Sound Off #110 - Leader Shake-Ups, iQIYI Land, Vitruvian VR & More!

Sponsored by Intercard!
Sponsored by Alan-1!

On this week's show we discuss how leadership changes ripple across our industry as CFOs step into CEO roles, raising questions about vision, risk, and long-term brand health. We weigh Disney’s shift, Six Flags’ policy pivots, VR’s LBE momentum, and the transmedia race between Netflix Houses and iQIYI Land.

• CFO-to-CEO executive shakeups and brand risk
• Disney leadership change, parks strategy, pricing reform
• CEC’s CIO transition and operational tech alignment
• Moonshot closure and competitive socializing lessons
• Rent pressure, relocations, and Kung Fu Saloon
• Regional park closures, debt load, and safety fallout
• Expansion announcements, branding notes, and logos
• LBE VR content trends, mini-games, and motion platforms
• Distribution, licensing, and keeping libraries fresh
• Funding flows to LBX and investor sentiment
• AR and MR feasibility vs marketing claims
• Six Flags online arcade and POV recording policy
• Cashless operations and guest friction
• IP crossovers: Bomberman, Pokémon pinball, Lego tie-ins
• Sega’s physical footprint rumors and positioning
• Netflix Houses vs iQIYI Land modularity and scale
• Investor reports, best practice, and trade show plans

Subscribe and visit LBX Collective for more!

Transcript

Opening Banter And Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Are you on the edge of your seat? Because we're about to continue. Covering today's latest trends in location-based education. Brought to you by the LBX Collective, your community to connect with inspired. All right, everyone, let's buckle up.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

All right. Well, welcome everybody to sound off number 110 for February 17th, 2026. And Kevin, it looks like you have dressed up nicely for number 110.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Oh, so you're telling me that I'm just a disheveled mess for most of the other ones? No, no.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

Just a lot of times you've got a t-shirt on, like I do. So anyway, you're looking very adapter today.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

I'm wearing my uniform to celebrate. Uh I know we can argue about is 110 worth celebrating, but I think it is. So anyway, a lot to talk about.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So, how are you going to uh change my mind this week?

Executive Shake-Ups And The CFO-To-CEO Trend

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Well, let's get uh into the weeds a little bit. Um from the research that I have to do and the collection of information and also dealing with our friends on LinkedIn, it's clear things are changing. Uh, we are seeing what some people may call uh gate guards, uh what others may call the old guards. Uh I'm not an ageist. Uh, you know, you can have a mentality at any age, but we are definitely seeing a pivot and a change in the uh the C-suites and the way that uh certain executives are now being selected and positioned and located in new positions. We are seeing considerable change across the sales teams of many corporations. We're seeing changes at CEO level all the way down. And uh some of it is bloody, some of it seems to have been engineered to uh deal with the new normal. But I would just point out from my experience that any top echelon management changes takes five years to bed in. So we're going to be enjoying five years of some people learning some hard lessons and some changes in the way business is done.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

Oh, yeah. And you know, look, I was uh very pleased. We've we talked about the Disney uh transition uh or the announcement anyway, the Disney transition last week. Um very pleased with the selection there. Um less pleased with some of the um some of the selections that have been made in some of these companies over uh over this last week. Um it seems to me that the uh if you're a CFO and um you know if some of these organizations and the organizations may be struggling, then you might be the next CEO right now. Because that seems to be the way that many things have been going. And unfortunately, some of these CFOs have great financial uh um great financial pedigree. Um, but they uh they don't necessarily have a great industry pedigree. And that is one of my concerns, right? The CEO role is meant to set the vision for a brand, lead a brand into the future, lead a company into the future, and you build a great executive team around you that fills the gaps that you may not that you may have. And a CFO is a CFO for a reason, and they tend to be less visionary, they tend to generally be less willing to take risks sometimes that are needed in order to move a brand. And so they tend to be risk averse. And that isn't always the case for all CFOs. I've known some that have uh are very comfortable in uh the uncertainty and chaos, but uh for the most part, that is not the general, uh, the general expectation of somebody who has been hired to fill a CFO role. And when that person is elevated to the CEO role, then I do have concern for the organization in the long term. Maybe the near term you'll see some health and some uh some revitalization as they cut costs and do other things to the balance sheet, but you will have a long-term detriment to the brand, I think, given some of the changes that we've seen at some of the larger brands this last week.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

We have a legacy problem. Many corporations that used to have something called the Business Development Director, a job, the person that was meant to be in the crow's nest of the ship, spotting the direction, uh, the weather forecasts and the opportunities went during the purchase of uh 2008 and onwards. And most CEOs thought that they could take on the mantle of uh charting the weather and the trends and the operations. Many of them failed, uh causing the situations that they find themselves in. The board wants a change, they want to get back on track, they put in a safe pair of hands, and there's still no one in the crow's nest. But you would expect someone who spends his time charting the weather and looking at the trends to say something like that. Indeed.

Disney Leadership, Parks Strategy, And Pricing

SPEAKER_02 5:13

Yeah. Indeed. All right. Well, coming over to the quick break, we'll dive right into the trends. Intercard is the only cathless system designed, developed, and manufactured all under one roof. They introduced catchless technology to the amusement industry and have been leading the way for over 30 years. Catchless systems from Intercard increase customer spending, get satisfaction, and boost revenues by up to 30%. Intercard is so proud to be serving the amusement industry. If you aren't already part of a global family of customers, they hope you will become one too.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Well, thank you, Intercard. And kind of continuing on from uh my delectations at the beginning, the Disney uh individuals, the high speed rate of uh change uh has continued a pace. We've seen some kind of appeasement, the changing of the guard photos. Uh, an interesting one of seeing the new CEO with the previous CEO walking around the park uh and you know taking the photos and pointing at things. But really, the reality is how much of the legacy of the Disney Empire is going to have to be shaken up now that the new incumbent Josh has got his chance for his feet under the table, and he's now peeled back the hood uh or the bonnet uh on the car and seen what the each state the engine's in. And we've seen a lot of speculation uh on what condition that engine is in and what changes need to be made in the short term against the long term. We've had the fluff. We now hear that there's going to be a whole load of new attractions at the park. The parks are a major revenue generator for the Disney company. It shouldn't be that way, but that is how things have panned out. Uh Josh has uh parachuted in Dana to make sure that she can come up with the picture uh of what the overall operation and the focus is. And we're hearing from the board meetings that AI application in movies uh and uh understanding the utilization of their IP across all of their uh streaming properties is a key focus. On Josh's side, uh one of those priorities that many people are talking about is addressing the fast pass uh uh the whole ticketing saga. You know, Disney's ticketing has been out of control, vastly expensive, a butt of a lot of media criticism, and I'm sure uh that the delay in their latest announcements on their pricing model and structure may have something to do with uh uh Josh being able to benefit from a more favorable pricing structure. But it is clear that there is something else under the hood. Uh is it the oil needs changing? Is it the filter, or is there some problem with the electrics? I'll push that analogy to one side, but I will say that the savvy investors in the Disney company caused a stock drop uh with the announcement uh of Josh's appearance to be expected. How quickly that bounces back depends on those announcements.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

