The blooloop Festival of Innovation 2023 was held online from 6 – 8 December. Over three days, attendees heard from experts from across the attractions industry, covering topics such as innovations in creative and experiential technology, inclusion, sustainability, water parks, immersive experience and even why fear could be good for us.
The event also saw the announcements of this year’s blooloop Innovation Awards winners, decided by our expert panel of judges, as well as the Best in Show award and the winner of the Public Vote. The awards are run in partnership with AREA15, the world’s first purpose-built experiential entertainment district in Las Vegas.
The Festival of Innovation 2023 content will be available on demand for 30 days after the event. In the meantime, you can read on to find out some of the key insights from across the three days.
A huge thank you to all our entrants, attendees, judges, speakers and sponsors!
Festival of Innovation 2023 day one: exploring tech innovations and causing a splash
Innovation in the Guest Journey
Werner Dullmaier, vice president of business development EMEA at Convious, began the Festival of Innovation 2023 by moderating a discussion about the latest trends in the guest journey. He was joined by Tara Morandi, SVP of sales & marketing at Connect&GO and Meg Parker, chief marketing officer at AREA15.
The panellists talked about creating a seamless, self-service experience for guests, and how this can increase efficiencies, reduce staffing and maximise operations.
Parker spoke about how the ticket offerings at AREA15 are so varied, from family-friendly activities like zip lines and VR experiences etc., to things geared towards adults, such as late-night DJ shows. For this reason, AREA15 does a lot of audience segmentation. If guests are buying one product, they might also like XYZ.
Dullmaier made the point that guest journey technology should make the life of the operator easier as well as that of the guest:
“What we are seeing is the market is extremely fast and competitive. Operators are looking for good solutions that make their lives easier.” Meanwhile, Morandi explored how Connect&GO helps operators to be more effective through elements such as RFID, cashless payments and self-service options.
They also discussed the use of AI within the guest journey. Parker said that it would be interesting to see how far the pendulum swings. Will it become overly automated or will operators find a balance? “A lot of platforms will write every single post for you, but they won’t have that engagement.”
"#AI should be used to personalise experiences and deliver efficient operations but it should never get to the point where the experience is not emotional, not just zeros and ones" Werner Dullmaier at @convious #BlooloopInnovation pic.twitter.com/FxS0p1aV9Y
— blooloop (@Blooloop) December 6, 2023
Convious offers real-time pricing supported by AI. Dullmaier added:
“AI should be used to personalise experiences and deliver efficient operations, and data-driven insights, but it should never get to the point where the experience is not emotional. It should never be just ones and zeros.”
For Connect&GO, “the guest journey is moving to a completely connected place, utilising AI, but tailored specifically to the guests’ interests,” said Morandi. “When you get mistargeted, it’s quite damaging to the brand.” The company’s tools look at historical data, for example, weather history. It is utilising AI but also making sure not to take away the personal factor. The guest is not just a number.
Winners of the Guest Journey Innovation Awards 2023, sponsored by Convious
1st Place: VUIX AI
2nd Place: Illumix
3rd Place: SEA SCAN – Sea Life Paris Val d’Europe
Creative Technology Innovation
In the next session at the Festival of Innovation 2023, Matt Quinn, director at Squint/Opera, Mark Stutzman, chief technology officer at AREA15 and Chris Michaels, founder of Chris Michaels Digital Advisory explored the importance of R&D, and looked at trends in technology like AI, personalisation and AR across the visitor attraction industry, from cultural spaces to theme parks.
All the speakers talked about the importance of R&D. Michaels talks about the importance of R&D and trying out technology rather than trying to predict what will be popular in the future. “Just try stuff out…You can only get a sense of direction from them by doing them.”
Quinn and Stutzman also spoke about how more places having innovation labs would encourage the innovation of technology. Quinn said that virtual environments are helpful to give clients an idea of what an experience will look like: “helping people move beyond the 2D into the 3D.”
In our Creative Technology session, Chris Michaels urges everyone to "just try stuff out” and see where it leads rather than thinking about what will be popular – “you can only get a sense of direction from them by doing them” #BlooloopInnovation pic.twitter.com/4fl95dvTeT
— blooloop (@Blooloop) December 6, 2023
Stutzman said: “There’s only one trend in the market and that’s AI. Everyone on this call has been using AI for years. But generative AI has taken over and I’m excited about it and scared to death about it because I see the pace at which we’re developing”.
Michaels added that AI tools are changing so quickly and we’re just at the beginning:
“All of this should be taken as an R&D experiment…what will happen in 3 years will be infinitely more sophisticated.” The constraint right now is that it is primarily being used to create content in screen-based locations, but there might be a post-screen experience to come out of this, so “we have to be very open about where it goes. Keep participating and understanding the trends and play in the different pools as they emerge.”
Squint/Opera has been using AI for a while but it has got more powerful. The firm wants the work to get better so they are using it throughout their process. “There’s still some very clever magic that’s not new technology. Projection mapping … feels more tangible and interesting .. we’re going to see a lot of innovation in this space,” said Quinn. “When you identify the human in it, it does elevate the experience.”
