Speakers Announced for the IAAPA Legends Panel

IAAPA Expo takes place each November at the Orange County Convention Center. It’s filled with theme park news, as well as innovations and sneak peeks into the possible future. It covers not only theme parks, but many other types of attractions, from bounce houses to arcade games. One of the highlights of the IAAPA Expo is the Legends Panel. This year it will take place on November 20, and the speakers have just been announced! Here is the official press release from IAAPA.

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For 22 years, the Legends Panel at IAAPA Expo, moderated and curated by Bob Rogers, CEO and Chairman of BRC Imagination Arts, has been a cornerstone for sharing essential knowledge from creative leaders. Dedicated to preserving the invaluable wisdom of the theme park and themed entertainment industry’s great achievers, this annual panel returns at IAAPA Expo 2024 on Wednesday, Nov. 20 from 4-5:30 p.m. in the Learning Hub, sponsored by Miral. This year’s panel features three extraordinary talents who embody Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words: “Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Each of these esteemed panelists, an accomplished author of influential books, will offer unique insights, strategies, and lessons from their remarkable careers in a can’t miss candid conversation.

Bob Rogers is the CEO and Chairman of BRC Imagination Arts, and the Founder, Moderator and Curator of The Legends Panel.  Rogers, a distinguished industry leader, has been inducted into the IAAPA Hall of Fame, received the Thea Lifetime Achievement Award, and earned two Oscar nominations. His journey began as a magician in Disneyland’s Magic Shop.

Bob Weis – With a career that spans over four decades as an Imagineer (most recently as the president of Walt Disney Imagineering), Bob Weis has created, designed, and developed immersive experiences for some of Disney’s most iconic projects around the world. From the U.S. to Shanghai, Tokyo to Paris, Weis’ design and storytelling imprint has been indelibly left on theme parks, attractions and rides, resorts, and cruise ships.  His latest book is Dream Chasing: My Four Decades of Success and Failure with Walt Disney Imagineering.  He previously edited Travels with Figment on the Road in Search of Disney Dreams, by Marty Sklar.  He is currently writing TWELVE DISNEY PARKS: Treasures from the Marty Sklar Archives of Walt Disney Imagineering [due for release June 2025].

Margaret Chandra Kerrison – Born in Indonesia and raised in Singapore, Margaret’s career spans over sixteen years of creating narratives and writing for television, film, digital media, games, brand storytelling, location-based entertainment, narrative placemaking, and immersive experiences, including Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, National Geographic Base Camp, and the NASA Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.  A former BRC-er and a former Disney Imagineer, today, she is a speaker, creative advisor, and author of two books: Immersive Storytelling for Real and Imagined Worlds: A Writer’s Guide (2022) and Reimagined Worlds: Narrative Placemaking for People, Play, and Purpose (2024).  Her third book is due out early next year, The Art of Immersive Storytelling: Strategies from the Gaming World.

Joe Pine – Author (with James Gilmore) of The Experience Economy, a best-selling classic, embraced by readers and companies worldwide and read in more than a dozen languages.  Pine is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and management advisor to Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial start-ups alike. He is cofounder of Strategic Horizons LLP, a thinking studio dedicated to helping businesses conceive and design new ways of adding value to their economic offerings.  The Experience Economy has been named one of the best business books of all time. Tentative plans for the Legends Panel include descriptions of Joe’s next book, The Transformation Economy, due out in the fall of 2025, and expected to be a sensation.