Portfolio

After enrolling in the Themed Entertainment Design Certificate Program at IUPUI, the very first class I took was called Intro to Themed Attraction Design. One of the very first assignments we were given was to introduce ourselves to the class in a creative way. The assignment was called “Show Us Your Story,” and the idea

As a part of and Introduction to Themed Attraction Design class, our project for the semester was to create a theme park land. Our four-person team had to come up with an original concept for a land that would be part of a larger theme park. All ideas had to be our own. We were

ACME Factory Frenzy is an attraction concept I developed for the Planning in Themed Attraction Design course at IUPUI. For the assignment, we were given a list of intellectual properties (IPs) that we could choose from the design an attraction around. I chose to design my attraction around the classic Looney Tunes characters. To make

The White River Junction train ride opened at the “new” Indianapolis Zoo in 1988. As originally designed, the ride was to travel around the Plains biome, including views of African, Australian and American plains animals. Due to growing budgets, the American plains area was pushed out to a later phase, and some temporary support structures

The year 2002 marked the first time I was leading the Attractions Department at the Indianapolis Zoo during the annual “Zoo Boo” Halloween event. One of my responsibilities was to design, produce and execute the haunted train ride for the event. While I had volunteered to help out with the ride the previous year, this

For the 2004 Zoo Boo haunted train, I decided to experiment with how scary the ride could be while still being appropriate for a family audience. Inspired by the Disney attraction, The Great Movie Ride, I came up with a concept whereby the train would “unexpectedly” have to come to a stop due to an

For our 2006 season of Zoo Boo, I decided to take a more lighthearted approach to the annual “haunted” train ride. At the height of the reality television craze, I came up with the concept of turning the ride in to a backstage studio tour of the fictional “WBOO Television Studios.” The story is that

After the success of our 2006 “haunted” train ride themed as a tour through the fictional WBOO Television Studios, I decided to stick with a similar concept of touring the fictional low-budget film productions of Howlywood Pictures. I came up with the backstory that Howlywood Studios had recently acquired WBOO Television Studios in a landmark

In 2003, I was asked to assume leadership of the Attractions Department at the Indianapolis Zoo. One of my priorities at that time was to find a way to make improvements to the train ride, which basically gave a behind-the-scenes view of facilities buildings and backstage areas. The initial proposal was to build up themed

In 2002, I was promoted to the Guest Relations Manager at the Indianapolis Zoo. In this role, I was responsible for creating a comprehensive guest recovery and communication plan for those unfortunate situations where we may have fallen short of our guests’ expectations. Additionally, I was asked to oversee all membership functions at the main