AttractionPros Podcast

Anna Danau is the Managing Director of her own business, Hospitality Intelligence.  Anna started her business when she and her husband, Victor, moved to Vietnam in 2015.  Hospitality Intelligence was originally created to oversee the first ice skating rink ever in Vietnam, which Anna planned, opened, and still oversees.  Since then, the scope of the business has expanded to opening other family-focused entertainment offerings in the area as well as supporting other themed entertainment businesses in the area.  This support comes in a variety of forms, with the most common being staff and procedural training and guest experience insight.

 

Anna talked about the unique opportunity to be a part of the growing themed entertainment industry in Vietnam.  She described the industry as being in its infancy there, but that interest in attractions was growing.  Anna said most current offerings are family entertainment centers (FEC).  In addition to the popularity of FECs, shopping malls are favorite destinations for locals.  That’s why Anna is opening attractions, such as ice skating rinks, in the already-popular mall locations.  In Vietnam, family is very important so opportunities for family members to spend time together are always appreciated.  The importance of family in Vietnam made a wonderful impression on Anna, and she decided to start and raise her family there.  

 

Opening the first ice rink in Vietnam came with some interesting challenges.  Because this was the first opportunity many locals had to partake in the activity, almost everyone needed to be taught how to ice skate.  This led Anna to pivot her staffing plans slightly, train all of her employees to skate, and have several of them on the ice at all times helping people learn how to skate and how to fall in a way that won’t lead to injury.  Another lesson that Anna learned from training her new staff was the importance of understanding and working with, not against, cultural differences.  For example, in Vietnam elders are respected to the point that you often don’t tell them that they can’t do something.  However, this cannot take priority over ensuring the safety of guests.  Because of this potential conflict, Anna worked with her frontline employees to determine ways to respectfully explain safety requirements in a way that ensured all safety guidelines were followed while also making sure guests didn’t feel disrespected.  

 

Training has become a large part of Anna’s career, both at Hospitality Intelligence and with International Ride Training (IRT), which provides ride operator training, safety standards, and yearly audits.  Anna has been a large part of extending IRT into Asia and Australia to truly make it international.  One training initiative that Anna is leading is creating training for international students that want to work at theme parks in other parts of the world, such as in the United States.  Many of these students haven’t been to the US or even been to a theme park themselves so they have trouble being immediately effective at their roles.  In order to help with this problem and provide value to both the hiring parks and the incoming students, Anna is creating training to teach students some of the basics before they even arrive at the parks.  The topics range from learning the basics of living in the US to more tailored information about the park they will be working at.  Additionally, the overarching focus is on safety for the students and the guests they will be serving when they arrive.  

 

Anna also enjoys training her own staff at the ice rink.  She describes herself as an introvert but knows the importance of being confident and engaging with guests.   Anna tries to help her employees find their inner confidence, but she says that process can be different for each individual.  Additionally, Anna trains her supervisors on how to give good feedback to the employees they manage.  She emphasized the importance of both positive feedbac

Guy Nelson is the CEO and Executive Chairman of Dynamic Technologies, the parent company of Dynamic Attractions.  Dynamic Technologies was founded in 2006, and Dynamic Attractions was founded in 2011.  Then, Dynamic Entertainment was created, which had a focus on creating more complete rides internal to the company or through partnerships, instead of being the ride system vendor.  However, Dynamic’s work in themed entertainment began prior to all of these dates, back when the company was still just Dynamic Structures.  Dynamic has been a major player during the past few decades in terms of developing cutting-edge ride system technologies and solutions.

 

Prior to his work with Dynamic, Guy held leadership positions in a variety of different industries, including construction, transportation, manufacturing, and venture capital.  During that time, he worked at a range of different companies, from small startups to larger corporations.  Guy believes it is this diverse set of leadership positions that really helps him succeed today because he has been able to learn various things from each of his former roles.  When asked about the qualities of a good leader, Guy emphasized the importance of having a clear vision for where the group or company wants to go.  Without this vision, you will never be able to make that goal a reality.  Furthermore, Guy emphasized the importance of persevering through setbacks and speedbumps on the way to that vision.  Again, if you are willing to back down at the first sign of adversity, you’ll never make it to your goal.

 

Guy discussed how Dynamic has evolved over the years.  For example, with the founding of Dynamic Attractions, the company shifted away from manufacturing components internally and instead built up its internal engineering expertise.  By focusing on the most challenging engineering questions internally and outsourcing manufacturing, Dynamic really refined its place in the industry.  Additionally, Dynamic began to do more internal development work that wasn’t necessarily tied to a project.  By coming up with innovative new systems, they could then show off their engineering prowess and attract new clients with their new offerings.  

 

Despite being very good at innovating on their own, Guy discussed the value of collaborative innovation with their clients.  The most obvious advantage of working with the park or other themed entertainment venue where the attraction will be installed is that the risk of trying new things is shared between that client and Dynamic.  Another advantage is that the client usually has a good idea of the type of guest experience they are looking for, and Dynamic has the ride system know-how to make that vision a reality.  By knowing who the intended future guests will be, it helps everyone on the project keep the design decisions customer-focused.  Guy went on to further discuss the benefit of beginning that collaboration as soon as possible so that the complete team has time to prototype and iterate in order to come up with the best possible solution.  

