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207TDS_Celebrating Lovable Misfits, Monopoly Adventure, and Space Tech Innovations
What makes a dog so ugly it’s adorable? This week, we kick off with tales from the annual World's Ugliest Dog contest, spotlighting the charmingly unattractive eight-year-old Pekingese, Wild Thing. We'll share what sets these uniquely endearing canines apart and reminisce about past champions like Scooter, whose quirky features have stolen many hearts. Prepare for plenty of laughs and tender moments as we celebrate this year's winner and explore the allure of these lovable misfits.
Then, we shift to the imaginative world of life-size Monopoly, an interactive experience that first captivated audiences in London and is now set for a global tour starting in Denver. We dive into the strategic brilliance behind pop-up experiences for brands like Hasbro and how these temporary installations can determine the potential for permanent attractions. Plus, we spotlight the IAAPA Expo's Show Ambassador Program, the European Space Agency’s innovative 3D-printed lunar bricks, and an ambitious new family entertainment center in Pocatello-Chubbuck. Through engaging discussions, we highlight the bold developments and creative strategies shaping the future of entertainment and space exploration.
Well, hey, gang, welcome back to the Daily Show. It is, oh my gosh, what day. It's Thursday. It's Thursday, june 27th, and we have a fun lineup for you. Today we're going to kick things off talking about the ugliest dog in the world. So I mean, I was surprised to find out that they had this contest. I know you were aware that they did an ugliest dog of the world contest because we had a little discussion about this anyway. Um, I guess this happens every year and you know they pick a winner based on I don't even know what. I'm gonna put a little picture up so you can see the winner. This year.
Speaker 2:He is an 18 or an 18, an eight-year-old named or an eight-year-old pekinese dog. This is a style of, or breed of this dog. His name is wild thing now. Now, wild Thing has been a competitor for five years. So it took Wild Thing five years to win the world's ugliest dogs, which probably leads you to think how uglier or how much uglier could a dog get than this ugly little wild thing here? And I don't know, like he kind of draws is he actually really that ugly, or is he kind of ugly cute, because I mean his little tongue hanging out in his little face like I want to cuddle him a little bit, but I feel like he's full of like if I put my fingers through his hair they would get caught, you know, and he's probably got things hiding in there like insects and stuff like that, and he looks pretty stinky to me. So I don't know, maybe that's just that whole idea that makes them uglier.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, he looks a little bit like Gizmo the Mogwai to me, but, um, but yeah, I think, like, compared to Scooter, who I know is a multiple year winner, he's a 2023 winner that I was familiar with. Um, you know, when you said the ugliest dog, I was like, oh, is it already around again? Cause, yeah, scooter has won multiple times. That poor dog's legs are backwards.
Speaker 1:And he's crested, which they're also just, I think, generally ugly, considered ugly, and his tongue hangs out too. I think that's part of it is like their tongues are literally so big they don't fit in their mouth, so it's not like they just captured it, like their tongue is always hanging out. So the poor thing.
Speaker 2:How do Um so, the poor thing like? How do they eat, like you know what I mean Without biting their tongues off Gosh? I don't know, I don't know so much of it has to do with their hair, too right, they're just bad hairdos.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah for sure. Well, congratulations to wild thing and his and his uh, his owner.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, all right. Okay, Kudos, all right. So I thought this was really cool. We talked about this quite a few months ago, now that Monopoly had this really cool life size edition Monopoly you could play. Now they opened up their first location in London and it was really cool. It was a combination between Hasbro and Path Entertainment Group, who won the rights to be able to kind of create using Hasbro's IP and their brand, and they created these life-size Monopoly attractions and they were super cool.
Speaker 2:You go inside. It's like a big board set out. They have got multiple different rooms, different games that you play. There's even escape rooms and quizzes and stuff that you you know you use to go through this life-size Monopoly. Now, one of the things that we had talked about was really what's the longevity of something like this and how long does it actually truly last? So they opened up their first location in London. They have now they've actually put another location in Dubai and they have now created a touring edition which I think is so brilliant, and it's called Monopoly Life Size Travel Edition, of course, and we have a little picture here.