Yeah, I mean, I think was it because of was the stock drop because of the the leadership transition announcements, or was it the stock dropping with the expectation that with that leadership transition there's going to be significant capital reinvestments going back in for new attractions and that the the capex outlay for the next few years is going to be significant, and maybe that's why there's some a little bit of uh frustration in the stock market, and they're given that little signal there. Um, it could be, right? So we don't necessarily know what drives the emotions of investors um in these scenarios. I think the one thing, though, you know, I love that you included that picture of Walt um pointing to the storyboard on the wall for those of you who are listening. It's an old black and white, uh, you know, classic picture of him. That is fundamentally what Walt Disney was. He was a visionary, but he was a storyteller, and probably, quite possibly, one of the best storytellers, visual storytellers, and storytellers in general, um, that has uh you know probably existed in the last hundred years. And so um I think in order to you can reinvest in attractions in the parks, but you need to make sure you're also investing in great stories that people connect with, because at the end of the day, people go to Disney Parks to interact with the IP and with the stories and have a good time with their families and build their own stories together while also interacting with the attractions that are based off of the stories that the Disney company tells throughout their various different brands. And that is also that is Dana's charge, right? So this is why I am encouraged by the collab, hopefully the close collaboration between Josh and Dana going forward is that they continue to tell great stories while at the same time continue to really focus on the gener the significant cash cow that is the theme park division of the Walt Disney company.

Chuck E. Cheese CIO Move And Tech Ops

SPEAKER_00 10:36

The one thing we didn't get with Frank uh and uh uh uh Eisner really, um, because of the situations that led to his demise, that uh we we never really had the finance and the artistry. I would argue, as you would expect me to, that uh Walt Disney represented the beginning of the transmedia approach um from what he did from the world's fair creations or physical representations of his cartoons and motion pictures is led to the industry we're in. And we need to be careful here. It isn't all about theme parks, uh, but it is telling that Josh feels comfortable within the theme park sector because of his background. I'm sure that the decision by the board to go with Josh uh has a lot to do with his broader understanding of what the public wants rather than the corporate balance sheet. The argument still stands that the stock market dropped a little more than we expected, and there's three reasons, as you've touched upon, for that. The first being it is what they do when there's a change of the guard, especially a change of the guard that was at a faster pace than they were expecting. Many had expected Iger to go uh in uh based on his contract in December and he to decide to go now, and to go quietly so fast now tells us a lot. There's the opportunity that they're gonna uh that the investors are going to take a hit, as you said, from a new broom coming in and wanting to splurge and spend and rectify various situations. We've already seen that with the announcements of the changes that are going to be taking place at uh the Star Wars gate. Uh, but there's also that third option, which is there's something underneath the hood that no one knows about, though many people have alluded to it. Uh, and uh that this was going to be a surprise that even the best head is going to find difficult to unravel. This story's gonna run and run. Moving on, and we have another corporation that's gone through a change of heads, uh, not as major as the first announcement of the brand new CEO, um, but still an important position. Uh, you know, I I feel that Chuck E. Cheese or CEC Entertainment has needed to sort out its brand positioning and its market uh marketing, but I also feel that it needs to sort out its informational uh structure, and so uh dropping in uh a brand new uh a brand new uh individual into that position also kind of uh hints back to Disney, where you need to have hand in glove, you need to have that C-suite uh set up of individuals that all speaking from the same hymn sheet, and it kind of alludes a lot to what I was saying at the beginning uh uh of this sound off.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

Yeah, yeah. This is, I mean, he's he's been with the company since the mid-July, or excuse me, since mid-2024. And uh, you know, he was their VP of IT. Before that, he spent almost 10 years at Synergy Entertainment in Texas. So obviously they're finding another Texas boy to bring into uh CEC Entertainment and elevate to CIO. Um and so yeah, he was a CTO over there at uh at Synergy. And look, CEC is becoming that like you the term you like to use, they are becoming and have become a transmedia organization. Uh they they went the inverse route, right? They created IT internally and have now gone into uh the digital and streaming and everything else. Um, but they have a significant techno technology lift given their ad network and all of their screens and TVs, and that has to be flowing and moving well. And so you need somebody with lots of experience and somebody coming from Synergy makes a lot of sense.

Moonshot Closes And Competitive Socializing Lessons

SPEAKER_00 14:42

It's a safe pair of hands, it is an experience, and I would argue that the current CEO has a limited uh amount of experience in this particular vector, and so uh it can work well if he's prepared to listen. Though I think what the next major announcement or position fill uh that we will hear from CEC will be very telling, uh especially as we still haven't heard uh when they're going to return to uh the stock market. We touched upon this in open and shut, and uh this is the forum, and where we can go into a little bit more detail or granularity, as I like to say, uh concerning this. Uh sixes gave birth to a concept called Moonshot. Um, it was kind of a gun to their heads. Their Shepherd's Bush Westfield facility sixes died a horrible, painful death of uh not being very popular. Um so they decided the reasons for this uh uh failing with the core audience was that they didn't have enough pool tables and amusement, that uh the women that they were trying to attract to their facility didn't want to wheeled around a full-size cricket bat and be shot at at uh by uh full size and full hardness uh cricket balls, and so that they would pivot into baseball. Uh I'm sure they walked over to Ialpa and had a look at the uh baseball uh concepts there, uh, and they used their friends at uh Batfast to produce their ball launching systems to just change the software and give them a baseball version. I gave a report uh when we visited this uh last year, um which wasn't glowing. I didn't think it was uh a good idea. Uh and uh we ended up with really uh a fate accompli, which is this site has not uh survived. It's not really a location where you test something like this. And Sixes already has its own problems, which we've touched upon. And adding to the Wandsworth uh closures of uh the Sixes network now that they're in administration, we see uh Moonshot go the way of the beast.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

Sorry about that. I was uh coughing and I had to go on mute, and it took me a second to get to the uh anyway. Um yeah, I mean I made a brief comment on this at open and shut uh a couple of days ago on the LBX show, but um yeah, uh when we saw this transition, we immediately said that this was just not going to work. Um and uh I'll uh I'll repeat what I said before. Their name is ironic. Uh, they took a moonshot because this I was really struggling to see how this was going to succeed, and uh and they missed.

