Speakers Announced for Legends 2024 Panel Legends Who Share Their Secrets

ORLANDO, FLORIDA (September 4, 2024) — 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.

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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.

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ABOUT BRC IMAGINATION ARTS
Bob Rogers is the Founder and CEO of BRC Imagination Arts, a global strategy, design, and production company that translates brand and cultural stories into transformative, human experiences. For over 40 years, BRC has stood on the front lines, helping brand homes, cultural attractions, and museums build more meaningful, enduring relationships with audiences around the globe. BRC’s unique body of work has earned over 450 awards for some of the most respected and acclaimed brand destinations in the world including Johnnie Walker Princes Street, the Grand Ole Opry, Amorepacific’s Storygarden , Jameson Distillery Bow St., the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Ford Rouge Factory Tour, Guinness Storehouse, World of Coca-Cola, NASA Kennedy Space Center and more.

Maya Guice
[email protected]

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About IAAPA
IAAPA is a diverse and dynamic community of global attractions professionals. As the largest international trade association for permanently located attractions, IAAPA unifies the attractions community, connects people to learn and grow together, and strives to promote the highest professional standards for excellence and safety around the world.

Founded in 1918, IAAPA represents leading industry attractions and supplier companies, consultants, and individual members from more than 100 countries. Members include professionals from amusement parks, theme parks, attractions, water parks, resorts, family entertainment centers, zoos, aquariums, science centers, museums, cruise lines, manufacturers, and suppliers.

The association’s global headquarters and North America office are in Orlando, Florida, U.S. IAAPA also maintains offices in Brussels, Belgium; Hong Kong, China; Shanghai, China; and, Mexico City, Mexico. Visit IAAPA.org or connect through IAAPA’s social media channels: @IAAPAHQ #IAAPA

IAAPA Online Press Room
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