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Haunt Tour Reviews 2015 Transworld / Seminars

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  • Haunt Tour Reviews 2015 Transworld / Seminars

    I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts about all the haunt tours this years at Transworld. One comment I would make actually is Transworld had way to many things going on and in the future might consider reducing them. We did manage to make all the haunt tours but probably won't do that again just to much. It was hard driving all over the place, sitting on busses for hours on end, get to the show itself staying there for more hours on end.

    I completely felt exhausted when this show was over and unlike last year was happy to be home and away from seeing all the new and exciting props on the show floor. This is just my opinion but all this stuff was just over the top and really hurt the primary experience which should be the tradeshow floor first and foremost.

    Wednesday: This was the worst, spend all day in speed seminars then hopped on a bus spent hours upon hours going to and returning from Talon Falls. They didn't allow pictures which sucked, however the attraction was good had a great time just totally exhausted. I think we arrived back to our hotel at Midnight or 1am. I was totally exhausted and didn't get to the tradeshow the following day until noon. This tour sent us dragging the rest of the show. Overall the speed seminars are great just fantastic but I think we should have called it a day. Driving on a bus for nearly 4 hours to see a haunted hayride then 4 hours back after a day of speed seminars was a mistake. If Transworld does another pre-show tour next year we'll skip this.

    Thursday: Went to Darkness haunted house behind the scenes tour. They had really incredible food as much as you could ever want to eat. Great job there. We sat around for about an hour then they let us in and the place is amazing simply amazing. I have never in my life seen something this incredible. I have however two complaints one being the line some people just don't move they stand there touch and feel everything but I guess this is the price you pay. I would have preferred more spacing out between groups. My other complaint is I would have preferred to see the place with all the lights on meaning the overhead lighting. The Darkness also opened their new actors room wow that was very cool. Overall of everything we did the Darkness tour was the best.

    Friday: We went to Lemp Brewery it was very unique with basically no lighting. This was a different concept and it was very effective people where screaming, and you can smell the musty stench of the cave. Either way I would have preferred to see the actual cave itself not roaming around in the dark. With this type of location why in the World would you do something totally dark? That was a head scratcher however with that being said the concept of Lemp was great especially all the audio effects trying to get you lost. This event was only 5 minutes away from the convention center.

    Saturday: We went to Phobia Haunted House we drove and this place was like an hour plus drive away from the convention center and another hour plus drive back. The haunt was very small and confusing it had some scenes then some black maze then more scenes more black maze. You park in one place and ride over to the attraction in a bus. The haunted house was okay and the owners seemed really enthusiastic and appreciative of everyone who came. Love supporting haunt owners who are just starting out but and this is no shot to Phobia but I'm not doing any more long journey haunt tours while at Transworld ever again.

    After a long week of going on bus rides, seminars, walking the show floor 100 times, I was really wiped out. I think next year we'll focus on the tradeshow itself, things happening near the convention center, if darkness opens and its changed would consider that again. But turning yourself into a walking zombie was over the top.

    If or when we attend MHC its different because you don't have this massive tradeshow with all these new products. I need a week long vacation from Transworld at this point. The seminars where fantastic up and down the board. Great job guys.

    I would really appreciate hearing some other points of views on their experience.

  • #2
    Well for me, it was my first time to Transworld and I am only starting my haunted attraction this year. So, I'm still processing everything that I experienced this past week. I took every seminar that I could fit into each day, including the free ones (if it didn't conflict with one I paid for). I went on all the tours, minus Phobius, cause I was at The Darkness. And I only got to spend a total of 2-3 hours on the floor. I would have liked to of seen the seminars that were similar in category clumped together (which I voiced my opinion about) I agree the tour to Talon Falls was WAAAAAAY TO LONG, but the event it self was a GREAT experience. We didn't get back until almost 4:30am and I had class a 8:30 that morning (which I made it too!). I was highly impressed with The Darkness and the production that goes behind it. The Abyss was and awesome venue that had a lot of history behind it. (to my understanding the was were not allowed to be exposed for historical preservation purposes), but the ideas and location were great. Good lighting, A lot of smoke though, had a tough time seeing a few times. The show floor was incredible for what I got to see, next year I will have more time since I wont be a newb!