Rents, Relocations, And Kung Fu Saloon

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Yep, they missed. Um it's going to be interesting to see how they're going to turn round sixes, let alone whether they can re-in re-energize Moonshot. Uh, I get the feeling that Home Run Dugout does what Moonshot wants to do much better, but that's just a personal opinion. Uh not all closures are due to uh the failure of your concept or the inability to uh get the business to work. Uh for those of you that are familiar with uh what I write about and talk about, I've always seen the uh Kung Fu Saloons uh approach to the boutique retro arcade uh a very compelling idea. It comes from a group of individuals that have a very strong background in the restaurant and bar life sector. Um so when they opened up their third facility, we were very excited to see the model move forwards, and from the reviews and its social media positioning, it had a very strong following. But they're also in a locality which is uh seeing an increase in uh new boutique style restaurants and bars opening up, rents have gone up, and uh the uh team behind uh kung fu saloons have looked at their prices from their landlord and gone, no thank you. So they've closed their facility down, and I'm prepared to take bets that they will find a new location for their facility. And uh I think the landlord at this particular locality will suddenly find that the hole he's just created is gonna be a hard one to fill.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

Yeah, totally agree with this. Um, I couldn't speak to the particular location he's gonna struggle to fill, um, but uh totally agree that he that they will find a new location within Austin. Austin is the ideal market for really the whole brand and feel and vibe that they're putting out. Um, it's a very energetic, youthful environment. That is what is driving Austin's growth right now. And um, and so I wouldn't be surprised if they end up moving. They really have a unique uh what's the tone, I guess I'll say, on their website. Um it's very uh irreverent to some extent. And I absolutely love the name Kung Fu Saloon. I mean, they just got a really good thing going. And so yeah, I hope that they do open another location in Austin. Uh, certainly know the next time I'm in San Antonio, I will definitely check them out.

Park Closures, Debt, And Safety Fallout

SPEAKER_00 20:24

Uh I've only been to one of their facilities. I'm trying to remember which one. Uh, please understand, look at that date of when they've uh thrown their hat into the ring at the beginning of the competitive socializing revolution that we're undergoing. So they're no slouch, though they have taken their time. They they have a number of uh restaurant brands and bar brands along with their uh competitive socializing element. Uh this is one to watch uh and to see if I'm proven right that they relocate, or maybe the landlord will come to its sentence. We'll wait and see. Uh we've been talking about UK parks going through uh closings, uh, and now we see the regional American parks going through their closings. It's hard to define this as anything more than a tourist destination entertainment venue, uh, an attractions theme park, as it were, uh, in a very strong tourist environment. Uh seasonality plays a part here, and overinvesting and overextension has played a part in the closing of this operation. Um we wait to see uh if some white knight is going to turn up and save it, or if this is an indication of uh certain venues with a limited repeat visitation entertainment model finding it hard to compete in the changed market.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

Yeah, this is hard, you know, because when you when you you have if you've ever done some reason, I have not been to Glenwood Caverns in Colorado, but um I certainly would love to at some point. Now it doesn't look like it's gonna happen. Um, they have 4,700 Google reviews at 4.6 stars. You do not do 4.6 stars with 4,700 reviews unless you are delivering an experience. And um, you know, unfortunately, they just got over their skis with their uh their their liability to asset ratio. And uh, you know, when you have a hundred, that's and I like the range, hundred to five hundred million in liabilities, that's a big range. I don't know why. Big range provided that kind of range. Like I feel like you should know what your debt liabilities are in general, but um, but yeah, I mean, I think unfortunately they just got too far, uh, too far overweighted on the liability side of the balance sheet to continue to survive, um, which is disappointing because they clearly had a great experience that uh that many, many, many, many hundreds of thousands of guests, or maybe potentially millions of guests have enjoyed over the years.

SPEAKER_00 22:57

My personal guess is that they uh upgraded, put in some really interesting attractions, spruced up the venue, and the debt mounted. And if you don't keep an eye on that, then you end up in this kind of situation. Chapter 11, though, let's be clear. So there is strong possibility for re-engineering and revitalizing. If you were looking at this in the cold hard light of day, you would say that with the right management team behind it and maybe changing your operational and ticketing model, you could bounce back quite hard. But again, we wait and see.

Expansion Announcements And Branding Notes

SPEAKER_02 23:31

So sorry, I will do I'm just doing some quick research here. So I will throw in um one little bit here. Um that looks like back in 2021, there was a six-year-old girl who died at their park, and they settled an$116 million verdict. And so it was a, I mean, and actually, I'm not sure they settled, right? I think that the actual they went to trial, that was the verdict, is 106 million, 116 million award to the family of the of the child. And so I think that was probably the start of their over-leveraging on the debt on the balance sheet. So it doesn't sound like it was an operational, well, maybe we don't know how the girl died, but I'm saying operationally why they ended up in the in the red. Um, it sounds like a lot of the reasons why they ended up with these troubles stems from that particular accident um or incident, we'll say, back in 2021.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

Thank you for that uh extra information, Brandon. Oh if you're gonna take a photo with a shovel in your hand, make sure there's a pile of dirt in front of you. The situation is that uh you're really now seeing, you know, if you've followed uh our latest open and shut, you're really seeing the re-acceleration of new openings of facilities. And we're even getting the announcements of facilities that are months, years away because they want to stick that flag in the ground and say, we will be bringing our brand here, you know, cocking the leg and wetting the ground as their territory. And so we've seen Evo Entertainment really pushing out the marketing about their formerly entertainment uh installation. And and then we see in India uh uh you know, Mapley really pushing forwards on their investment of the Dave and Busters, or should I say the Dave and Busters India brand, because they've really made it their own, uh rolling out new facilities there, three, four, five, six. You know, this is the third facility they've opened in as many years. Uh, and we're well, not opening, uh laying down uh uh the shovel towards opening. This ain't the last of it, kids. We're gonna be seeing a lot of companies saying we're building uh entertainment facilities, not just because they're building new entertainment facilities, but they want to be seen to be controlling their particular uh piece of the pie.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

