Walt Disney World's president delivers the keynote address at IAAPA conference

Walt Disney World's president delivers the keynote address at IAAPA conference

November 15, 2007

Walt Disney World President Meg Crofton told 400 leaders of the amusement-park industry, gathered Wednesday for a convention in Orlando, that their work is not just a business but a "worthy cause."

Crofton's keynote address to owners and general managers at the annual International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions conference was billed as a review of Disney's "Year of a Million Dreams" marketing campaign and a look at Disney's vision for the future.

But while Crofton detailed the "Dreams" promotion, she offered the gathering no new hints of what the company might have in mind for Disney World.

She noted new attractions in the works in Hong Kong and Paris, the company's planned overhaul of Disney's California Adventure, the recent order placed for two new cruise ships, the recent announcement of a new resort in Hawaii and the growth in Adventures by Disney package-vacation tours.

The only future attraction she mentioned for her own resort was the Toy Story Mania ride, announced in January and under construction at Disney-MGM Studios.

While reviewing the "Dreams" campaign, she drove home the point that among the industry's strengths are the more-intimate experiences that tap into visitors' dreams.

"Our job is to amuse and to entertain, and our product is to make people's wishes, hopes and dreams come true," Crofton said. "This is a worthy cause."

Disney saw early on that the challenge of the "Dreams" campaign was not just finding ways to deliver a million (now more than 2 million) sweepstakes prizes, but getting thousands of company employees to buy into the program.

At Disney World, she said, "We hosted hundreds of town-hall meetings across our property. . . . We blasted e-mails to every inbox, posted pages of information on our company's intranet site and blanketed backstage areas with all sorts of collateral," such as motivational posters.

Scott Powers can be reached at spowers@orlandosentionel.com or 407-420-5441.