Haunt Weekly - Episode 377 - Who Was NOT At Transworld

[0:21] Hello everyone, I'm Jonathan. I'm Crystal. And this is Haunt Weekly, a weekly podcast with Haunt Attraction Entertainment Community. Whether you're an actor, owner, or just plain, aficionado, we aim to be a podcast for you. The intro that is easier to say than it is the spell, is what we were reminded of once upon a time. But yes, indeed, we are back for another episode of Haunt Weekly, and this time around, we're talking about Transworld again. Yes, as we said we would.
As we said we would, we're actually keeping a promise for once. Usually when we say we're going to talk about this next time, that's the one thing in guarantee we're not going to talk about.

[0:57] But this time around we decided to mix things up and actually go through with it.
Because actually this is an interesting topic I think, and it's basically who was not at Transworld, not individuals, types of businesses. Like a lot of people were not at Transworld, not everyone goes to Transworld. Yeah. Obviously. Either not there or underrepresented. There are a few that...
We had a person or two. Yeah. But yes, indeed. So take a minute and go through the rest of our Transworld coverage. Two weeks ago we had our wrap up of who was there. So you might want to check that out. It's at HauntWeekly.com, Haunt Weekly on Twitter, Haunt Weekly on Facebook, and Youtube.com slash Haunt Weekly. You can also find it wherever you get your podcasts from. So real fast, every Every week we ask a question in a week.
Last week we asked, did your haunt do anything for Valentine's Day?
I forgot to post that on social media.
I completely, it was kind of a crazy week.

[1:53] So we don't have any answers to that one really. And also it's kind of a boring question in hindsight.

[2:00] Yeah. One very good question. So this week's question I think will be a little more interesting and a little more engagement-y.
And that is, who did you think was missing from Transworld? We're going to list six people, well, five and a half.
Yeah. Just stick with us on this one. It's going to be interesting, I promise.
But what kind of businesses do you wish had been there that were not there?
Once again, let us know. Hultweekly.com, Hultweekly on Twitter, Hultweekly on Facebook, and all of it. And youtube.com slash Hultweekly. All those lovely places we exist. list.

[2:32] The work we did on our haunt nothing yet this week. Yeah, but here's the thing.

[2:38] Happy Lundy grah. Yeah, it is Lundy grah today and we actually have all through Wednesday, So Thursday morning is the first morning back for work for for us. I just take the days off She has yeah makes it easier makes it so much easier just a minute matter pattern my schedule after I work from home I can either take every day off and be broke, or I can work every single day and probably die before I'm 44. Yes. So.

[3:04] Following her schedule gives me balance and gives me you know some room there.
Yeah so we will be doing work over the next few days. Don't know when, don't know what, but we will be doing some work over the next few days. So yeah you're just, early for that conversation this time around. Okay real fast before we dive in because I know between this week's topic and the conference reminders were set up to accidentally be involved in drama llamas we don't want to be involved in. Yeah. And I kind of want to nip it in the bud. I'd rather just intercept it at the head. I know for a fact there has been some drama going on between Fear Expo and Transworld or other people connected with Fear Expo, people connected with and seen as connected. It's really confusing. I have not seen it personally.
No. None of the groups, all the groups I'm in has really had it. What I have seen are posts from people talking about the drama and how they are being personally attacked. Things like that. And I totally believe it's happening. I totally believe it's happening. These are people I trust.

[4:11] It's just not happening in channels and in spaces we're in. So please, you know, just note that.
Now, the only reason, like I said, I mentioned this at all is because we don't want any part of it, basically.
This is a podcast that we do at our own expense for fun and enjoyment, and hopefully to help the haunted attraction industry in some small insignificant, meaningless way, you know? Yeah.

[4:41] And we know that this episode could sound like we're being negative about Transworld, but we're not.
And we'll get into what it actually is meant to be in a minute.
Um, and we also do Comforter Reminders where we hype every fucking conference.

