It's almost time for the biggest theme park industry event of the year.
The annual IAAPA Expo returns to Orlando this week, with the show floor opening Tuesday morning. As always, the highlight of the week for me will be Bob Rogers' Legends panel, which brings together the people behind some of your favorite, award-winning theme park attractions.
Bob's been hosting this panel for years. It started as an annual gathering of literal Disney Legends, but in recent years has expanded to include top attraction and experience designers from other companies, too.
This year, Bob is welcoming another Bob to the stage. Bob Weis, the former President of Walt Disney Imagineering, will join the 2024 Legends panel, along with Margaret Chandra Kerrison, another former Imagineer who is perhaps best known for her work on Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
Also joining the panel will be Joe Pine, who co-authored "The Experience Economy," a business book that created an enormous demand by companies for the work that themed entertainment designers do.
Both Weis and Kerrison also have new books out, with additional titles coming soon. (ICYMI, I reviewed Weis' "Dream Chasing" memoir here and his "Ghost Dog" novel here.)
The Legends panel will start at 4pm Eastern Wednesday in the Learning Hub, sponsored by Miral, in the Orange County Convention Center. If you are attending IAAPA this week, plan to queue before that to get a seat. (I will have a write-up with video after the panel for those who are not attending the show.)
In other IAAPA news, Intamin will be livestreaming its news announcements on its YouTube channel at noon Eastern on Monday, and you can watch that here:
Other press conferences on Tuesday will include reveals from Premier Rides, Bolliger & Mabillard, Mack Rides, Vekoma, and Sally Dark Rides. You can follow us here on the Theme Park Insider website or via our social media feeds on Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Bluesky for the news as it happens. (We are "themeparkinsider" on all of those channels.)
And for the weekly recap of everything posted on the site, please sign up for Theme Park Insider's weekly newsletter.
See you in Orlando!
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Let me.know if you have time for coffee.