Speaker 2:Now this again it's the same kind of product that they have in London with the life-size board where team members play and they can move around, taking part in the different challenges to acquire properties, earn money and go past jail multiple times, and it's going to be starting its tour this fall in Denver and then it's going to make its way around the U? S in a multi-year tour, so kind of like it'll pop up in your city here and there, right, which, again, this makes so much sense to me. Once you get enough people attending, they're not going to come back. This is a one and done kind of thing. I don't really see people playing it multiple times, so I think it's a great way to get the monopoly IP and the brand out and create another experience that I think will really attract a lot of people to come and play.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think this is a good approach by a lot of these brands with significant IP to go and try these different pop-up experiences that you know.
Speaker 1:They can see what gains traction, what aspects of the experience and the gameplay resonates, what doesn't, and how can they make changes then and experiment, Because then you know, this is what we've seen as we talked about Netflix House earlier this week, and they've done 50 different types of events over the course of the last few years, working with different partners like Fathom and others and Fever is another one right, so like working with these different event groups, and they were testing the market and testing the market and they found some mix of things and retail items et cetera that they know is going to work, that they can actually then go and do a permanent establishment.
Speaker 1:And so I think it's pretty smart for Hasbro and some of these other brands to go and test out these different games as pop-up venues for short periods of time to see what resonates and what doesn't, and I think that's how you get a better and end up getting a better project with, like unlike what Sony did with Wonderverse, which is like, hey, let's just take a bunch of stuff and throw it in a box and hope it works, versus going around and doing Ghostbuster pop-up events and Fast and Furious pop-up events and really testing and trying out your different IP branded attractions.
Speaker 2:And in different markets, which I think is really smart. Like we know, one market is not the same as another market, right? I think we learned that the other day from Dave Wallace when we had him on the show, and I think that's so true that this really gives them the opportunity to see where does it work better? Do they try malls? Do they try little strip areas? Do they try coliseums? Where are they actually putting these attractions that it actually makes sense for them?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and if you're wondering if you somehow missed Dave Wallace on the show, we actually recorded a third degree with Dave Wallace and it'll be coming out here in the next few weeks or so and so we'll let you know when it's coming out, because we'll be very excited about that interview. It was great, he's a great dude and hopefully you'll all get a chance to see them if you're going to bowl expo yes, exactly, you can say that, yes, we can say that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've said I've talked about bowl expo twice now and it shows that we'll air after bowl expo, so now I can actually say it because it's before and so that's great. All right, I'm gonna talk about iapa expo actually. So obviously we've talked about that a lot of the last few weeks because if you're not preparing, if you preparing, if you're an exhibitor and you're not preparing for IAPA Expo yet, then you're already behind the eight ball. And if you're an attendee, tickets are starting to go on sale pretty soon for different ticketed events and things are just starting to ramp up and start to see a lot more Well, they also need to ramp up their show ambassador program, and so, if you're not familiar with the show ambassadors but you've been to IAAPA Expo before, it is all of the students, recent graduates and young professionals that go around, and they're the ones that you see running around wearing IAAPA shirts and badges, helping at all the education sessions and doing other work, and they're really a lot of the grease that makes the wheels of and the gears of IAAPA Expo turn.
Speaker 1:And so if there are people who are recent graduate students, young professionals, who are looking to have extending, you know, basically outstanding customer service skills to be volunteer interns at IAAPA Expo. You can go ahead to IAAPAorg and apply, and it is an application process. They do get more applications than they actually accept for ambassadors, but from the friends that we have that have been ambassadors in the past, that have continued to be in the industry, they say it is absolutely one of the most pivotal things that they did in their career in the attractions industry to go and become a show ambassador. It's something that if I had been in this industry when I was that age, I absolutely would have applied to be an ambassador and would have hopefully been able to get it, and so I'm going to play a quick little video from IAPA's website that just talks about the IAPA show ambassador program.
Speaker 3:All right, the Ambassador Programme is an incredible opportunity to meet the whole IAAPA family, share that experience with other passionate people and really create long lasting friendships. The biggest takeaway that you get from this experience is definitely the connections that you get to make with everyone taking part of this show, from the participants of the IAAPA Show Ambassador Programme to the executive level.
Speaker 1:This program did not only make it possible to experience the big stage of the industry, connect with professionals and teach parts of tons of great and aspiring events.