Yeah, so you know, I'm familiar obviously with um, you know, Evo Entertainment. I think just one thing I want to just say here briefly is um because I find I always find these things um fascinating when these types of logo things happen. So we have Evo Entertainment Group's logo, and then we have uh Google Play's logo. And uh very surprised how similar those little triangles look. Obviously, there's some slight differentiation, but when I whenever I see Evo's entertainment's logo, I immediately think of Google Play Store's uh logo. And I feel like at some point maybe Google doesn't really care because they're not in competing spaces, but you know, let's try to be a little original.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

I think Evo is going to have to go for a rebrand. Uh, you know, a little bit of research that I had to do into Evo uh saw them having to uh come up with uh in a settlement to separate a certain number of their facilities with a previous partner, and so they've uh kind of accelerated their their moves in the market. Branding's important at this point in time. A lot can happen before they throw open the doors to their facility, put it that way. Just for all of you out there that uh like following the Taurus, uh, this kind of gives you the snapshot of where these companies are in the mix. Uh, and of course, we've already talked about where Evo uh and Dave and Busters India would fit into this mix. What I would kind of say is this Taurus is gonna get a little bit more uh bottom-heavy uh over the next couple of months if you keep an uh an eye on this. This is one of those things that's uh you can kind of chart as uh we go along.

unknown 27:56

Yeah.

VR Ad Break And Segment Setup

SPEAKER_02 27:57

All right, perfect. We'll come up right after the break. We'll continue with some tech trends. How are your game floors arcade by Alan One? Whether it's perfectly fine to use in Dr. Pepper's code playing, having officials like something to flex or defending cities to attend to this command retard. Alan One has something to every venue in our cave floor that is delayed to your guests. This game is also enhanced to literally ease for it. Free hands attract clear top scores and brings gifts back to your venue for more. Visit AllenDaxx1.com to learn more. It's AlanDax1.com.

LBE VR Content Trends And Hero Zone

SPEAKER_00 28:30

Thank you, Alan One. Um, straight into the tech trends and VR. Uh still a very strong uh component of our market, no matter how much the trout and tribulations are on the consumer side. Uh, our friends at HeroZone, who've now positioned themselves as one of the front runners in this sector, have been making some announcements about new content. We had previously the mention of their Terminator IP uh addition to this. And now we also have Monkey Madness, which is a mini-game, uh very social, socially focused kind of uh approach. And there's method to their madness. They picked a game that uh talks to the short play, quick, fun, shouting, knockabout approach. Uh I was watching people play it to tie out, but it was quite fun in its uh uh early stages, and now they've got the completed version, and it's kind of fitting into the popularity we've seen in the consumer sector for that kind of short play young audience uh uh competitive game style. Um, Gorilla Tag is one of the few success stories of the VR consumer VR sector, so that means there's an audience that's familiar with that kind of play model, and our friends at uh Meta even try to compete with uh Gorilla Tag with their own uh own game interpretations. But it is important to understand that not just aiming at a young audience, but also aiming at a player model that people understand.

SPEAKER_02 30:04

Yeah, I mean I find it interesting that uh, you know, kids like the monkey based VR platforms. I do know my son for one of the only things he played on his uh on his MetaQuest headset um was was Guerilla Tag. And he played it even into age groups where he was like probably one of the older ones playing. He doesn't play it anymore, but he was uh, you know, he played it when he was young and continued to play for a number of years. And um, yeah, they do like that animal monkey-based uh game gameplay for sure. Um and so interesting to see Hero Zone bringing that con you know, similar concepts into the LBE VR or XR landscape. I will say that uh I'm not a fan of their shifting brand. So their Hero Zone brand. I really liked their old brand, and they're still a little bit brand inconsistent on their website, the Hero Zone website. So they've got their old brand, which is more like a um cyberpunk type feel. This feels a little bit more corporate-y and and like well-rounded and almost like a little bit younger than the edgier stuff that they used to, that they're the logo that they used to have. Uh, and that may just be that they're trying to move into a multi-generation focus versus a uh in an older, uh young, you know, young adult to adult focus.

Motion Platforms And Event Activations

SPEAKER_00 31:21

We we are looking at a company that's uh acquired a number of other companies' assets uh and uh rolled in other companies into their operation. I think it's time that they take a long hard look at their brand and their market positioning, especially in the light of what's going on in the consumer sector, to ensure that they have uh positioned themselves correctly. But you would expect a consultant to say that. It's always nice uh when you see the render created for the marketing look like the final product that actually gets uh uh deployed. Uh again, for the level of transparency, Vitruvian VR is uh one of our clients, um, and we've uh been sort of helping to pivot them regarding their motion platform, their 360 motion platform. One of the projects that they had, utilizing their technology, but not the final uh location-based entertainment system that they're going to be fielding later on, uh, was a demonstrator, or uh let's call it a uh entertainment marketing platform uh for the Winter Olympics. Uh, they worked with a particular bar uh to have an entertainment system and they they delivered. They've uh installed their system, which is a bob sleigh experience, and it's been running uh during the event and getting some interesting media, social media coverage. The point I really wanted to make here, rather than just blowing Vitruvian's trumpet, uh, as it were, was also the importance that uh using the technology correctly for the correct need is essential. And here we see uh not the final immersive VR entertainment platform, but the utilization of their motion platform to offer a unique marketing VR experience. And it is that uniqueness uh that is important. You know, remember we're in the out-of-home entertainment market rather than following behind the consumer market.

SPEAKER_02 33:29

Yeah, I continue to remain impressed by this platform. Um their motion, I should say, right? And first of all, I love the name, Vitruvian VR. I mean, because uh it's it's like you know, obviously um an homage. Uh but the the uh smoothness and quickness in which this motion platform moves. Uh now it'd be interesting to hear it. I have not seen it in person, um but the smoothness in which it moves is so impressive. And the fact that they can attach additional ride vehicles to it, like this bobsled vehicle. Those of you who are you know listening versus watching, it's this bobsled experience. Um, and uh it's just really quite impressive in what it can do versus just kind of sitting or standing in it, like some of the other videos that you could go on to the Virtue and VR.com website. And so I'm really excited to see where they take this platform because it has so much potential to really enhance location-based entertainment XR, and um, just based on the sheer uh simplicity in its structure and actually the size of the base as well for what it is. It's a good size.