[4:54] Yes. If you are a haunted house-oriented conference... Or even just have a significant portion that's targeted at haunted houses and haunted attractions.
Yes. We will list you. And if you are not on our list and want to be, then contact us.
Yes, info at Haunt Weekly. It's on the website. You can reach us there.
Please let us know because we're not psychic. We do semi-regular searches for new conventions and new things, but we're not always fruitful. And I know our current Comforter Reminder list, like 70% of that came from y'all. Yeah. Legitimately. Well, and it reduced a lot over the pandemic. So if something went away for a few years and is now back, we might not have it anymore. Yeah. The pandemic fucked our Comforter Reminders, hopelessly. So yeah, please any help that you have if you want, what I can do is I will share, a read-only version of our Comprehensive Reminder List and let people comment and add things to it that way. I think that's a good idea. I can do that like during the week, maybe like on Thursday or, Friday toward the end of the week after we post the question of the week. Yeah, sounds good. That's, a good idea. So we're going to do that because we want to hype everyone. And so yeah, next episode So divisible by two if we don't have a guest on we are going to be doing conference reminders And we'll be hyping fear expo because it's an upcoming convention. We hype trans world for transfer, We hype everybody.

[6:17] Because here's my thing man. This is just the honest truth as an industry. I think we can sustain two large events, Especially those two events have a different focus.

[6:27] You know one of the things I did like but the Hong Kong trans world dichotomy was that Hong Kong focused more on education, focus more on networking. And it felt like it was targeted to more... Home haunters, new haunters.
Yeah, smaller haunters. Yeah, where Transworld is more of a buyer show by design. And that's fine.
There's no wrong answer there. I think, I definitely think that there's room for two conventions that target different things. I mean, obviously Hong Kong has a trade show, had a trade show, and it does it through Fear Expo now. And Transworld has education, but you can tell what the focus of each is through their marketing.

[7:04] So we can have two big events. What we can't afford is an industry is a civil war.
This is some, I mean, you can trace this fault line back at least 30 years. It's insane.
So please be kind, be professional.
Let's remember that as haunters, we're all on the same team.
Cut out the bullshit, basically. Yeah, basically we're on the same side, people.
When it comes to haunting, we're all pro haunting.
So let's just try to keep that in mind.

[7:34] So I think that covered that as thoroughly as we need to. But anyways, this week's topic.

[7:40] This was our first year of Transworld. Yes. And I've got to say, it was an experience and a third.
It was a lot that we have to go through and think about. We'll probably be coming back to various elements of it for a long time to come as things pop in our head. But it felt like legitimately, Actually every vendor in the world was there.

[8:03] Every prop maker, animated or static, they got a booth. Probably a big one.
Every mask maker, oh hell yeah, I was able to go around and ask all the major mask makers of Copyright, annoy them with Copyright questions.
I was very popular.
Every costume maker, same thing. Every big costume maker seemed to be there.
Every haunt designer, there were several firms that do design and work on haunted houses.
And dear lordy Jesus was every ticketing company not named Ticketmaster there.
I swear to shit, if you name a ticketing company that is not Ticketmaster and was not there, you won a prize. I don't know what that prize is, but you won a prize.

[8:44] And it's like all the haunt ones were there. Haunt Pay, Fear Ticket, ba-da-da-da-da, all those were there.
And then all the mainstream ones were there too. I don't think Brown Paper Tickets was there.
I think that may be one, but it's don't think they really target events like this.
Every event ticketing solution seemed to be there. It was crazy how many they were.
And I mean, honestly, it got, I mean, honestly, it was kind of crazy.
Like we had a list going of the weirdest booths.

[9:12] There was a booth for cutco knives. Yep. Not making that up.

[9:18] There was a booth for leaf filter. You know, the people that make that thing that goes over the gutter, that keeps the leaves from getting trapped in your gutter, but let your gutters be gutters.
Yeah. They were there.
The fucking postal service we are though, that one in hindsight makes sense. Yeah.
Because a lot of people were shipping shit. So that one actually kind of makes sense.
But still, it was just kind of weird to walk into a haunted attraction convention when the, most visible booths you see right off the bat being postal service.
Yeah. Well, there's also the spinal people.
Oh, God. Spinal health people. Yeah. I mean, okay.
Yeah, you are kind of preaching to the right crowd here. Mm-hmm.
Because, okay, a lot of actors, raise your hand if you've had a back injury.
Now, why'd you fucking raise your hand? I can't see if you raised your hand, but I bet you raised your hand, because you probably did.
Because back injuries and back problems are endemic in our industry for reasons.
Well, it's not just actors, it's also people helping to move walls.
Constructing, yeah. Yeah, everybody, right? Yeah.
God, so yeah, raise your hand if you have a back injury, then wonder why you raised your hand for a podcast.
Audio only. It's just... So there were a lot of people there.

