Feeling the Magic of a Show Opener at IPC APEX EXPO 2024

As we walked the show floor at IPC APEX EXPO on Tuesday, April 9, we were struck by the subtle differences in the feel of the show floor between Anaheim and the previous home in San Diego. Somehow, the large booths seem less dominant, and the smaller booths seem more prominent here in the shadow of Disneyland where everything feels just a little bit magical.

Tuesday’s proceedings kicked off with a keynote presentation by former Disney Imagineer Paul Bailey. He shared inspiring stories of how he came to work for Disney, including images of him growing up obsessed with “Star Wars” and a desire to someday grow up and work with those films.

He especially talked about how to achieve a “moonshot” project, something that can seem insurmountable when first taking it on. He used the example of his first movie, “Dante’s Peak,” and the hundreds of people it took to build models that were used in the movie to simulate a volcanic eruption.

The keynote was followed by the traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the show floor. The lay of the show floor is a bit different from San Diego, but the aisles felt full, especially by early afternoon, when many attendees completed their technical sessions and committee meetings and began visiting the booths on the show floor.

Highlights of the day included the IPC Design Competition, where four of the five competitors worked on their designs remotely. With one big projector screen at the front of the room, and several large monitors, the competition was overseen by IPC’s Kris Moyer and Patrick Crawford. They answered questions from competitors while sometimes admiring the way the designs were being put together. Winners will be announced on Thursday.