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AttractionPros brings you into the room with the top leaders, executives, and influencers in the attractions industry, to gain the widest possible perspective of all areas of the industry. Most people are only exposed to the practices of their own organization without seeing how the rest of the industry operates. By following AttractionPros, you will gain the skills and knowledge needed to succeed and learn from the best of the best, whether you are the CEO or just beginning your career.
Episodes
Tuesday Jun 22, 2021
Tuesday Jun 22, 2021
Mary Tannous calls herself the Queen of Feedback. She’s been in the attractions and hospitality industry for over twenty years. During that time, she has gained expertise in many different areas of the industry, from sales and corporate strategy to technology and training. She’s a world traveler, speaks multiple languages, and has worked and lived in many different countries. Mary is a certified life coach, an active member of her community, and a business owner. Mary now acts as a consultant to hospitality and attractions companies, utilizing her years of expertise to look for growth opportunities. Mary says that many of these opportunities start by focusing on delivering a good guest experience.
Mary emphasized the importance of a consistent company culture that is aligned with that company’s brand and mission. She focused on the fact that this culture and the behaviors that it fosters need to be consistent from the very top of the company down to the very bottom. Having the right company culture is often the first step to fostering a great guest experience. One reason for this is that in successful companies, leaders are able to empower their employees to respond to feedback, judge the situation, and take action to remediate a negative situation. In a company where the culture isn’t as well established or trusting of its employees, frontline workers might not feel that they have the authority or the support to make those judgment calls. However, if managers can lead by example and create a positive work environment where all employees feel valuable and connected to the company’s overarching purpose, excellent customer experience is sure to follow.
When approaching a new case, Mary goes into the organization with the belief that most leaders have good intentions on their way to achieving good results. However, Mary is often there to point out that the company culture that the managers might want or even the culture that they think they have may not actually be a reality. As an objective third party, Mary steps in to help provide candid insight into where the company is, what it does well, and where it could improve. In other words, Mary provides critical feedback to her clients.
When giving feedback, it is important to provide it while in the mindset of wanting to help, not tear down. Mary takes every opportunity she can to provide constructive feedback, whether that be at a theme park or a hotel or a restaurant. Without feedback, how else can a company know that something is wrong that it needs to fix? When receiving feedback, it is important to listen but not take the feedback too personally. While the information being shared is an opportunity to learn and improve, it shouldn’t be an excuse to dwell on a mistake. Receiving feedback, though, is easier when it comes from a place of compassion, as stated earlier. This brings us to the idea that while expectations for good guest service have grown over time, there should also be an understanding that we, as guests, need to do our part to make the guest experience as positive as possible. When working together and communicating with respect and compassion, providing feedback can be a win-win situation for the guest and the recipient of the feedback.
Feedback between a company and its guests can be incredibly challenging, but feedback between teammates can be just as difficult. Part of a leader’s job is to build up and support the right team for whatever job they need to do. It is important for employees to understand their specific roles and expectations as well as have a sense for how their job contributes to the company’s overall mission. This is another important aspect of empowering workers. Sometimes, though, a team member might not be a good fit for a role, or they might not have a good understanding of their responsibilities. A manager’s job involves communicating with and training this employee so that they have all the tools they need to succeed. Expectations need to be clear and consistent, and if an employee is failing to meet those expectations, that information should be clearly communicated to them. It’s also important to give that employee adequate time and opportunity to adapt to the feedback and improve. However, if sufficient improvement doesn’t occur, then it might be time to fire that employee. It’s important to remember that that doesn’t necessarily mean the employee is a poor worker; they might just not be a good fit for the role they were in. The main takeaway is that an employee shouldn’t learn for the first time that they aren’t performing adequately at the time of termination because that doesn’t give that employee adequate time to respond to the feedback.
Mary also shared a priceless piece of advice with regards to customer service: “you can’t please everyone.” Instead, she suggests focusing on giving the best possible experience to the guests that you can please. Especially during these challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be challenging to keep guests satisfied as some places roll back precautionary measures and others take a slower adoption strategy to new guidance. Mary urges everyone to focus on the things that they are able to control and do the absolute best with the information available at the time.
If you’d like to connect with Mary, you can find her on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.
This podcast wouldn't be possible without the work of our amazing team:
- Audio and video editing - Abigail Giganan
- Complete episode summary - Paige Reiter
- Scheduling and correspondence - Kristen Karaliunas
- Social media marketing - Kate Kujawa
- Branding and design - Fabiana Fonseca
To contact AttractionPros: attractionpros@gmail.com
Tuesday Jun 15, 2021
Tuesday Jun 15, 2021
Become a Google Things To Do Beta Tester!
In March, news leaked out that Google would be launching a new program for activities and experiences operators called Google Things To Do. Redeam is a Google Things To Do launch partner, with a unique opportunity to bring a few qualified, early adopter operators into the beta test. Interested in learning more about joining the Things To Do beta test?
EMAIL SALES@REDEAM TODAY!
Episode 197 Summary
Keith James is a Partner, an Owner, and CEO of Jack Rouse Associates (JRA), a design and production company of just over forty employees located in Cincinnati, Ohio. JRA was founded in 1987, and Keith joined in 1992. JRA provides its design and project management expertise to a wide range of clients both within and external to the attractions industry. Their clients range from domestic and international amusement parks, museums, and other themed entertainment offerings to corporate entities looking to tell a compelling story about their brand.
Keith began his nearly fifty years in the themed entertainment industry with a summer job at Kings Island. At the time, Keith was a student at the University of Cincinnati, studying theater and stagecraft. He needed a summer job in order to pay his tuition, so he became a stage manager at Kings Island. What was especially exciting about his first venture into the attractions industry is that he was working at Kings Island during its opening season. Looking back on that summer, Keith had no idea that such a successful career in the themed entertainment industry would follow. At the time, he was just having a great time with 3000 other employees his age. Some of those coworkers would go on to be lifelong friends and even business partners. One of the performers in the theater would later become Keith’s wife! After that summer, Keith stayed for 17 years with Kings Island and Cedar Fair. Subsequent jobs would take him and his family to Toronto, Vancouver, and Australia. Then, Keith returned to the United States and moved to Orlando to help open Universal Orlando Resort. After several years with Universal, Keith was hired by JRA in 1992. Since then, he’s worked on countless themed entertainment projects around the world, but according to Keith, he has “never worked a day in his life.”
