[Applause]
imagine a five-year-old boy running
around the house if you’re all dressed
up in the pirate outfit he made he’s got
a wooden sword that he wrapped with foil
a homemade patch hangs down over his
eyes and his tattered and jeans
completely ensemble
he runs from room to room attacking ship
fending off every attacker but as he
runs into the living room he spies his
father
the inventor sitting in his chair
drawing in a pad as he often does the
boy sneaks up behind him and raises his
sword and staring into the bad though
this time something’s different the
gears and pulleys in the pad start
burning into the guy’s brain hits brain
the police could raise the sails on his
ship the gears could raise the
drawbridge on his castle the boys
inspired the boy wants to draw – he
smiles at his father sneaks the pad up
from underneath his shoulders plops down
on the floor and begins to draw
fast-forward 20 years now the boy become
a man his first week on a real job his
first professional image the voice fired
up this is the rendering of a lifetime
he puts everything into his rendering
just the right view spotlights shining
into the air all the chrome glistens
with little dots of color the moment has
come he licks the tip of his brush holds
his breath and begins signing the right
hand father right-hand corner his boss
bill Castle 20-year veteran grabs his
hand we don’t sign our renderings here
the ideas you paint are not yours alone
teams create IV ideas the best ideas
don’t have to be yours
the best ideas don’t have to be yours I
was devastated how can this be true my
entire life
I was taught that the best ideas that
the person with the best ideas wins like
Edison with a light bulb like Einstein
with the theory of relativity they
became our heroes by their inventions
every class I took
we were evaluated on the strength of our
ideas this turned all that on its head
in 1986 there weren’t a lot of jobs out
there for a kid who wanted to design
rollercoasters and theme parks so I’ve
it figured I’d better stick around and
as I did I started to understand the
truth behind this philosophy I noticed
that when a aggressive person
strong-arms his idea through a project
all the team the team members start
backing away and when the project comes
along it comes up with the challenges
that it always does it doesn’t have a
strong beat team behind it or the
momentum to carry the project through to
the end but when the creation is far
more important than the Creator suddenly
the people start rallying around the
idea they start cherishing it so when
the project runs into the obstacles
there is the verse team there’s the
verse ideas to push the project through
to the end this does not mean that
there’s no room for the champion the
person to grab the project and push the
idea wrestle the idea to the end and be
the person that cares for it and this
certainly does not mean there’s no room
for the starry-eyed inventor to stay out
stay up late at night going through his
brain trying to imagine the perfect
solutions to the problem what it does
mean is that when an ego grabs hold of a
project
and does not and does not let it evolve
does not let it change the potential for
failure is hi a project an idea has to
be flexible so that when it comes to
problems it has to change and evolve we
demonstrated this flexibility we were
asked to create a combination roller
coaster and cheetah environment for
Busch Gardens Tampa now you would think
that adding a roller coaster to a theme
park is a no brainer but Busch Gardens
Tampa has some of the best roller
coasters on the marketplace it has
roller coasters that sit on the top
roller coasters that hang from the
bottom dive coasters that dive down 90
degrees straight to the ground we
couldn’t just take any roller coaster
off the shelf and throw it into the park
and expect to be successful not only
that but Busch Gardens is located right
next to Orlando the theme park capital
of the world
where billions of dollars are spent
every year so to make a difference
our coaster had to be iconic it had to
stand out in an environment it had to
show this our icon had to be unique to
show something that only Busch Gardens
Tampa could create and we had experience
creating icons in the past when a small
child looks nose to beak with a penguin
in its own environment that as an icon
for st. Louis Zoo and when you see a
family plummeting from the towers of
Atlantis as it rises from the sea that
is an icon for SeaWorld we had to create
an icon that was just as powerful for
this ride the engineer for the park Marc
Rose said what if this coaster is unique
because it clings close to the ground
swinging back and forth between the
trees narrowly missed narrowly missing
it just like a cheetah runs across the
valley and we all embrace the idea we
thought that was a great idea so we
started creating storyboards we had
storyboards
the coaster careening through the trees
we had storyboards of the coaster just
narrowly skipping across the water
storyboards of the coaster careening
through the rockwork barely missing the
rocks as they pass storyboards of the
coaster going through the waterfalls but
even though the storyboards are cool
they really weren’t hitting that note
that made this ride feel unique and not
only that but as we talk to the ride
manufacturers they said who builds a
coaster that stays close to the ground
and you never see it
our coaster summarized into this guy
celebrate itself for all the sea we felt
momentum slipping and we knew we had to
be flexible to succeed so in the next
brainstorming meeting we sat around at
the general manager for the park said
you know our Park is so beautiful it has
these massive expanses of land with the
animals running back and forth what if
our coaster rose up to the sky and the
guests could peer down the engineers
joined in they said we could not only
that but we could launch our coaster
like a cheetah go in 60 mile an hour to
the top of the tower figure 8 at the top
the animal people joined in they said
that would be perfect because it cheetah
being fast and lean is actually at the
