Editor's corner

The coffee café and bakery at the Da Nang FEC incorporates a patio and 3 levels of outdoor decks that will overlook the children’s discovery play garden.

We’ve been busy working on a number of our many projects:

• Da Nang, Vietnam
  We’re currently coordinating all the mechanical systems and working on full interior design of the 157,000-square-foot center, including it’s five different restaurants, and have started to get into detailed design of the outdoor area that includes six different attractions.
• Burlington, Iowa
  Working on a master plan for expansion of the Catfish Bend Casino and Pzazz water park hotel-FEC project with expanded indoor attractions including a ropes course, Ballocity unit, birthday party rooms and a children’s play & discovery center; outdoor miniature golf; a new hotel entry; expanded indoor water park and a new garage connector.
• Phoenix, Arizona
  Started work on feasibility and master planning for a value-added goat dairy and cheese facility that will incorporate what we are calling goat-tainment.
• Greater Los Angeles, California
  Started work on a new concept for a children’s edutainment and enrichment center
• Greater Cincinnati, Ohio
  Working with a client on site selection and feasibility for a social-tainment center that will incorporate bowling
• Davis Farmland & Mega Maze, Sterling, Massachusetts
  We recently completed our annual audit and review of the facility that included plans for new attractions. This is our 19th year of working with this client, who was our first agritainment client.
• Cairo, Egypt
  Construction is continuing on the Club Liko ladies’ club and children’s play & discovery center.

We have a number of very informative articles in this issue. A number of them address the challenge of how location-based entertainment venues can stay competitive in the rapidly evolving bricks-‘n’-mortar, digital and social media entertainment landscape. We discuss both High Fidelity experiences and the very counterintuitive idea of scarcity. Our in-depth analysis of out-of-home entertainment spending on trips documents what is a 15-year staycation trend and we present current data on what is the most popular form of out-of-home entertainment, attending the cinema. We also alert location-based entertainment developers and management to some key bias that can result in bad decisions.

If you want learn even more about how to be successful in the location-based entertainment and FEC industry, this coming March’s Foundation Entertainment University is an incredible 3-fer opportunity. Not only am I one of the speakers who will present information that we don’t publish, but five of the industry’s more esteemed veteran consultant will also be presenting. And attendance gets you free admission to Amusement Expo and the International Pizza Expo. Check it all out in this month’s article.

Hope to see some of you in Las Vegas in March.

Randy White
Editor