When asked about how JRA approaches different types of experiences, Keith said every project starts with the same thing: a story. A company or client will come to JRA with their vision of a future attraction or experience, and JRA’s goal is to enable that vision as closely as possible. JRA helps the client fully define the story they’d like to convey and the emotions that they’d like their guests to feel. They also carefully define the target audience. For example, a science museum might be tailored for older students while a theme park might want to keep every member of a family involved. After these core details are established, the JRA team dives deeper into how to make the vision a reality. For example, every client will have a timeline and budget, and these constraints help decide what opportunities are still possibilities. In some cases, the limiting factor is the technology available within these constraints.
When discussing the role of technology within attractions and their development, Keith emphasized the importance of using technology to enhance, support, or convey the story. Unlike the Wizard of Oz, we want to keep the technology hidden and out of mind so that the magic and immersion of the experience take center stage. Keith learned this valuable lesson as a college theater student when someone told him that the goal of a stage crew is for the audience to leave talking about the show and the story, not the set pieces, costumes, or special effects. All of those things are important and key to conveying the story properly, but it is ideal for the guest to be so immersed in the story that they don’t separate those details from what they just experienced. Ultimately, JRA’s mission is “designing dreams and delivering wow moments.” One example of a wow moment that Keith provided is the first time a parent watches their child hug Mickey Mouse. During that moment, you don’t want that parent or their child focused on the technology used to make Mickey blink or speak. Instead, you want them completely focused on that magic moment, which will become a precious memory and stick with the family for years.
Additionally, Keith talked about how JRA helps corporations create customer-focused experiences and storytelling moments that help customers “live that company’s brand.” While there is a fine line between something being overtly commercial or creating an exciting experience based on a particular brand, Keith emphasized the value of creating positive memories that are associated with a particular brand. Furthermore, Keith discussed how the line between the themed entertainment industry and other industries is becoming increasingly blurred. He even referenced a paper called “What do we do when the whole world is themed?” People are expecting more and more positive and elaborate experiences, even with things that used to be traditional, boring purchases. Nowadays, companies often have to think about the unboxing experience or the social aspects of their product instead of simply focusing on the product itself. It has created many opportunities to utilize skills from the themed entertainment industry in other sectors. However, the exchange of skills, information, and technology goes the other way as well. The themed entertainment industry constantly brings new technology and techniques from other industries and utilizes them in innovative ways. According to Keith, having more toys in the toy box to play with leads to more options, more fun, and more creative solutions to enabling the customer’s vision for a future entertainment offering.
Lastly, Keith offered some advice for young professionals just starting in the themed entertainment industry or trying to break into it. Just as he had done that first summer at Kings Island, Keith suggests seizing every possibility that is presented to you. Even if someone approaches you with a problem or task that you aren’t sure how to solve on your own, find or make some friends that can help you tackle the challenge. Additionally, Keith suggested reaching out to volunteer or ask industry professionals for ideas for how to get involved. Keith also emphasized the importance of being curious and interested in learning.
If you’d like to learn more about JRA or get in touch with Keith, you can find more information, including contact information, on JRA’s website.
This podcast wouldn't be possible without the work of our amazing team:
Audio and video editing - Abigail Giganan
Complete episode summary - Paige Reiter
Scheduling and correspondence - Kristen Karaliunas
Social media marketing - Kate Kujawa
Branding and design - Fabiana Fonseca
To connect with AttractionPros: attractionpros@gmail.com
Tuesday Jun 08, 2021
Tuesday Jun 08, 2021
Become a Google Things To Do Beta Tester!
In March, news leaked out that Google would be launching a new program for activities and experiences operators called Google Things To Do. Redeam is a Google Things To Do launch partner, with a unique opportunity to bring a few qualified, early adopter operators into the beta test.
Interested in learning more about joining the Things To Do beta test?
Monai Rooney is the Executive Director of Big Break Foundation, which was founded in 2020. After the murder of George Floyd, a greater spotlight was put on the need to diversify the stories being highlighted, the talent being hired, and the audience being reached by themed entertainment. Big Break Foundation’s mission is to “shatter the systemic barriers within the location-based experience industry.” Monai emphasized the importance of starting to create change within your spheres of influence and local communities before expanding to more areas. That is why Big Break Foundation is starting with companies and facilities tied to amusement parks, museums, zoos, aquariums, family entertainment centers, live shows, and other related entertainment offerings.
She describes herself as a “professional do-good-er,” and she attributes this fact to her parents, who always “led with love.” Monai and her brother are biracial and were the only students of color in their school in San Jose, California. Later in life, Monai would attend college, but she chose not to finish because she preferred to learn new skills on-the-job. Monai may have subconsciously fallen in love with themed entertainment during a two month long road trip that she took with her family when they moved from San Jose to Orlando, Florida when she was twelve. On the way, they passed through 30 states, visited every Six Flags in the country, and went to tons of zoos, family entertainment centers, and museums. At one point, she was getting sick of attractions and just wanted to swim in the hotel pool. However, her family insisted that these were adventures that she would never forget. Monai says that one of her first big breaks came when she started working at Give Kids the World Village. Monai describes a “big break” as an opportunity to use your skills and experiences in a way that makes you shine instead of having to fit into someone else’s mold. At Give Kids the World, Monai worked a variety of roles, including guest services and attractions. Her second big break came when she was asked to lead Big Break Foundation as their Executive Director. In her current role, Monai strives to create a more equitable and diverse themed entertainment industry where more people, especially those from marginalized communities, can find their big break.