Distribution Platforms And Licensing Reality

SPEAKER_00 34:39

Yeah. We're not in the technology sector, we're not here to push VR. We're here in the experience sector, we're here to create great experiences in entertainment, and we need motion bases that can achieve that. We need headsets that can pull us into the immersive environment. Don't get confused with the uh trending technology against what we always do, which is offering a great experience. And it's nice to be involved with these perfect projects. Uh, another company that we have uh association with, Synthesis VR, uh, and they've been expanding uh their uh retinue of content. This isn't sound off, isn't about me talking about companies we work with, we're talking about uh the opportunities in the market. We're lucky enough to uh be associated with some of those. Uh and uh Synthesis really has pivoted themselves into being the delivery platform for uh operators of VR technology. Once you've got the VR technology in your facility, it's your job to keep it fresh and to keep the people coming back, or else it's a one and done and it's dead. And uh, you know, the same way that our friends at HeroZone have started to update their library of content, uh, our friends at Synthesis VR allow uh operators to have access to uh content. It's it's a difficult uh juggling or balancing act uh regarding what content will work for you. There's also that hidden issue of you can't just grab any piece of multiplayer VR content and dump it into your facility. It needs to be configured for your hardware, and it also needs to be licensed, or else you find yourself in a lot of hot water. And that's something that Synthesis VR has made their own. And I can tell our audience that there are some interesting surprises coming forward regarding content availability. Moving on, and an example. Sorry?

SPEAKER_02 36:45

Oh, no, no, I was just gonna actually just step in and say my uh my computer is um getting a little hot and feeling overloaded, so just continue unless I uh interject, because they may be frozen or stuck. So I'll just put that out there for all of you who you know may wonder like why the hell isn't he talking?

Funding Flows To LBX And Atlas V

SPEAKER_00 37:01

When the smoke starts rising from the machine, we we will pause. The one of the interesting uh aspects about the pivot in the consumer sector is that the investment community has been sort of stamping its feet regarding how much they feel that the technology of immersive uh uh immersion, shall we say, is a strong and bankable approach. It's just that maybe uh the certain companies in the consumer side have failed to maximize on that. One of the companies, uh content creator, uh Atlas V has been um sitting on both sides of the fence. They have developed content for the consumer side of the VR, but they've also uh developed content for what I call the shared reality or the immersive experience market. And uh they've decided to uh go to investors and they held their cap out, and they have managed to raise six million dollars to invest in more of their location-based uh experience development rather than the consumer. And this is a pivot. Um they've already put a foot into this water, more than a foot, but they have also uh decided that it is the time is right to utilize their skill set and do that. And it is interesting to see who one of the lead investors were in this move, which is HTC, the company that manufactures the head-mounted displays that many uh location-based entertainment companies utilized uh for this type of application. I think this is the beginning of a major move, and I wouldn't be surprised that some of the uh B2C uh consumer VR media suddenly can't hide from the fact that location-based entertainment may be the only safe bet in town to continue the legacy of VR.

SPEAKER_02 39:01

Yeah, I think what I will say, I'm just gonna read right from their website in quotes Atlas V or Atlas V is now expanding into multiplayer location-based entertainment and accessible accessible casual gaming. This is the important thing, bringing immersive experiences to broader audiences from premium narrative worlds to shared competitive, playful experiences. Um, so I think it's really interesting to see them move just from simple VR games um and uh maybe some simple experiences to something that's in their view multiplayer, uh immersive, again to use that word, uh, but competitive, shared competitive experiences as well. So I think they're seeing the competitive socializing trend. They're obviously seeing the narrative trend and the immersion trend and try to bring them all together. So it'll see how well they execute there.

Awards, MR Concepts, And AR Feasibility

SPEAKER_00 39:52

Yeah, it would be interesting to see how they execute it here. It's always nice to see a company that reads its Stinger reports. Our friends at uh iMotion uh had some celebrations. Uh, they won a Luminarie for uh their virtual reality experience. Uh the Dolphin of the Reef is part of their edutainment uh kind of experience. You'll remember we were talking about iMotion uh, I think uh year before last, where they had their gorillas uh uh virtual reality experiences. Uh gorillas are the theme of the show of the uh cast today. Um but it is important that you know we understand that the uh at least uh on the edutainment side of the business, on the immersive experience, the LBX rather than the LBE side, that you know, having those kind of credentials, winning these types of awards are very important to getting the message out about what this type of technology brings to the table. Congratulations to all involved there. Uh and then we have the uh emergence of concepts and new technology. So we've kind of moved from the VR side and now we're into the mixed reality and the AR side. Uh, I thank Brandon uh for uh pointing me in the direction of this particular company. It hadn't popped up on my radar. I think the main reason it hasn't popped up on my radar is that it's still in that early stage of concept rather than actual delivery. Uh Nixo, I hope that's how you pronounce them, have defined what they're producing as a first-person immersive shooter with uh in real life experiences. You know, if I had to describe this in an elevator pitch, you put on your AR glasses uh and you pick up your pellet gun, your BB pellet gun, and you go and have laser tech hard. I would assume that our friends uh really at Gel Blaster are going to be raising an eyebrow towards what's trying to be achieved here. And it'll be interesting to see how much Nixo moves from the proposition to the reality of delivery. But at this stage, they have a website uh and some really big claims. And I'm even led to believe that we'll be seeing them at some of the exhibitions soon.

SPEAKER_02 42:25

Yeah, I mean, I think the one thing I'll add to this is what makes them unique, and or I would say differentiated from gel blaster is the fact that they, and also probably significantly more expensive to implement, is the fact that they have a uh a grated floor um that has uh so it shoots out hard, um, I should say hard pellets, soft pellets basically that feel similar to a gel blaster impact. Um, but then the the balls fall into a floor that has uh basically it's a grate, so the balls fall through and then they roll and they have an automatic collection mechanism that then you can actually run, take your gun um or your your weapon, and then reload, like connect basically to like a little suction thing or whatever. And it automatically reloads the gun um from the collection bins and so different areas. So very interesting concept, um, and will be interesting to see how it uh how it plays out in reality, if it does play out in reality versus just from a pure concept standpoint.

