IAAPA Expo Europe – Review
By Dominic Picksley
IAAPA (International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions) is the major trade association for the attractions industry and for three days in late September, they held their three-day Expo Europe event at ExCeL London… and it was an amazing experience to be present at
I was there with my son Ben, who has grand designs on working in the industry and he couldn’t have been in a better place, with the world’s leading roller coaster manufacturers present – like Intamin, Vekoma, Mack Rides, Zamperla, Gravity Group, RMC, B&M, Gerstlauer, etc… – as well as numerous design and creative companies, dark ride producers, amusement arcade groups, and people representing water parks, zoos, aquariums, museums, sports entertainment businesses, toy firms, plus everything else you’d associate with the industry… and a few you wouldn’t as well.
“A glam and glitz ceremony”
The show was opened with a glam and glitz ceremony at the Angry Birds-sponsored theatre, with ‘William Shakespeare’ and his band rocking out a few belters, while IAAPA’s top brass welcomed everyone to ExCeL. President and CEO Jakob Wahl even performed a little comedy skit as James Bond, possibly the most jovial 007 ever.
“The growth we’ve seen since we were last in London four years ago speaks volumes about the strength of the attractions industry,” said Peter van der Schans, executive director and vice president of IAAPA EMEA.
“You could feel the momentum across the show floor all week long. From collaborative innovations being unveiled to new information being shared, Expo Europe is ultimately about bringing our industry together, and London gave us an incredible stage to do just that, while also looking ahead to what’s next.”
At times, parts of the floor felt like you were in one large amusement arcade, with a plethora of brightly coloured – and loud – machines competing with one another, many of which came from China.
“Grand new ride reveals”
One of these companies was from Guangzhou – Happy Player Arcade – and we had been fortunate enough to meet business manager Christine and her partner Sue on the way to our first day of the expo, with the two of them only too pleased to show us the way to ExCeL, via a traditional red London bus and Docklands Light Railway. They had travelled 6,000 miles from China’s second-largest city to try and sell their latest arcade product, Train Cube, which Ben and I were only too happy to try out when we bumped into them again later in the day, in between meeting various CEOs, designers and creatives.
Bigwigs were aplenty at the various stands and booths, but such was the cordial atmosphere in the place that they were only too happy to pass on their wisdom to a teenager looking for a future in their industry, even if their first priority was to sell their wares or at least garner some interest in the UK.
We attended a press conference at the Vekoma stand, where they unveiled their new €5million WaveCatcher ride soon to be opening at Efteling, called Ravenring (with scale model), which is part of the park’s €20million Raveleijn project. A couple of days later we caught up with the project manager from Efteling, who was only too happy to whip out his phone and show us the progress being made on the Ravenring, which he boldly predicted would be opening on 1 December.
Later that first day, a posse of people crowded around the Mack Rides booth as the German company revealed a new attraction for 2027, the Strawberry Dining Journey (Erdbeer-Speisereise) at Karls Erlebnis-Dorf Elstal, near Berlin, a dark ride combined with a dining experience. Other reveals were announced throughout the week and what better place was there to broadcast some grand new ride or investment, with so many like-minded people in the building.
“Mesmerised a large audience”
In total there were more than 870 exhibitors, 16,530 verified attendees out of 18,719 total registered (including my son who is a student member), of which 11,710 were qualified buyers representing 8,956 buying companies across 118 countries – the trade show floor spanned over 22,800 square metres, the largest in IAAPA Expo Europe history. There were also more than 70 educational opportunities featuring 190 speakers, one of which was the renowned John Wardley, the creator of the world-famous Nemesis roller coaster (along with many others) who mesmerised a large audience for an hour with his tales of how his beloved creation came into being… and then spent several minutes getting through a long queue of people desperate to have a word with the legend.
Some of the talks were intriguing hearing their views on the industry, given there were speakers from the likes of Disney, Universal, Europa-Park, Chester Zoo, Merlin and many more, while other hosts talked about how to get into the industry and what to do when you get there.
“Test drive attractions”
We were there for three whole days and we were also able to ‘test drive’ attractions, play crazy golf, football games, darts (there were no end of businesses pushing new darts ventures), table tennis (bit.pong and their electronic table), while at the same time picking up a plethora of freebies, with Vekoma’s CEO Anne-Mart Agerbeek making a point of finding a goody bag for Ben after recognising him from the day before when he showed her his excellent portfolio.
There was the bizarre sight of huge inflatables, including a massive brontosaurus, a T-Rex and a zebra-style elephant, opposite a mini golf stand, numerous bouncy castles of all shapes and sizes (mainly from China), while we also got talking to one of the main men of ProSlide – the ‘world’s best water ride designer’ – who looked like the least convincing Metallica fan ever. We mentioned we had been to Lalandia (Denmark) and Rulantica (Germany), and he proudly replied, “we designed those”.
There were also robotics firms, companies selling roller coaster wheels, various trade magazine stands, pinball alleys (at least three of them that we saw), adventure nets and adventure holiday firms. The expo virtually took up one length of one side of ExCeL, plus a bit of the other side and it was incredible to see so many trade stands in attendance.
“A terrific networking opportunity”
Sonja Heger, of German company Steripower, was keen to show us their sunscreen/insect repellent/hand sanitiser dispenser systems (a similar one we had recently seen at Walibi Belgium), which while a great idea had not garnered much interest sadly and it looked like she would be going home empty-handed. You could tell much business was being done elsewhere, with many men in suits and fashion-keen ladies sat around tables discussing various deals throughout the whole three days we were there, while it also proved to be a terrific networking opportunity.
Meanwhile, we bumped into our new Chinese friend, Happy Player Arcade’s Christine on our last day and she excitedly told us she’d managed to sell her Train Cube game to a buyer in Ireland for over £2,000… and was presumably happy as well, not to lug it all the way back to her homeland. As expos go, and if you’re into amusement parks and the entertainment industry, it has to be one of the best ones out there and now we’re looking forward to our next one… maybe, in Vienna next year.
Dom has worked in journalism for 25 years, specialising in sport, but with a penchant for penning travel features, at home and abroad, and also has a vast knowledge of 60s music, from the popular hitmakers to those bands long since forgotten.
He’s become something of a theme park reviewer now, sparked by his children’s interest, and if there’s an interesting book that appeals, then he’ll review that as well.
