D23 Expo 2015

Travel Junkie

Travel Junkie

Well-Known Member
Ignohippo said:
For Christ's sakes, would it really kill them to have one in Orlando at least on every five/ten years?

I understand that's a lot to ship down for the event, but c'mon, the promotion for WDW and the press it could get for the East Coast would be worth it.
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The Anaheim Convention Center is walking distance to Disneyland. The Orlando Convention Center is closer to Universal than WDW.

I imagine the biggest reasons though lie in Disney’s corporate office being roughly 30 miles away instead of 3,000 miles away. It’s cheaper and more convenient to do it in Anaheim.

Also they can get more and bigger stars to attend with it in California than Orlando.

dstrawn9889 said:
a flight TO Cali? id rather get shot in the foot...
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I'm surprised. It actually took till page 3 to get the first California sucks quote. Usually the "Cali" bashing starts on page one.
 
I

Ignohippo

Well-Known Member
Virtual Insanity said:
The Anaheim Convention Center is walking distance to Disneyland. The Orlando Convention Center is closer to Universal than WDW.

I imagine the biggest reasons though lie in Disney’s corporate office being roughly 30 miles away instead of 3,000 miles away. It’s cheaper and more convenient to do it in Anaheim.

Also they can get more and bigger stars to attend with it in California than Orlando.
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All of these are great reasons and understandable (as is what everyone else is saying), however none of these things preclude them from having the darned thing in Florida once a decade. Other major conventions travel, so there's no reason D23 can't. As much as TWDCo would like to think there isn't a world beyond California, there is.

As for hotels, yes, Rosen, etc. would all be sold out but so would the Disney hotels be.

And as for traveling, most people in attendance would have to travel to Florida as well. Cutting down the time and cost involved for people on the East Coast however should come into the equation as well as the potential promotional benefits for WDW. Whatever cost associated with shipping everything to Florida would be paid for in the added promotional benefit it would have fro the Florida parks. As for the "convenience" of the executives, shouldn't it be about the convenience of the fans as well?
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
raven24 said:
Crowds aren't too bad, but it's usually hot in August. Oddly enough, the past two summers haven't been hot, especially last summer.
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The past few summers in Southern California have been cooler than the long-term (150 years or so) statistical average. Although 150 years is a fraction of a blink of an eye compared to the last One Million years on a planet that is Six Billion years old. And remember, it hasn't been hot the past few summers because of Al Gore's Global Warming. Or something like that. :cool:

But even if we return to the statistical average for summer temps in SoCal this year, a "hot" day in SoCal in August is nothing compared to the climate in Orlando in August. And the summer nights in SoCal are pure magic. There's a reason the Beach Boys made so many hit songs about beaches and sun and girls in Southern California and no one has ever made a song about the weather or the girls in Central Florida.

August crowds aren't bad, but go in the first half of the month before the Annual Passholders become unblocked from their summer moratorium around the third week of August. If you go past August 20th it can be very busy, especially on a Sunday.

Go to Disneyland in August, bring some sun screen and maybe a light sweater for evening, and you'll have a blast!
 
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TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
RSoxNo1 said:
There is simply no venue near WDW that can accommodate it like the Anaheim Convention Center. Add in the other reasons you mentioned, I don't see it happening.
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I got this one. It's apparently my lot in life...

The short answer is: Walt Disney World doesn't have enough space or the proper facilities to host a D23 Expo. But Anaheim does.

The long answer is: Walt Disney World's convention facilities are woefully inadequate compared to Anaheim, and what convention facilities WDW does have are split up and scattered across property so much that it would destroy any semblance of cohesion and energy and community.

The Anaheim Convention Center is the largest convention center on the West Coast. It's bigger than the convention centers in Los Angeles, or San Diego, or San Francisco, or Portland or Seattle. (And Anaheim just approved a major expansion to begin later this year, which will keep the facility the West Coast's largest for the long term, if not forever.)

They don't use all of the Anaheim Convention Center for D23 Expo, but they use a majority of the space across multiple levels and multiple exhibit halls, including the 10,000 seat Anaheim Arena for keynote addresses. Here's the square footage breakdown for the last two D23 Expo's at the Anaheim Convention Center, compared to all of the space available in every single convention hall and conference room at Walt Disney World...

Anaheim Arena (AKA the D23 Arena) - 10,000 seats, for D23 Expo keynote speeches
Exhibit Hall A - 145,000 Square Feet
Exhibit Hall B - 145,000 Square Feet
Half Exhibit Hall C - 75,000 Square Feet
Ticketing Lobby - 50,000 Square Feet
Second Floor D28 Theater/Exhibits - 50,000 Square Feet
Third Floor D23 Theater - 40,000 Square Feet
Total ACC Space Used for D23 Expo - 550,000 Square Feet
Total ACC Space Available - 1.1 Million Square Feet

D23 Arena at Anaheim Convention Center - Yes, that many people actually wanted to see Jay Rasulo!
4621.MON_2D00_1.jpg_2D00_500x0.jpg


Compare that to all the space available across the five main convention and conference facilities at WDW; Coronado Springs, Contemporary Resort, Grand Floridian, Boardwalk, Beach & Yacht Club. First, none of those spaces has an arena like the Anaheim Arena that can seat up to 10,000. Here's how the total space available at these five WDW properties breaks down;

Coronado Springs Resort Convention Center - 220,000 Square Feet
Contemporary Resort Conference Center - 115,000 Square Feet
Yacht & Beach Club Conference Center - 70,000 Square Feet
Grand Floridian Conference Center - 40,000 Square Feet
Boardwalk Conference Center - 20,000 Square Feet
Total WDW Convention Space Available - 465,000 Square Feet

But that 465,000 square feet number actually looks better than it is. Much of that square footage is redundant lobby space, or smaller meeting rooms or ballrooms un-useable for a D23 Expo type mega-event. The largest exhibit hall at WDW, and the only full-scale exhibit hall really, is the Veracruz Hall at Coronado Springs, and it's only 86,000 square feet.