Six Flags Goes Transmedia And UGC-Friendly

Cashless Parks And Policy Catch-Up

SPEAKER_00 43:19

Concept strong, though the uh breaking points for me, uh and it's usually my job to have to uh point out the uh landmines that they're walking into, as you said, that floor system has been tried before for golf balls, funny enough. Uh so they've scaled it down for pellets. This gets around the issues that we've discussed before with the gel blaster uh system, uh, swings and roundabouts, but I think the biggest unknown is those AR glasses. I only know of one AR glass uh platform out there now that could achieve what they're proposing in their uh promo videos and uh graphics. Uh, and that particular Company's glasses are a lot bigger than the uh stylish ray bands that the uh artists' rendering shows. Moving on, and uh we have a couple of points regarding Six Flags here. A lot of what we're discussing regarding Six Flags is the company restructuring, re-repositioning itself, and also trying to address some of the issues that they've uh walked into over their delay in uh restructuring effectively following the merger. And one of the first of the new developments is that they have gone heavy into transmedia with uh the announcement that they're going to have an online gaming hub uh under the originally named Midway Arcade. They must have stayed up for weeks looking up that name. Uh, and it's going to offer a selection of mobile and online-based games that you can play, with the addition that if you uh create skill and scores on those games, they can be transferred into in-park prices. So, what I always like to call is a transference. You do something at home, and then you can get the physical or the actual representation of those winnings uh when you visit the site. It's soft marketing or hard marketing, depending on your point of view. Having a leaderboard, having this kind of game system is one thing. How they're going to link this to the Six Flags brand, I look forward to seeing the quality of these games and how it works. And policing this is very difficult. It's not an easy task. And I'm just wondering if this is a um knee-jerk uh suggestion from the Rolodex of quick what can we do to be more transmedia, rather than a longer pitch, which I would have linked to a more interactive entertainment approach for the brand. Moving on, and really what we see is uh you know, we've moved from the application of uh new branding and transmedia, we've moved on from the uh uh the aspirations of uh uh really what esports was going to bring, and now we come to the whole the cold hard reality of what Six Flags has to uh deal with with a changing market. And one of those uh applications, uh shall we say, changes in business policy has been the announcement that the company will now allow on certain of their uh rides, uh especially the coasters, uh, the filming of the experience. This is really to you know try and embrace the popularity of the AI smart glasses, in particular what we've seen with our friends at Meta's pivot towards the Ray-Band uh uh smart glass approach and the filming of this, though it is very clear to see that this policy change is talking about POV point of view filming rather than just generally filming around the park using your smart glasses. And we expect to uh to see other parks having to make a clear distinction of how you can use this technology on property.

SPEAKER_02 47:36

Yeah, I do find it interesting how they have made this pivot. It's almost as if they just said, well, look, this stuff's not going anywhere, so we might as well figure out how to embrace it instead of creating a negative guest experience every time somebody wants to wear one of these on a coaster.

SPEAKER_00 47:52

Yeah, it removes the member of staff having to manhandle and have an argument with a patron who's sitting at the front of the coaster looking forwards to adding to his social media feed of him uh losing his glasses at high speed on a coaster. The the issues I have still is how are you going to stop the POV coaster footage from then migrating into filming the queue line and then for uh forgetting to turn the uh the recording off as you walk around the park. It is a band-aid on a uh a bigger problem, which is uh how the general public feel about people wandering around uh constantly filming. Uh it is easy for the parks to at least uh make this statement. And and that kind of leads us to uh the changing in policies at other parks. You know, one of the announcements uh that you know caught some people by surprise, um shouldn't really, is that uh Universal is beginning the rollout across all of their resort business of going cashless. Hey, you know, it's 2026.

SPEAKER_02 49:04

Welcome to like 2026. I mean, come on. How are people still uh like surprised by this shift and change? And anyway, if you're going to Universal, like you're not going to Universal with a big watt of cash, right? So like come on, let's let's move let's move forward.

IP Crossovers: Bomberman, Pokémon, Lego

SPEAKER_00 49:19

Well, if you're if you're taking a dad wallet with the cash into the pool, then it's going to be a very soggy dad's wallet. Uh it is it is uh a sign of the times. It's a little sad that uh the entertainment industry is taking a little longer than other industries uh in embracing this. But uh at least we're seeing uh the pivot now, and I wouldn't be surprised by the end of the year if all of the parks have started to really push this as a narrative. Anyway, jumping into the IP section uh of Sound Off Now, which is sadly going to become a uh well, happily, it's business uh a component. Uh first off, uh you of a certain age who likes playing uh classic arcade machines will be familiar with the Bomberman brand. Others of you that uh uh console heads will also be familiar with the Bomberman uh game style. And uh, you know, in Japan, the Bomberman franchise, the maze-based bomb uh multiplayer game experience, has really been a popular IP for Konami who originated the concept. It has fathered a number of uh console titles. Uh it has even reappeared in the arcade a couple of times uh in recent memory, and now it has made the ultimate transmedia transition into the slot and gaming sector. Moving on.

SPEAKER_02 50:51

Well, I'm not uh necessarily I was just gonna say I'm not necessarily a big fan of the uh slot and gaming sector myself personally, uh, but I am a big fan of Bomberman, and so I think uh you know that will naturally hit their target demographic, which is the you know, which is those of us who grew up playing uh Bomberman on Super Nintendo. So um still have Bomberman on Super Nintendo, as a matter of fact.

Sega’s Physical Comeback And Store Rumors

SPEAKER_00 51:16

Well, I I'm I'm old enough to remember the arcade version original, but uh the the issue here for me is that this kind of follows on from the uh the other occasions where we've seen popular video game IP uh migrate itself into the gaming sector. But some some of our readers will be uh familiar with the coverage we gave to the Space Invaders slot machine and the Tetris slot machine. Uh IP is IP, and those slot machine manufacturers want that nostalgia berry like everybody else. Moving on, and one of the largest entertainment franchise properties out there is Pokemon. Uh and Stern has managed to find some loose change at the bottom of their uh sofa or in their piggy bank that they can throw it at developing a Pokemon pinball table. This isn't the first Pokemon pinball table. There have been a number of companies that have made uh indie interpretations of what a uh uh a Pokemon game uh table would look like, and they enjoyed the pleasure of cease and desists from Pokemon uh Corporation, but this is the real thing, and we're lucky enough to have a sneaked leaked picture from one of the distributors of what the actual cabinet uh will look like. I expect we may see a solitary cabinet at Amusement Expo, though, according to Adam uh Stern may be focusing on the Texas Pinball uh Festival uh for the first showing of this, where they can control the media better uh and it's directly with uh the player base. Either way, expect this to be a very expensive uh pinball table and a very hard one to get. Uh, I think this will draw people to facilities to play. That is the strength of Pokemon. Moving on, and it's that Netflix time of uh the sound off, it seems to be. Uh, Netflix uh has partnered with uh the other transmedia company, uh Lego, and uh we will now see the latest Netflix IP property getting the Lego set uh uh uh treatment, as it were, with uh uh K-Hop Demon Hunters. I need to see at least one episode of this. It's always difficult to talk about a brand that you you haven't really immersed yourself into. But anyway, it is getting its own Lego set. Uh, this follows quite close behind uh uh Lego's uh release of the One Piece set, and I have seen both the manga and uh the Netflix of that particular property. This is something that we're just going to have to be mindful of, that these IPs are going to be crossing over, and we better be riding both waves, not just the wave of the original release of the television series, but also the opportunities uh from the uh the toy brand and the video game brand. And I'm sure Brandon will be rushing out to buy a copy of this set.