[10:33] Then we got to talking about it a little bit. There were some types of services that felt weirdly absent.
Like they were not there. And if they were there, they were not there in large numbers.
Right.
Now, this is not a comment about Transworld at all. But I think it's a comment about our industry at large, underserved areas in the industry.
Yeah. Because I feel pretty good about the completeness of the Transworld trade show floor.

[11:00] I mean, I think it's reasonably complete, you know? know, but there may be some interesting gaps in our business that can be filled.
Now, so this may be hinting at some business ideas for those that want to get involved in the haunted attraction industry, but maybe not as a haunter or haunt owner.
Yeah. On a more like a different path then.
And to that end, Crystal, why don't you open up the first one or you want me to? No, I will.
Okay. photographers and videographers geared to haunts.

[11:35] Because there were a lot of people I talked to that wanted this, either for themselves or for a haunt that they knew or worked at. Low-light photography is an art unto itself.
Like, it is very hard to do. In fact, the whole reason I went into photography to begin with was because I was trying to capture moments at low-light events with a lot of movement. Yeah, you're doing the show in hard mode, like right off the bat. Yeah. You didn't start with the wedding photography first like everyone else. No, that's more stressful. Fair play.
Yeah, no, that's a once-in-a-lifetime event. Well, hopefully for them, they think at that moment it is once-in-a-lifetime for them. At that moment. But yeah, so no, I don't want to screw that up. But no, I asked...
A person who I knew was a professional photographer, how to do it, and they said don't.

[12:39] That was literally their answer was there was no way. What the fuck is wrong with you? Don't do it.
So then I spent thousands of dollars in glass class is the answer. It's part of the answer.
It's part of the answer. And you know, learned how to do it correctly. And it is possible. There are people who focus on this out there, you just have to know where to look to find them.
And they're not specifically targeting the haunted house industry, though they absolutely should be.
They're targeting a lot of like you were doing, they're targeting concerts, like musicians, burlesque performers.
They're targeting that crowd.
And there were marketing firms that did videography and photography as part of a complete package.
There was no just a photographer there that I remember.
Yeah.

[13:31] Nobody was just a photographer, just a videographer there. Yeah.
And that seemed odd. Yeah, no one- Marketing firms are important.

[13:39] But photographers are too. Yeah, like I would have expected at least one photographer to come up at the booth that we were working and say, here's my card if you ever need a photographer in such and such area, you know?
Yeah. I would have liked that. didn't happen because they weren't there. Yeah there were very few just photographers and just videographers there. Yeah. And that that is interesting because there are photography and videography needs that are outside of marketing.
And people a lot of people don't realize that what I would say right now is if you're recruiting, If you need that type of person if you're in a city that has clubs and shows, Go there and sit and talk to the people shooting that yeah, They probably have the most experience and conditions similar to what's inside your haunt, Mm-hmm and can probably get you the best results, Because if anyone can get good fucking photos at the fucking Bank Street bar in New Orleans, Louisiana Louisiana they can take fucking photos of your haunt. Trust me. Yeah, cuz that bar is fucking dark. Yes.

[14:43] Yes, and and you know the other, Thing is a lot of haunts have red light and digital cameras do not like red light. No, no, no, they hate red lighting, Yeah, and it goes back because it's like why is the darkroom light red?
Or amber is because that's the light that film is least exposed to. Well guess what? That didn't change with digital. No, no. I mean there are workarounds around it but you have to like really know what you're doing in order to capture that. Sometimes it requires a lot of work in post and color correction on it too.
Because sometimes cameras, especially modern digital cameras, will try to auto-correct the color. Well either that or it won't take a crisp photo because Because the red light interferes with the sensor.
And that way you get this haziness over the whole thing. And you can't use the quote-unquote idiot box.

[15:37] Yeah, no. Never use an idiot box. If you see a photographer using the idiot box setting on their camera, do not hire them.
Wow, this is... Sorry.
Whew. You need to explain to the nice people what the idiot box is.
Okay. So on the cameras, there is a green box. It is a literal box on the camera setting.
It'll be in the if you are in a low-light situation. It will use a flash. It will use a bright flash.

[16:02] Don't just stop. Yeah, this requires very special photographers and videographers, Yeah, we have a good videographer here that we use for our haunt. Yeah, I feel very lucky to have them.