One of Big Break Foundation’s current focuses is teaching an organization’s leadership about the importance of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility, or IDEA. One reason that Monai is focusing on educating those at the top of companies is because they are the ones making the highest-level decisions affecting their organizations. Without their support and buy-in for organization-wide change, very little can be accomplished. The information that the leaders learn will be trickled down to employees underneath them, which will lead to change throughout the organization. Monai and her team start their leadership training by explaining the overwhelming, data-driven benefits to diversifying a company and amplifying a variety of different voices. Then they dive into the psychology behind bias and how it is something that everyone has, no matter the environment in which they were raised. After thoroughly explaining the “whats” and the “whys” of the need to focus on IDEA, Monai and her team dive into the “how.”
One key question that a lot of people beginning this journey have is how to measure the change and how to know when the work is done. The short answer is that a commitment to IDEA is never “done.” An organization’s planning, marketing, or product strategies never stay stagnant over time. Instead, they adapt to the current market and try to anticipate what lies ahead. Similarly, a company’s IDEA strategy must be maintained and updated over time. That being said, there are still helpful metrics that can be looked at to know if an organization is trending in the right direction. Diverse teams and companies are more innovative, and they tell better stories with their entertainment offerings. These better stories have greater representation, which is representative of their diverse creators and also the broad audiences they aim to connect with. Furthermore, taking a look around the organization and seeing diversity is a great indicator that the initiatives are making their way back to hiring strategies. The themed entertainment industry is a very interconnected one, and often knowing people within the industry can be a key to landing a role there. While this is sometimes a great thing and can help create connections, it can also be excluding to very capable individuals who may just have had fewer opportunities to connect. Ensuring that a diverse set of candidates is being evaluated for new roles is an important part of this change.
Monai also emphasized that not every person or every company’s diversity journey will be the same. This is one reason that professional outside help, such as the leadership training from Big Break Foundation, can be so helpful in understanding where you are, where you want to go, and the best path to get there. A large company with deeply ingrained processes might need more time to come up with new strategies and roll them out compared to a small startup. Additionally, the existing knowledge of leadership and employees about diversity topics and the existence of IDEA-focused policies will also make a big difference on the approach. No matter where someone is starting from, understanding the need for a commitment to inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility is the first step into making attractions and experiences that benefit everyone.
To get started, Monai suggests checking out the Act Now Toolkit on Big Break Foundation’s website. She also is more than happy to hear suggestions or ideas related to these topics. You can contact her on her LinkedIn or via her e-mail.
To connect with AttractionPros: attractionpros@gmail.com
Tuesday Jun 01, 2021
Tuesday Jun 01, 2021
Become a Google Things To Do Beta Tester!
In March, news leaked out that Google would be launching a new program for activities and experiences operators called Google Things To Do. Redeam is a Google Things To Do launch partner, with a unique opportunity to bring a few qualified, early adopter operators into the beta test.
Interested in learning more about joining the Things To Do beta test?
Donnelly Williams is the Business Development Manager at Altec Integrated Solutions Ltd. Altec provides state-of-the-art ride controls, safety systems, and show controls to theme parks and entertainment OEM’s worldwide. Altec works with their customers to solve their toughest control and safety challenges using Altec's depth of experience and the latest technology to provide innovative solutions. As the industry begins its pandemic recovery, Altec looks forward to expanding their show action equipment business in addition to the ride controls and safety systems they are known for.
Donnelly grew up naturally curious about everything around him. He would often take apart his toys to understand how they worked. Donnelly was also captivated by movies, and he decided that he would love to work on visual special effects some day. An episode of the TV show, Magic Mirror, helped Donnelly discover that mechanical engineering was what he would study in college in order to realize that goal of working on movies. On the show he saw a mechanical engineer working on an animatronic, and he knew that was the career for him. After college, Donnelly had a variety of engineering and project management careers. At one point, he accidentally found his way into the theme park industry while working for Dynamic Attractions, then Dynamic Structures. While he enjoyed the mechanical and structural side of the projects he worked on, Donnelly's natural curiosity made him want to understand more about the controls and electrical side of projects too. To learn more about these topics, Donnelly returned to school with this new focus. Upon graduating, he chose to stay within the attractions industry he had found and began working for Altec, where he has been for the past eight years.
One of Altec's greatest strengths is that they get involved at the very beginning of the ride development process, working during the early project commissioning stages to deeply understand the customer's requirements, expectations, and vision. Because of their involvement so early in the process, Donnelly and his team have ample time to assemble the right team to make the customer's dreams come true with the highest possible quality. From the early stages to the launch of the new ride, there is a relentless focus on safety. Throughout the process, the team works to identify potential risks and hazards of the attraction and mitigate those risks as much as possible. Risk management on theme park attractions can happen in many different ways: design changes, mechanical or electrical solutions, controls and sensor-based options, or even operational guidelines. These operational mitigation strategies could include suggesting what is said during a ride attendant's safety announcements, change the way restraints are checked, or even create strict guidelines as to what height a guest must be in order to safely enjoy the ride.
Donnelly grew up with a passion for movie-making and special effects, but that industry wasn't particularly prominent in the area of Canada where he grew up. In order to have the chance to learn the skills necessary to break into the industry he admired, Donnelly saw opportunities to learn and grow in related fields. For example, there weren't any animatronics companies near him, but there were oil and gas corporations. While they didn't make singing and dancing robots, oil and gas utilize robots in other ways, such as cleaning out pipes. While the robots themselves have different goals, they are made of many similar components and require similar controls protocols to program and operate. Similarly, Donnelly took a job at one point in his career where he designed HVAC systems. Knowing how to manage requirements, design systems, and create engineering drawings is a useful skill in almost any industry. All of these opportunities helped build up Donnelly's skill sets as he made progress towards ultimate career goals.
When asked if he had any advice for individuals that were laid off during the pandemic and were apprehensive of "starting over" in a new role or industry, Donnelly shared the fact that you never really have to start from scratch. Many skills transfer well between industries, from soft skills to technical engineering experience. Donnelly shared that a few times during his career, a move to a new role required a step down the corporate ladder. However, his previous experience from other roles allowed Donnelly to take even larger steps up the ladder once he had a chance to find his place in the new company. This fact is one reason that Donnelly stressed the importance of not getting caught up in whether a new role required a temporary step backwards. Instead, he emphasized focusing on the end goal and what lies ahead.
