Engineering the Future of Fun
McLaren At IAAPA 2024 Expo

start time: 38:38

Host: All right, so this is what we always love, E.B., when we can go live to some place where you actually hear the crowd noise in the background. Our good friend Mike Troise, he is down at the IAAPA Expo as we speak in the final hours of the expo here. Mike, welcome to Coaster Radio. How are you?

Mike Troise: Hello. Thanks for having me, guys. Doing well.

Host: All right, now you are there. In the middle of all the excitement, E.B. were that and I were there years ago, and we talk about just how great it was, how much energy there was. Tell us about what the expo has been like this year. Is it that same like palpable energy that we felt when we were there?

Mike Troise: Oh, absolutely. I mean, this industry is a ton of fun. It’s, you know, it’s known for, being very serious in business at times and, and just a lot of fun and be a part of other times just right off the bat. I’m not sure if you guys got to attend the opening ceremonies in the past, but they had a 45 minute long opening ceremony full of circus acts and live performers with accordions and violinists. And, you know, they really started off with a bang and the energy kind of flows through the entire week. It’s a lot of fun.

Host: Yeah, it’s so much fun. When E.B. and I were there years ago, I remember kind of being shocked. I’ve been to like, big large trade shows before, but I was just shocked at like how much there was, that was being offered in the industry. Like, I mean, of course you think about the rides and you think about the manufacturer or of attractions, but you don’t think about all of the little things that go into a park. I remember being amazed at like, oh my gosh, here’s a whole vendor that does ATM machines, you know, and here’s a whole vendor that does trash cans and, and the prizes. And they go in the games like there’s so much going on at IAAPA.

Mike Troise: yeah, I think people really don’t realize that it’s a lot more than just theme parks. You know, it’s the IAAPA itself as part of the acronym is and attractions at the end there. And, you really you hit the nail on the head with several of the things. I’m always amazed that there are 3 or 4 aisles of just inflatable bounce houses for basically kids birthday party rentals. It really just it is incredible how much you, I think they, they claim there’s nine miles of aisles, and I can say they mean it. My partner and I are actually down here and her and I walked the show floor, for the entire day on Tuesday, just meandering down the aisles. And we did not finish the show floor in one day.

Working In the Entertainment Industry

Host: Wow. So it’s incredible. Yeah. Now a lot of people go to the IAAPA Expo. I mean, you see some people who are there just looks like for fun, maybe they’re not even part of the industry, but that’s that’s not the case with you, right? You actually work in the amusement industry, right?

Mike Troise: Yeah, absolutely. I’ve got the lucky fortune to have been one of those kids who went off to college wanting to get an engineering degree. All to hopefully end up in the entertainment industry. And, I’ve definitely been, fortunate to be able to do that. So I currently work for a company called McLaren Engineering Group. I work in their entertainment division, and we’re a third party engineering consulting firm. We’ve got a lot of professional engineers on staff, and we service so many different markets from Broadway shows to cruise ship installations to show action equipment for theme parks and so, so much more. So that’s a lot of fun. And I’m here kind of to network and grow our presence. And, have a little fun along the way.

Host: That’s great. So when you are walking the show floor, what are things that you are looking for?

Mike Troise: It’s a mix of things. You know, if I’m in business mode, it’s a mix of weird, unique tech. You know, I spent 20 minutes talking to a magnet vendor because you never know when you’re going to use magnetic magnets for some kind of braking system or something along those lines, or, people who produce power rail, which, like you would, you would see on a dark ride that the rails that are running next to the main ride track are often delivering power and data and more to the ride vehicle. So that’s a lot of what I’m looking out for. Just anybody unique tech that we might be able to put into a product or suggest to a client, also just trying to get my face out there and get people familiar with who I am, who we are, what we do. And, yeah, it’s a little bit about that.

Trending

Host: Yeah. That’s great. So tell me about some of the exciting things that you’ve seen. I mean, I remember, like turning the corner and every corner that I turned, there’d be something new that, you know, maybe wasn’t even in the parks yet. Something that, you know, might be in the parks two years from now, three years from now to just, you know, talk about some of the things that you’ve seen, some of the big, exciting, you know, announcements and, unveilings that you’ve seen down there.