All the speakers agreed that AI isn’t everything, and projection mapping has some interesting applications to develop. Michaels was also interested in seeing how AR will evolve, especially how to make AR work in the real world.
Winners of the Creative Technology Innovation Awards 2023
1st Place: SeaWorld One Ocean Hub by Thinkwell (a TAIT company)
2nd Place: Sphere Immersive Sound by HOLOPLOT
3rd Place: Draw Me the Planet by Crystal
Experiential Technology Innovation
Etienne Sainton, product manager at Alterface spoke with Rich Hill, chief creative officer of Sally Dark Rides, Lauren Etta Riley from Oceaneering Entertainment Systems, and Amber Lepley, senior show and entertainment manager from EllisDon about experiential technology in attractions, looking at all phases of the project from design to installation and how to integrate technology into an attraction.
They explored why and how to use technology in an attraction to augment the experience. Hill said that they start with the story the client wants to tell, and then look at things like budget, throughput, timeline etc, and then imagine what the guest experience will be. Then they look at what technology they need to tell the story so that it is invisible but also “technology is the magic that takes people through that experience.”
Riley said that you need to think about what you want a guest to feel to match the correct ride vehicle to that experience.
Lepley and Riley highlighted how important it is to think about your target audience when designing an attraction. Riley and Hill also both talked about testing interactives and ride vehicles with children when it’s an attraction for children. “Children always do things you’d never expect,” said Riley.
Lepley said that “the technology you use and the way you tell your story has to change” if you’re working in different geographical locations. If you have people speaking lots of languages then you could rely on visuals, not text, for example. Sainton believes there are lots of interactive companies in Europe where there are lots of different languages because interactives span different languages easily.
Hill also highlighted that you need to learn the different codes for each country, as different coloured lasers might be banned in certain countries.
When thinking about the future of experiential technology, they all spoke about ways of attractions becoming more interactive and how AI can play into that, perhaps by using AI to personalise a dark ride, and how to extend the experience beyond the ride. Riley gave the example of a game you play at home affecting the ride path you take in the attraction and ways of adding gamification. Lepley talked about how we should use “technology to bring people together not isolate them.”
Winners of the Experiential Technology Innovation Awards 2023, sponsored by Alterface
1st Place: Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo – The Making of Harry Potter by Thinkwell (a TAIT Company)
2nd Place: Planet Word by Solomon Group and Local Projects
3rd Place: Chaos Karts
Spectacular Innovation at SeaWorld Abu Dhabi
The Spectacular session at the Festival of Innovation 2023 saw Charles Read, MD of blooloop, in discussion with Thomas Kaferle, general manager at SeaWorld Yas Island, Abu Dhabi and Yas SeaWorld Research & Rescue. As one of the major new attractions to open in 2023, SeaWorld Yas Island, Abu Dhabi is, as Kaferle says, a game-changer. It represents, “the next generation of marine life theme parks”.
Owned and operated by Miral, the park is built on five indoor levels. It has a total area of around 183,000 sqm. It contains more than 58 million litres of water and houses over 150 species of marine animals.
With a background in zoos and aquariums, having worked at some of the biggest zoos in the US, Kaferle has been at Miral for six years. He has been general manager at SeaWorld Yas Island for the last three; taking the park from the construction phase through to its opening. It was “quite a journey.”
The park is wholly indoors (aside from an Intamin coaster that briefly leaves the building) and designed around a spoke and hub system. The central hub, OneOcean is a genuinely spectacular experience, one of many at the SeaWorld Yas Island.
“We have an LED screen that we have installed that is 15m high and five meters off the ground. It fully surrounds the room that our guests are in, and it’s 220m from end to end,’ says Kaferle.
The screen displays a variety of scenes throughout the day, so that, “As guests make their way through the park, they can come back to that space and see something different every time.
“The team collected footage from all the different regions of the world, from the Caribbean and the Galapagos and down to the Antarctic and up to the Arctic and a few areas in between.”
Winners of the Spectacular Innovation Awards 2023
1st Place: Believe! Sea of Dreams by Disney Live Entertainment
2nd Place: Whale shark icon by Balich Wonder Studio
3rd Place: Bastille Day Fireworks by Disneyland Paris
Thrills Innovation
Our Thrills session at the Festival of Innovation 2023 was moderated by Chris Grap, vice president of experiential entertainment at Mall of America. He has a background in horror:
“My background was in film production, and I spent a lot of time working on horror films,” he said. “I am a kid from the ’80s. I love B-movies, I love haunted houses. And so somehow this is all morphed its way into part of what I do here at Mall of America.”
Karl Svedung, head of marketing at Liseberg was joined by Mathias Clasen, PhD, associate professor and co-director of the Recreational Fear Lab at Aarhus University, Denmark. Together, they told us about Liseberg’s Peak Fear experiment.