Speaker 3:The IAPA ambassador program is challenging, dynamic, inspiring, innovative and, of course, a lot of fun. My favorite memory of IAAPA show ambassador program is just the little things that we can do for everyone that is here. That is my special memory.
Speaker 2:Super cute. Oh, you're muted.
Speaker 1:I was pouring some iced tea into a glass. So you know that's a little bit about the show ambassador program and yeah, if you know anybody like, get to apply now. Applications need to be in by August 1st or July 31st somewhere right there at the end of July in order to be considered for this year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome, and even if you have some staff out there that you think could, you know, benefit from this and give them the opportunity to kind of get a leg up like this and experience some other things that they can even bring back to your own park and your own facility to be able to, you know, improve it or change, make some changes. And I personally witnessed this happening where in a show ambassador was introduced to the head of Universal and ended up getting a job at Universal the following year because of that connection and that introduction. So it's definitely worth that. You know, I believe it's volunteer, it's worth the volunteer experience to be able to get in front of people like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's awesome. All right, well, before we go on to the next topic, we want to hear a word from our sponsor, intercard. Intercard is the only cashless system designed, developed and manufactured all under one roof. They introduced cashless technology to the amusement industry and have been leading the way for over 30 years. Cashless systems from Intercard increase customer spending, guest satisfaction and boost revenues by up to 30%. Intercard is so proud to be serving the amusement industry and if you aren't already part of their global family of customers, they hope you will become one soon.
Speaker 2:Okay, I have watched this commercial so many times now that I'm telling you I just need an intercard system, even though I don't have any games to put it on. I just want one for home so I can swipe it. Anyway, I love intercards. They're great. Okay, do you know what else I really love? I love Lego from space. I don't know if you saw this article, but this was really, really cool.
Speaker 2:So the European Space Agency has developed these 3D bricks that are made out of meteorite dust and they are trying to re or create them here on Earth before they go up to space, to see if they can kind of duplicate the process and not take the same equipment that they had down here and just use the different ingredients that they have in space to create these blocks. So what they did and here I'll bring this onto stage this is actually one of the blocks that is displayed in one of the Lego stores around North America. I believe they have 13 of these on display right now, and this is one of the blocks that they've made out of this composition. So what they did is they took dust from a meteorite. They found this meteorite about 20 years ago in South Africa, I believe it was.
Speaker 2:So they took the dust of the meteorite, they mixed it with this kind of biodegradable polymer, they call it, and a material that mimics lunar soil. So they mixed this all together, they threw it into some 3D printers utilizing 3D printing technology and they created these bricks and if you go here to this next one, you can see that it's actually 3D printed here when you see how it's all laid out. But the whole idea behind this is that they were trying to figure out if they could use the materials that exist on the moon currently to make these bricks so that they can build them up there to build different things like lunar landings, houses, storage units and different things like that. So all of these have been inspired by the Lego like clip together process, and they've only started with this pattern first, but they're working on other patterns as they kind of go along and trying to figure out how flexible they are and if they can actually scale these to use for construction and design on the moon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean this is awesome and there's a number of different companies that have been trying to, different startups as well, and obviously this was done by the European Space Agency. But there is a number of companies that are working to do 3D printing in space. Because when you think, okay, well, why couldn't you do that? Well, think about how 3D printing works. It is extruding some sort of material down onto a plate that has gravity, that is pulling it down, and so how do you do 3d printing? 3d printing in either a very light lunar gravity or you know it's one sixth of earth, or do you or zero gravity, like on the international space station, and so definitely a lot of work. So it's one thing to be able to use, you know, materials that you can find in space, but also, how do you do it in like very light gravity or no gravity? And so pretty cool that they're working to do that.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Yeah, I very can't wait to keep my eye on this and see how it turns out. It could be a game changer, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, exactly, it's pretty cool, all right. So there is a new development, a new project happening in Chubbuck, idaho, and I didn't know where Chubbuck Idaho is either, and apparently it's in the Pocatello Metropolitan Statistical Area. I don't really know where that is either, but it's in Idaho, which is beautiful and a great state of the United States. But Chubbuck is basically going to be the home now of a big 60,000 square foot family entertainment center called Extreme Rush, and it'll also the neighboring building will be or the neighboring yeah, actually it's another, it's a separate building will be a 30,000 square foot indoor pickleball court facility called Upper Level Indoor Pickleball Court, and it's actually by the same developers who are actually developing the entire complex. It's like a shopping center complex and also residential complex. So there'll be five buildings in total. Two of them are entertainment, a bunch of food and beverage of the first level and then some residential apartments and condos on the other levels, the other buildings. We're hoping to have these facilities open by April or May of 2025. So next year, open by April or May of 2025, so next year.