    And finally everyone I met was easy to talk to, VERY helpful and encouraging! I think if other business platforms had the same community of business owners our economy would be far better off.

    Good Luck to everyone this season and cant wait to meet more of you next year!

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    • #3
      My advice to those doing seminars....stick to practical application info when teaching an hour or two hour seminar. Took a costuming class and the instructor spent 30 minutes going over sewing methods that nobody but sewers would be able to apply. It was the wrong information for an hour class. The first part of the class was great. The second part about sewing was useless. We aren't going to learn how to sew in an hour so keep the information practical and applicable to the masses, not to just the 3 people in the class who can sew.

      Brett ' s class on timed ticketing was packed with information top to bottom. Well delivered and full of information. Loved it! Same with Kimber Media, Scott Simmons,.and Allen Hopps. I didn't take many others so I have no frame of reference. The costume class I was disappointed with. Got about 15-20 min of good info and walked out after 20 minutes of sewing talk that can't be learned in an hour. 4 hours on sewing alone? Perhaps then. Otherwise leave that stuff out

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      • #4
        Some seminars are very good others aren't worth the time and some are simply great. Overall I think this is the ratio every year. We attended several seminars that really helped our business starting with that sponsorship seminar. Awesome!

        Haunt Tours - The Darkness was without words probably the best haunted house I've ever seen period of any type or kind. I asked those guys how many money they spent on that thing they didn't seem to know. Very inspiring. The Lemp was fun different but I would never do my haunted house this way so it wasn't of high value to me. However if I was to add some new secondarily attractions this is a concept I would consider. Talon Falls no way will I ever do something like this again . The haunted house and hayride was very well done, kudos to the owners but in the future if I want to see haunts like this I'll go on my own. We also did the speed seminars then took off to Talon Falls it took forever to get there, and forever to get back. I'm not sure when we arrived back to the ren but must have been like 2 or 3 am. I agree with the first poster this is taking away a lot from the vendors when you ask people to do something like this you just wear them out.

        We also did the Phobius Haunted House with all do respect we appreciate start up haunts opening, it really gave some perspective what you go thru but wouldn't do it again. The haunt was very short, more of a mix mash of stuff, confusion parking situation, it was actually very hard to find the parking lot. I shouldn't be too hard on the place its a first year haunt but after a long trip, all the walking around, taking another long trip wasn't our best idea.

        Our overall impression of the haunts toured was without question The Darkness all the way. Talon Falls was very good but to far to do again. Lemp was interesting but so different than what we do wouldn't do that one again as is either. Phobius was more of a start up haunt, very short, and not worth the 3 or 4 hours spent after we were already dead tired. I think next year we'll do Darkness again, skip the rest and focus on doing stuff nearby the convention center.

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        • #5
          In one respect I think Transworld is becoming to much like MHC at this point. Vendors are paying top dollar for booths and having buyers taken away several hours away is probably not the right direction for this show. With that being said I heard great things about the haunt tours so kudos to everyone.

          As for Lemp I heard great things all night long. I think maybe I heard one person say it wasn't good but overall people loved it... we had people coming out sweating from getting scared. We heard a lot of great things about Darkness as well... I think overall everyone liked the Stain Glass window FX we did the most. It was a hallway with four stain glass windows all shattering at the exact same time. Second highest rated thing we did was the library and 3rd was the attic.

          I alot of people commented that in the Attic they thought the window at the top of the attic was REAL until they saw it burst into a demon.

          At this point we are very stuck not sure if we will do another tour or not. We have to figure out what to do with our new building next door from there we'll let you know.

          Again thanks to everyone who attended.

          Thanks to Gore Galore for bring out all of their walk around monsters.

          Larry
          Larry Kirchner
          President
          www.HalloweenProductions.com
          www.BlacklightAttractions.com
          www.HauntedHouseSupplies.com
          www.HauntedHouseMagazine.com

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