Roller Coaster Royalty: The UK Theme Park Awards Unveiled

In this Skip the Queue podcast episode, Paul Marden, Oz Austwick, Sinead Kimberley, and Andy Povey, talks about all the cool stuff they saw at the UK Theme Park Awards at Thorpe Park.

“There’s nothing that really gets to the heart of what this industry is all about better than the face to face physical interactions.” -Andy Povey

What will you learn from this podcast?

•  UK Theme Park Awards
•  Award Categories and Winners
•  Industry Networking and Recognition
• IAAPA Conference Preview

Your hosts, Paul Marden, Oz Austwick, Sinead Kimberley & Andy Povey

Our guests, Paul Kelly (BALPPA), Neil Poulter (Thorpe Park), Ross Ballinger (Drayton Manor), Danielle Nicholls & Sophie Tickle (Alton Towers), Jennifer Howlett & Charlotte Peirce-Gregory (Legoland)

Paul Marden: Hello and welcome to our first Skip the Queue Season Six Rubber Cheese get together. And we’ve got a corker. Today, there’s four of us virtually together for our meetup after having been together yesterday in real life at the UK Theme Park Awards. So that’s what we’re going to talk about today. 

We’re going to talk a little bit about all the cool stuff that we saw yesterday at Thorpe Park and enjoyed those theme park awards. But before we do that, should we do some introductions? Because I think everyone knows me and others, don’t they? 

Oz Austwick: I’m here again. 

Paul Marden: You can sound more pleased. Everyone will love you. I’m thrilled. 

Oz Austwick: Absolutely thrilled. I couldn’t wish to be anywhere nicer. Back in my office, not surrounded by monkeys. 

Paul Marden:  We are also joined by Sinead Kimberley, who is the Senior Client Success Manager here at Rubber Cheese. Say hi, Sinead, and tell everyone what you do. 

Sinead Kimberley: Yeah, so I work with our clients and making sure they’ve got everything they need for the website and try and act as the voice of the client, essentially with our developers, so that what you ask for, they know how to make it technical. I can pass it back to you and make it all visible on the website and get everything done. 

Paul Marden: That you need the glue that binds us together. And today we are also joined by the probably I’ve got to prove this. I’m going to have to do the counting because I know that other people do count. I’m thinking Dom from Mary Rose for sure counts the number of times he’s been there. 

Andy Povey: So am I. 

Paul Marden: But I think Andy Povey, roaving ticketing expert and gentleman of leisure, joins us today possibly as the most frequent guest on Skip the Queue. But today you get upgraded to co host status because you joined us. 

Andy Povey: Well, I feel honoured, Paul. Thank you. 

Oz Austwick: Is that actually an upgrade? 

Paul Marden: I definitely think co host is an upgrade. For sure. For sure. 

Oz Austwick: Speaking of co hosting, I’ll just point out that also in this episode we have some interviews recorded at the awards, some with winners, some with prize givers. It’ll make more sense in the YouTube version where you can actually see them.

But if you’re listening to this just as an audio podcast, you need to know that when the room gets noisy or you can hear people screaming in the background, that’s a clip from Thorpe Park itself. So that’s coming up throughout the podcast today. But as always we start with where we’ve been recently, other than Thorpe Park. 

Paul Marden: Why don’t I start with you, Andy, because I know you’ve been on a few trips just recently with the family. Where’s an attraction you’ve been to recently that sticks in your mind as being pretty cool? 

Andy Povey: So most recently was a couple of weekends ago. We took the kids Tower of London on a Sunday afternoon or a sunny Sunday afternoon. It’s absolutely superb experience. We’ve been members of Historic Royal Palaces for six months, eight months, something like that. And it’s one of those that just sits in the dusty corner of a drawer somewhere and didn’t get used.

So we dusted it off and said, “All right, let’s go to the tower.”. Brilliant experience, absolutely superb. The kids loved it and they really engaged with all of the interpretation there. And it’s probably my third or fourth time of taking my ten year old girls there. And there’s something new every time or something different every time that we haven’t picked up on, we haven’t seen so great experience. 