Donnelly also emphasized the importance of finding and showing your passion, whatever that may be for. As an example, he talked about a TV show that he watched with his family about skateboarding. Donnelly was impressed by the passion that was on full display in the show. Even though he previously had no desire to learn how to skateboard, this show got Donnelly thinking that it could be fun to try since everyone in the show looked like they were having a blast. Passion is truly infectious and can really have a positive effect on projects and the team members that are working on them. Another thing that Donnelly demonstrates and suggests others try too is tackling challenges or weaknesses head-on instead of avoiding them. For example, Donnelly shared a story about how he had to give a toast at a wedding where he was a groomsman. It went very poorly, but instead of choosing to hide from public speaking forever, Donnelly joined Toastmasters and worked very hard to improve his communication skills. This decision to tackle something that scared him would eventually help Donnelly be a better overall leader because of his improved public speaking ability. He advises that you never know when tackling one of your biggest challenges or fears might lead to the next great opportunity.
To learn more about Altec, visit their website. Furthermore, if you'd like to connect with Donnelly, contact him via LinkedIn or through Altec's website.
To connect with AttractionPros: attractionpros@gmail.com
Tuesday May 25, 2021
Tuesday May 25, 2021
Is manually updating all the ticket inventory and prices for your resellers a hassle you would rather avoid? You need Redeam’s Channel Manager! It allows you to easily manage all of your resellers, including Reserve with Google, from one central online platform. Channel Manager puts YOU in the driver’s seat with more control, more data, and powerful real-time connectivity.
Don’t wait to get recovery ready. Get centralized today! Go to www.redeam.com/attractionproscm to learn more now.
Episode 194
Ted Molter has spent over 30 years utilizing his public relations (PR) and marketing skills in the attractions industry to advance the conservation goals of zoos, aquariums, and other animal-focused experiences. Ted has a deep love for animals and has enjoyed a long career at SeaWorld Ohio and the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. Most recently, he was the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at the San Diego Zoo. Even in his retirement, Ted is helping to further conservation efforts. At the same time, Ted emphasizes practical skills of utilizing effective marketing and offering outstanding customer service to fund these efforts.
Ted grew up in northeast Ohio. He loved animals and dreamed of pursuing a career in marine sciences despite living in the middle of the United States. Ted would often visit zoos, aquariums, and theme parks in order to interact with animals. When he was six or seven years old, Ted’s dad drove them to the airport to watch animals be unloaded from planes and transported to the new SeaWorld Ohio park. This vivid childhood memory would stick with Ted throughout his life. One of Ted’s first jobs was taking care of fish in a pet store. He’d later get a summer job working as a parking attendant, or “vehicle placement engineer” as Ted called it, at SeaWorld Ohio while attending Kent State University. Over the next decade or so, he found opportunities to work hands-on with animals before transitioning into a role with the PR department. Then, Ted transitioned to the San Diego Zoo where he would spend over 20 years in the PR and marketing departments, helping to advance San Diego Zoo’s fight to end extinction.
Ted learned many of his practical, interpersonal, and business skills from his entrepreneurial father who ran a retail carpet store. Ted’s father taught him the importance of advertising, often reinforcing his belief that it was essential that 10% of all spending be used to reach new and existing customers. Additionally, Ted learned a lot by watching how his father interacted with people at different levels within his business. He treated everyone, from managers to janitors, with respect and with an understanding of the importance that they each played to the business’ overall success. Ted would take this lesson with him when he became a people leader. He loved building up and nurturing his teams while providing them with the platform and resources they needed to achieve their goals and further their mission.
Ted is a firm believer in the shared health of our planet and believes that, as a living thing, Earth needs to be cared for and nurtured. “One planet. One world. One health.” When asked what we can do to make a difference, Ted offered numerous ideas, with many centering around the idea of using and consuming less. He encouraged shopping in ways that require less packaging, such as going to stores and buying things from farmers’ markets. He also talked about the benefit of eating less meat. Another example Ted brought up that people may have noticed while on vacation is the request to hang up their towels in their hotel rooms. This allows the hotel to run fewer unnecessary loads of laundry, which lowers their water and energy consumption. Ted also talked about harder needs that will require coordinated efforts between ecological and conservation groups, such as the huge biological and economical benefit of preserving and restoring coral reefs. Humans have become the dominant species on Earth, and unfortunately, not in a positive way. It is important that we notice what is happening and care to make a change. Ted emphasized the importance of choosing even small changes that we can stick with in order to start making a difference. Ted went on to discuss the incredibly important role that zoos and aquariums play in conservation. The zoos and aquariums themselves are an opportunity to teach people about biodiversity and how we impact it, but they also do so much more in the background to rehabilitate animals, keep populations healthy and diverse with breeding programs, and work to protect as many animal habitats as possible.
When preparing for the centennial celebration of the San Diego Zoo, Thinkwell Group introduced Ted and his team to the term “emotional souvenir.” Emotional souvenirs are memories and shared experiences that we share with family and friends. They leave an impression on us and stick with us throughout our lives. The vivid memory that Ted has of him and his father watching the animals being unloaded from planes at the airport is an emotional souvenir that has had a significant impact on his life. All attractions and their employees have the opportunity to provide and enhance these emotional souvenirs for their guests. These sorts of things can turn a one-time visitor into a repeat customer and a long-time advocate for your brand.
Though Ted has retired from his role as CMO at the San Diego Zoo, he’s continued to stay involved with the attractions industry. He’s a long-time IAAPA member, has acted as a board member, and also contributed to education and certification initiatives. Additionally, Ted is keeping busy with Digital Performance Group (DPG), a company that uses data analysis to understand how guests interact with attractions they visit and offers suggestions on marketing campaigns to increase visitation. Ted noted that as pent-up demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic wains, having a strategy for finding new customers and delighting them will become even more important.
If you’d like to contact Ted with regards to DPG marketing assistance, you can reach him at ted@dpgads or on their website. For other inquiries, you can reach Ted at ted.molter@icloud.com.