Svedung explained that Liseberg “try to be leaders in scary entertainment”. They wanted to find out more about how to find the “sweet spot of fear”. 1600 applicants from 22 countries applied for 2 places in the experiment. The successful applicants were quizzed about their specific fears and phobias and then went through a series of scares, monitored by Clasen and his team.
Clasen said that his research focuses on the benefits of recreational fear. Experiencing scares in a safe environment can help regulate emotions. Research shows that “horror fans have better mental resilience”.
Clasen explains: “When you watch a scary movie or you go to a haunted house, it’s not just the experience itself. It’s also you actively trying to regulate your fear to kind of stay in that sweet spot. So if you’re watching an intensely scary horror movie, you will do things actively to reduce fear, like cover your eyes, which, by the way, is a terrible fear reduction strategy. Turn down the volume which is much better. Or distract yourself. Remind yourself, you know, to avoid fainting. Keep repeating ‘It’s just a movie. It’s just a movie’.
“And those fear regulation strategies are effective not only when you’re watching a scary movie, but also if you’re facing public speaking or a job interview or a date. So emotion regulation skills are really important. One way in which you can improve your ability to regulate emotion is by playing with fear. So that’s one direction that we’re really interested in. And that would be a counter to the narrative that horror is bad for you, when in fact it seems to be also good for you!”
Winners of the Thrills Innovation Awards 2023
1st Place: Mission Ferrari by Miral Destinations
2nd Place: Beat the Storm by Storm Adventures, LLC
3rd Place: Bolt: Ultimate Sea Coaster by Maurer Rides GmbH
Water Park Innovation with Rulantica
Chip Cleary, senior consultant at Europa-Park, discussed Rulantica, Europa-Park’s water park, spoke with Blooloop’s Ella Baskerville the end of day one at the Festival of Innovation 2023. He covered the process of planning the water park, and how Europa-Park is constantly innovating and thinking about how to make the guest experience better, from the changing rooms to the water slides.
Cleary spoke about how he had always wanted to build a waterpark. He shared this vision with Roland Mack, Europa-Park’s founder. He then went on to talk about the importance of storytelling and theming, explaining how, once the Scandinavian theme was confirmed, the team drilled down into mythology to get the right story for the new park and made sure everything was connected.
When it comes to some of the innovations the team made when creating Rulantica, he explained that, although they realised most parks are flat, they wanted elevation changes. “We also noticed most everyone was trying to heat through the ceiling. So, we thought, what if we heated the floors?”
In testing, they discovered that the warm floor made people much happier.
“We also noticed that most locker rooms were so big, so hard to navigate. So we thought what if we build eight locker rooms, on different floors? [That] creates a situation where we can steer people to different rooms at different times.” The operations team can monitor those eight rooms. They have heat maps to see where the guests are, so they can steer them to a quieter zone.
In terms of trends in the waterpark sector, Cleary spoke about the importance of frictionless entry and exit. “People don’t have their phones, it’s not ubiquitous with the experience. Without a cell phone, the tech had to emerge in its own way. The wristband is our way of doing that, so you can charge your locker, charge your food and interact with the rides.” There is a strong trend to make it all as seamless as possible.
He also talked about trends in water quality such as UV light and ultrafiltration. This is behind the scenes; guests don’t know about it but, as an industry, water quality is the holy grail.
When it comes to sustainability, he said: “Treat water as a gift from god and capture as much as you can.”
Finally, looking at some of the challenges that waterparks face, Cleary discussed how labour is the biggest challenge. He also spoke about affordability and the increases in the cost of labour and cost of energy. “We try and price it as steady eddy. We have to be careful not to price out whole categories of potential guests. Dynamic pricing, etc. is great. But the core price should not get to the point where you start cutting off guest categories.”
He finished by saying: “A successful business is going to be about innovating, you either change or die.”
Winners of the Splash Innovation Awards 2023
1st Place: Infinity Master Blaster by WhiteWater
2nd Place: Wiegand Xslide by wiegand.waterrides GmbH
3rd Place: WSC – The Coating that makes Waterslides more Slippery by porviva GmbH
Festival of Innovation 2023 day two: inclusion, sustainability and the importance of storytelling
Innovation in Inclusion
In this session, Rachel Read, director of blooloop, was joined by Michael Collins, senior partner at Leisure Development Partners (LDP), to talk about the business case for ultra-inclusive visitor attractions.
Collins set out the size of the potential market that is currently not being served:
“If we look at the UK as a starting point, there’s something like 14 million people with a disability of one form or another. Some of those may be very modest, some of them severe. But as a starting point to the huge scale of that audience, that’s a pretty good number. It’s a huge proportion of the population.
“In Europe, we’ve got something like 80 million people with additional needs. And the key thing to remember is that it’s not just that guest, it’s their family unit. It’s their friendship groups that will visit with them, or decide not to visit if their friend or relative can’t have a great experience. So it’s an even bigger chunk of the market, of course, affected by these additional need requirements.”
