.  Let us keep an eye on our children this operating season. 
 

Noob is a perfect term for this conference that really embraces “firsts.”

By Dina Benadon (@dinaS78).

SXSW started in 1987 as a music event that attracted 700 registrants.  In 1994, SXSW added a film and interactive component to accommodate these growth industries. If you’re interested in the history of SXSW, there’s a good video above.

If you’re a numbers person, here are a few stats that will impress you.  Between the event’s three festivals – Music, Film and Interactive (the one I’m participating in) -- there are 49,216 registrants, and 71% of them are under the age of 41.

I’ll be one of 19,364 attendees participating in the Interactive Festival.  This SXSW particular event teems with marketers, web developers, social media experts, venture capitalists, educators and software developers.  Notice that list does not include representation from the theme park industry…until now.

Not only am I attending my first SXSW, I’m also participating in a panel Sunday morning entitled – “Multiplatform Storytelling: Frontline War Stories” (you can follow it on Twitter -- #sxsw #frontline).  

I’ll be joining some amazing creative/interactive leaders for this panel and together we’ll be highlighting the promise and mechanics of participatory storytelling.

Joining me on the panel is Tracy Fullerton, professor and director of the Game Innovation Lab at the USC School of Cinematic Arts; Lance Weiler (@LanceWeiler), a storyteller, entrepreneur and thought leader who WIRED magazine named “One of twenty-five people helping to re-invent entertainment and change the face of Hollywood;” Jon M. Chu (@jonmchu), a feature film director of Touchstone Pictures’ Step Up 2 The Streets (2008), Step Up 3D (2010) and Paramount Picture’s Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (2011); and Brian Seth Hurst (@BrianSethHurst), the CEO of The Opportunity Management Company, a strategic consultancy driving the next generation of entertainment, who will moderate.

In addition to our panel, there will be another 934 conference sessions that will cover a host of very exciting interactive topics.  Navigating these sessions is certainly one of the most challenging aspects of SXSW – optimizing your time to take part in as many great presentations and panels as possible.

What I'm really excited about seeing and participating in is anything that has to do with interactivity and today's world of communicating. Also panels that involve psychology behind social interaction and visual storytelling.

Throughout this three-day interactive binge, I'll be on the lookout for new technologies that speak to immersive and themed entertainment and how we can weave in new ways of communication when we're creating entertainment for physical environments. I also want to become more familiar with the advancements made being made in the interactive gaming world for developments that can be directly applied to our industry.

SXSW's original goal was to create an event that would act as a tool for creative people and the companies they work with to develop their careers, to bring together people from a wide area to meet and share ideas.  From what I hear, SXSW delivers that and more.

I think the energy of the conference is what is going to be the most infectious. And who knows?...Maybe I’ll even take in a few concerts! HA! Who has time for that??

Here’s a quick look at the presentations I plan to attend, along with Twitter hashtags you might want to follow if you too are interested in these topics:


Integrating Brands into Social Television (Sat. 9:30-10:30a Central Time) #sxsw #SocialTV

Featuring Jennifer Kavanagh (right), SVP  Digital, Oxygen Media; Jonathan Carson (below left), CEO, Nielson Digital; Kristin Frank, SVP GM MTV.com & VH1.com, MTV Networks; Michael Cupo, Dir, Social Media, ESPN; Mike Shields, Digital Editor, Adweek, these panelists from different networks will discuss not only how social buzz is translating into ratings success, but how brands are also reaping the benefits from engaged audiences across the different social platforms through integrated advertising campaigns. The panel will also look at how social media buzz has replaced the old system of courting television and film critics and the ways networks are now courting millenials who are critics in their own right with active digital thumbprint.

Intellectual Property Issues in Social Media (Sat., 11a-12p) #sxsw #ip&sm

Featuring Daxton Stewart, Asst Professor, Media Law and Ethics, Texas Christian University; Kathleen Olson, Assoc Professor, Journalism, Lehigh University; Riyad Omar, VP, Principal Legal Officer, NewsRight; Victoria Ekstrand, Assoc Professor, Journalism & PR, Bowling Green State University, this panel of attorneys, scholars and media professionals discuss how courts and the industry have been handling a range of issues – information sharing and federal copyright law; tweeting breaking news; can images shared via Flickr or Facebook be used for news or marketing purposes, and the legal ramifications of mock Twitter accounts, among others.

How Women Present Themselves in the Digital Age (Sat. 3:30-4:30p) #sxsw #huffpost

Featuring Bianca Bosker (left), Sr Tech Editor, The Huffington Post; Lisa Ling, EP and Host, OWN; Margaret Johnson, Women's Editor, Huffington Post Media Group; Tiffany Shlain (right), Founder, Connected the Film – this panel will delve into the sometimes paralyzing performance anxiety technology produces, how we can mitigate it, and discuss thorny questions about what should and should not be revealed online.

Crowd Sourced & Collaborative Story-Writing (Sat., 5:45-6 p) #sxsw #AuthorBee

This presentation by Stephen Bradley, Managing Director of Farmingville Capital, will discuss how user-generated content (UGC) has changed the face of the entertainment world forever and how, with the explosive growth of e-readers and e-books, non-professional enthusiasts have the opportunity to participate with others in the creation of new types of stories that build on the contributions and inspiration of many... stories that develop and unfold before their eyes, where they are both creator and consumer at once.

Rise of the Interactive Director As Creative Lead (Sun., 11a-12p) #sxsw #Rise

Dustin Callif (right), Exec Producer Digital, Tool; and Grant Skinner, Interactive Dir, GSkinner.com will discuss the how the interactive director has evolved into a role in which the technologist is directing the experience and creative. From interactive music videos and social entertainment to leveraging HTML5 to interactive installations, we're seeing an explosion in innovative ways that interactive directors are allowing viewers to experience stories.

Brain As Interface: Future of Bio-Computing (Sun., 11:45a-12p) #sxsw #BrainInt

Lee Shupp, EVP, Cheskin Added Value will discuss the ultimate interface -- your brain - biology connected to technology, wetware connected to hardware. Shupp will take a brief look at the evolution of interfaces for a historical perspective, then discuss the potential and perils of biological computing.

Tech + the Evolution of the In-Store Experience (Sun., 3:30-4:30p) #sxsw #RetailNow

Featuring Carrie Chitsey (left), Founder & CEO, 3Seventy; Chris Harrison, COO, DMX Inc.; Ryan Kellogg, Assoc Dir of Emerging Technologies, Razorfish; and Tim Austin, CCO, TPN, this panel will focus on the future of the physical store and the consumer experience inside it, and explore the trends, possibilities, challenges and realities impacting today’s $3.4 trillion retail sector.

NASA’s Mission Possible: Tweeting thru Space (Sun., 5-6p) #sxsw #nasa

Erik Sowa, Dir, Engineering, ExactTarget Social Media Lab, and Stephanie Schierholz, Social Media Mgr for NASA will share how with 110 twitter accounts, 20 tweeting astronauts, an Image of the day posted to Facebook and more, NASA's social media strategy is all about extending the space "experience". For the last shuttle launch of Atlantis, 150 lucky individuals were invited to attend the official NASA Tweetup to experience the lift-off first-hand, with exclusive behind the scenes access to astronauts, facilities, lectures and more. Sowa and Schierholz will discuss the process behind this groundbreaking event.