To connect with AttractionPros: attractionpros@gmail.com
Tuesday May 18, 2021
Tuesday May 18, 2021
Is manually updating all the ticket inventory and prices for your resellers a hassle you would rather avoid? You need Redeam’s Channel Manager! It allows you to easily manage all of your resellers, including Reserve with Google, from one central online platform. Channel Manager puts YOU in the driver’s seat with more control, more data, and powerful real-time connectivity.
Don’t wait to get recovery ready. Get centralized today! Go to www.redeam.com/attractionproscm to learn more now.
Ryan Stana is the Founder and CEO of RWS Entertainment Group, a live entertainment production company across many different platforms and sectors, ranging from touring attractions and Broadway shows to corporate functions and the hospitality industry. Ryan grew up as an only child in a small town outside of Pittsburgh, PA. He learned his “no fear” mentality from his two entrepreneurial parents. This would give him the courage to open his own company in 2003.
Ryan loved performing as he grew up, and he also loved handling the logistics and organizational aspects of performances. When he was 17, Ryan got a gig with an entertainment company in Pittsburgh to organize, write, and choreograph a corporate event. This opportunity really helped him solidify his love for the entertainment industry. Later, Ryan would go on to become an associate producer for an entertainment company. While he absolutely loved the creative aspects of the job, he found himself frustrated with the company’s seeming lack of financial sense. This inspired Ryan to quit and form his own company, RWS Entertainment Group. Ryan would e-mail his previous clients, saying he worked for this new group, without admitting he was the owner yet, since he was still very young and worried that he lacked credibility as an owner. It wouldn’t take long for RWS Entertainment to grow into an impressively large company that Ryan was happy to claim ownership of as its Founder and CEO. (As a side note, Ryan emphasized the importance of having your employees sign non-compete agreements to prevent this exact scenario.)
When asked if he had advice for people interested in starting their own business, Ryan admits that he would never be able to start a business now that he is in his 40s. When he was in his 20s, he was ready to work around the clock. Though, that seems to still be very true today as well. Ryan did say that a business owner needs to be prepared to experience the lowest lows that anyone can experience. However, he also went on to say that business owners will be rewarded with the highest highs as well. That sort of experience may not be for everyone, but Ryan absolutely loves his business.
Ryan has been very successful at sustaining and even growing his business during times that are challenging for the entertainment industry. In 2008, when the United States was experiencing a severe recession, RWS had its largest growth of about 220%. During this time of economic hardship, RWS’s value became even more evident. Instead of a theme park hiring several individual actors and paying a company to come up with a new show, they could utilize the one-stop-shop solution that RWS Entertainment offers. RWS would audition and select a single group of entertainers who could, for example, perform six different shows with six different themes or IPs represented. This was extremely valuable to theme parks and took a lot of the responsibility off of the park’s shoulders, allowing them to streamline and focus their attention on maximizing their guest experience offerings and profit.
Understandably, the COVID-19 pandemic was tougher to navigate, especially when many of the shows, tours, and other entertainment offerings RWS supported were forced to completely suspend operation, bringing in no money for months. Navigating the pandemic as RWS’s CEO has been incredibly challenging for Ryan, but he also emphasized the importance of stepping up and being a true leader during these uncertain times. When asked about some of his key initiatives during the pandemic, Ryan shared his four key values for running his business during the pandemic. The first is that employee safety comes first. Secondly, Ryan makes it his mission to over-communicate with his employees and his clients. Third is the importance of being innovative, and fourth is Ryan’s desire to lead his company with strong actions.
One of the strong, innovative actions Ryan took was creating RWS Staffing. RWS Staffing addresses the seasonal employee shortages that theme parks have been facing during the pandemic. RWS holds casting calls in over 100 cities around the world each year, and of the 20,000 people who addition, only about 5,000 people are hired for roles. RWS Staffing goes back to the list of talented entertainers that weren’t offered roles and offers them a frontline, guest-facing role at theme parks. These new employees, who have an entertainment background, have raised the parks’ guest experience scores dramatically, which often leads to increased revenue in both the near- and long-term. For high-achieving employees in this program, the performers are offered a private audition with agents and have the opportunity to move on to the next stage in their performance careers. This is just one of the many ways that Ryan and his companies are having a positive impact on the themed entertainment industry during these challenging times.
During his career so far, Ryan has earned an Emmy, a Brass Ring, and a Golden Ticket. When asked which of the rewards was most exciting to him, Ryan stated that they all are very special. He spoke fondly of the first Brass Ring award he received for working on a main stage show for Santa’s Village in Jefferson, New Hampshire. He said that thinking back to the excited looks on the park’s owners’ faces when they found out that they had won still gives Ryan chills to this day. Ryan also spoke fondly of receiving the Golden Ticket award for Supplier of the Year. That win had been the first time that an entertainment firm had ever taken home that title. Ryan added that he hopes that one day the Brass Ring and Golden Ticket awards will be just as prestigious as an Emmy because they deserve to be.
If you’d like to get in contact with Ryan, you can contact him through his companies’ websites, experiencerws.com or bindercasting.com, or contact him directly on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram.
To connect with AttractionPros: attractionpros@gmail.com
Tuesday May 11, 2021
Tuesday May 11, 2021
Is manually updating all the ticket inventory and prices for your resellers a hassle you would rather avoid? You need Redeam’s Channel Manager! It allows you to easily manage all of your resellers, including Reserve with Google, from one central online platform. Channel Manager puts YOU in the driver’s seat with more control, more data, and powerful real-time connectivity.
Don’t wait to get recovery ready. Get centralized today! Go to www.redeam.com/attractionproscm to learn more now.
Melanie Meador, CEO of Redeam, has over 25 years of experience in attractions industries. She started in hospitality. Then, she began working in the online travel sector at Orbitz Worldwide, where she played a part in transitioning hotels from a largely offline, manual industry to a highly digital, online ecosystem. She then spent over six years in fintech, which is the intersection of finance and technology, at Bankrate. She also has run a humanitarian non-profit foundation with her husband. The travel industry is Melanie’s passion, and she would make her return to it by joining Redeam as CEO.