Mike Troise: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I mean, so, so much of Tuesday is full ride car Unveilings started the day off right away on day one. Checking out, Premier rides this new, ride vehicle for Up in Fury at Canada’s Wonderland. So that was really neat to see that. I think the award for coolest ride vehicle out there, no contest, goes to Vekoma they unveiled the front car for, I think it’s called Tecuani Beast. Please forgive me the pronunciation on that one, but it is going to BON Park, which stands for Beauty of Nature. It’s at VidantaWorld in Mexico. And that ride car just looked incredible. I think pictures online really don’t do it justice because there’s LED running lights going down the car, and the eyes of the dragon like beast creature that the car is, kind of glow and flicker with a different mix of reds and oranges and yellows. So as far as just, you know, ride reveals, that’s definitely, one of the cool things.

Host: Cool.

Mike Troise: And I think we could probably talk a little about some of the trends in the industry and some of the things we’re seeing in general as well.

Host: Yeah, actually, you took the words right out of my mouth because that every year that you go to IAPPA there, you can kind of tell which way the industry is trending based on what’s being exhibited there. So what are you seeing? What are some of like the new things that, like we said, maybe aren’t in the parks yet but might be in the park next year or five years from now?

Mike Troise: Yeah, I mean, I even before coming on the call here, I kind of was pulling some, some folks. So I walked around the show floor with and I think one of the things that really struck out to how much VR is just not going away.

Host: Oh, yeah!

Mike Troise: I know a lot of us, you know, some people or some people really love it. Some people really like it. I think for me, I’ve never really had fantastic experiences with it when it’s been retrofitted onto an active roller coaster. But what you’re seeing a lot of now is, entire ride systems built around the VR headset. You know, you get in this cart that holds 4 to 6 people and it shakes you around and you’ve got a VR. You can almost you can do an entire dark ride in a ten foot by ten foot box, almost, maybe a little bit bigger than that. But, I, I think VR was definitely shocking. One of the things you really don’t see on the show floor that I think people don’t realize is how many of the how much of IAAPA is taken over with, educational sessions and talks from industry experts in a variety of fields. And so a lot of those actually are really where you see some of these trends developing. I know you know, how AI is going to impact every industry is really the talk of the town everywhere now. And the amusement parks are certainly a part of those discussions. Safety is becoming huge with, the industry as, as it should be.

I myself am a member of ASTM, F 24, which is the committee that writes the standards codes that are used here in the States for, for attraction development. So that’s becoming important. Yeah. So those are the ones that come to mind. There are definitely some others I’m going to try and think of. But oh, another one I want to say is, the prevalence of drone shows. You know, I think a couple a couple years ago, there might have been 1 or 2 companies who were starting to experiments, were putting either lighting equipment or, basic things on a drone and flying them up there. And now you’ve got, I don’t know, ten, 15 different vendors. They close the show floor every night. What? I think they broke the Guinness World Record last night for biggest drone show over the convention center.

Host: Wow.

Mike Troise: So I we even saw one vendor that was putting pyrotechnics on drones, which I don’t know if I’ve seen that done yet. So I think drone shows are definitely going to become more prevalent at parks, I think. And it even speaks to the world of, increased sustainability. We’re heading towards, you know, the amount of fumes that I think Universal and Disney generate on a nightly basis on firework shows. I think, these drone shows are a lot more sustainable.

Host: Yeah, yeah. And I remember when E.B. and I were at the expo a couple of years ago, it was, I think there were two drone companies, and they were just starting. I’m assuming there are a lot more now, especially with how not just the Orlando parks are doing those drone shows, but you’re starting to see them spread out to the regional parks as well, more and more.

