Guy Nelson: Testing center born from clients’ feedback

Guy Nelson, president of Dynamic Attractions, announced last week his company will open a 32,000-square-foot development center in Orlando next year. The center will create and test new theme park attractions before they’re installed around the world. Tourism reporter Caitlin Dineen sat down with Nelson to discuss the new development.

important to us and you start to say, “Maybe it’s a good idea to do just that.”

Why should Orlando residents be excited that we’re getting the development center?

The development center, it’s the innovation side. It’s the part that guests come here because this is where the envelope’s always pushed. This is where the new guest experiences emerge. And some of the best clients in the world are here, right? So, all we’re doing is we’re innovating our company and broadening its services to address a gap in the industry that we see that needs to be filled. I don’t think I would say that Orlando should be happy that we’re here necessarily because how many guys are going to get into this? It’s going to be quite secretive; I’m going to be quite secretive.

What benefit do you think Orlando would see from being another attraction, destination here?

I think when you’re a leader like Orlando is in the themedentertainment and the attractions business, it’s always good to stay current, to stay ahead of the game. And I’m Canadian, so we tend to like going where the puck’s going to be. It’s being where the puck is; it’s going where the puck’s going to be. That’s how we score so many goals, and that’s what we want to do down here.

Why choose IAAPA to announce?

I think as you can see in our booth we wanted to come out with a couple of announcements today. Not just the center, but the broad services. We wanted to show people this is the type of thing (we do). It’s not just being at the show. You have to be at the show in a particular way.

I know people in the industry are always a little bit cryptic about their work, but you guys do have an existing presence in Orlando. Can you tell me anything about your existing Orlando footprint?

A: What we can say, because Universal and Disney have been good clients for 15 years, we’ve done a lot of work with them and we have letters from them saying we have done work for them, but we can’t say what. And we don’t need to say it. But we’re just happy to be working for them because we feel they’re spectacularly good at pushing the envelope. And we like to push the envelope and be pushed in what it is we do.

cdineen@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5414