Thursday, March 7

*EARLY BIRD* Acquire The Perfect Retail Location For Your Seasonal Business
Speaker: Holly Bowling, Halloween Express
10:00am-11:00am
Room 123
This seminar will focus on finding, leasing and moving into the ideal spot for a temporary seasonal retail business. Bring your questions and let’s solve the problems you have been encountering on your search for a great location.

Friday, March 8

*EARLY BIRD* Panel: Insurance Insights – Navigating Event Protection
Moderator: Randy Bates (Bates Motel and Haunted Hayrides)
Speakers: Granite Insurance, FCIS Insurance and Leavitt Recreation and Hospitality Insurance
10:00 am -11:00 am
Room 123
No one likes to talk about it but everyone needs it… Insurance! What if you could hear from the top companies all at once and leave with a firm understanding of your needs? You can! Join us for a casual, yet informative, panel discussion featuring leading insurance companies who are ready to tackle the subject of event insurance and liability exposure. This seminar will cover complexities of coverage, offer strategic insights, and give you the ability to compare the coverage you actually need!

Saturday, March 9

*EARLY BIRD* Unlocking the Gate: Navigating Ticketing Solutions in the Digital Age
Moderator: Bud Stross (Dent School House)
Speakers: Etix, TicketSpice, HauntPay, FearTicket (powered by Hytix), TicketLeap and Brushfire
9:00 am-10:00 am
Room 123
This fast-paced session is your VIP pass to unraveling the complexities of modern ticketing. Explore a spectrum of platforms, from the tried-and-true to the cutting-edge, as Bud Stross and the panel of experts provide insights and share industry-specific features. In just one hour, you’ll gain the knowledge needed to make savvy digital ticketing decisions for your business! This crash course is meant to help you up your game and connect you with a service that is right for you!!

Sunday, March 10

*EARLY BIRD* Overcoming the Fear of Sponsorships
Speaker: Dr. Michael Book, Danger Run
10:00 am-11:00 am
Room 123
A seminar developed for attraction & event producers looking to generate revenue from sponsors. This seminar is dedicated entirely to curating paid sponsorship opportunities. Samples will be discussed along with methodology to help you overcome the fear of sponsorships and set you up for success.

FREE Exhibitor Seminars

Friday, March 8

Strategic Marketing and Pricing for Your Haunt
Speaker: Bryan Jenkins, TicketSignup
10:00am-11:00am
Room 127
This is not your average marketing presentation. Join us to dive into the data of haunts and identify a few underutilized opportunities to increase your participation and maximize your per-ticket revenue. In this seminar, we’ll look at cost effective ways to drive repeat attendance (and encourage those attendees to bring more people). It’s cheaper and easier to convince a fan to return (with a friend) than to find a new Halloween enthusiast to replace them the following year! Additionally, we’ll dive into the impact of pricing on ticket sales – both before the event and on-site. The ultimate goal: sell more tickets, earlier, and with lower fees for you!

Q & A with Shane Dabbs of Santa Land
Speaker: Shane Dabbs, Santa Land
10:00am-11:00am
Room 130
Looking to start a Christmas event or maybe you have an existing one that’s in need of some help, maybe a project has you stumped and you just don’t know where to turn or who to ask? From Locations to Lighting, Set designs to Santa, Concession to Creations and all in between, he will take your questions, answer them and guide you in the direction of a successful seasonal attraction!

Don’t Be A Bigfoot Business: How To Get Discovered With Better SEO And Social Media
Speaker: Jake Zufelt, Weldwood Marketing
11:15am-12:15pm
Room 130
Embark on a journey to transform your business from a mythical, rarely seen entity like Bigfoot into a well-known and easily discoverable brand. This session is dedicated to business owners, marketers, and entrepreneurs keen on mastering the art of being found online. We’ll dive into the critical tactics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and effective Social Media strategies, ensuring your business stands out in the digital forest.

