IAAPA Expo 2024 is coming up soon, with the festivities starting on November 16^th, 2024, with the IAAPA Rookies: FEC 101 special event in the evening.

The Expo occurs at the Orange County Convention Center, in Orlando, FL. It occupies the whole North/South concourse, along with a nearby parking lot outside, and this year, 1181 exhibitors are registered as of 10/21/2024.

The show floor will open at 10 am November 19^th, 2024, with the always informative Opening Reception beforehand at 9 am in the IAAPA Theater, N320. Doors open at 8:30 am, and it fills up fast, so arrive early.

Recommended attire

The dress code is smart business, so dress comfortably and chic with your best classy walking shoes. Over 9 miles of aisles filled with vendors are on the show floor. Add the travel, and you will walk a lot!

Travelling to Orlando and the Expo

The Orange County Convention Center is 13 miles from the Orlando International Airport, and most major airlines in the US and Canada fly there. When coming from Europe or Asia, you must often transit through a major airport in the USA or Canada to reach Orlando. One interesting point about transferring in Montreal or Toronto is that you will go through the US Customs and Border Control check at those airports. They offer preclearance, and when you arrive in Orlando, you will generally leave the airplane and pick up your bags as if you were on a domestic flight.

Once in Orlando, you can take a taxi, rideshare, or rent a car to your hotel. IAAPA offers a booking service for hotels here: https://compass.onpeak.com/e/68EXP2024HIR/0#hotels. Those are reserved room blocks through ONPEAK and rates can be great and often include perks such as included Resort Fees or discounted parking. As it is less than a month before the show, many hotels are already sold out.

We at Park Vault prefer a hotel within 15-20 minutes of the convention center’s north or south concourse, as it provides flexibility and convenience.

The Rosen Center, Hyatt-Regency Orlando and the Hilton Orlando are all near the Convention Center, less than 5 minutes away by walk and in the case of the Hyatt-Regency and Hilton, connected by covered elevated walkways.  

Show Floor layout and how to efficiently navigate the nine miles of aisles

As mentioned above, 1131 companies and organizations have booked booths on the show floor of the North/South Orange County Convention Center. This comes up to over 9 miles of carpeted aisles and can confuse attendees. How the booth numbering system works:

• The South Concourse is the most crowded, and many of the education sessions take place there. It is accessed from International Drive, and most of the outdoor parking lot is located on its eastern side.
• The North Concourse is near Universal Boulevard, with Top Golf and Andretti across the street. The IAAPA Theater is upstairs on the North Concourse.
• The show floor is divided into roughly 26-27 north-south aisles, with the 100 aisles against the wall on the western side (left if looking at the show floor from the South Concourse entrances) and ends at 6000 on the eastern wall (right side from the South Concourse entrances)
• Aisles start on their hundred on the South Concourse and go up to 91 when near the North Concourse.
• The center portion of the show floor houses administrative areas and bathrooms and cannot be crossed. So, you need to go around it by reaching the 3500 aisle on the west side, 4200 aisle on the right, 3800 on the north, and booths that end with 51-53 on the north side. On the south side, the wide aisle with booths that end with 31 is how you go around the center portion.

Here is an example for the 2024 show floor: if I am standing near the eastern South Concourse entrance close to the RMC booth, which is at number 4803, and need to see Proslide Technologies at 2241, I will need to walk the wide 4800-5100 aisle up to the wide aisle with booths that end with 20, 21 and 24. The Fabbri Group booth at 4820 will be where you turn left and walk east. This is one of the main thoroughfares of the show floor, and you will see significant exhibitors such as Intamin (3825), Vekoma (5124), and S&S Worldwide (5118) as you walk along that aisle. Once you reach the Ride Development Company booth at 2624, go past it and turn right before passing Zamperla (2024). Walk north, and you will soon see Proslide at 2241 on the left.

As the show floor quickly sold out, IAAPA added conference rooms on the North Concourse to accommodate more vendors and create two themed pavilions. There are also vendors outside, in a fenced-in area of the east parking lot.

You can pick up your badges and register if needed in both concourses.

Preview of the show floor

The company’s name is followed by its booth number on the show floor.

