IAAPA Expo Europe 2021, Barcelona Sept 28-30th debrief

[Coaster Hipster]

IAAPA held its first tradeshow in almost two years last week in Barcelona. Expo Europe 2021 boasted 439 exhibiting companies. More than 8,500 participants attended the event, a little more than half the 2019 figure (15,900 attendees in Paris)



Attending all 3 days of the tradeshow, I certainly noticed a comprehensive set of health protocols in place to adapt to the Covid-19 situation. Seats were set apart by at least 1 meter during conferences. Everyone except for presenters on stage was required to wear masks. Vaccination or a negative Covid test was also mandatory to attend, with staff conducting temperature checks at the entrance of the Conference Hall.

Some photos of the trade floor:



The educational programme offered several new developments, such as a panel discussion on inclusivity (featuring Mack Rides' Chief Sales Officer Thorsten Koebele) and... a marketing session on how to best use TikTok! Also new for 2021 was the Sustainability Day in collaboration with PortAventura. IAAPA certainly appears to keep out for societal and marketing trends.



Plopsaland' Marketing Manager Charlotte Depuydt offered her insight on the new opportunities TikTok offers.

Last but not least, I had the priviledge to interview yet again Sascha Czibulka and Daniel Schoppen, respectively Executive Vice-President and Vice-President Design & Development of Intamin. Both offered comments talking us through the process of designing Hot Racer and Kondaa among several highlight projects.




"Big Dipper is a good showcase for our Hot Racer product. [...] We learned very quickly what were the limitations [of this model] because the geometrical boundaries of this area have pushed us completely into these limitations checks" explains M. Schoppen.

Full video interview coming later this month!

 

Edited October 4, 2021 by Coaster Hipster
Adding Daniel Schoppen comment

[Coaster Hipster]

The first interview of the batch is up! Many thanks to Maximilian Roeser, Mack Rides Head of Marketing, for sharing his insight on desiging Ride to Happiness, Hurricane and Steel Taipan! And also kudos to @themagician for his permission to use his Steel Taipan photos.



Was Ride to Happiness specifically designed to provide a more intense experience? In that regard, did the Tomorrowland IP affect the ride design process?

Maximilian Roeser: Ride to Happiness was designed to implement everything we learned from our previous tests and installations. So we could work on optimizing and tweaking the layout to the maximum and deliver a very thrilling experience. The Tomorrowland IP was added to a later date so that this did not affect the design at all.

How did you design Ride to Happiness's layout with spinning motion in mind?

Roeser: That’s actually a quite complex method of engineering. We have to keep in mind that the gondolas can rotate and therefore need to work with the most extreme outcome that we can predict. Generally speaking we still believe Ride to Happiness would be a great coaster even with normal trains – with the Xtreme Spinning Coaster it adds the ultimate experience.

Ride to Happiness features very distinctive elements such as a "Curved Jojo Roll", an Outside Banked Top Hat and a "Banana Roll". Can you explain the thought process implementing those elements into the coaster layout?

Roeser: Our layout engineers are free when initially working on a layout and presenting it the first time. Of course we have the guidelines of the customer and also budget and space are given. Therefore, we try to maximize the ride experience.

We got very good responses on the "Jojo Roll" on Copperhead Strike and to the initial highlight of Time Traveller plunging down the station. We wanted to create something similar but with the given terrain an drop would not have been feasable. So in order to still keep this inital effect we installed the curved Jojo Roll and the drop effect was added behind the first launch section.  The reason why the Jojo Roll is curved is pretty simple. The alignment of the launches and the station building was set due to the terrain and location of the ride. So, we had to get a curve to the launch section.

The "Banana Roll" for instance is placed at the location where we needed to head back to the station direction, so we had multiple options and chose the banana roll for this.

Hurricane at Suzhou Amusement Land Forest World will be Mack Rides' tallest coaster to date. Was breaking this record a requested feature from the client?

Roeser: The client wanted to create a certain height but not breaking the record of our company.

(Photo: Roller Coaster Dream China)

Hurricane has a low-to-the-ground barrel roll just after the 62m Top Hat. What inspired you to create such a contrasting sequence of elements?

Roeser: This ride is certainly the most extreme launch coaster we built. The inversion after the Top Hat will crack the speed record for world’s fastest inversion to date. So we look forward to the opening of the ride and how many people will dare to ride this spectacular attraction.

 (Photo: Roller Coaster Dream China)

This coaster will also feature interlocking Cobra Roll and Looping. Can you describe the forces running through those inversions?

Roeser: It’s a nice combination of hangtime and forces that push you into the seat. The elements are quick one after another so that you really have to look out where you will go next. The whole coaster is equipped with a high average speed so we look forward to riding it hopefully soon.

What led to the introduction of a spinning car on Steel Taipan in Dreamworld in Australia?

Roeser: It first started with the tests on Blue Fire for the Xtreme Spinning Coaster. We built 4 seats on top of the last coach of Blue Fire and tested at night to realize a working prototype. After this was done and we already got Time Traveller we knew we could provide an add-on for our launch, mega and hypercoasters and so we tested again with only a two seater configuration.

Steel Taipan's final coach offers extra spinning motion (Photo: Gold Coast Theme Parks)

As many coasters were designed as a standard seating coaster we can’t just put new trains on. But we have some of our launch coasters that would be capable of the new hybrid trains and we already see some parks thinking about this addition to their rides. We think it’s a great way to promote the ride with a totally new experience.

Why did you add a backwards spike to the launch?

The client requested this change in order to add an additional feature of three launches. There were also another ideas in place to create another launch sequence at the straight portion of the launch but we stuck to the launch as we got it on Blue Fire.

(Photo: Gold Coast Theme Parks)

Edited October 22, 2021 by Coaster Hipster
adding credits

[Im Hungry]

4 hours ago, Coaster Hipster said:

Why did you add a backwards spike to the launch?

The client requested this change in order to add an additional feature of three launches. There were also another ideas in place to create another launch sequence at the straight portion of the launch but we stuck to the launch as we got it on Blue Fire.

(Photo: Gold Coast Theme Parks)

Interesting to hear there were other ideas for the launch. I wonder what they could've been (bunny hills on the launch)?

[Coaster Hipster]

With a little bit of a delay, here is the interview with Intamin.
The Swiss supplier executives discuss design & engineering of many projects: Big Dipper, Velocicoaster, Kondaa, All Speeds (Taron clone), Light of Revenge (Cheetah Hunt inspired LSM coaster)...
 

Both Sascha Czibulka and Daniel Schoppen provided long, insightful replies. Really Intamin takes the time to welcome media and fans at expos, despite their busy activity there.

[Jobe]

23 hours ago, Coaster Hipster said:

With a little bit of a delay, here is the interview with Intamin.
The Swiss supplier executives discuss design & engineering of many projects: Big Dipper, Velocicoaster, Kondaa, All Speeds (Taron clone), Light of Revenge (Cheetah Hunt inspired LSM coaster)...
 

Both Sascha Czibulka and Daniel Schoppen provided long, insightful replies. Really Intamin takes the time to welcome media and fans at expos, despite their busy activity there.

That was awesome thanks for sharing!

[New display name]

@Coaster HipsterWith the testing now underway on Hurricane, Mack has certainly lifted the pacing.

 

 

[Coaster Hipster]

Indeed! The launch looks spectacularly more powerful than existing Mack rides.

[New display name]

Makes a man want to go to China.