AttractionPros Podcast

Looking for daily inspiration?  Get a quote from the top leaders in the industry in your inbox every morning.   Every year, millions of attraction visitors lose hours in line instead of making memories. Since its inception, accesso’s virtual queuing has saved more than 4.5 billion minutes of wait time, freeing guests to pack their day with more rides, eats, and excitement. The result? Happier guests who spend more and a better bottom line for you. Ready to turn waits into wins? Visit accesso.com/ROIClinic. The queues are virtual. The results are real. Michael Acevedo is the Business Development Manager for Nassal. Growing up in Orlando, Michael turned a summer job at Universal Orlando into a two decade career that has spanned ride operations, tech services, engineering, Universal Creative, Walt Disney Imagineering, and now themed construction and fabrication. He has worked on projects such as Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, Transformers, the Fantasyland expansion, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, and Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, before moving into project management and business development at Nassal and its design build brand, nFusion. In this interview, Michael talks about reliability & guest experience, being yourself, full circle career moments. Reliability & Guest Experience “Every minute of downtime on this one attraction impacts the guest experience so much more than even 10 minutes of downtime at this other attraction.” Michael explains how his time in tech services engineering at Universal revealed the tight bond between reliability and guest satisfaction. By combining uptime data with daily guest ratings and information on which rides guests could or could not experience, his team could see which attractions caused the biggest drop in satisfaction when they went down and prioritize problem sensors and components accordingly. This moves reliability from a back of house statistic to a strategic lever, guiding where to invest time and resources so that technical decisions protect the most emotionally important moments in the visit. Being Yourself “So the most important piece of advice I would give people is just be yourself.” Looking back, Michael admits he spent years trying to match an imagined standard of who he should be at companies like Universal and Disney. Over time, he noticed that promotions, project invitations and leadership responsibilities tended to appear when he was showing up as his authentic self. In an industry that needs everyone from artists and engineers to plumbers, accountants and ticket sellers, he argues there is no single template for success. Bringing your real background, culture and personality into the work, and remembering that you are also a consumer of these experiences, is part of what makes you valuable. Full circle career moments “I don't know if I'll ever be able to top that moment, standing there with people who I looked up to, that I was right alongside them.” Michael recalls a defining full circle moment on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. After years of development, he stood at the exit on opening morning at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and watched guests step off the attraction in disbelief, some in tears, thanking the team for making their Star Wars dreams real. He links that experience to seeing creative leader Scott Trowbridge at Universal years earlier and wondering what it would be like to work with him, then later sitting together as peers on Galaxy’s Edge. Through mentoring students, hosting shop tours and sharing his story, Michael hopes to help others create their own full circle career moments.   Michael encourages listeners who want to learn more about Nassal to visit nassal.com, where they can explore the company’s portfolio of themed projects and capabilities. He also invites anyone seeking career advice or interested in working with Nassal to connect with him directly on LinkedIn. This podcast wouldn't be possible without the incredible work of our faaaaaantastic team:   Scheduling and correspondence by Kristen Karaliunas   To connect with AttractionPros: AttractionPros.com [email protected] AttractionPros on Facebook AttractionPros on LinkedIn AttractionPros on Instagram AttractionPros on Twitter (X)

Looking for daily inspiration?  Get a quote from the top leaders in the industry in your inbox every morning.   Every year, millions of attraction visitors lose hours in line instead of making memories. Since its inception, accesso’s virtual queuing has saved more than 4.5 billion minutes of wait time, freeing guests to pack their day with more rides, eats, and excitement. The result? Happier guests who spend more and a better bottom line for you. Ready to turn waits into wins? Visit accesso.com/ROIClinic. The queues are virtual. The results are real. IAAPA Expo is often described as the “most wonderful time of the year” for attractions professionals, but it can also be overwhelming: long days, packed schedules, and endless conversations. By unpacking the expo, Matt and Josh share how they turned the week into a soul-filling, business-building experience through people, intentional design, and investing in the next generation. In this episode, Matt and Josh talk about how to turn IAAPA Expo into the most meaningful and memorable week of your professional year. People, Meetups, and Becoming the “Elder Statesman” “This was such a huge ‘people’ experience for me.” Matt’s first big takeaway is simple: people. From the AttractionPros Meetup until leaving Epic Universe on Thursday night, he was in constant conversation, reconnecting with long-time colleagues, and supporting first-time speakers. Matt also talks about his evolving role as a kind of “elder statesman,” helping newer professionals, making the event as much about lifting others up as about his own experience. Booths as Mini Attractions “An expo booth should operate like a mini attraction.” Josh shared how he treated his exhibit booth as a mini attraction. With two interns, they focused on fundamentals of guest service. Details mattered: enhanced carpet padding that felt like “walking on a cloud,” comfortable lounge-style furniture, and a coffee station with branded cups and carefully placed lids so the logo was always visible. Inclusion Beyond Accessibility “Inclusion is not the same as accessibility.” Matt highlights a powerful session on inclusion led by Sharon Newhardt and Enzo Piscopo of Morgan’s Wonderland. Enzo, presenting from a wheelchair on a stage accessible by a newly installed lift, shared how physical accessibility does not automatically equal inclusion. He explained that while ramps and designated seating may check compliance boxes, they can still leave guests and employees feeling excluded such as never being able to choose a seat behind home plate or in a dream location at a ballpark. When IAAPA Expo Really Is a Family Reunion “You never know who you’re related to at the Expo.” Josh shares a story that turns the “family reunion” metaphor into reality. In the middle of a packed Tuesday, he receives a text from his mom: “We have a cousin exhibiting at IAAPA.” The next day, Josh finally met his second cousin once removed — someone who has been in the industry longer than he has, working on the chemistry behind skin for animatronics. They realize they’ve likely been in the same building at the same time for years without knowing it. Quick Hits: Energy, Words, Appreciation, Rest, and Instagrammable Workplaces “Sleep and rest are not the same thing.” Matt runs through a series of “quick hits” that left a mark on him. From the Women in the Industry Luncheon, he shares Lauren Hodges’s concept of managing energy, not just time, reframing mindset language, demonstrating a deeper sense of appreciation, and differentiating sleep from rest. Finally, seeing IAAPA staff proudly taking selfies in their own event space prompts the question: is your workplace Instagrammable for your team? The Intangible Value of IAAPA “The overall value of IAAPA Expo is intangible and sometimes is not even realized until much later in the future.” While you can quantify tickets, sessions, and receptions, the real value of the week for Josh’s interns came from introductions, mentorship, and compounding opportunities. Josh intentionally introduced them to every person who came to the booth, encouraged them to talk about their own career goals, and encouraged them to attend separately-ticketed events. By midweek, they had lost count of how many executives they’d met. While organizations often focus on hard ROI, it is the personal growth, expanded networks, and renewed passion that attendees bring back are equally valuable, even if they’re harder to measure.   What were your biggest takeaways from IAAPA Expo? How are you turning your booth, sessions, or workplace into memorable experiences? What are you doing to make your operation more inclusive, people-centric, and soul-filling? This podcast wouldn't be possible without the incredible work of our faaaaaantastic team:   Scheduling and correspondence by Kristen Karaliunas   To connect with AttractionPros: AttractionPros.com [email protected] AttractionPros on Facebook AttractionPros on LinkedIn AttractionPros on Instagram AttractionPros on Twitter (X)

Looking for daily inspiration?  Get a quote from the top leaders in the industry in your inbox every morning.   Every year, millions of attraction visitors lose hours in line instead of making memories. Since its inception, accesso’s virtual queuing has saved more than 4.5 billion minutes of wait time, freeing guests to pack their day with more rides, eats, and excitement. The result? Happier guests who spend more and a better bottom line for you. Ready to turn waits into wins? Visit accesso.com/ROIClinic. The queues are virtual. The results are real. Salma Abassaly is the co-founder and managing partner of CERTIS LLC. Born and raised in Paris, she moved to the United Arab Emirates in 2007 and built a career that spanned luxury hospitality, corporate services, managing children’s play areas, and leading leisure facilities before becoming an entrepreneur. CERTIS LLC is a UAE-based inspection and certification body that serves rides, attractions, and leisure facilities, pairing technical rigor with real-world operational insight. In this interview, Salma talks about inspections and certifications, relationship capital, and normalizing diversity. Inspections and certifications “We work with leading operators regionally and we ensure their rides meet international standards and we offer them an end-to-end approach from concept design to installation inspection as well as their ongoing operational audits and inspection.” Salma explains that CERTIS LLC provides an end-to-end approach, from concept and installation inspections through ongoing operational audits and periodic inspections. Her own operator background means she “speaks the language of the operators,” helping clients see an inspection body not as a cost or constraint but as an ally that aligns perception and reality through standards. She and her partner, Fadi, intentionally balance operational fluency and technical rigor so there is “no gap” when addressing client concerns. She also emphasizes credibility as foundational. Accreditation was the stamp that allowed CERTIS LLC to demonstrate quality, reliability, and transparency from day one, opening doors with regional leaders and setting a bar the company intends to uphold as it grows across the region and into emerging markets. Relationship