When people go on vacation with their friends and family, they want the process to be easy and seamless so they can focus on enjoying the experience. Many aspects of the travel industry have made their products and services easy to find, buy, and start enjoying or using immediately. For example, airlines utilize mobile boarding passes and kiosks to make checking in for a flight as convenient as possible. Similarly, hotels utilize online bookings and mobile phones as keys to allow guests the ability to head straight to their room whenever you arrive. Unfortunately, the attractions industry has been a little slower to adopt these conveniences than the rest of the hospitality industry. Melanie is helping to modernize and digitize the attractions industry to help improve the guest experience.
Redeam offers a variety of products and services that aim to increase efficiency for attractions operators, ticket resellers and vendors, and guests. Redeam began as a voucher processing platform. Before its introduction, attractions ticketing was largely a manual process, especially if a guest purchased a ticket from a reseller or distributor. Melanie shared a personal story that proved to her that a change was necessary for the attractions industry. While on a trip with her husband in Kyoto, she purchased tickets for a rickshaw tour. After the purchase, she received instructions saying that she needed to print out the voucher and take that voucher to the attraction’s ticketing center. However, she was staying at an Airbnb with no way to print it out, but she figured that the attraction could look up her reservation using the information she had on her phone or some identification. However, when she made it to the rickshaw tour’s ticketing center, her reservation wasn’t recognized or in the system at all. They needed that physical print-out to be able to move forward. Not only was it disappointing that the experience that Melanie had already paid for couldn’t be honored, the episode highlighted how clunky and inefficient many ticketing experiences are within the attractions industry.
Originally, Redeam aimed to tackle the voucher distribution problem by offering a service that added barcodes to tickets that guests purchased from redistributors. This would allow a guest to take that voucher to the attraction’s ticketing booth, have the voucher scanned, all of their data would be transferred to the attraction, and then the ticket could be given to the guest. However, while this did add some efficiency to the process, it still wasn’t addressing the root cause of the issue.
Melanie and the team at Redeam took things a step further by creating a channel management system for attractions and distributors. Redeam’s system seamlessly connects attractions and ticket resellers. An attraction might, for example, use this platform to offer special promotions through a specific store or shuffle around allotment in order to ensure that their entertainment offering is as close to capacity as possible. Before Redeam’s platform, that ticket allocation and price management was a slow, manual process, but now, the employees who had been manually handling this data entry are free to provide better guest service in other ways while the system takes care of all the behind-the-scenes ticketing details.
Melanie emphasized the fact that we live in an “instant gratification world” and that attraction guests are demanding a more streamlined customer journey. If guests become frustrated just trying to buy a ticket, they might give up and choose a different experience. It’s important to make sure guests can find you, purchase your tickets, and get into your attraction or experience as quickly and easily as possible. This leads to happier guests which likely will lead to increased revenue or repeat business.
While the trend to increase efficiency through digitization and vertical integration was in-process, the Covid-19 pandemic expedited the rollout and adoption of these sorts of changes. One reason was that the pandemic led to a need to minimize physical touchpoints between guests and employees. By relying on digital tickets and fewer intermediary transactions, both guest and employee safety could be increased. Furthermore, with the negative financial impacts of the pandemic on the attractions industry, it became more important than ever for operators to increase their efficiency in order to maximize their revenue potential.
Melanie emphasized that the attractions industry will recover, as it has from previous medical crises and negative global events, but that it might look a little different on the other side. One of the changes that Melanie is noticing as we begin to emerge from the pandemic and see travel recover is a greater desire for local, domestic travel. Because of the travel restrictions, especially international ones, families have had to look towards neighboring areas to find safe, enjoyable experiences, and many have realized that there are many great attractions right in their own backyards. Additionally, family and friends seem to be taking more frequent, shorter trips to a variety of domestic locations instead of, for example, a single multiweek trip to an international location. The hospitality industry has embraced this change and even edited some of their marketing strategies to focus more on local travelers and less on international travelers. Of course, both will still be important post-Covid.
To contact Melanie or learn more about Redeam, you can send a message to sales@redeam.com or visit www.redeam.com/attractionproscm.
To connect with AttractionPros: Attractionpros@gmail.com
Tuesday May 04, 2021
Tuesday May 04, 2021
John Riggleman retired in 2020 after a career of over 40 years in the themed entertainment industry. He started as a ride operator at Cedar Point and Busch Gardens Williamsburg back in the 1970s. Over the years, he has opened multiple new parks and dozens of new attractions and acted as an expert in theme park operations. Most recently, he was Senior Director of Global Operations, Standards, and Harmonization at Universal Parks & Resorts. Even after retiring, John is still very involved with the industry, helping to lead safety committees, educational initiatives, and acting as a mentor for many young professionals in the attractions industry.
John started out as a chemistry major in the pre-medical track at West Virginia University. During the summers of his college years, he worked two summers at Cedar Point and two summers at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Though he started out as a ride operator, he was given more responsibility each year, soon gaining leadership positions despite his young age. John realized from those frontline operations experiences that he wanted to have a career in themed entertainment because he loved working outdoors and truly enjoyed interacting with people. Getting hired full-time after graduation was actually a challenge for John in the 1970s, so he stayed in school and earned a second degree in medical technology as he continued to submit different applications to different parks. Eventually, he found his landing spot in 1980 at Cedar Point as an area manager. After finding his way into the industry full-time, John would stay for 40 more years, work at about 10 different parks, live in 9 states, open 4 new parks, and open over 40 new attractions.
While they do have a variety of similarities, John noticed some key differences between seasonal and year-round theme parks during his time working at each type. One challenge for seasonal parks is that they often have smaller teams that must wear more hats. Year-round parks tended to have larger, more specialized teams. This led to a difference in how quickly employees, especially young workers, were able to climb the ranks and gather more responsibilities. Like John experienced himself, young employees at seasonal parks that returned each year and excelled were given new role with more duties and oversight of other employees. At a year-round park, this sort of quick progression is less common. At either type of park, whether the employee ultimately wants to be in a guest-facing role later in their career, John sees the value of all theme park employees spending some time on the frontlines. For example, back-of-the-house operations employees can often design better service, training, and operations manuals if they have empathy for what ride operators experience each day.