Zamperla, 2024

Zamperla had an interesting year, with the successful relaunch of two classic products at parks in Europe. La Recre des 3 Cures (Millizac, France) and Bellewaerde (Ypres, Belgium) opened the updated 92-meter Family Coaster as respectively Jeep’O Dino and Brazilian Buggies. 25 years after the first version opened, this familiar layout is given another update, where the loud chain lift is replaced by drive tires and magnetic brakes, which provide a very comfortable experience for riders. Improvements in manufacturing both the track and train led to a nearly silent roller coaster that would be perfect for indoor installations in the future. Park Vault helped La Recre des 3 Cures select this roller coaster through it’s consulting service, and we are pleased with the result.

JeepO’ Dino at La Recre des 3 Cures

Another successful relaunch is the Kiddie Flume. Opening at Bellewaerde as a sister ride to Brazilian Buggies and as part of a family expansion at Futuroscope (Poitiers, France). A great pricing point for a fun and proven product for kids makes this an excellent choice for children’s area renewals or as part of a new expansion.

Zamperla will host a press conference on November 19^th, 2024 at 11:00 to unveil the first Family Thrill Launch coaster, opening soon at a European park. One of the key features of this new product is a lower cost of ownership compared to equivalent rides in the industry.

Morgan’s Wonderland

Zamperla has developed fully accessible family attractions in partnership with Morgan’s Wonderland. Accessibility is a critical topic that ties in nicely with the Keynote speech of Gordon Hartman, founder of Morgan’s Wonderland. This was the first ultra-accessible theme park in the world, and during the Leadership Breakfast on Wednesday, November 20^th, 2024, Mr. Hartman will talk about how he wanted to create a place where his daughter, Morgan, could have the same fun as her friends. 

Additionally, Morgan’s Wonderland will host a press conference at the Innovation Stage (S230BC) on Wednesday November 20^th, 2024 at 15:00. The topic will be the creation of an Inclusion Institute. Training and consulting services for accessibility in attractions and facilities will be offered to clients worldwide.

Triotech, 1359-1361-1658

Triotech had a very busy 2024, with the grand opening of Primordial at Lagoon Amusement Park (Farmington, UT.) This unique roller coaster features an interactive dark ride portion along with multimedia content provided by Triotech. The SuperBlaster coin-op simulator is taking FEC’s around the world by storm. VR Storm is also the name of a VR coin-op attraction from Triotech that is quite popular with FEC’s and premiered at the IAAPA Expo in 2019. Details of the upcoming “Into The Deep” interactive dark ride were announced in 2024 as well. This turnkey attraction will occupy 2400 m² inside Six Flags Qiddiya City, Saudi Arabia, opening in 2025.

Super Blaster from Triotech

During the Expo this year, Triotech will host a press conference on November 19^th, 2024, at 15:30, where SEVEN and Triotech will unveil a large project coming to Saudi Arabia. It will feature a significant IP that will be implemented inside multiple locations in the Kingdom. Triotech had previously announced the development of Transformers attractions with SEVEN and this Expo’s announcement will further the partnership between both companies.  

Technical Park, 3829

Technical Park will unveil during the Expo two new products: the Drone Race and the Space Coaster. The Drone promises to be one the world’s most intense attraction, with motions that will have riders experiences the same motions as a Drone when it captures images and flies around.

The Space Coaster promises to be one of the most compact roller coasters, with a 38-meter x 17-meter base frame. This is an interesting development because we’ve gone from having multiple options for compact base-frame roller coasters in the 1970s-1980s to not having much to pick from for boardwalk operators, malls, and other parks where permanent footers are not optimal. Technical Park re-entering that market is a significant development.

Brogent Technologies, 5731

2024 was a hectic year for Brogent Technologies, with a new version of the Flying Theater, the o-Ride. Premiering in Taiwu, China, this is a very agile evolution for what is usually a not very active ride system, which can synch with more action-oriented content.

Concept art of a turnkey installation of an o-Ride.

Brogent Technologies announced a new line of 12 movies showcasing an area of the world and its wonders. Africa is the first in that line and was shown to prospective clients during IAAPA Expo Europe in Amsterdam. This was at This is Holland’s i-Ride theater in the city.

Brogent Technologies will host a press conference on Thursday, November 21st, 2024 with the Niagara Parks Commission to announce a new experience at 11:00. Set near the world-famous Niagara Falls, Niagara Parks Commission operates many tourist attractions. It will open a new Flying Theater in 2025 from Brogent Technologies. It will replace the retired Niagara Fury Circlevision 360° attraction.