This is the final part in a three-part series on the wonderful little event Aquatica hosted on June 24th in Orlando, Florida. In my first two posts, here and here, I talked about the general park experience and then got into the nitty gritty: rides! In this post, I’ll be discussing my impressions of the Splash-Up event itself.
I heard about the Splash-Up through SeaWorld’s Twitter account. Frankly, I think I got lucky. The event was open to the first 75 people to respond, and I was number three. I just happened to be watching Twitter at the right time to snag my spot. Each attendee was allowed to bring one guest.
Now I love water parks, and I was super excited to coming to this event. I was not sure what SeaWorld expected from the attendees, but being the social media fanatic I am, I came ready for anything. I had my laptop, my USB microphone, my digital audio recorder (and a microphone to go with it), and a digital camera. I was ready to capture all of the digital content I could so that I would be ready to give the park the new media coverage it deserved.
Turns out, they just wanted us to have fun and then talk about it later. Eh, whatever. I came with the intention of crushing it.
My first impressions when I showed up were all positive. Parking was a snap. I drove up to the gate, told the attendant I was participating in the Splash-Up, and they checked my name off the list. Perfect. I mean, they had a list. And it was at the gate. And it was complete enough to have my name on it. That’s bloody huge. Note to companies: first impressions are lasting impressions.
I parked my car and made my way to the front entrance to find this:
This kind of stuff is awesome. Little touches like this make guests feel welcome, like they were worth the time and energy to make them feel welcome. So far, I’m impressed.
The check-in process was simple and painless, and it was staffed by energetic people who seemed to be as happy to be there as we were. This was also where we got our press kits. It appears that more and more companies are finding value in the distribution of press kits on USB flash drives. Check this out:
This is brilliant! There is huge value to little things like this. Here I am at SeaWorld’s waterpark, and they are 1) treating us like media with an actual press kit, and 2) giving it to us on a themed USB flash drive! Think it made me feel special? You bet it did. Nice work, Aquatica!
As soon as I was checked in, I was greeted by the spoonbill, Papa.
I was told that Papa likes to check things out, and that my Scheyden Sonoma RG sunglasses would probably make for an interesting texture for him.
When a small number of us had gathered, one of the staff took us through our own private security line to check our bags and guide us to the Banana Beach Cookout. As I mentioned in part one of this series, the food was splendid. There were already a number of participants eating, and more were constantly showing up afterI arrived, giving me the impression that a lot of thought went into the organization of this event.
We were then joined by Rick Beddow, the Vice President of Aquatica. He thanked us all for coming out to the event and talked about some of the special offerings available at Aquatica. Are you understanding this? The Vice President of the park came out to talk to us! Mr. Beddow and his team recognize the true, tangible value of New and Social Media. Fantastic.
Next we were joined by some animals, an anteater and a kookaburra. One of Aquatica’s mantras is that guests get to play side-by-side with the sea. It is my understanding that visitors to Aquatica will get the chance to see and interact with the various animals throughout their visit.
The kookaburra was awesome, especially when he decided to talk. There is no talking over the call of a kookaburra. Try it, I dare ya.
The anteater was one of the Tamandua species, much smaller than the giant anteater.
After I met the animals, I had a chance to talk to some of the staff behind the event. I met with Nick Gollatscheck in Marketing and Melissa Albers, the Manager of Digital Media Marketing for all of SeaWorld.
During our chat, I was able to learn more about SeaWorld’s approach to social media. They, like NASA, learned that people are interested in the “ordinary” day-to-day operations, especially when they come to conservation and animal rescue. They have had lots of positive feedback on the SeaWorld Parks Blog. The blog and Twitter accounts have both had information about turtle releases and manatee rescues. There’s more to SeaWorld than just theme parks.
The bottom line to all of this is SeaWorld is serious about connecting with people, with individuals. They understand that people like you and I, just regular folks that care about what is happening, have a voice. They to listen to what we have to say, interact with us personally, acknowledge great content, and embrace the opinions of the people.
Simply, they care, and they are willing to connect with us.
If there was anything at which I had to nitpick regarding the Splash-Up, I can think of only two things. First, I wasn’t really sure what to bring. I think perhaps I was a little spoiled by the amazing communications that came out of NASA during days leading up to the epic Tweet-Up in November of 2009. NASA’s staff sent several emails to my inbox detailing everything we could expect, and what was expected of us in return. I really would like to have had more information about what Aquatica expected of me when I arrived. I mean, I brought my laptop in case I needed to record some content. As it turns out, it was overkill. All I really needed was digital camera and some swim trunks.
Second, we only had a few hours at the park. Since the event started in the afternoon, I did not have time to experience everything Aquatica has to offer. I would like to have been able to check out the wave pool, the private cabanas, and the two rivers.
Again, I am nitpicking, and the entire event that Aquatica and SeaWorld put on was truly fantastic. I applaud SeaWorld for engaging the online audience and for really trying to connect with people. I cannot wait to see what they do next. So far, they have done a really bang-up job. Great work SeaWorld!