Paul Marden: I love it. And I love it going there with membership because I think when you go the first time, you get wowed by all the really big stuff, you know, the shiny jewels and all of that kind of good stuff. By the time you go there second or third time, you begin to notice some of the other stuff. There’s some lovely little regimental museums hidden off in the corner. Aren’t there lots to find in there? Which if you only go the once and you do it as a set piece, you don’t necessarily notice it because you want to go and look at the court stuff. 

Andy Povey: Yeah, it’s just the single visit. It’s just a high pressure environment, isn’t it? You want to catch everything, you want to get the best value out of it. I mean, we got there at 02:00 in the afternoon. I don’t think I’d have done that if I was just paying for the single day entry. 

Paul Marden: What about you, Sinead? Where have you been recently? 

Sinead Kimberley: Mine is up north, Wyresdale Park. And it’s just an outdoor park, so not kind of a ticket place that you need to kind of buy a ticket for. But I loved it because when went, it felt like we’d just gone into a normal park, but you felt like you were at some kind of holiday camp and you could hear kids playing in the water on the paddle boards and the kayaks and then you had all the dogs running around and then you had the hikers going past you to go up.

And we did go for a walk. So went, I think it was maybe two and a half hours up to the peak and it was just lovely to see all the families as well on a sunny day. Rare up in Lancaster. No rain for once. 

And, yeah, it was just a lovely place to be. You had a really nice feel of just people having fun and enjoying nature, which I think is really lovely. So, yeah, that was my favourite recently, besides Thorpe park, obviously. 

Paul Marden: Oz, what about you, mate? 

Oz Austwick: Goodrich Castle. We took the family away and we did a couple of nights glamping. Amazing place. I won’t go on too much about that, but went to Goodrich Castle, just outside Ross on Wye, and it’s the first time I’ve ever been. It’s amazing. So many of these castles are just a series of small walls and there’s nothing to actually see, but it’s a proper castle. There’s a moat and a bridge over it to get in, and there are dungeons and towers. You can go up ad it’s. Yeah, it’s fantastic. If you’re in the area, definitely go check it out. It’s well worth it. 

Paul Marden: Lovely for the kids, isn’t it? Because I do think, whilst it can be a really lovely day out to go to some of these castle ruins, it can be pretty tough to imagine as a ten year old what it was actually like and what that low wall over there actually was. 

Oz Austwick: There’s definitely a trade off, though, because the more castle there is, the more the older kids love it. But I’ve got a four year old as well and I’m much happier when it’s a flat bit of grass with a couple of stones in it than when she’s trying desperately to scale up a spiral staircase that has been worn down for 500 years. 

Paul Marden: We did the wall around Warwick Castle a few years ago and I was at a heightened state of anxiety, I think it’s fair to say. 

Oz Austwick: Yeah. 

Paul Marden: So mine is the National Marine Aquarium, which is one of the Rubber Cheese clients down in Plymouth, and it’s my first time of actually going and seeing it. And were there. We were coming back from a holiday in Cornwall, so it was a stop off on the way back and it was such a lovely stop off.

My memory of it is we’ve been. We were avid watchers of the anime show that was on at Christmas last year. We really enjoyed watching that. Millie loves animals and she loved the turtle that was in the show last year. And went and I. We were there. It must have been ten minutes before closing time. They were trying to get people to leave. 

We were one of the last families there, but were just sat on the floor, on the top floor looking into the tank where the turtle was. It was just so relaxing to just watch this turtle coming in and going out and the sharks that were in there. It was a really beautiful place. Lovely place. Really enjoyed that. So going from serene, calm aquarium, let’s talk about Thorpe Park and the National Theme Park Awards. How was it for you guys? I hasten to add, I didn’t make it Hyperia yesterday, which we did. 

Oz Austwick: Notice that Sinead and I did. 

Sinead Kimberley: My eyes were closed. 

Paul Marden: So what was Hyperia actually like then? Was it, was it as scary as I thought it might be? 

Oz Austwick: Yes. 

Sinead Kimberley: Yes. But also as incredible. Yeah. I was sad I didn’t go on twice. 

Oz Austwick: You know, all of those feelings you get when you go on a roller coaster, that kind of the adrenaline and the sense of fear and all of that you get that gives you a bit of a buzz when you get off it. Imagine just dialing all of that up to eleven and. Yeah, mind blowing. It’s too far, it’s too big, it’s too high, too scary. No, I’m glad I did it. 