 

Guy shared that Dynamic’s motto is “Anything you can dream, we can build.”  That being said, he emphasized that “dreams can be expensive,” but that with enough resources and time, almost any engineering challenge can be solved.  However, most clients don’t have an unlimited budget or unlimited time to open their next big attraction.  Dynamic helps customers create the best possible ride within their financial and time constraints.  Because of the pandemic, those constraints have gotten even tighter.  Many parks are holding off on new developments until they feel confident that they have nearly recovered from the time they were closed or at limited capacity.  When asked about the lasting impacts of the pandemic on attractions, Guy said that he believes most of the changes will be within park operations and not the ride designs.  

 

When asked about the most impactful innovations and trends during h

Brian Yessian is the CCO and a Partner of Yessian Music.  Yessian Music is a company that does sound design and mixing as well as creating new music and sound effects for commercials, television, film, rides, and other themed entertainment experiences.  They are involved throughout all stages of development, from the concept generation to mixing the final sounds on-site.  While Yessian Music is now an international company doing projects around the world, it started out with humble roots near Detroit.

 

Fifty years ago, Brian’s dad converted an old bait and tackle shop in the Detroit area into a music studio.  He was a musician and started writing jingles for the automotive industry.  Brian and his brother eventually joined their father in the family business.  Brian was a classically-trained clarinet player and enjoyed playing in orchestras.  However, he felt himself pulled towards his father’s business, and he and his brother decided to expand outside of Detroit.  Yessian Music now has offices in New York City, Los Angeles, and Hamburg, Germany.  The leap into the themed entertainment space came about 15 years ago when Brian was working on a project with a producer from Jack Rouse Associates.  They were invited to create music for an attraction, and that was the start to Brian’s passion of creating sound for themed attractions.  Brian had grown up going to Disney and Universal parks so getting a chance to work on attractions was a dream come true.

 

One of the most important goals of sound in themed attractions is to immerse the guest into that environment and into the story.  In a theme park, it is very likely that the area outside the entrance to an attraction and the inside of a show building are supposed to represent completely different worlds or experiences.  Brian says that queue music and sound effects are used to immediately help the guest feel as if they have been transported to a new place.  Appropriate music and sound effects work in harmony with the visuals of a space to create the right atmosphere for the upcoming ride.  In addition to helping the guest feel transported, sound can help set the tone of the experience by evoking certain emotions within the guests.  Whether the attraction will be light and upbeat or a little more moody or mysterious, the tone of the music or choice of particular sound effects that are layered on top of that music can really prepare the guest for the upcoming ride.  Those same principles also work during the ride experience itself, not just in the queue. 

 

A key aspect of selling the realism of the attraction’s sound or making sure the proper tonal mood is set is being able to experience the sound within the environment it will be used.  Brian emphasized the importance of spending as much time on-site as possible when doing the final mixing and timing of sound in rides and their queues.  For example, the size and shape of a room, its acoustics, and the quality and position of the speakers within that room have a huge difference on how music will sound compared to what it sounded like in the very controlled studio.  That’s why Brian and his team spend as much time as possible utilizing their mobile soundboards to tweak the sounds on-site.  In order to get the little details just right, like a sound that is meant to guide guests to look in a certain direction, the team will sometimes make small tweaks to the direction that speakers are pointing in order to help the visual and sonic realities match.  In addition, the amount of bodies in a space can really change the sound quality of an area so Brian will often stick around after a ride opens to see if tweaks need to be made to compensate for a full queue line or a full ride vehicle.

 

Another unique aspect of creating sound for attractions is that you have to work closely with many other vendors.  Brian works closely with the vendor supplying the A/V equipment from the beginning so everyone is on the same page about the a

AttractionPros has officially reached its 200th episode!  To celebrate, we decided to have an episode that invited our audience of fellow attraction professionals to participate in a collaborative conversation.  The topic chosen was timely and focused on the resurgence of themed entertainment offerings as vaccinations against COVID-19 climb, infections fall, and restrictions are lifted.  While the attractions industry was deemed non-essential by health and government leaders during the hardest moments of the pandemic, attractions will be essential to economic recovery and a return to a sense of normalcy.  While some changes are here to stay, there are opportunities for themed entertainment to roar back, and as Johnathan Lee Iverson, the Last Ringmaster of Ringling Bros. Circus, stated, this is a chance for the industry to soar to new heights.

 

From an economic recovery standpoint, location-based entertainment is essential for drawing people out of their homes, bringing them out into their communities or new areas, and encouraging spending wherever they may be visiting.  Tom Moulton, with the Southern Arizona Attractions Alliance, highlighted that attractions are “destination drivers,” bringing money to their communities.  This is true whether a family stays close to home or whether they plan an elaborate trip in another state or country.  Ike Kwon, with the California Academy of Sciences, expanded upon this economic impact by pointing out the many jobs that are supported by the attractions industry.  Ike also pointed out that many attractions are deeply rooted in their communities and even when they faced economic uncertainty due to closures, chose to give back to their communities.

