RE: TRANSWORLD NATIONAL HAUNT INDUSTRY RECOGNITION AWARDS

[crazybob turner]

Greetings Haunters!
The RESULTS are in… listed below are the 2007 NATIONAL HAUNT INDUSTRY RECOGNITION AWARDS as awarded at the HAUNT PAVILION for the 12th National Haunt and Attraction Show produced by TransWorld Exhibits in Chicago this year.

TransWorld also gave out an unexpected 1st annual “Life-Time Achievement” Award to Cydney Neil of Rocky Point Haunted House in Utah.(Details below)

I salute everyone who participated and supported our events, either by entering, sponsoring, watching the daily competitions or simply viewing the exhibit entries. These competitions breathe LIFE into the show and help recognize the immense talent, creative ability and professionalism in our industry.

My wife and I and our crew were honored to once again develop, organize and host these activities for you. The fate of continuation of these activities is in limbo right now with TransWorld because of the move the Las Vegas in 2008. If you feel they were a beneficial part of the program we would appreciate your show of support in sending a letter to TransWorld via the www.hauntshow.com site under the contact bar and put it to the attention of Joe and Jen Thaler and Gregg Steliga.

A HUGE thank-you to this years Haunt Pavilion Sponsors:
· IAHA – International Association of Haunted Attractions
· In-Pro Insurance Company – Dave Goodman – Troy, Michigan
· Scare Parts – Keith Korner – Columbus, Ohio
· Bobbie Weiner – AKA: Bloody Mary
· Oak Island Entertainment Group, Florida
· Crowne Plaza Hotel – O’Hare

COMPLETE AWARD INFORMATION ALONG WITH SOME PICTURES WILL ALSO BE POSTED ON THE www.hauntshow.com WEBSITE VERY SOON!

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FOLLOWING:

WEBSITE WARS:
1st Place – www.NoOne2Trust.com - Howl-O-Scream - Busch Gardens, Tampa, FL – owner – GraFX Design company
2nd Place – www.TrailOfTerror.com - Wayne Barneschi – owner – Christopher Grande – Web Nine Studios Designer – Wallingford, CT
3rd Place – www.GoatmanHollow.com - Bill Livingston, Jay Wright, Mike Gemeny – Riverdale, MD
HM – www.statesville.org - Paul Siegel – Owner – Scared, Inc. - Kris Sahrobosky – KZ Media, Inc.

T-SHIRT WARS:
1st Place – Pirates of Emerson – Karl Fields – Fremont, CA
2nd Place – 7-Floors of Hell – Rodney Geffert – Cleveland, Oh
3rd Place –Cortland Hall – Witch’s Dungeon -
HM - Heartstoppers Haunted House – Joel Watson

TRANSWORLD OFFICIAL T-SHIRT DESIGN COMPETITION:
WINNER – Chad Savage of Sinister Visions

MARKETING TOOLS - POSTERS:
1st Place – Fear Factory – Joe Hutton – owner – Bart Rader- Banshee Graphics Findlay, Oh
2nd Place – Howl-O-Scream - Busch Gardens – Tampa, Fl
3rd Place – Maximum Terror – Peter Chichester – Stamford, CT
HM - FrightWorld – Ron Doherty – Buffalo, NY

MARKETING TOOLS - FLYERS:
1st Place – Bill Criscione – Ghostly Manor – Sandusky, Oh
2nd Place – Howl-O-Scream - Busch Gardens – Tampa, Fl
3rd Place – Terror Behind The Walls – Brett Bertolino – Philadelphia, PA
HM – Trapped In Purgatory – Katrina Hansen - NY

MARKETING TOOLS - TICKETS:
1st Place – Pirates of Emerson – Karl Fields – Fremont, CA
2nd Place – Pirates of Emerson – Karl Fields – Fremont, CA
3rd Place – FrightLand – Phil Miller - Delaware
HM - 7-Floors of Hell – Rodney Geffert – Cleveland, Oh

PHOTOGRAPHY – CLOSE UP FACIAL SHOTS:
1st Place – Halloween Traditions – Kevin Schults
2nd Place – Rhee LaFountain – Tilted Tombstones Prod. – Miamisburg, Ohio
3rd Place – Woods of Terror – Eddie McLaurin – Greensboro, NC
HM – The Death Mill – Patrick French – Memphis, TN

PHOTOGRAPHY - ENTRANCEWAY:
1st Place – The Asylum House – Nat Ridge – Greenwood, IN
2nd Place – Woods of Terror – Eddie McLaurin – Greensboro, NC
3rd Place – Terror Behind the Walls – Brett Bertolino – Philadelphia, PA
HM – Woods of Terror – Eddie McLaurin – Greensboro, NC