Paul Marden: They did say yesterday, didn’t they, when they were talking about the ride itself, that it was the tallest roller coaster in the UK, I think. But also the one with the most weightlessness in the UK, which I can’t imagine how you measure it and I can’t imagine what it’s like. So can you put into words what the weightlessness was like? 

Oz Austwick: You know, if they’ve got these big over the shoulder harnesses that come down and you’re in the seat and, you know you’re safe, you know you’re trapped and you’re sitting with all your weight on a seat because that’s just how you sit. Right? 

Paul Marden: Yeah. 

Oz Austwick: But for most of this ride, you’re not. You’re somewhere in between the two. You’re not sitting and you’re not pushed up against the harness, you’re just being flung around constantly. 

Sinead Kimberley: Yeah, yeah, it is weird. I think I didn’t notice when the harness thing you get is different to the normal one, so you don’t have that big thing pushing your shoulders back. It just goes around your waist and then there’s like a bar you can hold in front. It is safe, we can confirm because we are here, but it did make you feel like you weren’t quite as stuck to something as normal. And then add to that you were moving faster, and you were dropping from higher heights.

You realise that you were still falling, which you don’t normally do on a roller coaster. Normally you realise you’re falling and then you’re done, whereas this, you realise you’re falling. You start to be like, okay, but I’m still safe. And then you maybe open your eyes and you look around this I couldn’t. I carried on realising I was falling a lot longer. You really felt it in your body. 

Oz Austwick: That first peak where you go and it starts to move, and then it literally, it takes you up and you’re lying backwards and you’re going up, and you can just about see the track ahead of you up there. And then you get to the top, and it’s such a tight curve that as you drop, you can’t see the track, and you just drop. Yeah. 

Sinead Kimberley: I loved it, though. 

Paul Marden: Should we go back to the podcast and move away from therapy session? 

Oz Austwick: Yeah, we can come back to therapy later, though, right? Because I think I need it. 

Paul Marden: So yesterday was the third year that we’ve sponsored one of the awards, so it was the third time I’ve been to the awards. Third time it was in real life, fifth year of running, and it was just lovely, wasn’t it? It was such a nice industry get together. I think you were commenting this morning, Andy, on LinkedIn, about the networking effect of it. 

Andy Povey: Yeah. The industry we’re in is a very physical, actual industry. People go to attractions because they want to do something so well. Virtual is great, and digital is great, obviously. I mean, it’s what I’ve been doing for a very long time. There’s nothing that really gets to the heart of what this industry is all about better than the face to face physical interactions. And that was a real sort of epiphany away, I think I said on a message to someone the other day, yesterday, that’s just really important. It was the first event I’ve been to since May. Very good. 

Oz Austwick: Good. I thought it was a real eye opener how you kind of going there as an exhibitor. And it was my first time. I kind of assumed that I’d stand next to a stall and people would come over and I’d try and talk to them, and all they’d want was whatever free merch I’d have on this. But it wasn’t like that.

It was like being in a big room with a bunch of people who were friends and they were happy you were there, too, and it was just a really lovely experience. It didn’t feel like a corporate trade show type event, which is exactly what I was expecting. 

Paul Marden: And it is fiercely competitive. So everybody does want to win in the categories they’re in. 

Oz Austwick: Yes. But Alton Towers wins them all. 

Paul Marden: Right, so I am here with Sophie and Danielle from Alton Towers. It’s been a successful day for you guys, hasn’t it? Did you manage to count the number of awards or did you just lose count? 

Danielle Nicholls: I think it was a level, maybe round and fair. 

Paul Marden: Definitely double figures. Definitely double figures. We saw both of you going up and down the stage. Up and down the stage. Highlight, which was the one for you, Danielle, that you really appreciated. 

Danielle Nicholls: You know, what it was between two. So super proud of everything we did with Nemesis. Like Nemesis Reborn has been such a momentous campaign throughout.

Paul Marden: Yeah. 

Danielle Nicholls: And so I’m super proud of that one. But for me, I think the one that has my heart in, it’s our community award. So I was super proud to play silver for that one. 

Paul Marden: It was brilliant to get you up on the stage, bring the band back together again with you and Ross up there. And Sophie, what about you? What was the biggest highlight for you? 

