The WWA or
World Waterpark Association is an international organization dedicated to enhancing profitability, safety and standards in the water park industry. Each year the WWA hosts a trade show and symposium that brings together waterpark executives and industry vendors from around the world. This year the event was held in beautiful
Palm Springs.
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| Palm Springs Aerial Tramway — The World's 2nd steepest aerial tramway |
Palm Springs was gorgeous and the
Palm Springs Convention Center was packed with exhibitors displaying a wide variety of products and experiences meant for the water park industry — including delicious food vendors such as
Blue Bunny,
Dippin’ Dots, and
Johnny Rockets alongside water cannons (
Big Squirt), headwear (
Foamula), and decorative lighting in metal palm trees (
Designer Palms). The
Public Restroom Company, an innovator in building restrooms, handed out whoopee cushions, while
SnappyScreen, a full body sunscreen application device, displayed a beautiful wooden booth design. Water toy, floatie, surfboard and wave machine manufacturers also presented their unique take on each product.
The WWA conference offered many classes and seminars to educate, train, and inspire people in the waterpark industry. Sessions on safety, park design, marketing and risk management rounded out presentations on trends in food, understanding customer needs through surveys, and how to recruit the right employee for your business.
Kyle Mayfield, Clear Lounge Product Director, attended a class to become a Certified Pool Operator (CPO). The class was informative, providing knowledge on water chemistry and health standards. “We want to make sure that Clear Lounge has the most up-to-date systems in place, keeping our water crystal clear and balanced,” said Mayfield.
Sub Sea Systems also exhibited at this year’s trade show, and we were a hit! Our unique products stood out among the other exhibitors, generating significant interest from the show attendees. People were excited about
Clear Lounge, and our scale model made it easy to envision the real life product. Hannah de Bie, Director of Marketing and Communications, shared that her favorite part of exhibiting was watching people walk by, do a double take of the Clear Lounge model, and then decide to walk up to the booth to find out more about Sub Sea’s extraordinary products. “You could see people walk by other booths, avoiding eye contact and ignoring sales pitches…but our booth was consistently full; people
wanted to approach us,” shared Hannah. Jim Mayfield, President and CEO, and Hannah were unable to walk around the trade show because they were so busy sharing information about Sub Sea Systems’ products.
The Clear Lounge 5% scale model was definitely the star of the show. Sub Sea Systems is now in serious discussions for 3 new Clear Lounge locations! Visitors to Sub Sea’s booth also received a can of spearmint flavored, oxygen — it was the most popular giveaway (although, Kyle did love the whoopee cushion!). The 2nd day of the show (after a night on the town), many people visited our booth just for the canned oxygen — word must have spread that oxygen is the ultimate hangover cure!
We met with our suppliers Reynolds Polymer and Pentair; and many other vendors pursued us hoping to get a chance to bid on our projects.
There was plenty of interest in
Sea TREK as well. A meeting with an executive from an up and coming Texas aquarium has us gearing up for a potential new project, and developers from China were extremely interested in Sea TREK for their aquariums. Additionally, a gentleman stopped by our booth just to tell us how much he loved Sea TREK when he and his wife experienced it on their honeymoon. It is always good to hear from our TREKKERS!
FunCat, likewise, got attention, and we will be in touch with a real estate company representing homes on the water soon.
People from all over the world came to this 2-day trade show. Executives from China, Spain, Belgium, Kuwait, Australia and Canada, to name a few, walked through the exhibits and stopped at Sub Sea Systems’ booth.
We are very excited about these new opportunities and look forward to meeting with more interested parties during the upcoming
IAAPA expo later this month.