Netflix Houses Vs iQIYI Land: The Transmedia Race

SPEAKER_02 54:50

Uh yes, I am obviously a massive Lego fan. Um, but uh, but yes, the I think what's interesting here, I mean obviously partnering with Lego, uh, but you know, Netflix, like there used to be there, there was a time, right, when you could take an IP from like Pokemon, right? Like, and then build a pinball machine uh for that. Um take K-pop demon hunters, build a pinball machine for that. Um, do something and put a VR experience or whatever. Netflix has obviously done that um partnership with Sandbox VR, but I think the more this stuff um the more that they continue to focus on Netflix houses or the subsequent experiences that they're going to swap out in their current Netflix houses, which is the intention there is to rotate, you'll begin to see the IP being less available for amusement pieces going into all these other FECs and more focused on what they can do to enhance their Netflix house to drive traffic into their own physical properties. In which case, this will become, if this becomes the trend, which I believe it will, that Netflix is really leading at this point for LBE, this will become a competitive um issue for FECs that are and LBEs that are in the markets where Netflix houses and future Sony versions and future other transmedia versions of these are popping up. 100%.

SPEAKER_00 56:10

It's what I've been trying to shout from the hilltops for the last few years, and I think uh the message is finally getting home. If you bang your head against the wall long enough, you create a doorway. The the issues here are Lego is a transmedia property, as in the Lego Discovery Zone facilities. Can you see a Lego Discovery Zone sitting next door to a uh Netflix house? And then we have the mass fight of who has ownership over uh the particular IP, the uh the Lego set version of K-pop or the virtual reality version of K-pop or the physical attraction. And we'll touch upon that a little in a minute. But you know, transmedia is the magic word, uh as Sesame Street would say, uh, that we're dealing with at the moment. Uh another transmedia brand, don't get them confused. This is Sega uh Corporation. This is the uh video game uh and uh uh uh entertainment IP Corporation rather than Sega Amusement International in our sector. And Sega has decided in uh uh the Los Angeles team at uh Sega of America uh have decided that they will now be partnering with uh LA Live, a large sports entertainment district uh in the city in downtown Los Angeles, and they're going to make sure that the IP of Sega is front and center, and there's rumor on the street that this may also be the locality of uh one of uh the new Sega uh store facilities. That's still rumor, but it kind of lends itself towards the positioning of Sega as they look to have a presence once again in the bricks and mortar entertainment space.

SPEAKER_02 58:04

Well, it'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

SPEAKER_00 58:07

Um just watch and see. It is the beginning, uh, and now that will add to the confusion uh of trying to understand which brand is which, though I'm led to believe that that confusion may be sorted out soon. Anyway, moving to the talking point and transmedia, transmedia, transmedia. Uh it is the talk of the town, and the biggest talk of the town is uh you know ITI's entry into that transmedia uh space. The Netflix of China, as it is described by some corporations and uh individuals, uh, I feel that they're a little bit more than just a Netflix, but they have thrown their hat in the ring to create their Netflix house equivalent with ITI Land. Uh, this threw its doors open uh this month, and uh we were greeted with a facility that is an indoor uh space, but it also has the majority of the attractions and entertainment is indoor, but you can move around the facility through outdoor components. It's difficult to nail down exact structure of this because no one's walked around yet with a video camera, uh video camera, with a phone uh of uh it'd be better with a drone, I think, uh, of uh the facility. Uh we expect that soon, but it was a uh you know star-studded opening. They have sections of their uh space dedicated to their popular series as recreations, something that Walt Disney would recognize very clearly of creating uh interpretations of previous popular uh IP and branding. Uh, but the big difference here is uh a big difference on even what our friends at Netflix has gone with is that there are large immersive uh areas, and they're using the latest digital screen technology uh to create digital environments that are recreations of both their IP as well as game experiences or interactive experiences for the large groups that are passing through. So shared reality, large groups, heavy IP. Um, this is much more than just sticking a sandbox VR into your facility. This is uh really adding an immersive uh entertainment attraction into your uh location-based entertainment property. And really, it begs the question of how these two heavyweights are going to uh uh uh compete going forwards. Obviously, uh IGI are going to focus on their core audience and their core territory for the time being, but I wouldn't be surprised that uh the more that certain of their IP uh streaming services find uh popularity internationally, that uh it wouldn't wouldn't be surprised to see maybe elements of their immersive experiences uh populating into the West, and vice versa, though I think really we're at the stage now where it's the socket and see, and these corporations need to work out what's gonna work and what's not.

Investor Reports And Guardrails For Growth

SPEAKER_02 1:01:33

I think the comparison to Netflix house is apropos, uh even within the uh within the the um size, so they are 10,000 square meters, which is just over a hundred thousand square feet, which is about the footprint of a Netflix house. Uh a little bit less, um, but it is about the exactly the footprint of a Netflix house. And I think what will be interesting is how much uh one of the things that uh Netflix house, I think, did well. There's a number of things I think that they missed on, but the thing one of the things they did well in preparing for the future was their uh they're breaking up into having essentially multi-gate facility inside their single gate, allowing them to be able to swap out very quickly, excuse me, new attractions and in some ways exchange attractions with one of their other Netflix houses and be able to rotate through their locations. And they really prepared that well, knowing that they will have certain brands and certain IP that have a good hit for a period of time and then need to go stale and they need to bring something else in or move it to another market where somebody else could experience it. So I hopefully this is something that they also implemented, having not yet seen an internal floor, uh, you know, floor plan or layout, they have not yet released that as far as I've been able to find. Um, but if that is something that they've done, then I think that they've set themselves up for continued long-term success. If they went the path of a Sony Wonderverse where I'm just we're just gonna throw all this stuff into a big open box and hope that guests get back and that it's easy and it will create difficulty for them to put new experiences in based on the continual evolution of their IP. It's interesting that they're both about the same age, 15 years for IT, and then 50, you know, roughly 15 years for Netflix as far as producing content, um, or at least distributing content and then producing content as well. So very similar in age, and then they're following the same path. I will read one quote that I found online that I found very uh uh very interesting. As demand, quote, as demand for offline entertainment surges, we see, I think we're saying this right, a chi land as a new driver for our long-term growth. And so I think the key thing to pull out is demand for offline entertainment surges. We are absolutely seeing that demand for offline aligned with online and that transmedia organization as we're talking about here.