Sophie Tickle: So I was really keen for the Best Marketing Campaign purely because I know how hard our team works on it. So I was really kind of brutal. And the nemesis story is just incredible. So we felt like that was. That was a really good win for us. And then best ride storytelling is always a nice one just because we feel like it just captures everything. The resources. 

Paul Marden: I really enjoyed watching when we had the. ad campaigns that came on and we saw everything that everyone had produced and you could see the storytelling that goes into something like nemesis reborn. And then the room was just quiet at the end of it because were all just captured by all of these videos. 

Danielle Nicholls: Everyone could have won that one, genuinely. But we’re so proud. Like, Alton is such a lovely, friendly community in itself. Like, there’s hundreds of people that work all the towers. Like, you can never just put it down to one person. It’s such a big team effort. Everyone pulls together for everything. So, like, Alton After Dark winning golf best of event, that was amazing as well. I’m super proud of that one. 

Paul Marden: Everyone loves an after dark event, don’t they? Yeah, it’s awesome. Awesome. 

Danielle Nicholls: They do. 

Paul Marden: Thank you for joining me, ladies. It’s been really good to talk to you all. Cheers. So, yes, it is fair to say that Alton Towers did make a lot of trips onto the stage. Danielle and her yellow jacket was seen going up on stage quite a lot yesterday. But there’s a real diversity of different attractions that were nominated. So I think they said more than 30, nearly 40.

I think it was attractions that were nominated. 20 attractions overall. Yeah, 20 attractions overall. One prizes. There was one that was really close to my heart. Brean Theme Park. It was where my granddad and my dad played golf 45 years ago. I would go to Brean Leisure Park, as it was then, and go down helter skelter all the time. So to see that up on the awards for a nomination was really lovely. 

And there’s quite a few other smaller attractions like that got nominated. Talk a little bit about the categories or the memories that we got yesterday that stuck in our minds. Andy, was there a category for you that you were really impressed by? 

Andy Povey: Yeah, there was. For me, it was the Accessibility initiative the Katapult sponsored. Obviously, Merlin were very heavily represented in the nominations for that category. I think there were five out of the eight nominations were for either for Merlin Parks or things that Merlin were doing as a bigger or as a cross group activity. But there were also some really quite simple things from much smaller parks.

So noticeably there was a Camel Creek, again, down in deepest, darkest Cornwall, who were nominated for their changing places facility. And that just really brought home to me. Yes, it’s important that Merlin, as the largest operator in the country, are leading the way and they’ve got the resources to put behind this and all that kind of stuff. But it’s not just about doing those big things. 

Small things can make a difference and can make a really significant difference. And that’s really key to. Was one of the key messages in the industry, I think. 

Paul Marden: Yeah, I thought it was an interesting category. First time that it appeared in the awards, as you say, Katapult sponsored it, and it was quite a nice match between Katapult and that category because they’ve been doing quite a lot of work in designing spaces and attractions that are more accessible to people. So that was really. It was quite a nice match between sponsor and category.

And as you say, there was some really lovely stories to be told around. What was there? I loved there was a Merlin initiative where they were taking the characters and the stories of the parks out to hospitals and places where they were terminally ill children, which there’s lots of stories that have existed for a long time of kids being taken to the parks themselves. 

But what about when they can’t make it to the park and can you bring the magic of the park to them? I thought that was a really lovely idea. 

Andy Povey: Magic tour, they call that. And it’s actually run by the Merlin charity. Merlin’s Magic Wand. 

Paul Marden: Yeah. It’s a cracking idea, isn’t it? Yeah. But then you take it down to the changing places toilets and the initiatives to make places and make it clear what the accessibility of the place actually is, because we know that’s really important, that people that have accessibility needs will not go to new places if they’re not completely sure that it is accessible to them.

And having a space on your website and winning an award, or even being shortlisted for an award for having that information on your website, I think is amazing. It’s a cracking idea and there’s so much that the sector is doing that has opened my eyes just in the last year, from the M&H show that were at six months ago to just seeing some of the stuff yesterday, thought it was brilliant. 

Oz Austwick: Shall we have another interview from the awards? Paul caught up with another Paul. Paul Kelly from BALPPA. 

Paul Marden: So, Paul, you’ve just come from the first session of giving out awards and you on stage giving out bridge award. 