We discussed the success of Morgan’s Wonderland. Collins pointed out that although the theme park does not make an operational profit, it is very successful in attracting corporate sponsorship and has a huge reach:
“One other thing to talk about as a success factor for this, yes, EBITDA paints a grim picture before you think about the sponsorship. But market penetration rates, it does gangbusters!”
Like sustainability, inclusion is increasingly important to the younger generations. “It’s one of those topics that you ignore at your peril. Because there’s there’s a much more sort of caring and empathetic society now than there used to be. And the generation that is taking over the purse strings can feel strongly on those topics. So I think any business in our industry or frankly, any industry that isn’t being thoughtful on this topic could very much get left behind with people voting with their wallets.”
Collins also revealed that LDP is working on an ultra-accessible resort in the North West of the UK, with a working title of Omni Resorts. Watch this space for more details…
Winners of the Inclusion Innovation Awards 2023
1st Place: Meow Wolf The Real Unreal
2nd Place: SeaTREK Helmet Diving by Sub Sea Systems, Inc.
3rd Place: The Cove by Creating Adventurous Places (CAP.Co)
Sustainability Innovation
Continuing day two at the Festival of Innovation 2023, Rachel Read was then joined by Ruth Read, blooloop’s sustainability co-ordinator to introduce a session from our greenloop, sustainability in visitor attractions conference. The session looked at the digital carbon associated with emails, and some top tips on how to reduce it.
Blooloop is encouraging everyone to get rid of images in email footers as an easy step to reduce digital carbon. If you would like to be involved then email ruth.read@blooloop.com to join us!
Winners of the Sustainability Innovation Awards 2023
1st Place: Treetop Trail at Minnesota Zoo
2nd place: WSC – The Coating That Makes Waterslides More Slippery from porviva GmbH
3rd Place: Culture Over Carbon by Environment & Culture Partners
Innovation in Exhibits
Next up at the Festival of Innovation 2023, Sam Bompas, director of Bompas & Parr, Jo Pike, director of Opera Amsterdam and Majed Almansoori, deputy executive director of the Museum of the Future explored the future of museum exhibits.
Pike spoke about the new exhibition at Titanic Belfast. This takes visitors on an emotional journey about the discovery of the Titanic wreckage and the people who lost their lives. Almansoori spoke about the new Journey of the Pioneers exhibit at The Museum of the Future and how this gives visitors some agency. It looks 50 years into the future and focuses on the problems and solutions humanity will face.
Bompas highlighted Bompas & Parr’s Future of P-Leisure 2024 report which looks at the future of museums. Some trends in the report include polarised personalisation and optimised storytelling experiences.
They then explored trends. Pike talked about museums reaching out to new audiences. She said there is a lot of “community engagement and co-curation to understand what people are interested in … and providing an accurate interpretation of your collection … how do you bring those together?” She spoke about sustainability and how “everyone is trying to tackle, no one has figured it out yet…it’s admirable people are trying.” People need to keep trying and keep it on their radars. She also spoke about the emergence of sound as a trend.
Almansoori discussed the emergence of a digital experience:
“Digital experiences are the art and are what people are going to see.” People don’t want to spend hours in a museum so digital art helps give people an immersive experience with all their senses. He also sees museums as destinations, with F&B, engaging the community through programming, and exploring the vicinity. People go to visit them for a variety of reasons, not just the collection.
Bompas spoke about “distinct disciplines coming into museums…such as from cinemas, theme parks, and making museums palpably exciting”. He explored the “dissolving of the boundaries of museums,” saying that people’s journeys start before the visit and extend after it “…and perhaps experiencing it without ever stepping through the door.”
Pike made the point that “technology is here to stay in museums.” Technology is in every aspect of young people’s lives. But museum technology has to support physical interaction without it being the only interaction – it cannot be the end goal. Almansoori agreed that technology is a tool:
“If you have a good story people will not care what technology you are using…people crave a story they feel connected to and that they care about…technology can make it easier to tell that story”.
Bompas outlined how AI can be a tool that allows Bompas & Parr to do more work more quickly and cheaply for their clients. AI can also be used to bring people together and create personalised and communal experiences in a museum.
Winners of the Exhibit Innovation Awards 2023
1st Place: Planet Word by Solomon Group and Local Projects
2nd Place: The Titanic Experience Reimagined at Titanic Belfast
3rd Place: Dream Tapestry at The Dalí Museum
Innovation in the Themed Environment
During the afternoon on day two of the blooloop Festival of Innovation 2023, Taylor Jeffs, president and chief creative officer at Legacy Entertainment, Diella Yasmine, public relations supervisor and Edith Esmeralda, public relations assistant manager from Agung Sedayu Group (ASG), discussed the themed environment and in particular Batavia PIK. This is the world’s first floating retail destination, heavily themed, inspired by the history and culture of Indonesia.
Introducing the concept and Legacy’s role in its creation, Jeffs said:
“ASG, one of Indonesia’s largest developers, is building a city as big as San Francisco right by Jakarta airport. When you build a city, you need to build things for people to do.