 

Giving back to the community that embraces them has always been part of the culture for many themed entertainment venues, and that only increased during the pandemic.  Ron Gustafson, with Quassy Amusement Park, discussed how the park had been an essential part of its community for 113 years.  They chose to support members of their community by partnering with nonprofits in their area to host food drives and collect donations of personal items.  Andreas Andersen, with Liseberg, discussed how integral Liseberg is to the “social and cultural fabric of their community.”  Theme parks aren’t just places with thrill rides, but they also represent gathering places for shared experiences with family, friends, and even new acquaintances. 

 

Exciting destinations are the perfect places to make lasting memories with loved ones.  Greg Fisher, with TripShock, shared the importance of preserving attractions so that memories can be made for generations to come.  Adam Sandy, of Zamperla, pointed out that so many shared experiences happen at theme parks, from first roller coaster rides to first dates.  Keith James, from Jack Rouse Associates, pointed out that the emotions, the laughter, the joy, and the relief from stress that attractions provide are essential.  Theme parks have often been a respite from the chaos of day-to-day life, but now the guests need them to be a respite from the harsh reality of the pandemic and its related challenges.

 

2020 was an incredibly challenging year for everyone, but many are approaching 2021, and especially its second half, with a renewed sense of hope for a return to pre-pandemic normalcy.  Matt Eckert, of Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari, talked about how exciting it was to be open again and gifting happiness and laughter to their guests.  After all, those are gifts everyone truly needs after this past challenging year.  Audrey Jowett, from Revolution Adventures, talked about how attractions have an ability to give their guests a perceived sense of normalcy by keeping up their enhanced cleaning and safety standards but drawing less attention to it with signage and announcements.  Louis Alfieri, of Raven Sun Creative, pointed out some of the connectivity alternatives that have been utilized throughout the pandemic

Johnathan Lee Iverson has the humbling title of The Last Ringmaster.  For almost twenty years, Johnathan was the ringmaster for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, also known as The Greatest Show on Earth.  He earned the title of The Last Ringmaster because he held that role when the circus gave its last performance in 2017 before shutting down.  Johnathan says that title may have an asterisk behind it now that there are rumors that the Ringling Bros. Circus may be returning someday.

 

When he was just eleven years old, Johnathan joined the world-renowned Boys Choir of Harlem and was introduced to the world of music.  Beyond growing as a musician, Johnathan learned many lessons during his years with the Boys Choir of Harlem.  Those lessons included learning how to accept failure, how to utilize your specific skills and tools, how to build meaningful relationships, and how to work hard for something you really want.  All of these skills are incredibly transferrable and have been vital throughout his life, including his time as a ringmaster.  Johnathan would go on to study music at LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and then the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford.  Johnathan was on track to move to Europe and become an opera singer when he happened to run into the director of the Ringling Bros. Circus one day.  They were looking for a singing ringmaster, and though he was initially skeptical of the idea of making a career out of being a ringmaster, Johnathan auditioned for the role against thirty other candidates.  Upon earning the job, Johnathan became the Ringling’s first ringmaster from New York, its youngest ringmaster, and its first Black American ringmaster.  Johnathan’s story and talent quickly made him famous and helped Ringling Bros. Circus break records, but his gift resonated with individual members of his audiences in ways that couldn’t be measured by ticket sales or attendance numbers.

 

Johnathan stated that the role of a performing artist shouldn’t be for yourself but should instead inspire others and push the standard of your craft higher.  Johnathan shared some of the many stories about the children whose lives he touched during his time as Ringling’s ringmaster.  One child who heard his words chose to become a speaker.  Another girl who had been shy before was inspired by Johnathan through a short interaction to become a performing artist.  A mother shared that her autistic son spoke his first words at the circus and now loved their yearly trips to watch the performance.  Johnathan says that he will likely never know the extent of the people that he and the rest of his circus coworkers had an effect on, but he knows that his voice, his words, and his gift continue to make a lasting impact.

 

For several years, Johnathan teamed up with fellow circus performer, Paulo dos Santos, to visit schools and talk about bullying.  Paulo is a little person.  Upon meeting each other, Johnathan admits he had to reassess his personal bias about Paulo.  For example, Johnathan says that Paulo can pick him up and do squats as if Johnathan weighs nothing.  In addition to being incredibly strong physically, Paulo is strong mentally and emotionally.  As Johnathan put it, most people outgrow or can change the thing that they are bullied for, but that isn’t the case for Paulo.  He uses this and what he has learned over the years to inspire kids to think twice about bullying others and to help those who are currently on the receiving end of bullying to realize that they can be strong and successful like Paulo.  

 

One thing that Johnathan loved about the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus was that it showcased the talent of such a diverse group of people.  The performers came from different countries, spoke different languages, and showcased elements of their different cultures.  This broad array of people came together to celebrate their wonderful differences but also fi

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 t

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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

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?

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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

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!

 

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 ma

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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 domina