Paul Kelly: I was doing the best theme park for toddlers, both in the small category. And the large category. 

Paul Marden: And who was winning? 

Paul Kelly: Well, unsurprisingly, I think it’s not the first time they’ve won small categories won by Paulton’s Park. And considering the amount of investment they’ve done, and I’m not surprised, they also won the large as well. So, really good taking off. 

Paul Marden: It is, yeah. We were talking on our table that they’ve been doing this now for a very long time, able to get up on stage and win awards. Still, they must really be investing in what they’re doing. 

Paul Kelly: Continuous investments. I mean, if you get a chance like I do, look behind the scenes, they’re investing infrastructure, their staff, for how they run the park, but think of ten years ahead. So, yeah, incredible family, incredible journey. So, yeah, good luck.

Paul Marden: Behind the scenes, Pickworld must be quite the operation. 

Paul Kelly: Yeah. I mean, again, well, one of the things they’ve done, although it is photographers, they do very well in bandits now, builds them on that because they have invested in trying. I don’t think they might be saying, “They do very well in bandits now,” builds them on that because they have invested in trying. I don’t think they might be saying. 

Paul Marden: That it is just about having. 

Paul Kelly: Well, but, yeah, paddlings are well deserved. 

Paul Marden: Amazing. Well done. Thank you. 

Paul Kelly: Yeah, no problem. 

Paul Marden: Sinead, what about you? What was the category that jumped out to you? 

Sinead Kimberley: Yeah, so for me, I think it was the sustainability, partly because it’s something that I am kind of working on, looking at a lot at the minute with clients and also a thing that I’ve been kind of getting myself up to speed on within the industry, because I think everyone talks about sustainability, but often it will be either a really big initiative or it’s something that’s just what everybody else is doing. So, you know, more recyclable packaging or that kind of thing. And I really loved. There was a roller coaster, I think it was Greenwoods, was it, Andy? 

Andy Povey: Yes. 

Sinead Kimberley: They had like a people powered or counterbalanced roller coaster. And I was sat on a table and kind of asked what that was. And the person next to me explained that it doesn’t use electricity, it just uses people. So as you’re going up, you’re powering people, going around the roller coaster, essentially. And it just sounds incredible. I’ve never heard of anything like that before.

And I was also talking to some of the people about the sustainability of a website and something that we don’t think about. You think about how many clicks to get tickets sold or to get you to see the video or whatever, but you don’t necessarily think about the server powering every single click, empowering every single page view. 

And so to kind of see how different places have worked with sustainability, whether it’s the reusable cups or roller coaster that’s literally using people to power it and then enjoy it at the same time, was really interesting to kind of complete my picture of what sustainability looks like in the industry and all the different things it could touch on from the website to literally on the park itself.

Sinead Kimberley: And when the parks are by nature not going to be the most, you know, energy efficient, maybe because you’ve got these massive roller coasters you need to power safely. It’s really interesting to see that the small things, like you mentioned, Andy, with accessibility, the small things really can altogether make a really big impact on how you as an organisation can be more sustainable. So, yeah, that was really eye opening, I think, seeing those different nominees. 

Paul Marden: Yeah, absolutely. 

Oz Austwick: I think the one that won it as well is a lovely example of however much you ask people to do something because it’s the right thing to do. If you actually make it in their interests to do it, suddenly it becomes much more viable. So you can. Everyone’s got recycling bins, but if you’ve got this reverse vending machine where you put your empty plastic bottles in and you get something back out of that, then clearly people are going to do. If you were there with your kids, they’re going to be collecting bottles they find lying around and making sure they go in the right bin because they get something. 

Paul Marden: And it wasn’t just a little something, was it? It wasn’t just a couple of tokens. You could win some pretty amazing prizes out of it. 

Oz Austwick: Absolutely. Yeah. 

Andy Povey: Yeah. I was at the Latitude Festival last year and they were charging a temp deposit on every waxed paper cup. And the number of kids running around collecting huge stacks of these cups. 

Oz Austwick: Yeah. 

Andy Povey: And they were even going into the bins and taking them out of the bins, which I’m not sure was the real driver behind, but they were making. It must have been hundreds of pounds. 