Mike Troise: Yeah, I mean, like the company that was here doing the show over their convention center, their their whole booth they had an LED, you know, video screen showing a bunch of showing off a bunch of their projects. And they were over baseball and football stadiums, theme parks obviously just it seems like drone shows are growing well beyond just the typical nighttime spectacular of a theme park. So I think that I think tech is definitely heading in that direction.

Host: Are you seeing at the expo more companies who are dedicated to theming? Because talking, I mean, of course, like Disney and Universal, you know, and even SeaWorld parks that do great theming. But we’re starting to see even Cedar Fair and Six Flags or I guess the combined Six Flags now start paying a little more attention to theming. So is that kind of a trend we’re seeing at the expo?

Mike Troise: Yeah, I’m so glad you mentioned that because that’s definitely one of the talking points I had is that, you can really start to see this shift. You know, I talked a minute ago about Vekoma and their new ride. And if anybody can go find their announcement online, I’m sure there are plenty of people filming the actual reveal. So much of the the 5 to 10 minute speech before the actual unveiling was dedicated to the beauty of this new park the theming, the immersive experience. It was so much more than here we’re plopping a roller coaster on on Blacktop, and it’s going to be really cool and big. And that can be said for all facets of the industry. There are so many companies you know, I was I actually funny enough, I was at Creative Visions, I believe is the, the name of the company. And I ran into Mark McDonough, who you guys interviewed years ago and was talking with him and his team about some of the developments and their theming. And there was even a girl at their booth who introduced herself and mentioned she was doing the wigs for the monsters area, the walk around characters and stuff for universal. And it was just if you don’t even think about those things, you really just think that that’s just a second, you know, it’s a background thought, but I really think this industry is realizing that it’s drawing an audience to draw on a crowd. You really have to take one out of Universal and Disney’s playbook and give people an immersive experience that they’re going to remember.

Kind of along that same vein, there is a walk through haunted house here this year. Basically a bunch of the companies who do the paneling and the scary animatronics for your typical haunts, they all got together and they each have, like, a little room, and it’s not a very big, big haunt. You know, it’s nothing that you’d see at horror nights, but the fact that they’ve dedicated space to building a haunt here just to showcase that level of theming is really neat.

Host: Yeah. So I remember, you know, going to IAAPA as a fan. I mean, I don’t work in the industry aside from doing this podcast, which is more of a fan podcast. So so I don’t work in the industry like you do, but it was so fun to, like, be able to go up to a roller coaster car that had had been unveiled and actually touch it and like, get, you know, closer to it than you normally get to, you know, with the the wheel assemblies and all that stuff, to really geek out. But you mentioned that before getting into the industry. I mean, you, you were just somebody who loved the stuff as well and that, you know, kind of, you know, chose your career path because of that. So what were some things today or in the past couple days that IAAPA that you saw from the fan side of things, you know, from from the loving this type of thing that you saw that just kind of got you excited and pumped up.

Mike Troise: I mean, the moment, the moment I walk into this convention center, I have the biggest smile on my face. And it doesn’t leave until I leave the show for, yes, I work in the industry, but I was a fan first that I will be a fan forever. You know, this is the industry I love. I don’t do it, because it’s easy or pays the big bucks. It’s it’s really out of a love for this industry. So. Yeah, I’m going up to the the ride manufacturers and watching them unveil cars. Many of my friends work for these manufacturers, and it’s fun to reconnect with them and just say hello and get this time with people that you really don’t get. Because one moment you’re you’re reach out to a friend and they’re like, oh, well, I’m commissioning a ride in Europe right now. See you and never. Yeah. So so it really is just, there’s never a dull moment. And I always tell people, especially I, I do try and network a lot with students who were, you know, I was once in their shoes and try and give them advice when, when they’re coming to IAAPA for the first time. And I always say, you know, other than wearing comfortable shoes, the next biggest piece of advice I can say is to have fun.

Host: That’s great.