By comparison, the Anaheim Convention Center has 725,000 square feet of continuous industry-standard exhibit hall space, of which D23 Expo used 365,000 square feet in 2013. The larger pavilions like the WDI Carousel of Projects or the Disney Living Pavilion would not even fit in the Veracruz Hall without scaling down, and then you've just maxed out almost all of the space at Coronado Springs with just that one element of the Expo floor.

2013 D23 Expo Exhibit Hall Floorplan - With more theaters, exhibits, archives & presentations up on the second and third floors
http://www./wp-content/uploads/2011/08/D23Expo2011_MainFloor.gif

Even if you convinced the various divisions of the Disney Company to radically scale down the size and scope of their Exhibit Hall presentations, and were then left with a dramatically smaller and decidedly less impressive show, you would still be faced with the logistics nightmare of expecting all the D23 Expo visitors to bus themselves around WDW property to take in the WDI pavilion at Coronado Springs, the Disney Living pavilion at the Contemporary (whose full exhibit space is actually a ballroom of only 44,000 square feet), the Disney Archives exhibit at the Grand Floridian, 1,000 seat theater at the Yacht Club, etc., etc.

And... any event planner worth their headset would never try to stage such an event broken up over a half dozen venues, none of them within walking distance of each other. There would be no buzz, no vibe, no excitement, no sense of community and spectacle under such a fractured WDW scenario.

And one last reason that can't be overlooked... D23 Expo at the Anaheim Convention Center is right across the street from Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom of Disneyland! How cool is that?!?
 
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asianway

asianway

Well-Known Member
Ignohippo said:
All of these are great reasons and understandable (as is what everyone else is saying), however none of these things preclude them from having the darned thing in Florida once a decade. Other major conventions travel, so there's no reason D23 can't. As much as TWDCo would like to think there isn't a world beyond California, there is.

As for hotels, yes, Rosen, etc. would all be sold out but so would the Disney hotels be.

And as for traveling, most people in attendance would have to travel to Florida as well. Cutting down the time and cost involved for people on the East Coast however should come into the equation as well as the potential promotional benefits for WDW. Whatever cost associated with shipping everything to Florida would be paid for in the added promotional benefit it would have fro the Florida parks. As for the "convenience" of the executives, shouldn't it be about the convenience of the fans as well?
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They do a lot wrong but this isn't one of them. There is no compelling reason for it to be held in Orlando
 
tribbleorlfl

tribbleorlfl

Well-Known Member
asianway said:
They do a lot wrong but this isn't one of them. There is no compelling reason for it to be held in Orlando
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Yup, no compelling reasons. WDW doesn't account for the lion's share of DP&R revenue or profits, Orange County Convention Center isn't 5 miles/10 minutes away from Disney property and Orlando isn't one of the top tourism destinations in the world.
 
asianway

asianway

Well-Known Member
tribbleorlfl said:
Yup, no compelling reasons. WDW doesn't account for the lion's share of DP&R revenue or profits, Orange County Convention Center isn't 5 miles/10 minutes away from Disney property and Orlando isn't one of the top tourism destinations in the world.
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I do realize that most WDW lifestylers are making minimum wage or on government assistance...but the lack of resources to purchase a transcontinental plane ticket is not compelling. Enough rubes will come to WDW anyway....
 
Travel Junkie

Travel Junkie

Well-Known Member
Ignohippo said:
And as for traveling, most people in attendance would have to travel to Florida as well. Cutting down the time and cost involved for people on the East Coast however should come into the equation as well as the potential promotional benefits for WDW. Whatever cost associated with shipping everything to Florida would be paid for in the added promotional benefit it would have fro the Florida parks. As for the "convenience" of the executives, shouldn't it be about the convenience of the fans as well?
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You could easily argue that it is more convenient for a higher percentage of fans for it to be in Anaheim as it sits in the middle of the 2nd largest metro area in the country. DLR has roughly 1 million AP’s (lots of fans there.) For those flying in, your hotel is within walking distance of DLR the convention center and any number of other food and entertainment choices. That convenience does not exist in Orlando.
Logistically it would be a nightmare as obviously Disney would want the fans to stay at WDW but how do you get them to the convention center without them detouring to Universal or Sea World? As an aside, in retrospect it would have been a great idea for Disney to either build themselves or allow the convention center to be built on or near WDW to take advantage of the additional traffic like the setup that exists in Anaheim. Uni and SW are in a much better position to take advantage of convention traffic.
They do have Destination D events in Orlando on alternating years of the Expo including this year. That should give you a good idea on how big of an event they can hold at WDW and the kind of talent they can pull into those events, which is primarily Disney legends and some WDI talent.
A big part of D23 is the Film and TV divisions. Those personalities rarely travel to Florida for shows. Look at the expos that pull in Hollywood talent. They are located in Southern California and New York. That’s not trying to put down other parts of the country, it’s simply where the film and TV types live.
I understand the desire to have the premier fan event closer to some people, but it honestly would be a really dumb decision to have it in Orlando.
 

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