[16:15] But yeah, it's this is a real struggle for haunts and I know why and I can see why it's a very specialized type of photography, And I think the people that like we talked about that have really gotten good at it, don't think haunted attractions yeah they're doing music and they're doing performances yeah mind you that's money and that's a career there too but you, know we kind of need help in our industry too yeah okay the second one this is a frustrating one for me everyone but crowd control slash crowd management services.
There was a company there whose name I have lost. I'm sorry to this person. I meant to interview them.
We had issues with the recorder. We had issues getting set up doing on the scene interviews.
And so I ended up just skipping it. Besides, I ran out of time. That's the other problem.

[17:03] If I had had the fucking HZN that I found before we left, the other recorder. After we got back.
Yeah, after we got back. I would have been great, but using the one that we are recording on now, would not have worked. Company was there, they were not far from Contra Media's booth, but I cannot remember their name. I lost their fucking card. I feel like a total fucking dunce here. But yeah, they were a company that was new to the haunt industry, and what they were providing was signage, guardrails, and physical infrastructure for crowd control. And they cut their teeth in this space, Working with sporting stadiums. Yeah, which is you know pretty brilliant to try to get into, This because how many times have we said if you think you have enough signs you don't you need to double it, Yeah, triple it like fucking fire even even we got dinged on that this year, Yeah, because we thought we had plenty of signs out but people still got confused and some of the signs weren't lit Well enough was one of the problems Yeah, we got dinged on it too.
And we don't know why looking back on it we deserved that ding.
But still, yeah, this is such an important part of the haunted attraction experience.
We talked about a million times, queue line stuff, and it's so overlooked.
It's always so last minute.

[18:23] Like, I remember one haunt we showed up, I think for their Christmas show, they clearly didn't anticipate a line.
And so literally it was just an open gravel lot with a line kind of doing this Wizard of Oz like snaking around itself thing that was bizarre. We were playing the snake game.
Yeah, we're playing Snake Game and LOSING!

[18:45] Very very badly. So yeah, this is something that a lot of haunts, that's very important to haunts, it's very important to safety. And it's very important to user experience because if users, are confused about where to go, they don't feel safe, like they're in a or they feel bored because they're in a cattle gate with nothing to do. There's one thing Mardi Gras reminds me every year, Is that as much as I bitch about?
You know standing and fucking queue lines and pine cattle gates for forever to get into a haunt, Yeah, Mardi Gras parade show that if there's a show going on people will stand behind a fucking, Barricade for a long fucking time. Yes, they will and.

[19:29] You know, it's usually a very good idea Because people won't try to cross them every year. There's a few, You rogue people who do, but...
Yeah, we had a problem, was it last year or the year before people getting run over by floats?
I think it was last year, because 2020 there was no...
No, 2020 we did have Mardi Gras, 2021 we didn't. So it would have been 2020. Or 2019.
It could have been 2022. We're in 2023, sweetheart. Yeah, I don't know. I don't remember.
We had an issue with people getting run over by floats, because what they were doing is they were jumping the barricade.
Yeah. Rushing the float to catch a bead or something.
Idiots! And then finding a way to get run over by a float doing five miles an hour. Yeah.

[20:16] Yeah, and there were like multiple, multiple instances of that that year, and I have no idea what went on.
Luckily none of it. It was crazy.
None have happened this year that we did unfortunately have a shooting along a major parade route, but we've not had anyone getting rid of our floats.
So I guess something, maybe they did something different, I don't know.

[20:36] I mean, Christ, it was just, that was a rough year. Yeah, it was, because that wasn't the only thing going on.
No, and it was also problematic because you were working a trade show, a craft show.
And one of the parades was supposed to like end near us and we were waiting for that post-parade rush Yeah, and then because someone got run over the parade was cut short, Yeah, so even us that weren't even there were impacted by it. Mm-hmm. It's like nobody came Yeah, three people and a goat came in and none of them were buying headdresses Oh, one of them did. One of them did. The goat did. No. Yes, I sold my most expensive headdress that night, Yeah, but still I was like nobody came from the parade. You should have been sold out that night.
But anyways, so yeah, no, this is an important area and one company was there with a teeny tiny booth way out in Thanksgiving land as we've taken to calling it. I find that term very apropos, even though it's the interactive entertainment show portion. Even though I think it's just all the roustabouts that didn't fit either the Halloween or the um yeah or signed up late, for the Halloween. Well either signed up late for the Halloween or didn't fit in with either the Halloween or Christmas. Yeah. I think that's who it really is. But anyways um no it was an interesting idea and I really wish other people had been there selling that type of material.