PHOTOGRAPHY – SCENE OR SET:
1st Place – Terror Behind the Walls – Brett Bertolino – Philadelphia, PA
2nd Place – Pirates of Emerson – Karl Fields – Fremont, CA
3rd Place – Darkwood Cemetery – Bob Vailliencourt – Waseon, Oh
HM - Madness on Meadow Lane – Steve Rogalinski – Allendale, NJ

PHOTOGRAPHY – ACTION SHOT WITH PATRON:
1st Place – Halloween Traditions – Kevin Schults – Waterloo, IA
2nd Place – Halloween Traditions – Kevin Schults – Waterloo, IA
3rd Place – Woods of Terror – Eddie McLaurin – Greensboro, NC
HM - The Death Mill – Patrick French – Memphis, TN

HAUNT BUILDERS CHALLENGE:
1st Place – The Asylum House – Patrick Greathouse, Justin Barne, Katie Sanders – Greenwood, IN
2nd Place – G & J Incorporated – Jim Smith (Juice), Gerrie Wisniewski (G-Wiz) – Niles Haunted Scream Park – Niles, MI

MAKE UP – SPEED DIVISION- “Zombie Theme”:
1st Place – Haunting Make-up – Geoff Beck/John Pascarello – Lyndhurst, Oh
2nd Place – Old Thyme Fun – Shannon Anderson/Douglas Varga – Fredricksburg, TX
3rd Place – Cass Community – Craig MacNeill/Andy Christler – Detroit, MI
HM – Funhouse Faces – Neena and Kelly Collins – Columbus, Ohio

MAKE UP – OPEN DIVISION – 1ST Place winning the $3,500.00 visitation and prize package from Bobbie Weiner AKA: Bloody Mary – Sponsor of this event!
1st Place – Body Baggerz – Rob Johnson, Atalie Garbers, John Pascarello – Southgate, MI
2nd Place – Evilusions – Katie Johnson, Chris Virgilio, Diana Katz – Painesville, Oh
3rd Place –Ghostly Manor – Renee Matthews, James Welch, Nathan David – Sandusky, Oh
HM – Fright Fest NH – Crystal Appleton, Sonia Ledo, Chad Zingales – Nashua, NH

GUESS THE NUMBER OF BONES CONTEST – Sponsored by Anatomical Chart Company – actual count was 131
WINNER – Wendy Carroll – Seattle, WA guessed 127 and won the pile of bones!

AND IN AN UNEXPECTED CEREMONY HELD AT THE IAHA ANNUAL MEETING TRANSWORLD HONORED “CYDNEY NEIL” WITH THE 1ST ANNUAL LIFE-TIME ACHEIVEMENT AWARD. CYDNEY IS HANGING UP HER ROCKY POINT HAUNTED HOUSE SHOES AFTER 20 PLUS YEARS IN THE BUSINESS WITH HER FINAL FEAR FAREWELL SHOW SCHEDULED FOR MARCH 23 – 26TH.

We apologize if we spelled any names or cities, etc… incorrectly… some of the hand written entry forms were challenging to read at best… Please send us an email off-list at bob@hauntshow.com if we made any mistakes so we can correct it before we post it up on the www.hauntshow.com site.

Thanks for all your support... WE LOVE ALL HAUNTERS! :wink:

Crazy Bob and Beth Turner and Crew

[bodybagging]

Thanx for allowing us to PLAY in the Pavillion Bob, Looking forward to NEXT YEAR!

[ClusterOne]

That was so cool, I just wanted to enter cause it sounded fun! 4th place ain't that bad for our first try on a shirt.

And a big thanks to Rouges Hollow for the original artwork.

Thanks for all your words of encouragement Bob!

Joel

[bodybagging]

Congrats Joel!!!!!!!!!

[crazybob turner]

Thank you all who have responded

It is really wonderful all the private emails and phone calls we have received in support of the Haunter's Pavilion events and demo's. It is very important that all haunter's email TransWorld an email as to how they feel about these and other events. TransWorld is in the middle of discussions for the 2008 Tradeshow. As I have continued to state, this is when attendees of Transworld need to speak up about what they want to see and do at a National Tradeshow. TransWorld is willing to listen (bearing in mind that THIS IS A BUSINESS) but if you do not email them about your thoughts and ideas then you have no one to blame but yourself.
Please cc me as well when you email TWE so that I also can be informed. Pass this information along to all other haunters ASAP as timing is very critical!
Email: jen.thaler@tweshows.com hauntedhydro@sbcglobal.net
Thanks for a very successful season and a huge "THANKS" to all who participated.
Your Humble Haunter - Crazy Bob Turner
from the Haunted Hydro Dark Attraction Park in Fremont, Ohio -19 years

[crazybob turner]

Official results shoud be up on the TWE site

Happy to post that all is well with the results of the National Title Winners and it will be posted on the TWE site in the near future. Again, Congratualtions to all who placed in this years events.
On Behalf of the TWE staff Thank you for a very Successful SHOW

Crazy Bob Turner Director of the Haunter's Pavilion and Competitions

[RJ Productions]

I've noticed a steady decline in the particpation in the Pavillion events. I amdimt I only had a short time to look at the entries posted (usually on the way to get a sandwich or use the john!!!)