capital “I think the transaction is the ultimate accomplishment of the relationship through the company, but before that, there's the relationship.” Relationships are not just a tactic for Salma; they are a metric of success. She prioritizes availability, consistency, and nurturing human connections beyond business, noting that trust built early makes hard conversations possible when inspections surface issues clients would rather not hear. To protect the partnership at the heart of CERTIS LLC, she and Fadi even engaged in proactive relationship coaching at the company’s founding to set ground rules for how they would show up, disagree, and decide together. That investment sustains a culture of collaboration with each other and with clients, where long-term partnership matters as much as revenue. Salma adds that surrounding yourself with people who are “smarter than you” elevates outcomes and turns competition into collaboration. Growth, she says, is rarely linear; persistence, shared purpose, and strong partners win over time. Normalizing diversity “The goal is not really to highlight gender, but more to normalize diversity.” Reflecting on often being one of few women in boardrooms, Salma argues that representation fuels aspiration and that women’s leadership brings emotional intelligence, resilience, and collaboration that benefit teams and guests alike. Her advice to women entering the industry is to lead as their authentic selves, not by copying stereotypically male behaviors. She hopes her daughter’s generation won’t even need to notice whether there are two women in a meeting, because diversity will simply be normal. Salma also shares her experience of the UAE as dynamic, opportunity-rich, and safe, with visible commitment to entrepreneurship and women in leadership. That environment, she says, has enabled her to turn vision into reality and to scale with clarity of purpose.   To connect with Salma directly, reach out to her on LinkedIn, and to learn more about the company, visit the CERTIS LLC website. This podcast wouldn't be possible without the incredible work of our faaaaaantastic team:   Scheduling and correspondence by Kristen Karaliunas   To connect with AttractionPros: AttractionPros.com [email protected] AttractionPros on Facebook AttractionPros on LinkedIn AttractionPros on Instagram AttractionPros on Twitter (X)

Looking for daily inspiration?  Get a quote from the top leaders in the industry in your inbox every morning.   Every year, millions of attraction visitors lose hours in line instead of making memories. Since its inception, accesso’s virtual queuing has saved more than 4.5 billion minutes of wait time, freeing guests to pack their day with more rides, eats, and excitement. The result? Happier guests who spend more and a better bottom line for you. Ready to turn waits into wins? Visit accesso.com/ROIClinic. The queues are virtual. The results are real. Tyler Rizzo is the Vice President of Finance at COTALAND. Growing up in Central Florida, he got his start in attractions at Busch Gardens Tampa, then earned a hospitality management degree at UCF’s Rosen College before moving from front-of-house operations into analytics at SeaWorld, revenue analytics at Cedar Fair, and leadership roles spanning analytics and food and beverage. He later consulted at Storyland Studios on pre-concept through opening projects. Today, he’s helping launch COTALAND in Austin, a dense 30-acre park with about 30 rides built alongside Circuit of the Americas, home to the F1 United States Grand Prix. In this interview, Tyler talks about bridging finance and operations, not chasing expensive pennies, and avoiding the doom spiral. Bridging finance and operations “I’ve kind of always treated it like an improv group; you never say no.” Tyler explains that finance succeeds when it partners with operators rather than policing them. He emphasizes open lines of communication, involving department heads in decisions, and never blindsiding colleagues with a spreadsheet they’ve never seen. He also stresses getting into the field, noting how proximity to the park at SeaWorld helped finance teams “walk the walk,” hear guests on rides, and translate spreadsheet cells into real experiences. That frontline credibility matters. Having carried a radio and worked the fryer, he says operators trust guidance from someone who has lived their constraints. Seasonality, hours of operation, and the realities of running rides and restaurants don’t always show up in a model. By pairing operational tacit knowledge with analytics, Tyler builds plans that are both tight on paper and resilient in practice. Not chasing expensive pennies “I’ve had multiple times throughout my career where we chased expensive pennies.” Tyler cautions against over-correcting for small losses without weighing the bigger picture. He uses examples like shrink in retail or food waste in fries: quantification is essential, but so is the cost-benefit analysis of fixes. If moving T-shirts indoors to cut theft chokes visibility and sales, or new security costs exceed the recovered margin, the “savings” are illusory. He extends this thinking to the industry’s top- versus bottom-line focus. Cutting hours or labor can protect a quarter, but erode perceived value and long-term revenue. He contrasts firms that invest in people and guest experience with those making knee-jerk reductions, arguing that sustainable performance comes from meeting or exceeding value expectations, not just trimming expense lines. Avoiding the doom spiral “The easy button is to absolutely reduce hours, reduce labor, those start to become expensive pennies though when you’re losing your core market.” When attendance dips, slashing staffing may seem prudent, but Tyler warns it can trigger a negative loop: thinner teams degrade service, which depresses visits further. His advice is to evaluate and realign the product’s value proposition to what guests expect in that market, then execute consistently over time rather than relying on short-term cuts. He notes this discipline is hardest when micro results are choppy, yet it’s precisely when conviction matters. Whether for a single FEC or a multi-park operator, recovery hinges on a clear multi-year plan rooted in core hospitality, supported by data, and adapted through continuous testing of operating models, pricing, and offerings without sacrificing the guest experience.   