[21:53] Because I think there is a need for that in this market. And since you mentioned the Thanksgiving land I'm going to ask a possibly stupid question uh because I didn't get to see the floor as much as you do. Did you see any crossover between the Halloween and Christmas section since aunts are doing more Christmas things? No, no, there really wasn't much crossover.
Why not? This seems like...

[22:18] Look, I told you straight forward, the scariest fucking thing I saw on the trade show floor was in Christmasland, was in the Christmas rule.
It was those fucking singing reindeer, you fucking made singing taxidermy, you sick fuck, and you're trying to make it a cheerful holiday thing?
You demented bastard! What are you doing?
Yeah. It was literally the scariest, most disturbing thing on the trade show floor.
Oh my god.
But no, but no other than the unintentional crossovers know there wasn't really and I think it's because a lot of.

[22:54] The haunt because I think a lot of the haunts are going rises round which is they're doing or not only rise but um shit, Darkwoods and the naked ish are doing, separate Christmas events that are just, Christmas events traditional Christmas not scary Christmas like like normal sniper locally. There are 13 floor haunt, They do a scary Christmas, but a lot of haunts have started doing big Christmas shows that are not scary.
They're just meant to be traditional.
Part of this has been rebranding. I know Darkwoods went from Darkwoods Haunted House or whatever it was to just Darkwoods ...
Adventure Park. Adventure Park. Some park.
I forgot what it was, but they totally rebranded around it. I think Rise is doing something similar right now.
There was no real crossover, but you did see people from the Halloween side routinely going in there and looking at shit and not just in going getting those giant yummy corndogs.
Yeah, those were good.
Who decided the fucking corndogs needed to be all the way back to Christmasland?
That's the only way to get the Haunters through Christmas land.

[24:07] God damn it. It fucking worked. Yes, yes it did. Transworld?

[24:16] Good job. All right, moving on. Number three. All right, escape room services. We already talked about how there were very few escape room booths. Yeah. Like things for escape rooms, but there were also lack of marketing services and just things that you saw for the industry elsewhere, like, the insurance companies. Yeah.
Or, and I don't know why some of the, like the costume companies and the panel building company that was there, because there was a company that built panels.
Like, I thought all the haunts did their own, but apparently not.
No, no, there are people that make vacuum form panels and things like that. Yeah.
So I don't know why that couldn't be targeted at escape room because there's a big gap.

[25:08] Like we go to a lot of escape rooms, there's a big gap between a strip malls escape room, and the detail that's involved in that versus a haunted house escape room.
Yeah, we've literally been to escape rooms that were crepe paper and paid money to go to this escape room too. Yeah.
Not only enough, I don't feel ripped off on that one because the puzzles were somewhat interesting and I got to put like Elon Musk and other people in Santa's naughty list.
It was a Christmas thing.
Yeah. Yeah. But you know, so you've got the full spectrum of level of detail, you know?
And I think that some escape rooms that are in that medium tier would do well to invest, in some of the haunt techniques. And that includes like the design companies.
You know, there were consultants for designing the layout. Yeah, there was like one escape room design.
Yeah. And they were mostly selling like props and things too, it seemed like.
Exactly, not, you know, how do you build the secret door to get into the second room and the third room?
And how do things work together? If they were there, they were not loud and proud.
Yeah. And like I said, I may not realize that, but yeah, this was part of like, We talked previously about hell.
Shrunken like obviously they've renamed it the interactive entertainment. Yeah, so it's no longer the room escape.

[26:35] Room escape expo. I think what it was previously. Yeah, The reason is the escape from industry is in contraction right now. There's just no nice way to put it, It got too big between the pandemic and between you know, Just so much bloat in that industry It's in it's it's suffering a big contraction and part of the problem is when a industry goes into contraction, The first people booted out of it are the people that serve the industry They're the ones that lose first because they do most of their business helping new ones open and build, Yeah, and that stops before the contraction hits.

[27:10] So I think that's a big part of it. But one thing that I did find interesting you told me this.