Day-to-day operations have their unique challenges, but opening new rides, lands, or parks is incredibly challenging and rewarding. When a new park is part of an existing chain of theme parks, such as Six Flags or Universal, the new park has the luxury to learn from the existing parks and take many of their operations procedures to the new park. While this makes it easier for the new park, it also is beneficial to the company because consistency across parks in your portfolio is very beneficial. When creating a park that is completely new, they can start their operations manuals from scratch. This was the case that John experienced when he was on the opening team for the short-lived Hard Rock Park. They first benchmarked existing parks and looked at what worked well as well as identified opportunities for improvement. Hard Rock Park had the opportunity to run completely differently than parks with decades of history. John enjoyed the ability to incorporate new efficiencies in the park’s operations plans, but unfortunately, the park didn’t even last for an entire season.
When asked about Hard Rock Park and some insight into possible reasons why it didn’t survive, John indicated that there were multiple factors at play. He said it was a beautiful park with a great variety of attractions, delicious food, and IAAPA award-nominated entertainment. All of the guest-facing elements looked great, and John was confident that the right people were designing and building the park. Some of the different theories are that the hard-hit 2008 economy was partially to blame. Another theory is that the park was expected to be cash flow positive from day one, which is a feat very few parks can achieve. Most parks take several years before they climb out of the red, and their parent companies have to shoulder some losses to ultimately make the park a success. Another possibility is that the location, about 10 minutes from the beaches of Myrtle Beach, didn’t help; some thought it was hard to argue with the free entertainment of a beach. In the end, it is hard to pinpoint a single reason that Hard Rock Park didn’t make it through its inaugural season.
John also discussed his involvement with education, training, and informal mentoring of young professionals in the attractions industry. John has taught several classes at the Rosen College of Hospitality Management, including risk management and product development courses. John also serves on multiple boards and committees that focus on training and increasing safety standards within the themed entertainment industry. While theme parks are often direct competitors with each other, when it comes to safety, John says that these competitors become “fierce friends.” John enjoys recruiting students from universities near the theme parks. He emphasized that he loves learning from all of his employees and enjoys hiring talent that will challenge him and help make the park even better. When asked if he had any advice he’d like to share with students or other young professionals potentially interested in a career in theme parks, John emphasized the importance of finding your passion, whatever that might be. He also discussed the value of networking. Some examples of places to network would be to attend ASTM, AIMS, and IAAPA expos and conferences. He also suggested getting involved with theme park competitions. John has been a long-time supporter of the Ryerson Invitational Thrill Design Competition, started by Dr. Kathryn Woodcock, a professor at Ryerson University. Additionally, John said that while a degree is useful at opening some doors, your attitude is what is most important at ultimately proving yourself as a young professional in the themed entertainment industry.
If you’d like to get in touch with John Riggleman, reach out to him on LinkedIn.
To get in touch with AttractionPros: attractionpros@gmail.com.
#weareallattractionpros
Tuesday Apr 27, 2021
Tuesday Apr 27, 2021
Jeremy Grunert began his career in themed entertainment as a fan of theme parks. He grew up in Florida, constantly going to the local parks, and eventually scored his first job working at Busch Gardens. Fifteen years later, Jeremy has the dream job of many theme park fans: designing new rides, lands, and theme parks as an Executive Producer at FrankNDesign.
After being a fan for years while growing up in Florida, Jeremy started working as a sweeper in the Egypt area of Busch Gardens Tampa Bay at the age of 15. Over the years, he would work his way through various jobs within operations. He became a ride operator, then a trainer of other ride operators, and then attained a leadership position in operations, all before he finished high school. Jeremy moved to Orlando, where he attended college, and began working at Universal Orlando Resort. There, he had the opportunity to commission and open multiple rides, work in the entertainment department, and work on multiple events, such as the Macy’s parade and Halloween Horror Nights. However, Jeremy really wanted to design these things that he had been operating for years, whether they were events, rides, lands, or whole theme parks. In order to make that move, Jeremy utilized his network of industry professionals to find his next dream role.
When he was still in school, Jeremy volunteered at the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) Expo in Orlando as an IAAPA Ambassador. There, he was able to connect with Thinkwell’s Cynthia Sharpe, our guest from the previous AttractionPros podcast. (This was such a cool, unplanned illustration of how small and connected the themed entertainment industry is.) Even to this day, Jeremy considers Cynthia one of his best mentors and one of the reasons that he was able to take his next career step into working on designing experiences at Thinkwell years after he first connected with her at IAAPA. A few years later, Jeremy would return to Orlando to join Universal Creative and work on Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure and Universal’s upcoming new park, Epic Universe.
Recently, Jeremy transitioned into a new role as an Executive Producer for FrankNDesign. When describing his role as Executive Producer, Jeremy called himself a “vision keeper” and “team cheerleader.” He uses his project management skills to keep projects on track while also making sure that the original creative vision is not lost along the way. When asked how this role compared with his previous few, Jeremy said that before, he had always been representing the client, such as Universal, in his work. This time, though he is still supporting the clients, he is working more on the vendor side of things. FrankNDesign wants to expand its streamlined attraction creation pipeline from large clients to a wider audience.
FrankNDesign’s secret to success is utilizing a highly detailed 3D model built in Revit to design rides instead of many separate 2D drawings. This model is “smart,” capable of telling you how much of a certain material you need, identifying interferences, and other useful integration features. All of the different people collaborating on a new attraction or land, whether they are ride vendors, building architects, HVAC designers, or operations managers, can work together in this single model. Working in 3D has the benefit of being intuitive to most people, unlike 2D drawings which may only be accessible to a small subset of the people that would benefit from seeing this previsualization of the ride and show building. By having more people take a look at the ride in an approachable manner throughout the development, potential mistakes are more likely to be caught and better solutions are likely to be identified. These robust, buildable models can be imported into video game engines for detailed design reviews or even used by marketing for promo videos.
