Tall Tales & Falsehoods

Last night my wife and I had the opportunity to visit the new Freestyle Park in Myrtle Beach, SC. Thanks to my association with the American Advertising Federation of Coastal Carolina, we got to visit for our end of the year bash for free!

I will go ahead and put this out there: Freestyle Park is a top notch park all the way around. They seem to only have one downside – not enough visitors. This becomes apparent just driving into the parking lot and follows you throughout your visit of the park. The park looks like it can hold A LOT of people. In doing so, when it is not busy – you can tell. However this has a major upside to it, you don’t have to wait in line for anything!

In the past few years my family and I have had the opportunity to visit a number of theme parks and think this ranks right up there with them. It is really easy for me to compare the park to that of Dollywood due the fact that we just visited that park not a month ago. Like Dolloywood you can tell that the new owners of the Freestyle Park are in it for the long hall. The small crowds don’t scare them. It seems they have figured out how to scale down without taking away form the overall feel for the park. When the crowds start to come in I can see how they would ramp up with smaller shows, places to explore and new things to eat.

Just like Dollywood there is a good mix between shows and rides. While Dollywood focuses on the mountain lifestyle, the Freestyle Park is centered around different forms of popular music. The synergy of theme and music is there but I think it may have some more appeal if they could add some worldly type music fractions. Song and dance from other cultures may open the fan base up just a bit and give an opportunity to learn while you were at the park. However the Freestyle Park seems to have the pop culture on lock.

The roller coasters were tons of fun and I would rank them above many others that I have ridden. The new “Time Machine” coaster was amazing and Heidi and I had a blast. They seem to be spaced out just enough to get your legs under you before wanting to ride the next one.  Adding small things such as the famous Abbey Road picture spot and moonshine still gives the family fun opportunities to explore and relax.

Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to check out the show side of the park. I have heard good stuff about them and would love to try and make it back just to see the Ice Cold Country and the Flip 5 Live show. Time was just to short in our little visit.

Call me impressed. The park seems to have a lot going for it. They seem to have embraced the locals (something the former owners didn’t do), understand how to scale the park accoring to attendence and may even know a few thing about how to read market forecasts. Yes sir, they seem to be in it for the long hall and not just a quick buck. I really think the bucks will come if they can just shave off the horrible reputation that the previous owners have bestowed on it. I encourge all locals and vistiors alike to go out and visit. Don’t be scared by the immence parking lot with few cars. Embrace it and have fun.

Another year has come and gone for CREATE South. It was a great experience this year. As one of the co-founders of CREATE South my hands touch all facets of the conference. For better or worse that is just how it is. We learned a tremendous amount from 2008 and even more form 2009. CREATE South 2010 should be even better.

As I look back on getting CREATE South 2009 together I wanted to make sure I posted some of the key points that I think will lead us to an even better conference in 2010.

• Remember to have fun
• Don’t forget to ask for help
• Know your strengths and weaknesses
• Plan ahead
• Have contingencies
• Find more sponsors

I like to tell myself that this is a grassroots conference. This takes a little pressure off. With a grassroots effort, things tend to a be a little more laid back, expectations from others aren’t so high, and the ability to change everything at the last minute is ok.

Andre @ CREATE South 2009 By Chrys

I do not like structured environments and I want to make sure that CREATE South stays true to the grassroots feel. One day I want to be able to hand off CREATE South to the new blood and let them run with the philosophy that we have instilled in it.

One of the best things we did this year was partner up with Horry Georgetown Technical College. In doing so we had a new found partner with some of the same goals. They were able to provide real life, hands on applications for their students to test their skills. CREATE South in returned received a venue to have the conference and an ongoing working relationship with a leader in the community. For that I am grateful.

Between planning, organizing and cooking I got to have a little fun and meet some really cool people. For me the conference isn’t what I learn in the session but rather what I take away from the people that I meet there. This year was a great exercise in networking for myself and my ideas.

I feel as if CREATE South 2009 was a big success. It laid down a firm foundation to build an even better conference with in 2010.

Until then check out some of the other CREATE South 2009 links:

Tiffany Trent Blog Post

CREATE South 2009 Flickr Group Pool

The Twitter Talk