[27:15] Was that a lot of these room escape owners do not see themselves as connected in any way the haunted attraction industry, Yeah, with no overlap. No like zero, No, they walk through Transworld and they're looking just for escape room things.
They don't even see the things a lot of the times in the haunted house section because, they don't think it applies to them.
They don't see how those two can overlap.
I honestly never thought that someone from the room escape side could just believe that it's totally separate with no overlap and no overlapping surfaces.
No, and I think that that's because we saw escape rooms build from, you know...
Haunted attractions adding them to get some year-end revenue. Yeah and not just the escape room side.
Yeah that's that's very very true. But yeah it's interesting there was not a lot of those services there were companies like I said there were things a lot of a lot of companies there to build, temporary escape rooms or inflatable escape rooms that was there in spades but like I said the stuff, or standalone ones was not there.
And that, it was kind of weird. And a lot of people expressed frustration that they couldn't get services, supplies, or whatever they needed for their escape room.
Well, I think that, you know...

[28:40] That I would tell those escape room owners to go and check out the haunted house escape rooms.
Yeah. Because I have a feeling that there's not a lot of overlap there. Yeah. With the people that, I was talking to. Because you can do a horror theme. A lot of escape rooms have horror themes.
You know, escape from the jail or escape from, you know, this lair or whatever. Yeah.
Yeah, and you can have costumes.
You can get your costumes from haunted attraction suppliers.
You can get the walls and the sets.
All of that. But you have to be in the mindset that you're not separate.

[29:22] Well, it's always been interesting to me how the haunted attraction industry sees itself as so insular.
We have several different companies that target haunted attraction for ticketing.
When nothing about ticketing is haunt specific. It's event ticketing.
Any company that does event ticketing could theoretically ticket a haunted house.
Yeah, exactly. You don't need a specialized company for that.
Right. There are things you do. You need specialized insurance companies.
You need specialized recruitment companies.
We're coming to that.
You need specialized, some specialized service, but ticketing, ticketing is ticketing.
It's an event, you know? It's an event, it's event ticketing, it's a solve problem.
But yet we have them and they seem to be doing quite well for themselves and I'm happy about, that, but it's just like man, ticketing's ticketing.
Yeah. But anyways, moving on.

[30:20] Number four, active recruitment and training. Now to be clear before we jump in, there were many great active trainers present at Transworld.
Yeah. Jaypes was there.
Alan Hopps. Alan Hopps from Stilt Beast was there. Drew. Huh? Drew.
Drew Badger was there. None had booths focused on that.
Right. And I think a lot of that is because of the networking experience outside of Transworld.
Yeah. But still, it'd be nice to say, hey, this is where I go if I need help, and I'm just starting. Cause there were a lot of first time or early in the process.
Actors recruitment and training in a haunted attraction is very specialized and very specific to us.

[31:09] And that is something that we do need people with expertise in this industry on.
Because, I mean, this is not even seasonal work at this point.
If something can be less than seasonal work, that's what this is.

[31:24] And recruiting for that, getting people who are reliable, who will come, training them, so that they will do their jobs well, this is a fucking art form.
And the people who have mastered it and do well at, people like James and Alan, et cetera.

[31:40] Yeah, they blow me away.
Yeah. They really do. Yeah. And there's also like, I know that this was something that was tried a long time ago, but I think it needs to be revisited is a business that looks at.

[32:01] You know, actors in the area, vets them, you know, even maybe provides the training for them and then hooks them up with people like...
A whole new attraction temp agency. Exactly, exactly.
Because that's something that's normal in corporate world. Like you hire temps all the time.
They take a test, they see to... See their aptitude, see what they're qualified for. Exactly.
And drop them in a place that you can drop someone in. Yeah.
Ideally without much training or out much specific job specific training at least no, I and I think that's a neat idea then well I don't think like the New Orleans market could sustain it right we don't have enough haunts Chicago could Ohio could, There are definitely places where this could really help, local haunts and also no, Keep actors moving around and keep that keep keep the local scene vibrant. Yeah, exactly You know, I think that could be really really good But I just don't think these companies exist, honestly.
No, I don't either.
I just don't think they exist. I don't think they weren't to transfer.
I just don't think they exist. Yeah, there's a couple of like, like Facebook groups that you can be in.

[33:14] To try to find that kind of work. But yeah, companies for it just aren't out there.
And before anyone says, oh, you should make it then.
I'm like, fuck, I should. I'd be a customer before I was ever the one.
Yeah, well. This is not something I do particularly well either. So yeah, it's not.

[33:31] It's not a thing for us. No, so but if it's for you take it Take that football run. Yeah, go for it. Go crazy. I i'd love to see something come of this, Just because I do think this is a need we have and if someone once again with all of these, Someone was there and I either miss them.