Speaker 1:And the big 60,000 square foot facility will have electric indoor go-karts, escape rooms, gel blasters, an arcade with classic machines, but also newer virtual reality games they say Huge climbing structure and a few things on the side, such as an augmented 3D interactive sandbox. Not sure what that interactive sandbox is, but here are a couple of concept art, pieces of concept art which I thought were actually rendered very well, like pretty impressive renderings for some of this concept art. I'll explain a little bit about what this little glass tube is here in a little bit, if you're looking here. But now, obviously this isn't the recommended game floor layout or anything like that. These are concept art, but you can see the climbing wall, you can see the go-kart track in the background, some of the aesthetics of what they're looking to build, and so, anyway, what are your thoughts on this facility and what they're trying to do here?
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, it looks really interesting from the drawings. It's really neat what they did there. Actually, it looks a little bit more realistic than using AI to draw your renderings right, so you get a better perception of what's actually going to happen. The place is huge, though, and I mean I think we discussed this already the town is not very big, the population isn't very big, so where are they drawing all the people that are going to attend this?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that is always my biggest issue A 60,000 square foot facility, not including the 30,000 square foot pickleball facility that's next to it. You know, in a town of 13,000 people and the metro area, the statistical area of Pocatello is only 90,000 people. And yes, they're growing and yes, they are building residential and I think this is where, like at least the pickleball courts, I actually think if you extract the, the idea that trying to be a social entertainment venue, I think the pickleball courts actually have some legs if they get the residential population numbers in their like in their actual complex, because you know they'll go play pickleball to spend the money at the family entertainment center. That's where I get a little bit more skeptical about it.
Speaker 2:Right, right, but I mean, has this project been approved? Is it actually being? Is it under construction? At this point? Okay, yeah, well, I mean I I wonder like, is there a military base around there or something, or is there something that we're just not aware of, where there's a whole group of people now, okay, yeah, so I don't know. I we see this so much. I just I always wonder what we're missing. Or gosh, are people really, um, not doing their feasibility studies and not looking to understand the market around them and do they end up failing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, or are they just real estate developers who think that they can go and develop? You know, somebody told them that they should put in retail attainments and so entertainment along with their retail and residential and All those things being said, they are doing some interesting things from a pre-marketing standpoint and warming up the population to get excited about what's coming in, and they're actually doing some really interesting, unique things. Again, I think that they're probably in the wrong location, but I think that they're doing some fun stuff here. So, first of all, they have a mascot. They did create an actual mascot for their location called Rush. He's a thrill-seeking sloth and we'll look at a picture of him here in a second, but their idea is to have their facility use holograms of Rush to describe and provide information about the various attractions, and so when we were looking before at this tube, that was right here. This is where the hologram will be projected inside of this tube, and Rush will basically be projected inside of this tube and rush will basically be there to greet guests and welcome them in and explain everything that's going on and be this 3d animated mascot. And so, first of all, I thought that's pretty cool that they're going down that path. Now. They do plan to have ai integrated into that eventually, but it won't ultimately be. It'll be more like pre-recorded welcome versus like more of a free form AI conversation.
Speaker 1:But they also then put it out to the residents to voice Rush, and so they got 25 applications of voice Rush. They narrowed down to three and then they asked local residents to vote for their favorite during a big social media campaign and ultimately this guy, caden Curtis. Caden Curtis was selected to be the voice of Rush. So here's a picture of Rush the mascot, and then Caden Curtis is going to be the voice of Rush on all the recordings and any future AI stuff that they're going to do with him. So one. I thought that was pretty cool that they want to have like a mascot that they're doing AI with the holograms. But they also went to the community to find a voice for the rush. They could have gone to voice actors or whatever else, but they want the community to go and do it. There wasn't samples that I could find, maybe on their Facebook somewhere, about what his voice would sound like, so you don't have to keep an eye on it, but I thought that that was good.
