Kristen was able to get a couple of passes to the opening of a renovated/updated area called "Ocean Commotion" in the Florida Aquarium. Through her work with City of Tampa
Riverwalk project, she has been in touch with many of the downtown businesses and attractions and knows many of the associated marketing people. We arrived a little early and had name tags waiting for us as we walked around for a little while. There was an open bar available along with
hor d'ourves also being served as we sat around and enjoyed the exhibits in relative solitude. The opening itself didn't take very long with a relatively minor showing as the event was in likely competition with the baseball playoff game that evening; which was mentioned several times in the brief speeches.
There were not any really huge changes as I didn't recognize any additional exhibits as this seemed to be more of a
rebranding or minor renovation than anything significant. The
redesign, however was quite nice and I enjoyed the more vibrant colors where previously it was a fairly dark area. The public thoroughfare was completely refurbished along with a new theme; something along the lines of a voting for a favorite animated character at the end of the walk through which there were various interpretative displays conveying different characters. While it was obviously geared towards children, my anecdotal experience with kids has me guess that they really are not so interested in that kind
of theme. Having interactive displays is great, but they really are not going to go much
more in depth than pushing a few
buttons to see a change and won't really process a lot out of it. I'd be surprised of anyone ever pays attention to the theme of voting for a character
other than parents that are dragging kids along and specifically directing their attention to it in a "Here honey, you need to come here and enter your vote. Do it right now I tell you!" The overall increase in visual and interactive displays will appeal to a young audience that would more appreciate the color and technology; 'oh look, something shiny!' I would love to see a display that actually has a real, serious FAQ list near each display, or just one collection per section. Something like a list regarding SCUBA diving for the shows or basic elements of each species would be useful for those interested in taking the time to learn more but not wanting/remembering to google when they get home. I did like the new exhibit and plan to continue the membership I've had at the Fl Aquarium for the past few years. My new camera hasn't come in yet, but when it does I may try to find a time in the late afternoon before closing to bring it out with a tripod and get in some decent shots. I have a new wide angle lens coming in as well, so hopefully my future panoramic shots will require less stitching, but with applications such as
photosynth becoming more popular, it might not be necessary.
Kristen was able to get a couple of passes to the opening of a renovated/updated area called "Ocean Commotion" in the Florida Aquarium. Through her work with City of Tampa Riverwalk project, she has been in touch with many of the downtown businesses and attractions and knows many of the associated marketing people. We arrived a little early and had name tags waiting for us as we walked around for a little while. There was an open bar available along with hor d'ourves also being served as we sat around and enjoyed the exhibits in relative solitude. The opening itself didn't take very long with a relatively minor showing as the event was in likely competition with the baseball playoff game that evening; which was mentioned several times in the brief speeches.
There were not any really huge changes as I didn't recognize any additional exhibits as this seemed to be more of a rebranding or minor renovation than anything significant. The redesign, however was quite nice and I enjoyed the more vibrant colors where previously it was a fairly dark area. The public thoroughfare was completely refurbished along with a new theme; something along the lines of a voting for a favorite animated character at the end of the walk through which there were various interpretative displays conveying different characters. While it was obviously geared towards children, my anecdotal experience with kids has me guess that they really are not so interested in that kind of theme. Having interactive displays is great, but they really are not going to go much more in depth than pushing a few buttons to see a change and won't really process a lot out of it. I'd be surprised of anyone ever pays attention to the theme of voting for a character other than parents that are dragging kids along and specifically directing their attention to it in a "Here honey, you need to come here and enter your vote. Do it right now I tell you!" The overall increase in visual and interactive displays will appeal to a young audience that would more appreciate the color and technology; 'oh look, something shiny!' I would love to see a display that actually has a real, serious FAQ list near each display, or just one collection per section. Something like a list regarding SCUBA diving for the shows or basic elements of each species would be useful for those interested in taking the time to learn more but not wanting/remembering to google when they get home. I did like the new exhibit and plan to continue the membership I've had at the Fl Aquarium for the past few years. My new camera hasn't come in yet, but when it does I may try to find a time in the late afternoon before closing to bring it out with a tripod and get in some decent shots. I have a new wide angle lens coming in as well, so hopefully my future panoramic shots will require less stitching, but with applications such as photosynth becoming more popular, it might not be necessary.
2 comments:
The most amazing part of the renovation and "Ocean Commotion" attraction is that it was created entirely in-house by the design and technical staffs at the Aquarium. That's pretty impressive considering most companies would need to bring in entire teams of specialized developers in order to pull something like this off.
That's some of the best parts. It is great that they were able to draw upon the in-house talents. I wish more large companies would consider doing it instead of having to bring in huge firms when those that work the areas all day and actually interact with customer may know what is needed. I'll have to plan a visit soon when there are few people around so I may get some decent stock photos. Thanks for the insight.
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