[33:51] Or like earlier. I forgot their name Or if maybe I just misunderstood what they did, Maybe that could be entirely possible too. Let us know.
HauntWeekly.com, HauntWeekly.com, Twitter, HauntWeekly.com, Facebook, and YouTube.com, HauntWeekly. Leave a comment, send us an email, let us know.
I will happily correct and I will give shout outs to companies that were there in these spaces that I missed happily.
Because you know, we're up 377, I'm pretty sure we're at 378, therefore we have a chance to do those shout outs.
Yeah, speaking of shout outs, I'm going to give a quick shout out to a couple of people we left off of the list of shout outs last week.
Oh God. I know we forgot a lot of people. Yeah, Christian Ristow, Dana Rennel, it was great hanging out with you that one night.
Thanks for doing that.
Yeah, and honestly, it's so hard to be complete about this and it's not anything to do with any person.
No, no, no. It's just, Jesus Christ, our brain, no one we recorded that episode, our brains were fried. Oh yeah.
That was, that was uh, yeah, we like said we literally recorded at 1 a.m at the new orleans inn, in fucking, uh, norner mississippi. I think it was yeah.

[35:02] On Basically after doing a long drive after doing tear down and everything else on the last day of trans world, Yeah, we were dead. We probably should not have attempted to record. It was fun. We did enjoy it, but dear god It was rough. Yeah. All right now continuing on. Yes number five, Safety Services.

[35:24] There were no businesses to help you figure out what your local fire marshal wants from you to, connect you with them. Nothing selling fire retardant that I saw. No, I did not see the actual fire retardant. Not props already covered in it. Yeah, no, you're right. I don't think I saw that either. And if I did, it definitely did not catch my eye. What about emergency lighting?
I saw a lot of lighting companies, no one specializing in emergency lighting.
Yeah. So I mean, so a consultant for safety to haunts is something that there were could also be needed.
Some that were general consultants, and I'm sure that they might help some in this space, but this was not something that was very forward.
Yeah, exactly. Because I mean, there's so one of the things that I'm learning about in my day job right now is that if you're going to start a program, having a consultant that's an expert in that field or that deals with that specific one thing in area.

[36:28] Like if there were consultants just to get you through, you know, your visits with the fire marshal to make sure you're up to code on everything in your area, and that's all they did.
Then I know for a fact there are people that do that. Yeah, hiring them would be worth it.
And I know for a fact there are people that do that. We've seen that oddly enough. We've seen them at Honcon.
Yeah, and I think that's part of Honk-Con having been targeted at newer Honors where this is targeted more to established ones, Yeah, so I think maybe a lot of those types of services don't come to Transworld because it's probably not, But we saw a lot of new honours though. I say that and I immediately go, but wait.
Exactly, because I think that since...

[37:07] Since HauntCon isn't a standalone thing anymore, I think it is morphing Transworld into having some more of the newcomers that normally would think that, well, that's not a show for me.
Yeah. Which, I mean, I thought that until I went and I'm like, oh, I recognize a lot of these companies. Yeah.
I guess I should have considered this. Yeah, and that's kind of the key takeaway I got from it.
I think I came across in the last episode we did about it, was I went expecting to be completely a fish out of water type thing.
I expected to be out of my depth the whole time. Unable to afford anything.
Unable to afford anything. I just expected to not really be there just to kind of be someone who slipped in and snuck in and got to sneak around a little bit.
But I realized, like within hours of being there, that I had probably more business being there than most of the people that were there.

[38:09] Yeah. And that's not a joke actually, because I'm in charge of a larger budget and bigger buying purchasing power than most of the people that were there.
And that's because like Hauntz, we talked about in the last episode, the last episode on transport rather, Hauntz would bring 20-ish people with them, and I don't know why 19 of them were there.
Yeah.

[38:33] Yeah, at least not on the trade show floor. But anyways that brings us to the last one right now, And this is not a type of company No, this is something we would like to see implemented and we'll talk about why in a minute, But I think it'd be neat if trans world implemented some kind of job board or, or notice board for employment in general.
Yeah.
And the reason I say that...
Is because you notice working the booth, this is not something that's technically within the bounds of the rules.
When you walk into Transworld, there's this big fucking sign on an easel that says, as an attendee, you're not allowed to do any self-promotion, you're not allowed to do anything, like that. I'm like, fine, whatever.
But they were going around basically talking to every booth seeking a job at, insert blank, Yeah, exactly. Some were trying to do social media. Some were trying to... No photographers, like you said, which I still find weird, None of that, but no. But yeah, people wanted to do social media. Had people wanting to work as an actor. You had people wanting a lot.
Mm-hmm. And the thing about it is realistically you can't stop people from doing that. You can post the rule.