Oz Austwick: Absolutely. It was the same. I used to go to the rugby quite a lot before my rugby team disappeared. And they would charge a one pound deposit on plastic reusable cups and you could either keep it as a one pound cup or give it back and get your pound back. And most people just. They’d have a few beers and they’d leave them. But at the end of the match, kids, just like you say, would be running around collecting these and they’d be walking away with 20, 30 quid’s worth of cups. You know, what an amazing thing for the kids to do. Just makes it worth their while, doesn’t it? 

Paul Marden: So I’m here with Jennifer and Charlotte from Legoland. So you’ve been at the awards today with us. How’s it been? Was it a successful day for you guys? 

Jennifer Howlett:  Pretty successful, yeah. A few wins across the category. 

Paul Marden: Yeah. So what. What categories did you. Did you get awards for? 

Charlotte Peirce-Gregory: So we’ve got new band, which I was Ninja tonight, which is really exciting. That was our summer first year. 

Jennifer Howlett: We’ve done it as well. So it’s really exciting to see that. 

Paul Marden: So I love Ninjago. The ride itself. What’s the event all about? 

Charlotte Peirce-Gregory: So, literally, we had loads of different things going on. We had dragons, drumsy, we had loads of different entertainments. We had characters, meet and greets, and were new characters, which was really exciting. Aaron and Sora. So, yes, that was great. And that finished quite long ago. Sarah’s missing to see that. 

Paul Marden: Excellent, excellent and highlight of the day for you guys. What did you see that has really got you excited? 

Charlotte Peirce-Gregory: Do you know what, thing is for me with the map? I look after all things catholic events and stuff, and that was quite nice that you see. 

Paul Marden: It’s funny because everyone was laughing a little bit. I know award for the maps, but actually, the maps and the attraction is so important. It is, it is. If you walk in and you don’t get a map, it’s like, How do you figure out where you’re going, you’re always going and looking at the map on the wall instead of having it in your hand. So, yeah, it’s a bit of a laugh, but actually I think it’s a really important. Yeah. Lovely to meet you guys. Thank you for joining us. Cheers. So, Oz, tell us what was the standout moment for you yesterday? 

Oz Austwick: I thought it was really lovely to see in amongst all of these theme parks and massive organisations getting up there to win awards, that there was an award specifically for content creator of the year, that these people are out there producing content that literally markets and drives visitors to these attractions to go on these rides and they were actually recognised a change.

And I thought that was both a lovely thing as a concept, but also as a YouTuber myself, within a very small and specific niche, it was really nice to get to chat to some other YouTubers from an equally small niche and spend a bit of time with them. I thought it was really. It was lovely. So I just want to shout out to Andy from Coaster Crazy and Digital Daniel, lovely people. 

Sinead Kimberley: Thank you, Andy, for helping me on the roller coaster as well. It was needed. 

Paul Marden: You were with those influencers, weren’t you, during the awards itself? I think. I think it’s a bit of a challenge having a daytime awards, that it can be a bit of a struggle to get some life out of the audience. And George, the compare does graft to try and get us into the mood. But I’ve noticed every year I’ve been there that if you sit anywhere near the influencers, that’s usually the naughty table with lots going on. 

Sinead Kimberley: They were very well behaved. 

Oz Austwick: Because you were sat with them at the award. We went with them round the park later and it was lovely to see people visiting the park, recognizing them and coming up to say hi and that this is genuinely a thing that really works. Yeah, I just thought it was. It was great. Let’s recognize these guys because I doubt any of them are making a full time living out of this. They’re doing it in their own time because they love her. So if you’re. If you’re from a theme park, support them a little bit more, get them in there, let them. Let them do this stuff because it does benefit you. 

Paul Marden: You say they’re not making a full time living. I can’t remember what the couple are, Andy, who have every year at theme park awards, they’re never there to collect their award because they’re always somewhere in Florida or California, because September is a perfect time for them to go and do all the recordings. I guess parks are a little bit quiet. Weather’s still good. 

Oz Austwick: Yeah, but that’s the thing. Maybe they go in then because it’s cheaper. 

Paul Marden: Yeah. Still having a good time recording to. 

Oz Austwick: Make a good living. You can make a good living from social media, but it’s pretty rare. 

Paul Marden: So I am going to claim. Yeah. Executive prerogative and I’m going to take two memories and talk about them. 

