Nov. 13-16, 2012. IAAPA is the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, so holding their conference and expo a stone’s throw away from Walt Disney World’s Epcot theme park was sort of appropriate. Indeed, a panel of theme-park industry “legends” debated an interesting question: What happens when the future catches up with Epcot as that “futuristic” icon celebrates its 30th anniversary? When objects, concepts and products the industry once dreamed about are now a reality …well, what’s a theme park to do? “What we think about Epcot now is not so much predicting the future, but inspiring generations to move into the future, make it their own, and have an optimistic view of it,” said Eric Jacobson, who oversees all of Walt Disney World’s creative development for Walt Disney Imagineering. So, those people who say the future isn’t what it used to be? They turned out to be wrong…