Trade Shows, Dates, And LBE XR Zone News

SPEAKER_00 1:03:56

Spot on. Yeah, uh, thank you for that quote. The the issue I have here is flexibility. Um your entertainment experience should be as flexible as your online media that you're offering. Uh, if you can't swap out an area or a zone of your Netflix house or your IGI land uh quickly and seamlessly, then you're going to run into problems. Not just uh uh wonderverse kinds of problems, but really big problems. Uh, because if you look dated and tired, then people don't come back, you lose your repeat visitation, you lose your relationship because this is a relationship now with your subscribers. Interesting concept, isn't it? Just think of how you could leverage your subscribers to enter a facility. Maybe subscribers get uh preferential treatment to go into a Netflix house. Just saying these are the opportunities. Uh, and one of the things about uh ITI land is that uh they depending on a lot of digital uh uh immersive experiences of the seven attractions that they have within their spaces, and nothing can be changed quicker than a digital attraction uh space. But again, uh we need to have uh some warm bodies uh uh wander around the venue to give us a comparison. And remember, Netflix House is only open to two facilities, uh, and ICI Land is uh the first, uh, but I'm sure not the last. You can tell when something is gathering painful momentum, is when you see a Mackenzie report about it. Uh, I leave up, uh for those of you listening to this, you're out of luck, but for those of you watching, I leave up the QR code uh for this. Um I didn't have direct involvement in the compiling of information. For this report, though sources tell me that some of the stuff that we've written about in the past may have helped those that uh authored it get a better handle on their perspective. But anyway, um, the Mackenzie and Company uh report looks at really the digital media landscape, and while it's talking about that landscape, it draws a very thick line under the opportunities that location-based experiences and entertainment bring to the table. When these types of reports are created, investors listen, cogitate, and consider. And as I said at the beginning of this, uh talking about our friends at Atlas V, uh, that have uh just raised six uh million dollars uh for their expansion into the location-based experience market, they won't be the last, and documents like this will be the fuel to help others to follow.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:03

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we've been saying this, so I have nothing else to add. I mean, we have uh it's interesting, it's good to see that uh they're beginning to look into this. But um, I do worry though that when a report like this comes out, that this becomes a flood uh that that generates a flood of what people think is easy money to come in. And one of the issues here is that these are um these are experiential attractions that we need to be thinking about that are narrative, story driven, and not pure just money grabs. And so I think we're going to, as a result of reports like this and just greater awareness of the industry in general, that we will see things, uh, money thrown at it that will then end up creating a problem potentially for the broader industry.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:48

Agreed. We, you know, this is the reason why we have trade associations. We need to police this. Um can't be too draconian, obviously, but we can be supportive and offer advice and experience and best practice. And that leads us kind of to uh the trade association events. I have an announcement to make. The dates are wrong. I just found out that uh rather than being pushed away onto the second day in my own padded cell, uh, which I was looking forward to, where I was gonna get some slumber tables out and uh maybe uh some baccarat, I've been moved to the first day. So um you can say it's a promotion rather than a demotion. Um but March the 16th now at uh 10 will be the date. Uh the news came so quickly I couldn't even change this slide. Uh so uh I will make sure in our next sound off to have a little bit more clarity and a lot more detail.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:52

All right. Well, I am disappointed you moved to the 16th because I'm coming in on the 17th, and I was looking forward to sitting in on your session. Um and uh yeah, I've already booked the hotel and everything. So I'm you know, unfortunately, we'll have to I'll have to debrief with you afterwards and we'll get lots of time together. Um, but I am looking forward to Amusement Expo in general. Um, obviously we will be walking around the shelf floor and uh you know, we'll do our typical debrief. We have some things potentially in the works that we'll maybe announce a little bit later as it relates to amusement expo. But um, I'm looking forward to also checking out some new facilities with you on uh you know in the evenings and on Friday potentially.

Closing Notes And Next Week Tease

SPEAKER_00 1:09:30

So it's gonna be an interesting one. Uh and uh yes, uh I'm I'm happy that I hadn't booked my uh tickets. Uh uh yeah. Sorry about that, but we'll try and make sure that's at least some coverage is captured from the event, you know, the rotten fruit being thrown and all of that. Uh AWE taking place in June. Those dates haven't changed. Uh and we can make a little bit of a surprise announcement regarding uh this event, the uh LBE FXR zone, which is now a dedicated component of this augmented world expo event, has now been uh supported by its first uh sponsors uh and exhibitors. And we can say that PICO, uh, the headset uh powerhouse in location-based entertainment, has signed up to be one of those uh exhibitors and sponsors. They will have a number of their uh client operators, uh, people from the location-based entertainment using the PICO headset system, uh, and that will be a very interesting demonstration area, uh, as well as a revealing opportunity to speak to uh uh the dog's head, as it were, rather than the tail, uh concerning the future plans in uh commercial and location-based entertainment for the technology. And then our friends at VR Cave, uh distributor of uh content as well as a supporter of location-based entertainment facilities in the free roaming VR sector, they've also signed up. Uh, I will just say that the momentum is building, and uh I look forward to talking about some other companies that have jumped on board to be part of this event. Make sure that you are involved if you are in this sector. There's no excuse here. And then finally, uh, we have some Stinger reports out there. Hurrah! We'll have some entertainment social arenas out there very soon. If you have any information, if you'd like to correct my pronunciation of ICI uh and everything else, hit me up on LinkedIn, grab me via uh my email, uh, and please make sure that you are receiving your Stinger reports and they're up to date.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:50

Perfect. All right, Kevin. Well, that was a great sound off with uh, you know, for what is it, number one hundred and ten for February seventeenth. And uh, we'll see you next week for one hundred and eleven. Have a good one.