Oz Austwick: That is definitely cheating. 

Paul Marden: So I’m going to talk first about the. The main awards, the best theme park, which, strangely, last year were at Chessington, won by Chessington. This year were at Thorpe park, won by Thorpe park. 

Oz Austwick: What are you saying? 

Paul Marden: I don’t know. I don’t know. But what I am. I guess what I am saying was what I really loved was the recognition of the whole thought pop team. Now, it wasn’t the whole thought pub team because that would probably be hundreds of people and the stage wouldn’t take it, but we had a little kind of troop of different people from across the park come and collect the award and I just. I really liked that. I thought that was a lovely thing to see those people being recognized. 

Neil Poulter: And that’s exactly. It’s a team effort, there’s no doubt about it. Obviously, many people in the room, but the people behind the scenes as well. And we’ve had a fantastic year. It’s been a journey. You don’t just arrive at winning best theme park and best new attraction. It’s a journey that we’ve been on for the last three and a half years. We haven’t previously won that award, so I think it’s testament to where we’ve come from, but hopefully where we’re going as well. So, super excited. 

Paul Marden: Highlight for you? 

Neil Poulter: I think, obviously, Best Theme Park. I think winning the big one is something that, you know, is. Feels like new territory for us, but I think, you know, we deserve our seat at the table. 

But, you know, across the awards, you know, best new attraction, obviously, for Hyperia is that also some entertainment in terms of stitches and Friday nights, which we’re so proud of, you know, a fantastic maze. The team that do our social, which, again, you know, allows us to speak with our audience, our most passionate audience and really, you know, them winning the gold was also a huge highlight for me as well. 

Paul Marden: Awesome. So time for some food and then some fun after Hyperia. And here’s some screaming. 

Neil Poulter: Yeah, absolutely. Can’t wait to ride it. I actually wrote it yesterday for about only the 6th time and I went on the back. It was amazing. But, yeah, hoping people that haven’t even experienced it yet will get a chance to. And if people have, which I’m sure many have, they will come back and enjoy it. And the sun’s shining, so what better time to be at the Thorpe Park?

Paul Marden: So congratulations, Neil. Thank you for talking. 

Neil Poulter: Thank you very much. You’re welcome. 

Paul Marden: But then the other memory for me was our own award. We sponsor the Social Media Content Category and I nearly missed my queue. I was quite happy sitting there listening to all of these parks being nominated, thinking, well, that’s interesting. Well, that sounded very good. And then I realized it was me and I was supposed to get on stage and hand the award out, so there’s a little rush to the stage. But what I really liked, it was lovely to hand over the gold award to Thorpe Park, meet the social media team there. 

Paul Marden: But it was also really nice because it was an opportunity to meet a couple more Skip the Queue alumni, Danielle and Ross, they used to work together at Drayton Manor and as we’ve already said, Danielle is now at Thorpe Towers and was up and down like a fiddler’s elbow on the staircase yesterday. 

Oz Austwick: She’s a full time award collector. 

Paul Marden: But it was lovely to get the band back together again up on stage. Handsome. Some bronze and silver awards out to Ross and Danielle. I really enjoyed that. It was just nice. It’s really nice because Kelly first met them at the awards three years ago. Again, she was sat on the naughty table at the back with the two of them making lots of noise and enjoying themselves.

But just, we got immediately the sense of enjoyment and fun that the two of them had and that they bring to the work that they do. And it was lovely to see that recognised yesterday on stage because we have nothing to do as sponsors of the award, we have nothing to do with choosing who the winners actually are as a team of esteemed judges. And then the public vote also counted this time. 

Paul Marden: But, yeah, to see, to see the growth of people that have been on the podcast, their careers growing, and then seeing them back on stage again yesterday, that was really lovely. I enjoyed that. 

Paul Marden: It’s a bit weird, isn’t it, because the awards are in the daytime, it’s. All a little bit where we can. You always come and you bring the energy to the room, don’t you? Yes. We got the band back together up on the stage with you and Danielle. 

Ross Ballinger: Yeah. 

Paul Marden: Both in the social media category. So that was nice. To see what have you got in your hands at the moment? 

Ross Ballinger: I’ve actually just got pleasure Wood Hills award because I’m representing them today as well as part of the luping UK contingency. 