“If you want to bring a normal theme park, we are not the group to come to. If you are looking for something radical and exciting, that’s where we come in. ASG had a canal and inlet from Jakarta city. We know we can put shops along it, but what could we do that was surprising? We came up with a lot of ideas. One of the benchmarks was Clarke Quay in Singapore, how can we capture that vibrancy in the space? We had this crazy idea – what if we created a floating city- the world’s first floating retail mall?
Esmeralda explained that access is via bridges, or by water taxi. “[It is] a different destination, it’s a place where you can experience culture and history. We want to create a place with a lot of facilities to work and play and everything is elevated.
“We are reclaiming the past, instead of the colonial history, it’s an emphasis on the history of Indonesia. Batavia is a melting pot. It was the biggest post in SE Asia back then. We want to take the nostalgic angle. But of course, don’t want to romanticise the past. We want to look at it in a positive view for younger people to learn about their culture and history.
Yasmine added: “The theme is a celebration, the food, the culture… everything. A lot of our destinations are mostly outdoors but have indoor aspects, especially at night we can see people hanging out, so there is a need for outdoor spaces and the need for thematic destinations.”
When it comes to trends, Jeffs asked:
“How do you create something that will be popular for decades if you do it correctly? More than half of consumers prefer online shopping now to in-person. What’s the workaround? The key was food. Shopping trends change, but as long as humans exist they will want to eat together. Batavia is primarily dining spaces, amazing first-class restaurants. 20% of malls have closed in the US, but Asian malls are thriving, as they have become community spaces.
“For the future of the industry, I’m hoping it’s more localised. So, you don’t need to go to Orlando or Tokyo to see something world-class, you can see world-class experiences closer to home.”
Winners of the Themed Environment 2023 Innovation Awards
1st Place: Aura: The Forest at the Edge of the Sky by Wētā Workshop LTD
2nd Place: SeaWorld Yas Island by Miral Destinations
3rd Place: Warner Bros Studio Tour Tokyo – The Making of Harry Potter: Retail and Restaurants by Lumsden Design
Innovation at Warner Bros Studio Tour Tokyo – The Making of Harry Potter
In this session, Geoff Spooner, SVP & general manager of Warner Bros. Studio Tour London -The Making Of Harry Potter, James Dwyer, creative director at Lumsden and Michael Carpenter, creative director at Thinkwell (a TAIT company) explored the new Tokyo experience, from the F&B and retail to the new interactive experiences.
Spooner said: “We always knew that when we had the time we wanted to build another Studio Tour. Japan stood out because of the passion for Harry Potter they have.”
Carpenter explained: “Thinkwell helped lead the storytelling” on the project. He said it was exciting to build on the success of Leavesden, reconsidering the experience and seeing what could be added to it. “Everything has been designed from scratch, including future expansions, so it all leads on from each other. We wanted to give people opportunities to create film moments…the moving portraits interactive is one that worked even better than expected. It brings a level of joy to the space.”
“The Japanese market expects a very high level of experience in F&B and retail,” said Dwyer. The team introduced new tech like projection mapping, easter eggs for the fans to find, more sculptures etc. in the retail and F&B spaces, taking experiences from the sets into the F&B to extend that magic. The team pushed the boat out with experiential food as well, for instance with Professor Umbridge’s afternoon tea.
Dwyer explained how this was an excellent way to bring in some of the darker elements of the films alongside moving kitten plates.
Spooner spoke about how the team didn’t want to have an ‘in-world’ dining experience but instead created a themed space which gave Dwyer and his team more creativity. He added:
“We know people like interactives and we know the tour gives an excellent experience. We don’t need to fix anything but can augment it.
“You have to be very careful when designing the interactives because everyone then wants to do it. We don’t have a reputation for spending all day in queues…we spent so much time going through movement by movement what the customer had to do…to make it as easy to understand as possible to reduce queuing and then enhance the experience.”
Innovation in Storytelling
Closing day two at the Festival of Innovation 2023, Genell Hoeschstetter, senior creative director at Art Processors discussed storytelling within visitor attractions with Ty Granaroli, EVP, themed entertainment at Paramount and Mark Brymer, chief creative officer of WOW Entertainment!
Granaroli began by explaining:
“When we’re authentic and lean into the story, it triggers memory…then people feel comfortable with their emotions.” He said that the Paramount team is always very careful about timing, and aspects such as light conditions, what the floor feels like, and what’s happening around people so their attention isn’t taken away from the story. Designers need to make sure people have time to take in the story and experience, so pacing is very important.
He also spoke about how stories are increasingly becoming more than one thing – “look at attractions as acts. So, we’re breaking it down into beats and we’re not telling the same story at each point and we work within people’s expectations of the story. People are really smart, they can take in information pretty quickly so we make surprises and something new and dazzling around each corner.” Everything has a role to play, so don’t feel like you have to overuse a technique, he added.
Brymer talked a bit about Dr H.H. Holmes Freakshow, his award entry he did with Six Flags:
“How do you consistently reinforce elements of your storytelling in case someone misses something?” There are different ways of creating immersive stories, especially in live theatre. One way of doing this is to have branded characters outside an attraction/show to get people immersed before they enter. You can also have actors surrounding the audience within a live show to immerse them into the story and it can make it more personal, he explained.