A lot of the entries seem to be the same as last year, just fewer.
The Haunt Builders Challenge only had 2 entires.

We can get more people posting their coupons on a Hauntworld message board thread than we have at the TW Pavillion.

There are some very creative people out there. Most Haunters are basically "show-offs", no offense, we just like to display what we create. So why aren't people supporting the events at the TW Pavillion??

You can't fix something unless you understand the problem.

Any thoughts?

[drfrightner]

Interesting point Rich...

Personally I think the whole awards thing is a cool idea and more people should enter... there really is something to learn here. First off it should be expanded to include things like best radio commercial, television commercial, best promotion, blah, blah.

I think so far you've seen a very poor job at alerting people about these awards... and I think you need a more social setting to award these awards like a dinner or banquet for the entire industry. A coat and tie event with a nice dinner, much like our own academy awards, IAAPA has these and so does every other industry.

If we're to take our industry serious and if we're learn from these events they need to go beyond a haunters area at TW. We're bigger than this, better than that, and our industry should develope a program likes this.

As for voting the industry should be the judge, and allow your peers decide what they like best and go with it that way.

As for as what Bob's doing, I don't know who votes on them, or anything.

I don't think people want to pay $25 bucks or whatever to enter unless it was an award for from the entire industry.

To do this right you'd have to put a lot of effort into it ... it wouldn't be easy to start up but highly worth the effort.

What Bob's doing seems to be the start, but only basic at best. We need to take ourselves serious and you'll see a huge turnout.

But you're right you do see the same t-shirts hanging up, the same posters, blah, blah. Had Cydney Neil entered her poster she'd had won hands down, I think my t-shirts would have won hands down, Netherworld might have won best television commercial, and who know who had the best promotion, best radio commercials, we'll never know because the real event, the event that everyone would want to see hasn't been done... YET.

If Bob does his events again next year, hopefully he'll jump on this message board and alert everyone. I think A LOT more people would have entered had they known.

As a side note, my booth was right next to the Haunters area, everytime they did something over there I heard every detail...LOL

Larry

[drfrightner]

One other thing I would say is that those awards did look pretty nice! I saw them on MY way to the bathroom ... LOL.

Larry

[Speculo]

Interesting questions.

A few ideas on this -

1) Transworld is about business. If you have money to spend on making your show better or retail shops you don't have the time to do these events. They might be great if you have a large group with non-buyers, it can give them something to do, but time on the floor is critical if you are a serious buyer, and its hard to spend time on things like this.

2) Seminars are now held at the same time as haunters pavillion events. It might be interesting to see how both events effected each others performance.

3) What do these awards mean? I suppose you can take any award or trophy you get anywhere and use it to market your event, but what do these awards actually mean? Almost any awards are worth about what you and your peers think they mean. (That made no sense!) I would say an Oscar means a lot to the film industry. But If I gave out a best picture award it wouldn't mean anything.

I have no clue who enters or who judges these events (thats my fault for not paying attention) so they don't mean much to me at this point. I think if you win one of these and you can use it to get an article in your local paper great.


Awards in general serve a few purposes. They are great to reward good work especially for a person that is not well known, lets say that actor that works tirelessly in a boo hole in your haunt. They are great to elevate someone who by popular wisdom is long deserving of thanks. But they need to come from a person or an institution that is clear.

Are these the official awards of Transworld? if so they have some weight and I am surprised they don't get more attention.

IMHP If you want to know if your make-up is good or your poster is good or your Radio spots are good look at the lines in front of your attraction. Please your guests, they paid you, and in the words of Lance Pope "They deserve it"

At this point those are the main judges that I really care about, and when they give you a thumbs up by showing up in mass at your event its the best prize you can get!

Thanks

Ben
NETHERWORLD

[Jim Warfield]

Those customer-people vote by slipping green ballots into your ballot box.
If we can get them to vote for us more than once a year, then we are really doing it!
The first year they had the Haunters talent/track meat in the pay-villian, I thought it looked like fun doing those things, but I have the same fun everyday right here at home and guess what? The customers pay me to have this same fun, I don't pay someone else for the privledge.
So I watched.
We are all forced to pay some of the richest people on the planet whatever price they set for a gallon of gasoline to drive to Transworld. We pay to drive on the toll road, we pay to park our car, we pay a couple of times for the food there, after I get done paying my Babe-guards to keep the young foxy women off of me, I'm ready to go home, paying to get there with each mile that passes.