Paul Marden: Okay, so what did they win? 

Ross Ballinger: They got bronze for Best Theme Park. 

Paul Marden: Oh, wow. 

Ross Ballinger: Which they have overhauled their map this year, which is really fantastic. So we’re getting too excited never to excited about. 

Paul Marden: No. 

Ross Ballinger: But maps are a great addition to any park. 

Paul Marden: Do you know when you walk in the gates and you don’t get the map and it’s like, oh, people have got it. Yeah. People will complain. Absolutely. And everyone loves a map. 

Ross Ballinger: They take a lot of. It’s no easy task. They can take six to twelve months to get a really, you know, popping man. Yeah, yeah. And it’s obviously all down to the illustrators and everything like that. 

Paul Marden: And the life of the park as well, because you’re telling stories. 

Ross Ballinger: You’ve got to bring the paper to life. 

Paul Marden: So highlight for today for you. 

Ross Ballinger: Highlight, obviously, being on the show, on stage, being on stage for the social media category. Close to my heart, that kind of category. I love socials. I love doing what we do on socials. And it’s a big core team for Drayton Manor. 

Paul Marden: Is it really? 

Ross Ballinger: It’s the whole team that really. It doesn’t really channel itself into one person. We have a great executive, Morgan McHenry, that looks after the top end of all the social media. So she’s the goddess that orchestrates it all. But she will be. She will say that it’s not just her, but everyone just contributed to making sure our social media channels are like, just absolutely fantastic and great for people to watch. 

Paul Marden: I think they’re most authentic, aren’t they? When you get everybody involved all across the park, all the people telling their little stories and showcasing what party’s like. 

Ross Ballinger: That’s what it’s all about. A lot of other departments do their job. They think they’re just having fun on TikTok again. But we’re not, you know, we’re really like behind the scenes thinking of content, going out, filming the content, you know, putting the content together, scheduling it to go out. 

Paul Marden: It doesn’t just happen by itself. 

Ross Ballinger: It doesn’t happen. 

Paul Marden: You don’t just walk out with a phone and get yourself a smash hit video that just goes viral. 

Ross Ballinger: Well, the more fun we have, the more engaging it is. So it’s our job to be fun. You have fun. 

Paul Marden: It’s a tough life. Right. Lovely. See you again. Bringing the alumni back together again. 

Ross Ballinger: Great. Thank you. Thank you. 

Paul Marden: So that was the UK theme park awards yesterday, but that’s not the only thing happening in the industry at the moment, is it, Andy? Something big and important is happening next week. 

Andy Povey: You mean my trip to Amsterdam? 

Paul Marden: Well, I was thinking more about the IAAPA conference that was at Amsterdam as opposed to your particular trip to the. 

Andy Povey: Yeah, so it’s the 20th 30th instance of the IAAPA Europe show, IAAPA Europe Expo, this time taking place in the RAI at Amsterdam, or in Amsterdam from Tuesday to Thursday next week. Lots of great stuff, lots of great people. All about the attractions industry. There might be an occasional beer or two while we’re there on the short. 

Paul Marden: I think it is important to note for Mrs. Povey, if she actually does listen in, that this is an important work event and there will be lots of networking. And if you’re not networking, you’re not working. We know that. However, it is also worth mentioning that on numerous occasions yesterday I heard you talking to people about the after parties that you were planning to attend. And yeah, it’s a busy social calendar that you’ve got signed up to next week. 

Andy Povey: It certainly is. I think I might need to cut down on the pre party work to give time for the after party to take the best. 

Paul Marden: So you’re going to enjoy yourself and do lots of important networking next week. But I guess the call to action for listeners today is if you are planning on being at IAAPA next week, hunt down Andy. He’s a tough guy to miss and everybody knows him. So go and find him, have a chat with him and enjoy yourselves in IAAPA and we will be back in two weeks time. Thank you very much guys. It’s been delightful having a foursome as co hosts and I think we get to do this again. 

Oz Austwick: I quite like this. We should do this more often. 

Paul Marden: Absolutely. 

Do you know someone we should be talking to?

Do you know someone fascinating we should be talking to?

If so, email us at hello@rubbercheese.com – we’ll get back to you shortly.

Author:

Oz Austwick

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