Hoeschstetter said that, at Art Processors, the team pushes the boundaries of what storytelling can be, and immerses visitors into a story or the history at a museum. “Making sure we take into account artistry and psychology of what the guest is feeling, so they are comfortable but we’re pushing them in a fun way.”
Granaroli added that you need a point of view when telling a story. We would all tell the same story in a slightly different way. You need to be invested in every detail and slow down to think about that. He also said to “make sure people are rewarded for coming to a space.” Authenticity is key to this. “People are smarter so we have to make smarter attractions”.
When it comes to museums, Hoeschstetter spoke about looking at things thematically not geographically or time-based, so that people understand and connect the dots. She also discussed emerging technologies like VR and AR, saying that guests want more agency, they want to be part of the story.
Winners of the Storytelling Innovation Awards 2023, sponsored by Art Processors
1st Place: Together: A Pixar Musical Adventure by Disneyland Paris Resort
2nd Place: The Loch Ness Centre by Form Atlarge Ltd
3rd Place: Gorilla Trek Virtual Reality Experience from Immotion
Festival of Innovation 2023 day three: gamification, brands, and immersive experiences
Innovation in immersive attractions
To kick off day three at the Festival of Innovation 2023, Erica McCay, creative director at Valtech, hosted a discussion with Deana Taylor, general manager of Ferrari World Yas Island, Abu Dhabi and Dan Pelson, creative director of AREA15.
Taylor made the point that immersion is now more about whole themed lands, rather than one themed ride. A great example is Universal’s Super Nintendo experience. McCay explains:
“You spend 2-5 mins in the ride, but you spend hours in the lands, fully immersed in the IP. Every moment that the guest spends eating, shopping, or sitting in the land is a chance to tell that story.”
Moving on to talk about AI, Taylor said that it is inevitable. “AI can assist with the interactive and personalisation and even the safety of our parks. AI can speak for the onboarding, the pre-boarding, etc…the personalisation can start from the very beginning.”
McCay added: “So many of the experiences we create will have shiny new tech, next to the 100-year-old attractions. It’s the way we use these tools. We always ask the question of why, what is the story and the guest experience and then what are the right tools to do this.” She also talked about how to balance the human experience in shows and entertainment. She said that it is important to bear in mind how will tech impact it.
“If we don’t have people to connect with, we will miss the mark,” said Taylor. “Our park lends to technology, but 100% you need to have that connection to a person. The ride attendants set up the story, sell the story and are part of the story with you. We sell memories, so we have to think about how tech can do this in everything we do. We’ve only just scraped the surface.”
Pelson talked about the evolution of AREA15:
“Now that we celebrated our 3rd anniversary, we are really seeing the importance of storytelling. If an experience doesn’t have an underlying story, it doesn’t have depth.”
The story is the heart, agreed McCay, but added that the big shift is, whose story? And how does it matter if I was a part of that story? “With personalisation etc, there is still an appetite for it being another character’s story. But it’s a question of what is my role in it and how am I a part of it.”
Pelson explored the difference between personalisation and immersion, saying:
“Personalisation for an avatar is the first step, but if you can actually choose HOW to be immersed in an experience, that is particularly powerful. Some people want to go deep, some don’t.”
Looking at the latest trends in immersive experiences, the panel talked about the importance of a truly multisensory experience, something that touches all of the senses. “We include visual and auditory elements, so everyone can experience it, but also understand that taste and smell can have a huge impact on the experience,” said McCay.
Pelson said: “Mediocrity doesn’t help any of us. The more competitive our landscape is, the more people will embrace immersive and experiential. Lots of people say ‘Oh that’s working, let’s do that but we’ll do it cheap. It’s still so new that those experiences will be the first for many people. But how do you tell people that that isn’t what experiential and entertainment is? That was just a lame attempt at a copycat. We need to do our best to help each other.”
Winners of the Immersive Attraction Innovation Awards 2023, sponsored by Valtech
1st Place: Hypersphere 360 aka Dome Ride Theatre by Attraktion! GmbH
2nd Place: Etherquest by Falcon’s Beyond Global
3rd Place Immersive Gamebox
Game On Innovation
Nick Dimatteo, founder of Fortyfivegames, Craig Buster, general manager of Wild Island’s Coconut Island and Dennie Renessis from FunLab spoke on our Game On panel on day three of the Festival of Innovation 2023.
Wild Island’s Coconut Island was the winner of IAAPA‘s best FEC in the world in 2022. Introducing operations at the 125,000 sq ft FEC, home to two bars, as well as bowling lanes, an XD theatre, a kids playground and more, Buster said:
“Some people call us top-heavy – I call it smart. We have 15 managers that take care of things in their own lane. I sit and watch guests, are they interacting, and we make decisions from there. One of the most interesting things we do is utilise the WiFi to see hotspots at certain times and days of the week. That is fairly advanced in the FEC world and our marketing team is a big fan of it.