[39:54] But enforcement of that rule is pretty much fucking impossible.
Yeah, because even if you enforce it on the trade show floor somehow, you're never going to enforce it in all the parties going on afterwards.
Yeah. It's just not going to happen. Yeah. Everybody who goes to Transworld is going to use Transworld self-servingly.
The best they can. And like you said, even if you somehow mystically, magically manage to perfectly enforce on the trade show floor, in fact you can't.
Right. Even if you did somehow, you still have the three hotels, all the hotels around it, you, still have all the other parties and events.
It's impossible. You're not going to prevent it. Why not give it a space and try to capitalize on it?

[40:33] I would say like companies should be charged X amount of dollars for putting a bit, and, y'all decide the money. I'm not going to name pricing because Transworld going to Transworld.
Transworld going to figure out the pricing on their own time.
So yeah, I think it should be where you can post ads for any help that you need or any help that you want.
Post the terms of it and make it easy. Ideally, I would say using the badges, because those QR codes on those badges felt like they were really underused.
Yeah. Like, vendors could scan them to get the information, and they were scanned on the way into the floor.
Other than that, they were never used.
Yeah, I was thinking that the businesses could put up a QR code and it would take you to, a page with a list of their openings.
Yeah. You know, something like that. Yeah, I really think there should be a way to advertise any open jobs that exist in the launch region and not just at haunts, prop builders You know design company, you know, marketing firms Anybody that has a job at transworld.

[41:43] Should be able to post something on that board and see about getting help now, Ideally and then the part that I think kind of throws a monkey wrench in this is not a lot of that work can be done remotely and when you go to Transworld you're getting a national technically international audience. Yeah but I mean you're also getting international and, national people. But you could start by separating the state. Yeah. You can organize it and make that work but I really think that giving that a space so that it's not just people walking around hitting up business cards the booths on the floor against the rules. Yeah. I think that would be a good thing for literally everyone because Transworld can make a little bit more money. People who, businesses that are look actually looking for work have a centralized, place to post it and the people who are looking to get hired for a job have a place to go and, apply for that job rather than just ping-ponging around the trade show floor. Yeah, exactly. It, seems like a win-win-win. It does. And I think that is a brilliant idea to include and honestly, Even like with Transworld, there are usually a few unattended booths, you know, a few booths that are still open.

[42:53] Just make one of those booths the job board. It doesn't need a person running it.
You just set it up and let people scan QR codes and access, you know what I mean?
And poof, problem solved.
Or problem partially solved. Some people are still going to fucking do it.
But if you give it a place, then when someone comes and applies and says, hey, I'm looking for work is whatever. You can say, oh yeah, you need to go to Booth, whatever.
Yeah. you know, and search there because we don't have anything, but that's where all the jobs are.

[43:24] It'd be nice if it had a place. Well, I think that's all we had this week. Yeah class can let out about five minutes early I think because it's Mardi Gras. Well, technically Lundy Gras. Yeah, but it's Mardi Gras time, So obviously we'll let out a few minutes early on that note everyone. Thank you very much for joining us, Hope you found this entertaining and engaging and all the things were supposed to be targeting as podcasters, We absolutely do not target those things Please do take a minute though, find us at the places we exist.
We're at HauntWeekly.com, Haunt Weekly on Twitter, Haunt Weekly on Facebook, and Haunt Weekly on YouTube.
And YouTube, by the way, is a great way to access all the past episodes and search through them.
In many ways, it's actually better than the goddamn site right now.
Kind of pissing me off about that.
On that note, there was one housekeeping note I forgot to include in the beginning.
It happened last week. We now have transcripts back on the website.
AllWeekly.com now has full transcripts of all the episodes going forward.
I don't think we have the old ones up, but from last episode on, we have transcripts.
Cool. So that's a good thing. I'm very excited about that.
But until next time, I'm Jonathan. I'm Crystal. And we'll see you all next week.
And I'm not promising what we're talking about this time.