Jeremy also stressed the value of these detailed 3D models in increasing the efficiency of shuttling an idea from “concept to conception.” They begin in the “blue skies” ideation phase, utilizing the knowledge of available intellectual properties (IP) and consumer insights to have a focused brainstorming session. The concept is then developed, with an emphasis on making sure the core tenets of the chosen IP are kept throughout the process. Then, the reality of the budget and timing come into play. All of this is funneled into the design development process, where those 3D models get very fleshed out. After development, the ride is built, installed, and tested before it is rolled out to the public in its grand opening. Then, the cycle begins again with a new project.
When asked what students and young professionals should be doing to follow in his footsteps and finding their dream jobs within themed entertainment, Jeremy had plenty of advice to offer, starting with a suggestion to become an IAAPA Ambassador, like he was. Jeremy said that being an IAAPA Ambassador truly changed his life and that, when he was at the IAAPA Expo, he felt as though he was walking down a hallway and every door was open, figuratively and metaphorically. There were endless opportunities to learn, grow, and network. Jeremy also suggests utilizing LinkedIn for networking. He emphasized the fact that so many individuals within the themed entertainment industry are willing to help the next generation find their way into this exciting industry. Additionally, Jeremy suggested looking into the dedicated themed entertainment degrees, taught by industry professionals, that exist at many universities now. New ones are popping up each year. Lastly, Jeremy suggested making up projects to learn and showcase relevant skills and then being sure to share those projects with your network. He emphasized that a project doesn’t have to be super fancy to show off useful skills. One example he gave was redesigning a bedroom. Choosing the paint color, sheets, furniture, and then tracking the project budget and schedule are a great way to demonstrate project management skills. Find a project that excites you and use it as an opportunity to highlight your talent.
If you have follow-up questions for Jeremy, you can find him on LinkedIn, Twitter, or contact him via FrankNDesign.com.
To connect with AttractionPros: attractionpros@gmail.com
#weareallattractionpros
Tuesday Apr 20, 2021
Tuesday Apr 20, 2021
Cynthia Sharpe is a self-proclaimed flipper of tables and setter of fires, according to her Twitter handle. She hasn’t come across a challenging topic, especially ones related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), that she hasn’t been willing to tackle, discuss, learn about, or educate others about.
Cynthia began her themed entertainment journey at the Museum of Science in Industry in Chicago. Over the course of seven years, she had seven different roles ranging from a focus on traveling exhibits to developing permanent installations. When asked about the experience, she said it was an amazing opportunity to learn the ins and outs of the museum side of the themed entertainment world, including both the good and not-so-good aspects. While museums have the ability to educate people on challenging topics or events they may not have gotten a chance to learn deeply about, museums can also do harm by perpetuating harmful stereotypes, showing a one-sided view of an event or argument, or furthering the agenda of those who paid for the exhibit. Cynthia discussed the importance of being very aware of those pitfalls and not being afraid to tackle them head-on, often unintentionally. She went on to say that museum exhibit creators choose what stories to tell and what faces to show in their exhibits, and those choices have a huge impact on whether the often marginalized groups that Cynthia and others aim to serve feel heard and welcome in the museum’s halls.
Cynthia has been in her current professional role as the Principal of Cultural Attractions and Research at Thinkwell Group for 16 years. At Thinkwell, she wears many hats, ranging from acting as an executive creative director for museums, aquariums, large-scale cultural events, theme parks, and other themed entertainment venues to being an executive liaison for Thinkwell’s Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Council. When asked further about her role, Cynthia explained that she uses her privilege as a “47-year-old white woman with an executive title” to tackle issues that her junior or more marginalized colleagues might not safely be able to discuss.
When asked what her strategy is for addressing folks in a room who have either intentionally or otherwise been pushing tough topics under the rug or need a wakeup call on an idea that is being discussed, Cynthia shared her approach as the final speaker at the 2019 Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) Story + Architecture + Technology = Experience (SATE) Conference, where the entire two days focused on DEI. Cynthia took the stage and, after introducing herself, stated, “I’m racist. I’m sexist. I have bias.” By doing this, as a keynote speaker at a conference focused on tackling this bias, she admitted her faults and vulnerabilities, an act that invites those in the audience to do the same. Cynthia went on to say that she, and the rest of us, grew up soaking in media that portrayed people in damaging ways. She went on to cite specific failures of her own early exhibit designs to show that it is important to learn from past mistakes in order to avoid the same negligence in future projects. Most people don’t want to think about how their past work may have hurt someone, but there are valuable lessons to learn from reflecting on past poor choices.
When asked what themed entertainment’s role is in current DEI and social justice movements, Cynthia said that the industry has a huge part to play because of its power of storytelling. The types of stories that are told, the voices that are being elevated, and the identities being portrayed are incredibly important, and the attractions industry has a responsibility to use its storytelling abilities to enact positive change. For example, when working on a themed land inspired by a certain country or culture, it is important to be respectful in your authentic portrayal, not appropriative.
It is important to understand the subject matter that you wish to take inspiration from, and it is helpful to have knowledgeable voices at the table from the earliest discussions. Cynthia emphasized the value of having community members from the area you’d like to portray involved from the very beginning to give guidance and act as a source of immense knowledge. Cynthia emphasized that once a creative team decides upon and understands which authentic story they’d like to tell, the rest of the decisions flow a lot more naturally and in a way that is respectful and truthful to the subject matter. Furthermore, having a more diverse and inclusive team from the very start is incredibly beneficial to creating attractions and experiences that make everyone feel welcome and seen. Cynthia emphasized that when a child can see themselves and their culture or identity reflected positively in one of these exhibits or rides or shows, then that child will be empowered to go do great things in the future.
Cynthia also cofounded Harriet B’s Daughters with Nicola Rossini in 2017. Their mission is to change the face of themed entertainment one person at a time. They provide 1-on-1 mentoring and guidance to their members with the goal of creating a more inclusive attractions industry. You can learn more at harrietbdaughters.org.
You can contact Cynthia through thinkwellgroup.com or by reaching out to her on LinkedIn or Twitter.
To connect with AttractionPros: attractionpros@gmail.com
#weareallattractionpros