International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions

You can probably hear I'm not in my usual studio, to be honest.

[laughs] I'm at the IAAPA Expo for Europe.

It's in London this year at the ExCeL, and I've come here to see who's here, what's going on, speak to some manufacturers, and basically have a lovely few days.

So in today's episode of Parkast, I'm gonna bring you some chats with a few of the people I've met whilst I've been here.

So I couldn't come to the IAAPA Expo and not come and see RMC.

Whoo.

[laughs] Uh, Darren, thank you so much for having a quick chat with us.

You know, anywhere from 18 months to three years before actually anything happens.

It's the full integrated system and the way that the guest interprets it and the way that the guest interacts with that.

And I've got to imagine that these conversations about reliability and this focus on product quality, this is probably a good segue into talking about some of the awards that all of us has won, particularly around Davis Association and IAAPA.

Yeah, I was like, yeah, I can connect those dots.

That's nice.

Right

... more to the point, uh, you and I were at, uh, IAAPA almost a year ago now and stood there at the Mack booth, and that was when they unveiled the, what is it, the ride vehicle for the Night Flyer Expedition, the thing that was being built at Dollywood.

Hmm.

Yeah, right.

So, you know, for me and my team back in the day, um, you know, it was, it was different, you know? And right now I'm managing employees that, hey, I've got daughters in donuts, can I come in at 9:00? Yeah, absolutely.

Um, you know, we're building up for IAAPA, and it's like trying to do the IAAPA for our entire sales team for IAAPA is like trying to part the seas at this point because of everything that's going on in children, in kids, in work, and all that.

But guess what? We got all of us gonna be there Monday night.

We're all gonna be there.

So there's lots of different, um, strands to what BALPA offer and, and that's really good development and learning for, for the teams across a wide, you know, um, uh, section of, of, of things.

You know, I think that the, the ability to, to get together physically with, um, different audiences, you know, whether it's the summer conference or, you know, their presence at IAAPA or, you know, um, the different seminars and, and, and bits that they run throughout the year, physically being able to get together with, with colleagues and, and chew stuff over and talk, talk things through and meet new people, et cetera, is, is obviously, you know, really valuable as well.

And then, you know, th- they do some great updates on, on, you know, what's going on at government and, and how we're trying to, you know, influence policy and, and, you know, work with, uh, the different organizations that are out there that, that sort of sometimes overlap a bit with us, but, you know, as a combined forces, we're stronger and, and so, um, that's really valuable to be able to get insight on what's going on and, and, and, um, you know, BALPA leading the sort of charge on trying to influence those, those sort of dec- you know, the, the government decision-making, um, groups.

So loads of different, loads of different benefits.

And we're seeing more and more groups that are coming to this.

So it's, it's awesome when you, when you put all of this effort into something and you're like, "Is it gonna pay off? Is it gonna pay off? Is it gonna pay off?" 'Cause you know as well as I do that we, we buy things, [laughs] we go, we go to IAAPA, which is coming up, and you're like, "Oh man, that looks epic." And then what is your, what is your rule of thumb? What are we not supposed to do at IAAPA?

Don't bring your checkbook.

[laughs]

Don't...

Right.

IAAPA, IAAPA hates when I say that-

Yeah

They've actually produced a ride.

I saw some things about, you know, showing up in IAAPA or whatever, trying to sell it.

But it has actually, you know, been made now by this park.

Lots of fresh air pumped into that, I hope.

Everything turns out to be some kind of science.

One of the things I have loved hearing you talk about at things like the IAAPA convention or on your Instagram account and that you cover in detail in this book is getting into what you're just leading into here.

Kind of the biological basis of storytelling and the need for storytellers to understand that.

I think it's fascinating for fans to learn more about how our biology and history affect our ability to respond to things like theme parks and themed locations.