by Christian Martin, Triotech
IAAPA held its second annual North America Summit from 3 – 5 March 2024 in Las Vegas, following the first dedicated IAAPA Honors celebration. The event featured a well-balanced program of keynote speakers, fireside discussions and educational elements intertwined with exclusive visits to attractions and entertainment venues.
Making us think at IAAPA North America Summit 2024
This best summarizes the main theme, brought on by the top-class speakers at the IAAPA North America Summit 2024. The event was emceed by Matt Heller, who created the event’s rallying cry: “What happens in Vegas does NOT stay in Vegas!”
Doug Lansky challenged the participants to rethink the way they do business, giving several avenues for doing so. One avenue is digging deeper for data by performing second-level analysis. Another is rethinking mistakes as opportunities to turn around how a consumer experiences a brand.
In other words, things will go wrong but it’s how you solve the problem that is key.
Lansky also highlighted the importance of communications and sustainability giving several examples of engineered compliance and gamification that improve behaviours.
The second speaker was Dan Pelson of Area15, who generously shared the company’s vision and insights on success drivers. Notably, on the latter point, he insisted on the importance of an organization understanding what it is about, what it stands for, and what its brand “story” is. These are drivers of engagement and success.
On connecting with visitors
Tuesday’s sessions at the IAAPA North America Summit 2024 featured Jose Tolosa of Meow Wolf. He explained that Meow Wolf is about imagination and increasing creativity which they do by fostering a spirit of unpredictability in their transformational experiences.
Tolosa also commented in detail about the evolution of entertainment and how now the “Creators” are in direct link with the “Consumers” (enabled by the web and apps, of course), thus cutting out the “distributors” of entertainment.
He concluded that in the earlier model, it was hard to get through as the “distributors” held all the powers, but rather easy to succeed once you got through as the offer was more limited. Now, it is the opposite. Numerous accessible platforms make it super easy to get through (think putting up your own video on YouTube). But this clutters the entertainment offering and makes it very hard to succeed.
Finally, Jeff Fromm spoke of the need to be consistent and connect emotionally to create a strong brand. He highlighted that hidden drivers (i.e. emotional connections) are what consumers subconsciously use to connect to your brand. He also emphasized the importance of studying not only your direct competitors but also your indirect competitors. After all, they are also after your clients’ attention… and wallet. His powerful conclusion listed five ways to re-imagine your brand:
- Embracing the Gen-Z mindset
- Igniting a team
- Navigating the FOMO effect
- Embracing the Purpose Profit Loop
- Being unremarkable
The last one requires a little bit of an explanation. It means making it easy to experience the brand. 50% of the people “checkout” when it’s too complicated.
“Summiteers” go on a field trip at IAAPA North America Summit 2024
The latter part of each day was dedicated to EDUTours. Being in Las Vegas, these featured a couple of “oversize venues”. First was Allegiant Stadium, the brand new home of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders and host of last February’s Superbowl.
The second “oversize venue” was the brand new, yet already world-famous Sphere. The amazing structure, with its outside and inside state-of-the-art LED technology, has taken social media by storm since it opened last September with Irish band U2 taking residency. There was no rock concert for IAAPA delegates, however (no worries, this writer had the opportunity to see the show last December, lucky him). Instead, participants were treated to a multi-media show “Postcards from Earth”.
In between these behemoth structures, participants made a pit stop at Circus Circus. Here, they experienced first-hand the brand-new SpongeBob dark ride, which opened on 1 March 2024.
The program’s second day featured a visit to Area15, which, as you might already know, doesn’t really exist! Or so goes the local saying. Area15 is quite unique and features several immersive and artistic experiences as well as a retro arcade. It is anchored by Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart experience. If you wonder what Omega Mart is, I would say words would not do it justice. It must be experienced.
IAAPA’s first-ever Honors Event
For the first time, IAAPA organized a separate event to recognize Brass Ring Award winners outside of IAAPA Expo in Orlando. The daylong event took place on 3 March, just ahead of the IAAPA North America Summit 2024. All Brass Ring Award winners were announced except the manufacturers’ and suppliers’ awards, which had already been revealed during the Expo last November.
The event was bookended by one-on-one “fireside chats” from industry icons. The first one featured retired Disney executive George Kalogridis, who spoke about fostering a culture of innovation, creativity, and excellence. He challenged us to continue to be that place in people’s lives where a family goes and lives an experience that entertains them; it makes a big difference for them.
The final one was with Nicolas de Villiers, CEO of Puy du Fou. He spoke about “Excellence in Storytelling” on the heels of having received not one but two Brass Ring Awards in the Live Entertainment category. De Villiers highlighted his vision and the why of his organisation. Perhaps he said it best when he stated, “We believe that a human being has a body and a soul. A roller coaster speaks to the body, at Puy du Fou, we speak to the soul.”
The rest of the day featured panel discussions on creativity and an in-depth look at the design of SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, including its Hypersphere Experience, intertwined with award-winner announcements.
All the Brass Ring Award winners can be found here.
