1956 Individuals Explores the Future of Attractions at IAAPA Orlando 2025

Kate Halsted, Asa Burrows and Babita Devi at IAAPA Orlando 2025.

We attended IAAPA Orlando as part of a UK delegation organised by the Department for Business and Trade, joining global operators, designers and technology providers at one of the attractions industry’s most important annual gatherings.

As part of the delegation, we visited Universal Parks & Resorts, where we heard directly from senior leaders, including John McReynolds, on the vision and scale of ambition for the proposed Universal UK project in Bedford.​ Brad Singh also shared how Universal is applying technology across its global portfolio of parks. The discussion highlighted the need for innovation-ready partners who can support real-time optimisation of visitor flow, multilingual guidance, and data-driven guest experiences.​ It was a useful and direct insight into how a leading global operator is thinking about the next generation of destination experiences.

For us, the event offered a platform to connect with like-minded innovators who recognise that the sector is moving toward deeper immersion, smarter experiences and destinations that adapt to each visitor.​

Engaging with industry leaders such as Russ Dagon and Doug Akers opened conversations around collaboration, and how conversational AI avatars can help operators deliver differentiated, scalable guest journeys. These discussions reinforced the growing appetite for solutions that combine creative storytelling with robust back-end technology and analytics.​

Kate Halsted, Asa Burrows and Babita Devi represented 1956 Individuals on the show floor, demonstrating how our conversational AI avatars can support visitor experiences across theme parks, museums, aquariums, and other immersive environments. Alongside the physical team, our AI sales assistant, Zoe Starling was also featured, showcasing how conversational interfaces can guide and inform guests in real time across languages and touchpoints.​

The demonstrations focused on a core belief: the next evolution of the experience economy is conversational.  That is what our conversational AI avatars are built for.​