bottom of the pecking order many other
predators actually chased him down and
so he runs up to the top of the highest
precipice and stares around the spot as
prey so he does not get chased by the
other animals we could be the coaster
the creative director for the park so
that would be fabulous we could have
this coaster look like a whole stack of
six all rising into the sky with the
coaster going around at the top so we
were flexible and started to change and
adapt the project and on the airplane
home I built them a 3d model that turned
into this video that showed the initial
thoughts about how this coaster could be
rising up to the top zooming around in a
figure eight until diving down to the
ground this simple idea
turn into a sketch that turned into a
rendering that we placed in the park and
showed how this thing could feel in the
park with fire shooting out the top this
idea started building momentum we showed
it to the board the project was approved
to move forward and more and more people
started adding to the team we started
developing all the pieces trying to
celebrate how a cheetah and a coaster
could look like they’re running
alongside each other showing what the
retail shop could look like show them
what the Q and food.if areas could look
like showing how the animals and the
people could look like they’re right
next to each other all these pieces
coming together all the pieces all
trying to wrap the whole project around
the guests until you felt like you’re
somewhere where the Cheetahs and man all
interacted now projects all run into
problems and this one’s no different
once again when we showed our art our to
the right engineers they laughed at us
they said who takes a 6-ton roller
coaster and slams it into a pile as the
power of sticks towers must come
directly to the ground but that looking
character was so important to that to
making the icon that we wanted and so we
assembled our engineers from Saint Louis
who are used to working with these crazy
designers and the engineers from Germany
who are used to building the rides that
come firmly to the ground and we sat
across the table adding sticks taking
away sticks extending sticks so that all
these pieces work together to create
this icon the team worked well and soon
we moved a hook forward again momentum
cat continued to grow and so we kept
adding pieces opening day was coming and
we started testing the coaster we
actually put guests on the coaster after
we put the test dummies on the coaster
having two guests experience the coaster
we moved the animals into the exhibit so
they could see how the animals reacted
to the people around them all these
pieces started coming together so that
all the pieces of the project we’re
becoming one now typically when a
project opens we create special unique
artifacts
that for the celebrate opening day and
for this project we created a snow globe
that looked like the tower and this was
one of the primary pieces that we wanted
to celebrate for the opening of the park
the head of marketing for the park had
an idea he said Jim you worked on this
coaster why don’t you come on down what
I’d like you to do is sit in the gift
shop an opening day and as the guests
buy these snow globes I’d like you to
sit in the chair and sign the bottom of
those things this didn’t sound like a
good idea but but I signed up for it
so an opening day I show up there’s not
a snow globe in sight the quick-thinking
marketing director added a plan he said
Jim what we’re gonna do we’re gonna put
this sign next to you that said meet Jim
libel that does the designer of Cheetah
Hunt 25 years of readjusting my
philosophy to the thought the people
design things together turned upside
down that day once I was devastated but
I thought to myself maybe no one will
show up it was
it was the largest opening day in the
history of the park as the guests
started coming out
I started signing these these postcards
for the kids as they came out and as
each kid came out they said you’re the
designer and I would stumble the
designer and the kids would look at me
funny and I understood why but as I did
I started to understand what was behind
it I started to realize that these kids
wanted a hero to take the idea home that
I met the designer of Cheetah Hunt and
so I started my adjusting my story I
started saying yes I was one of the
people that worked on the team that
created the attraction what do you like
to do oh you like animals you know a
person that loved animals actually
helped us design the ride came up with
the idea that you could be like a
cheetah zoom like a cheetah up to the
top of the tower look around and spot
your prey and dive down to the bottom oh
you like engineers you should have seen
the engineers when we told them we
wanted to build a tower that was made of
sticks oh if you like art we need
artists in the world
to take ideas draw the ideas and show
the ideas to people so they can
understand how wonderful the idea can be
the best part of the whole day was when
the small child came up to me with this
placemat that he drawn a picture of the
coaster and he explained to me and I
knew that I hadn’t made an impact on
this kid imagine a father driving home
in his mint 1974 Ford Capri he’s worked
all day with the designers and trying to
solve problems of scheduling marketing
all the characters working together
never getting to take the ideas in his
head any further he drives up the 88
radio off and as he does an idea starts
burning into his brain he eats dinner
with the family
laughing having a great time but that
idea keep stitching in this bullet brain
as the dishes are done and the family
starts running around the house he
thinks he’ll sneak over to his chair and
sit down pull out his pad and begin
drawing as he does he feels a breast
over his shoulder as he turns he sees a
five-year-old pirate raising his patch
peering into his pad the boys smiles the
fan smiles at the boy as a boy steals
the pad up up from underneath his arms
he sees the boy plopped down onto the
ground and begin to draw wild world’s and wild rides