Financial Fundamentals – Your Business’s Secret Sauce
Speaker: Blue Skies
12:30pm-1:30pm
Room 130
As a business owner, you NEED to know your numbers and have them presented in a way that is useful and practical. We will run through a profit and loss and balance sheet and explain how to use them to make decisions in day to day operations for growth and increased profitability. I’ll also show a few red flags to look out for and what they mean. No matter where you are in your business journey, solid financial fundamentals are key!

Fraud, Chargebacks, and Safeguarding your Revenue
Speaker: Ticketspice
1:45pm-2:45pm
Room 130
Stay ahead of the ever-evolving realm of payment security. Join TicketSpice for an insightful seminar on navigating the complex landscape of chargebacks, fraud, and learn effective mitigation strategies. In this session TicketSpice shares practical and technical tools and strategies designed to safeguard your event against financial losses.

Elevate Your Earnings, Halloween Express Guide To Haunt Retail
Speaker: Halloween Express Team
3:00pm-4:00pm
Room 130
Climb the ladder to increased profitability! In this seminar, we delve into the strategies and tactics employed by Halloween Express to transform your haunted attraction into a lucrative retail destination. From product selection and merchandising techniques to customer engagement and seasonal promotions, discover how to captivate your audience and boost sales in the spine-chilling world of haunted attractions. Join us as we unravel the secrets behind Halloween Express’ success and learn how to elevate your earnings to new heights.

Revolutionize Your Attraction with Chatbots at Transworld 2024
Speaker: The Stobee Team
4:15pm-5:15pm
Room 130
Join us at Transworld 2024 for an enlightening session on leveraging chatbots to transform your entertainment venues and attraction centers. This workshop is designed to show you how chatbots can drastically enhance customer interaction, increase ticket sales, and provide round-the-clock support without the need for additional staffing. Learn from industry leaders about maximizing chatbot potential to not only improve visitor experience but also to see swift returns on investment. We’ll explore strategies for using chatbots to convert inquiries into sales, ensure 24/7 visitor support, and share real-life case studies of attractions that have witnessed remarkable financial growth. This session is perfect for anyone in the entertainment and attractions industry looking to stay ahead of the curve and embrace the future of customer engagement. Don’t miss the opportunity to transform your venue and skyrocket your success with chatbots!

Saturday, March 9

The Scariest Exhibition: Tax and Accounting Strategies
Speaker: Brandon West, 77 Financial
9:00am-10:00am
Room 127
You work too hard to miss a single deduction. Let’s talk about business structure, minimizing payroll taxes, maximizing deductions, and investing business profits. Let’s tackle the ugly, unfun, ghastly horror of small business taxation.

Zombie Undead Werewolf
Speaker: Bobbie Weiner, Bloody Mary
9:00am-10:00am
Room 132
Bring a friend to work on and turn them into this living nightmare, Bloody Mary’s newest creature. You will receive an FX Makeup Kit with all you need to create and bring this new monster to life that Bloody Mary has created. With the tools Bloody Mary provides you with, you or your partner will be turned into a Zombie UNDEAD Werewolf. Get there early to get a seat for you and your partner. There will be a Bloody Mary Raffle to win great prizes at the end of the Bloody Mary Workshop. Whoever wins the best makeup will be featured in one of the newest upcoming “Tales of Bloody Mary” Comic Books.

Show Control for Live Interactive Experiences – The COGS story
Speaker: Team from Clockwork Dog, COGS
9:00am-10:00am
Room 130
Join the team from Clockwork Dog to learn about their product COGS – a hardware/software platform designed specifically for the demands of modern interactive experiences such as escape rooms, haunted houses and immersive theater.

Clockwork Dog started out in the Escape Room industry in 2016, designing and running their own award-winning escape rooms, before deciding to focus all of their energy on developing COGS – the show control system they created to run their own experiences, and which now runs shows like Saw: The Escape Experience & Monopoly Lifesized.