Speaker 1:The second thing I thought that they did really well. Here is what they've been doing in their community to build up awareness for their facility. First of all, we'll pull up their website here. It's not a great website, but at least they have a website. So they have a website. They have a progress bar. It's a place where you can actually meet Rush, learn a little bit more about the sloth and you can see some of the attractions that are coming, get a little bit excited about what's going to be coming here. You know the pixel floor, give a thousand boxes and you know some other stuff, so, like you can get excited about it and then on their homepage, like, not only pause this, because this is actually not great video, but down here they got some local news coverage at a recent local festival that they did, and so they're already out in the community doing some stuff. So I just wanted to go ahead.
Speaker 3:A new Family Fun Center is coming to the Pocatello Chubbuck area. Extreme Rush hopes to break ground in Chubbuck in the next week or two. The new business will be a 60,000-square-foot building which will include a multi-level go-kart track, lucky Putt golf, gel blasters, escape rooms, arcades, an gel blasters, escape rooms, arcades, an augmented reality sandbox, a multi-level kids jungle gym and live game shows. At the Bannock County Independence Day celebration on the 4th, extreme Rush set up an outdoor gel blasters course for people to try. Co-owners Sydney Davis and Jason Hebdom said that they are very excited to be bringing a family fun center to the Portna Valley.
Speaker 1:All right, so we don't need to listen to them talk about it. But what I wanted to just show here was like they were out in the community. They brought some of their attractions, like the gel blasters, got people a feel for the types of things that are going to be in this facility, getting the community excited about it. They had stuffed animals of the sloth available to get people excited about it. Like there's a level of professionalism that I think isn't there, you know, with like a whiteboard, with like handwritten stuff that was like looked like a child had written it. That I'll say, but like I do like the fact that they're already out in the community a year before they're even supposed to open. So what are your thoughts?
Speaker 2:I just threw a lot out there, christine. Yeah, I mean not going to lie, it's not all coming together for me, like the cost of building a facility like this is enormous. I mean, with the go-kart track alone is I don't even want to talk about how much money those kind of they take. So I'm curious, number one, about how it's funded. Where do they actually get the money to do this? And uh, two is again why would you take such a huge investment and put it someplace without getting a feasibility done? So there must be something that we don't know. Um, I again, it's great that they're out in the community, but they, if they don't have a big community to, you know, advertise to. Um, how does that benefit them, you know, in the end? So I am curious about that. But I, I mean, I love what they did, I think it's brilliant.
Speaker 1:So, so, first of all, I think that they're like, I think that the wrong size facility with the wrong set of attractions for the for that area, like I think, unequivocally, they're going to struggle at to really like be long-term, like they'll do great for probably the first six to nine months, maybe the first year, but they're going to struggle year after year and it's going to decline, most likely maybe, but my, my issue, my, my, like, um, that's the. So the point of bringing this stuff up, though, is like this is what other facilities in their community should be doing. They should have their website app. They should have their progress, showing the progress of the development. They should be in and out of the community showing off some of their attractions, getting people excited, developing a mascot and their own brand and their own IP, and getting like. That's the kind of stuff that I wish we saw more often, and I love that they're doing it, and it's makes me sad that they're probably not going to be successful over the longterm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I don't know, maybe there's something again that we don't know. I just, I feel like if you're investing that much money and you've got that much backing behind you, there's got to be someone that's asking for that kind of information, and so there's got to be some validation that you can draw that type of traffic to a facility such as that.
Speaker 1:You know or something that she's going on here. A year from now, we'll know that either they were very successful at laundering money through their facility, or that they, you know, are either in business, or we were just totally wrong through their facility, or that they, you know, are either in business or we were just totally wrong.
Speaker 2:So hopefully it's the latter. Well, yeah, I love what they're doing and hopefully that they keep on innovating. We'll see some more neat kind of ideas coming out of them, like they're very unique, very good stuff.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, cool, all right everybody. Well, that wraps up the LBX Daily Show for today. This is CB and BW signing off. Stay tuned and keep kicking ass. Bye guys.