Speaking about FunLab, Renessis explained the FEC has 40 locations across Australia and New Zealand, as well as venues in San Francisco, Denver and Austin:
“We have eight different brands to choose from. We work with our marketing team, they know how to pick the market and check the demographic so we have the right brand in the right area.
On trends, he said:
“There are a lot of differences between Australia and America, but what we know is people want to get out of the house and interact- it’s a global thing. Everyone wants an amazing out-of-home experience. We bring all that together, food, drink and entertainment all together under one roof.”
Continuing the discussion on trends, Dimatteo said: “I see what I think is the melding of industries, a super fun mix of communities and experience.” Talking about repeatability, he said:
“If you can do a very good birthday party, you get a bounce back of 10%. The ability to get someone to come twice a year and come again is hard. But it’s easier than attracting a new person. It is a community-based location, you are not the vacation destination. You are the place people go to as it is local, familiar and has a great rep.”
“Enhance the experience so you can get them to come another time,” said Buster. “For us, it’s the length of stay. If I can get them to stay, I can get a meal and a snack (and hopefully 3 beers!) from them.”
Moving on to discuss technology, Renessis said: “The more complicated it gets, the harder it is for the guests. It needs to be simple, and seamless, which is what the guests want. We have a great data team, where it flows in one experience and to the other, so we can curate what is the best experience for the guest.”
“It’s evolving with the time. What can we do to get guests out of their homes and off their phones and into our venues for a great experience? We have a dedicated innovation team, we take ideas from team members, and we like to break the norm, if we innovate.”
Looking to the future of family entertainment, Dimatteo said: “We are trying to offer a completely new experience. We want to create the future, not piggyback off a high-rising trend. I think it’s a blending of experience and bespoke offering, something you can’t get at home. To go to a box that can create something unbelievable for you I think is the transcendent thing for Family Entertainment Centres.”
Winners of the Game On Innovation Awards 2023
1st Place: Chaos Karts
2nd Place: ValoArena by Valo Motion
3rd Place: Launch Control by Merlin Magic Making
Brand Realisation Innovation
In this afternoon session on day three of the Festival of Innovation 2023, Megan Wastell, global creative director at Merlin Entertainments, and Christine Wacker, director of business development experiences at Netflix, discussed how to turn an IP into an experience.
Wastell talked about how to choose which brand goes into which geographic location:
“It’s about really understanding the brands we work with. We like to be the guardians of the brand. We understand our guests, so we understand how they will work in different locations and when to dial up and dial down”. The team has creatives, directors and operators locally with on-the-ground knowledge, which is helpful and it’s also key to understanding the market research.
Wacker said: “We are trying to break the mould a little bit and come up with new ways of telling these stories. If you go to one of our experiences you will have a brand new experience, it won’t be something you already know.”
This also means people who don’t know the brand will be able to understand it and then they can enjoy going back to watch the series afterwards. She also spoke about Netflix House, saying: “We bring entertainment to you…we want to meet people where they are.” Netflix House enables the team to be in the local market, so people don’t have to travel to have these experiences.
The challenge is figuring out what people want and how they want to experience it, and how to localise each experience. Some well-loved shows don’t translate well to an experience. Netflix works directly with the filmmaker or content maker to ensure that “the experience stays true to the characters…they are at the heart of everything that Netflix is about”.
Discussing Lego experiences, Wastell explained that Merlin has very specific brand guidelines to work with, and they aim to be “really sympathetic and in close collaboration with the brand… the story is the building block of every great experience”. When creating a new brand/story, they listen to what their audience wants, relying on testing, insights and data – a “magical combination with a spark of creativity and all of the other tools to ensure the creative is right for the audience.”
She also touched on the AI trend and all the different ways it can be used such as optimising productivity within workflows. “AI will touch every part of the experience”, from AR, wearables, virtual assistants, ordering food and drink and more. These can be branded with IPs but these brands often have guidelines. Talking about the intersection between virtual worlds and real worlds, Wastell says that sees this as a big trend.
Wacker added: “New technology is very exciting and difficult to keep up with. It’s best when you don’t even know what the technology is, when the technology is in service of the story and it is just part of transporting you to a different time and place.”
Advising on bringing a brand into an experience, Wastell said that the key is co-creation when working with 3rd party IP, working to understand the audience and the IP, and what it is that the fans of the IP love – “they are looking for a truly authentic experience.” Wacker added that you need to go deep enough into the story:
“Don’t just make it a label. Go deep into all of the layers to do justice to the IP and do something new. Give people an element of surprise so they’ve got something additional rather than just a memory.”
Winners of the Brand Realisation Innovation Awards 2023
1st Place: Peaky Blinders: The Rise by The Everywhere Group
2nd Place: Warner Bros Studio Tour Tokyo – The Making of Harry Potter: Retail and Restaurants by Lumsden Design
3rd Place: Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo – The Making of Harry Potter by Thinkwell (a TAIT company)
Innovation in immersive experiences
Vince Kadlubek, founder & director of Meow Wolf, Neil Connolly, creative director at The Everywhere Group and Kirin Sinha, founder & CEO of Illumix talked about immersive experiences in this session.