They’ll talk through the history of COGS leading up to the recent release of COGS 5 which brings a host of new features including the ability to control wireless devices such as smart bulbs and smart plugs. This is a great opportunity to learn more about COGS and how it can help you push the boundaries and create the live experiences of tomorrow.

Family friendly pumpkin trails , decor and more ! 
Speaker: Debbi Katz, Jack O Lantern Journey
10:15am-11:15am
Room 130
Debbi Katz, industry expert, will share her extensive knowledge on Family Friendly Halloween. Whether you are looking to create a new pumpkin trail, enhance your pumpkin decor or add something wonderful to your existing venue, this is a must see presentation.

Highway to SELL (More Tickets!) — A Masterclass in Marketing & Business for Attractions
Moderator: Ernest Corder, President of FearWorm
Panel: Heidi Dunfield, Fear Factory; Matt Herzog, Pennhurst Asylum; Jeremy Hastings, Dead End Hayride and Pinehaven Farm
11:30am-12:30pm
Room 130
This expert, insightful Q&A panel will bring you three of the most successful haunted attraction owners with multiple decades of real, hard earned experience owning and operating several of the TOP-RATED, profitable haunted attractions in the United States! If you are looking for answers on HOW your haunt can win in 2024, you won’t want to miss this amazing, once in a lifetime panel!

The Ghost In The Machine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Help Digital Marketing and Communications in the Haunt Industry.
Speaker: Mark O’Shea and Steve Richo, “Noise New Media” 
12:45pm-1:45pm
Room 130
Learn the scary reality of how AI can amplify efficiency in the industry, not by replacing but by
augmenting the human touch. Leave the workshop with 3 practical uses you can implement
immediately!

The Top 5 Pitfalls of Your Insurance Program
Speaker: Granite Insurance
2:00pm-3:00pm
Room 130
Discussing the most common problems that the Haunted Attraction industry faces in their insurance program

Digital Media Tactics Proven to Drive Ticket Sales to Your Event
Spakers: Ernest Corder and Matt Nelsen from Redroc Austin
3:15pm-4:15pm
Room 130
Discover the latest tactics and strategies in digital media designed to build audiences and push
them down the sales funnel to purchase tickets. Ernest Corder and Matt Nelsen from Redroc
and FearWorm share some of their most successful media methods to help drive attendance to
holiday festivals, seasonal events, or any type of ticketed attraction. This seminar will teach you
how to:

• Build multiple outreach funnels through social media channels
• Drive audiences into retargeting platforms to increase engagement
• Move those audiences into online sales
• Convert abandoned carts to sales
• Build first party audiences using mobile phone tracking technology
• Reach beyond keyword search marketing to lower your costs

We’ve successfully promoted thousands of events in this ever-changing marketing world. Bring
your questions and learn new tricks at this seminar, and walk away with tactics you can use
now.

“Feeding the Beast: 25 Years of Statesville Haunted Prison” Documentary Screening and Q&A
Speaker: John and Kyle LaFlamboy, Zombie Army Productions/HellsGate Haunted House
4:30 pm-5:30 pm
Room 123
Join John and Kyle for a screening of the Emmy Award winning documentary about the final days of the legendary Statesville Haunted Prison. We will watch the doc and hold a Q&A about the last days of Statesville; what led to closing a highly successful show, how Zombie Army maximized every financial benefit to closing a show, and the lessons learned about closing a show successfully. This should be a lot of fun, bring popcorn and drinks!

“Feeding the Beast: 25 Years of Statesville Haunted Prison” is a 37 minute mini-documentary about Statesville Haunted Prison. From its humble beginnings as a bunch of theater kids on a farmer’s property to the massive, aggressive beast that it ultimately became, watch as a group of friends unknowingly launched what would become one of Chicago’s legendary haunted attractions, from the earliest days right up through its very last night on November 6, 2021. If you loved Statesville Haunted Prison, keep the tissues handy.