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Mason Schmitz, Managing Partner
I recently had the opportunity to attend IAAPA Expo Europe in London, and as always, I came away with new ideas, new conversations, and a renewed appreciation for how connected our industry really is.
One of the greatest benefits of attending IAAPA events around the world is simply the opportunity to spend time with people. In London, I enjoyed reconnecting with colleagues and meeting new people from across Europe and the Middle East. Hearing their perspectives on the current state of the industry, the opportunities they are seeing, and the challenges they are navigating provides insight that is difficult to gain from behind a desk or on a video call.
Technology, Entertainment and ABBA
The IAAPA Opening Reception at ABBA Voyage was certainly a highlight. The technology behind the experience is impressive, but what struck me most was how quickly you stop thinking about the technology and simply enjoy the show.
Everyone around me seemed genuinely entertained. For those of us working in themed entertainment, that is perhaps the best measure of successful technology: when it supports the experience rather than becoming the experience.
Connecting with the TEA Community
Another highlight was the TEA IAAPA Mixer at Eastcheap Records on Tuesday evening. It was a fun opportunity to catch up with fellow TEA members, hear updates from the EME region, and spend time together outside the Expo.
There were also plenty of familiar characters joining the party, including Snoopy, the Grinch, and others, which made for some memorable photos and added a little themed entertainment to the evening.
The venue was loud, lively, and perhaps not always the easiest place to have a detailed conversation, but in some ways that was part of the fun. Events like this remind me that our industry is as much about the community behind the projects as it is about the projects themselves.
AI Is Changing the Conversation
I also attended several EDU sessions, including discussions about how AI is beginning to affect animatronics and character experiences. There is clearly still a lot to explore, but I am interested to see how these technologies continue to develop and, hopefully, improve the experiences we create.
Another AI discussion left me with a particularly useful thought.
If a client gives you an AI generated image as a concept, don’t dismiss it. Consider it the design brief.
As designers, we often spend a significant amount of time trying to understand what is inside a client’s mind. What are they imagining? What feeling are they trying to create? What does their idea actually look like?
AI tools are increasingly giving clients a way to communicate that vision visually. The image may not be technically correct, buildable, or even particularly good design, but that isn’t necessarily the point. It gives us insight into what they are thinking.
Rather than resisting that, we should welcome the additional information. It gives the professional design team a starting point from which we can ask better questions, apply our expertise, and develop the idea into something meaningful, achievable, and appropriate for the project.
Being Present Matters
The trip also reinforced something I have come to appreciate as our team has become increasingly international: there is value in being seen together around the world.
When colleagues, clients, consultants, and partners see members of our team together in Singapore, London, Orlando, or elsewhere, it helps connect the dots. They begin to understand not only who we are individually, but how our broader team and capabilities fit together.
The themed entertainment industry has always been highly relationship driven. Sometimes an opportunity begins because you happen to have the right conversation with the right person at exactly the right time. You may not know when that conversation will happen or which project it will eventually lead to.
Between conversations on the Expo floor, EDU sessions, the TEA mixer, ABBA Voyage, and the many informal conversations in between, London reinforced for me that simply being present matters.
That is one of the reasons I continue to find value in attending IAAPA Expos in different parts of the world. Each event brings together a slightly different community and a different perspective on where our industry is heading. It also gives us an opportunity to be present together as a team and continue building relationships across regions.
Next up is IAAPA Expo in Orlando. It is a much bigger event and a very different experience, but with that scale comes an incredible number of opportunities to reconnect, meet someone new, exchange ideas, and perhaps have one of those conversations that leads somewhere unexpected.
See you in Orlando.