To learn more about COTALAND, visit cotaland.com. To reach Tyler directly, connect with him on LinkedIn. This podcast wouldn't be possible without the incredible work of our faaaaaantastic team:   Scheduling and correspondence by Kristen Karaliunas   To connect with AttractionPros: AttractionPros.com [email protected] AttractionPros on Facebook AttractionPros on LinkedIn AttractionPros on Instagram AttractionPros on Twitter (X)

Looking for daily inspiration?  Get a quote from the top leaders in the industry in your inbox every morning.   Every year, millions of attraction visitors lose hours in line instead of making memories. Since its inception, accesso’s virtual queuing has saved more than 4.5 billion minutes of wait time, freeing guests to pack their day with more rides, eats, and excitement. The result? Happier guests who spend more and a better bottom line for you. Ready to turn waits into wins? Visit accesso.com/ROIClinic. The queues are virtual. The results are real. Evan Barnett is the President of Pyek Group. Starting in the industry at 16 cleaning restrooms at Water World USA, he was quickly thrust into leadership, moved from park services to water safety, and grew under strong mentors who sharpened his view of people-first operations. Today, Evan leads Pyek Group across four parks in three markets under two brands, focusing on culture, clarity of mission, and what he calls the “un-water park” mindset: hyper-clean facilities, great food, and genuine hospitality. In this interview, Evan talks about cold, hard leadership, being unoffendable, and doing the basics really well. Cold, hard leadership “It’s tough. It’s cold, hard leadership is really what it is. And it’s listening and understanding and just realizing, hey, give the other guy the benefit of the doubt.” Evan frames leadership as equal parts standards and empathy. Early in his career, he learned that perception is reality: a supervisor saw “slowness” while Evan was meticulously scrubbing grout with a toothbrush. That moment shaped how he equips teams by giving clear direction, the right tools, and assuming positive intent before judging outcomes. At Pyek Group, he translates this into over-communicating vision across varied brands and communities, aligning departments around a single mission so daily frictions become sparks that sharpen rather than burn. He also guards leaders’ attention from getting hijacked by edge cases. Rather than orbit the “loud 20%,” he pours recognition and coaching into the 80% who show up wanting to do great work, using high-fives, momentum building, and consistent standards. For Evan, culture is “caught, not taught,” spread through a thousand conversations and modeled behavior that make accountability feel fair and human. Being unoffendable “The one core value I really want to hone in on that we have is called unoffendable… be unoffendable, man.” Unoffendable is a Pyek Group core value, not an aspiration. Evan wants feedback to flow fast and candidly without venom and without weaponizing “brutal honesty.” In practice, that means seeking to understand before being understood, extending grace because everyone, including leaders, will need it back tomorrow. He links unoffendable behavior to hospitality itself: when a guest complains about cold food or long lines, defensive walls only distract from fixing the day. Empathy and grace let teams remediate quickly and leave people feeling cared for. Internally, the same posture fuels agility. Teams “fire themselves” metaphorically, stepping out to reset their mindset and reenter discussions ready to solve problems together. Evan emphasizes that core values must be binary and lived. You are kind, or you are not. You are unoffendable, or you are not. Keeping feedback direct but non-weaponized preserves trust, speeds pivots, and keeps focus on the guest experience over ego. Doing the basics really well “Just do the basics really well.” Borrowing a line he admires from Troy Aikman, Evan centers Pyek Group on mastery of fundamentals: smiling welcomes, clean spaces, good food, frictionless transactions, and consistent delivery day after day. He calls it “power in the mundane,” resetting every morning so the thousandth “Where are the lockers?” gets the same warm response as the first. That dependable baseline becomes a brand personality guests can feel, and it cannot be copied by simply duplicating slides or lazy rivers. Basics evolve, though. Orientation remains essential, but how teams learn must fit how they consume information today, using short, bite-sized training and tools they can use immediately on Day One. Evan is unafraid to reverse course when basics are misread. The lesson, letting fans tell you what matters and then amplifying it, keeps “basic” tightly aligned with real expectations. You can reach Evan at [email protected], and learn more about Pyek Group at pyekgroup.com. This podcast wouldn't be possible without the incredible work of our faaaaaantastic team:   Scheduling and correspondence by Kristen Karaliunas   To connect with AttractionPros: AttractionPros.com [email protected] AttractionPros on Facebook AttractionPros on LinkedIn AttractionPros on Instagram AttractionPros on Twitter (X)