Mike Troise: I always, I always spend the last year on. Today I was about to I’m not on the show floor tomorrow, so this was wrapping up my time here, but I always spend the last couple hours of my last day going through the arcade games. There’s nothing like playing arcade games for a couple hours for free, even though it’s not roller coasters and theme parks. You know, I always make sure to do that. And then, I’m sure many, many listeners are familiar with SBF visa. They always bring a handful of smaller rides to the show floor. So they had one, a little figure eight spinner coasters here. So I always take the time to ride the rides and, you know, just have a little fun and let loose.

Host: Yeah. To me that was one of the most fun things, is like walking through the arcade section and the prize redemption area and like seeing games that I hadn’t seen before. And then it’s funny, like a year later, taking my kids through, you know, an arcade at one of the parks or at one of the beaches. And there they all are, those exact games, you know, that that were being unveiled, you know, a couple of years prior. So that’s fun. And it’s so much fun just to see, like, ideas, you know, and to see which ideas make it and actually get purchased. And you know, which ideas, they have to go back to the drawing board. That’s part of the fun of where an expo like that.

Mike Troise: Yeah. I mean, you always you’re you’re getting a glimpse of what, what’s to come for the industry every time you walk on this building. One of the things that was exciting to me is actually a friend of mine was the the person who designed the, I forget the name of it, but it was a SeaWorld San Diego, the skyline titled twister type layout that, you know, unfortunately, didn’t pan out, at least for that park. But there are other companies now who are mimicking that ride system and that that profile. And it’s like, yeah, okay. Well, maybe the first draft wasn’t wasn’t the final product. Maybe it didn’t quite work out. But clearly they’ve got something. They’re doing something right if other people are copying you. So I mean, you know, that’s a ride system that we may see again from a different manufacturer. And, I love I love being a part of stuff like that and seeing what’s to come.

Engineering Broadway, IAAPA Highlights, and the Magic of Orlando

Host: Now, are you based in Orlando? Is that home for you?

Mike Troise: I wish I wish we do the company I work for. We do have a small presence here in Orlando. I’m actually based up just outside of Manhattan. Our, our main office that I work out of is just basically on the border of New York and New Jersey. That a large reasoning for that is we deal heavily, in the live event space within New York. So think Fashion Week and all the little pop up events. Our largest, probably client base is Broadway. We do the engineering for a majority of the Broadway shows and the Broadway theaters. So that is that is where we call home. But I do try and take a couple of trips to Orlando a year as a, as a fan of the industry to check out the parks. I even came down here early, for, for a day at Disney just to take it all in before the expo started.

Host: But yeah, yeah, that was going to be my question is to see, like, if Orlando is not home, this that must be another bright spot of coming to IAAPA. Expo is getting a chance to visit all the Orlando parks.

Mike Troise: Oh my God. Yeah, absolutely. I have so many friends who work in the industry who live down here because as we all know, that the real hub of entertainment, there are two places you can typically go to either the California Anaheim area or you’re down here in Orlando. And so I’ve got a lot of friends I get to catch up with. I can spend lots of time in parks. Yeah. So just really, really great opportunity. I’m thankful that my company, you know, sees the investment and considering to let our staff come down here and be a part of the show. And, continue to do great things.

Host: Yeah. Well, Mike, thank you so much. I know that you’ve got, like, a, industry dinner you’ve got to go to tonight, so we’re going to let you go. But it was nice. I remember meeting you on the show floor, when Eddie and I were there a couple of years ago. So that was great. And it’s great to talk to you again tonight.

Mike Troise: Yeah. It was it was so nice getting to meet you guys finally. For years now, I’ve wanted to come to a coast radio meetup. And it’s either the park’s a little bit too far away, but the weekends open or the parks right in my backyard. But I’m not available that weekend. So one of these days, I’m definitely going to get to a meet up when you guys play one. But it was an absolute pleasure, meeting you guys. And I’ve always a friend of the show. Always happy to help. Always happy to use my connections to help the show grow and get the best people to to be involved with it.

Host: Yeah. Well, we appreciate that so much. And thanks for taking time. I know, like, you know, the time is precious there on the expo floor. So we appreciate you taking time not only to talk to us, but to tell the listeners what’s going on there at IAAPA this year, thank you so much.

end time: 55:53