![]() ![]() If one person suddenly isn’t in their place, the rest of the team knows how to adapt and fill that spot, so everything keeps running smoothly.Īnother key ingredient to a cohesive, supportive team is inclusivity. They know each other’s gags, and this results in everything being in synch. In addition, each person knows what other team members are doing. This creates a natural flow, which is essential for timing during the show. One team member explained that, at Dark Woods, each person knows their role and is dedicated to doing it well. I asked my tablemates what they felt created a strong, dedicated team. The Dark Woods team spoke about how important it was for them to attend HAuNTcon as a group, especially the benefit of visiting places outside of HAuNTcon in smaller groups and then coming together to share their experiences. As one team member pointed out, if you don’t have a good team standing with you, you don’t have a haunt. The Dark Woods folks agreed that a dedicated team makes all the difference in a haunt-whether it’s a small home haunt or a theme-park Halloween event. ![]() Sorry, folks, but there are only about 10 ideas out there, so what matters is how you implement those ideas, and that comes down to the passion, cooperation, and camaraderie of your team. They didn’t want to share anything, because they were afraid somebody would steal their ideas. The Dark Woods team offered that there used to be a time when everybody in the haunt industry held their cards close to their chest. ![]() We keep that information moving,” said another Dark Woods person. ![]() “With the classes here, we can take what we learned back to our team members who aren’t here and help them learn from our experience. I think the haunt community is one of the rare businesses where you see people who are eager to share their “corporate secrets.” They’re eager to say, “Here’s what we did when we had that same situation.” That’s true of the haunt community in general. These people always want to tell you what they know, and that’s incredible,” said one of the team members. Even if it’s just one phrase, there’s a lesson to be learned in every one of these classes. Even if you’ve been haunting for 10 years, you go into these classes and always pick something up. “One of the greatest things about coming here and having such a dedicated group is we get to appreciate the broad horizon of the haunt industry. I’ve been coming to HAuNTcon for many, many years, and one of the things I like about it compared to some of the other shows is that this is the haunt show where people come to meet and support other haunters. One person responded that they really liked the education classes, because not only did they learn valuable information but it was a great way to meet people who were so like-minded in one place. The members of the Dark Woods crew had decided to attend this year’s HAuNTcon as a team, and I asked them what they’d found most interesting about this year’s event. Dark Woods has a crew of about 40 people that participate throughout the year. This indoor/outdoor haunt is open during the Halloween season and also has a “Christmas in the Park” event during the holiday season. So, with the app, instead of coming home with piles and piles of propaganda that usually ends up getting stored in a box for three years and thrown away, we were able to take our badges, tap them, and gather information from all the different vendors.Īfter a night of drinking and debauchery, I made it onto the trade show floor, where I sat down and talked with some new friends from Dark Woods Haunted Attraction, located in Natchitoches, Louisiana. One of my seminars was on “Monstrous Merchandise,” in which I brought together the retail side and the haunters’ side to create some win-win scenarios. What they’ve been trying to do-and what I’ve been trying to do as far as assisting them with my selection of seminars-is meld the two shows together to get the retail and the haunt sides to understand they share common ground and there are great opportunities for both sides when it comes to making bank off of the Halloween season. This year, there were all kinds of new additions to the show because, as you know, HAuNTcon is now co-located with the Halloween and Party Show, which makes it significantly larger. I recorded Episode 39 of my A Scott in the Dark podcast at the most recent HAuNTcon, which took place in New Orleans on January 17-19, 2020. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |