The NextGen Showcase is an educational program that aims to inspire the next generation of themed entertainment professionals. The 10-month program “simulates a creative studio environment, whereby participants work in teams to create a themed attraction in response to a client brief.”
For the project, my team, Aurora Studios, was challenged to create an expansion land at a zoo/theme park. We were given a detailed brief and feasibility study to guide our ideation. The result is Naturalia – an interactive land that focuses on conservation.
Ultimately, Naturalia serves to be an example of the resiliency of nature. It is a beacon of hope, demonstrating how ecosystems can be restored. Our hope is that guests will feel inspired to be good stewards of the environment because of their time in Naturalia. We hope that as guests depart from Naturalia, they will carry not just fun memories, but a renewed dedication to conservation.
You can also learn more about Naturalia by visiting the NextGen website.
Blue Sky Phase
During the Blue Sky Phase, our team generated several stories and experiences for the expansion area. We selected three – Operation Night Light, Naturalia, and Excavation Station to develop and present in our Blue Sky package.
To help develop these three concepts, I utilized the questions included in Margaret Kerrison’s ISQ Wheel. The answers to these questions served as a grounding point for our team as we developed attraction ideas and mood boards.
Our next step was to create the visual package that we would submit to the clients. Our team worked together to curate images that captures the essence of each concept.
We also created a video package to accompany the pitch deck, for which I wrote the narration.
Concept Phase
The client panel chose “Naturalia” for us to continue developing. Our team worked to create a world that guests experienced like an animal. We had several ideas for smaller-scale, interactive attractions that would provide different types of educational yet entertaining experiences for guests of all ages.
For our main attraction, we wanted guests to progress through several different forest scenes “transforming” into a new animal in each scene. Our primary challenges with this attraction concept were developing a ride vehicle that achieved the immersion that we wanted and creating an interactive story.
The deliverable for this part of the project was a much more detailed, comprehensive overview of the land theming and attractions.
Once again, we also created a video to accompany the package, for which I wrote the script.
Schematic Phase
After the concept phase, we received a lot of constructive feedback from the client panel. It was at this point that I started acting as the Creative Director for our team. My goal was to create a cohesive concept that incorperated all of the feedback from our clients while also clarifying some of the creative intent that had been considered but reflected during the concept phase.
Our team decided to completely re-imagine our main attraction to make it more interactive. The majority of this phase was dedicated to developing the technical documentation necessary for building our land and attractions. Because our team made so many adjustments to our overall concept package according to the client’s specifications, we also decided to create a new Concept Package as well.
Our re-imagined main attraction, Conservation Quest, utilizes the new Vekoma Suspended Dark Ride system and invites guests to interact with the forest of Naturalia.
And finally, our team wrapped the project with a final video presentation, for which I wrote the script.