Connolly spoke about Peaky Blinders: The Rise, which won first place in the Brand Realisation category and Second Place in the Immersive Experiences category. When asked how using live actors changes the whole idea of the guest having some control over their experience, he responded: “It’s chaos!”
He added: “We like creating jobs. We like paying people. So, if we can build a show and we create 70 jobs then great, we’re really happy.”
Discussing challenges in the immersive experience sector, Kadlubek explained that, for Meow Wolf, keeping their price points down is difficult when they’re competing with other immersive experiences that cost so much less to produce, for instance, experiences with projected content. He said that it is important to pay their artists and staff a good wage, but they also don’t want to have to charge too much for entry.
On tech, he added: “I think that there’s a huge opportunity for open-world VR that is not based on holding a gun”
Sinha said: “I think the combination of head-worn devices with generative AI hitting 3D content, rigging, animation, character development, all of that is going to create a completely new world of immersive experiences.” They all spoke about how generative AI is changing the game from even five years ago.
Winners of the Immersive Experience Innovation Awards 2023
1st Place: Meow Wolf The Real Unreal
2nd Place: Peaky Blinders: The Rise by The Everywhere Group
3rd Place: Dreamachine by Collective Act
Innovation in Blue Sky
In this session at the Festival of Innovation 2023, our panellists discussed what’s new and exciting in the industry.
Kimberly Beneville, co-founder of Beneville Studios and head of experiences at AREA15 explained what AREA15 look for in new attractions and experiences:
“There’s so many cool things happening for AREA15 right now. We have the 747 plane from Burning Man coming. That’s going to be a nightclub experience. It’s a great time for us, and I’ll say what we look for when we look for a blue sky experience is really where’s the wow factor? If it has that wow factor, that’s number one for us!”
However, she highlighted that blue sky experiences do need to be firmly supported by solid financials:
“One of the greatest challenges is can be such a unique and awesome experience, but then does it have a realistic business model? And we get pitched great concepts all the time. But then we have to look for what’s your throughput. Do you are these numbers realistic? And that’s a tough balance, a major challenge. And I think there’s also always the challenge of creativity versus operations. We want to push the envelope and go wild and crazy. But we also need to have it make sense and make money.
“So top tip for everyone with your blue sky concepts. Make sure that it is feasible and put that business case together!”
Justin East, senior creative director of research & development at Merlin Entertainments, agreed with Beneville:
“The unglamorous side of it is it always has to have a business case or it’s not going anywhere. Fact!”
He was also keen to point out that, “Blue Sky doesn’t have to be this fantastical, magical thing. Sometimes simple ideas can be innovative.” He warned that “not everything is a success. That is the world of R&D.”
However, his top tip was to get your boss or your potential customer along to physically experience whatever you’re trying to sell: “Get the people you want to lobby to go to these experiences…You must see this stuff … get your boss to go to it because explaining something is the worst.”
Felix Heuberger, head of marketing at Europa-Park’s Eatrenalin, shared his thoughts on key trends including personalisation, immersion, a willingness to spend money on experience post-pandemic and quality.
In developing Eatrenalin he says it was: “Quality, quality, quality in food technology and content. Very important … people do spend some money if the quality is good and you have a unique experience.”
Winners of the Blue Sky Innovation Awards 2023, sponsored by Assetnest
1st Place: Eatrenalin by EATRENALIN Rust/Germany GmbH & Co. KG
2nd Place: FXMOTION by Luminous Show Technology Ltd
3rd Place: Disney Weather Check by Disney Parks, Experience, and Products
Best in Show and Public Vote with Winston Fisher
To finish the blooloop Festival of Innovation 2023, Charles Read interviewed Winston Fisher, CEO of AREA15, looking at future plans for the innovative venue in Las Vegas.
Fisher explained that he sees AREA15 as a platform, not just a site. He wants to work with amazing experiences with constant reinvention so there is always a reason for visitors to come back.
“It’s always about pushing the envelope…it starts with storytelling, we have a strong story, the brands we work with have a strong story, they have a core of how they want to present themselves…and it’s creativity and not being afraid to fail”. “People are looking for spectacle and authenticity”.
They also spoke about some trends and entries from the Innovation Awards which included immersive experiences, the use of AI, immersive dining experiences and big projects from the past year.
Winston then announced the Best in Show winner, which was Eatrenalin at Germany’s Europa-Park. We also announced the Public Vote winner. Attendees voted for Draw Me the Planet, the world’s first watershow with AI-generated content from Crystal.
Blooloop would like to thank all of the sponsors of the Festival of Innovation 2023, AREA15, Alterface, Art Processors, Assetnest, Convious and Valtech for their support, and congratulate this year’s winners and runners-up.
Attendees of the Festival of Innovation 2023 can watch all of the sessions on demand for 30 days. Our Innovation Award website is now live to view all of the entries.
