D23 Expo Intro and Day 1

The highly anticipated and heavily “hyped” D23 Expo has come and gone. The D23Expo was four jammed packed days of keynotes, meeting fans from all over the world, unique opportunities, summer “themepark” type lines/waits, movie and attraction announcements and previews, celebrities, imagineers, amazing presentations and once in a life time experiences.

WOW!

I decided fairly early after the initial announcement not to get an AllEars® table in the Collector’s Forum. I was actually quite surprised by the limited number of unofficial sites that did get a table and there were even a smaller number of Disney related book authors present in the Collector’s Area. Perhaps a bit of that had to do with the $500+ price tag for 4 days or the fact that the table had to be maintained from 8am to 5pm each day.

With three AllEars® team members expressing interest in attending; I felt it was best if we covered the events from the media perspective. Once the full schedule was made available, Debra Martin Koma, Laura Gilbreath and myself each selected items we were interested in seeing. That list, combined with my core list of Theme Park and Disney Cruise Line related sessions because our guide for the Expo. In addition, we enlisted the help of several “Roving Reporters” who assisted with Twitters, Photos and Videos, not to mention our outstanding support back home (Thanks Jack!)

Posting live updates via Twitter, Facebook and AllEars’ Blog Central became our focus. When time allowed we uploaded video. We wanted to provide everyone back home with first hand, real time information on the expo. AllEars even had a great team of Roving Reports to Twitter from different areas of the Expo. We are so grateful to the hundreds of folks that followed us throughout the 4 days.

Entering the Expo I was greeted with bright colors, white Mickey Balloons, a wonderfully comfortable area for relaxing and the Disney Parks and Resorts Area!

Each day of the D23Expo featured a special presentation by a well known Disney official in the main arena. Counts on the number of attendees at these premiere sessions seemed to be in the low 4,000s. And while the waits were long to enter, I can say I didn’t hear anyone complain about the quality of what they saw and heard once the lights dimmed.

Bob Iger gave us a 30 minute preview of the new Princess and the Frog movie (which totally drew me in); Dick Cook paraded star after star on stage as he announced upcoming movies; Jay Rasulo officially debuted what new attractions were in the works and John Lasseter gave us sneak peaks of well, MANY new things from Pixar including the 3D Toy Story movies and Toy Story 3. And those were just the arena Keynotes each day!

But even with all this glitz and glamour, the most special presentation I attended in the arena was the Disney Legends Ceremony. This event had always been presented at the Disney Studios and for the first time was held open to the general public. Seated in the arena were over 30 previous awardees including Art Linkletter.

The stage was illuminated not by the lights but by the presence of shining stars such as Betty White, who upstaged her own introduction, Don Iwerks, Tony Anselmo, Leota Toombs Thomas, and Robin Williams. It was most touching when Robin went into a Walter Cronkite impression and then accepted his award on behalf of recently passed Mr. Cronkite. I’m sure I wasn’t alone when a few tears full down my cheeks.

WOW, again!

So let me attempt to recap for you my adventures at the D23Expo.

Day 1, Thursday — the least attended of all the days. Many folks were working and others used that as a travel day. For attendees this provided several short lived, “we don’t have to wait in line for over an hour” opportunities. AllEars colleague Debra Martin Koma and I spent quality time in the Disney Parks and Resort pavilion. This area was lush with photos and models of upcoming attractions and was staff by more imagineers then I ever imagined would be there. We could actually talk to the folks are are working on the attractions that were presented in the pavilion.

The low attendance on day 1, also meant we didn’t have to wait but a few moments for some time with Lucky the Dinosaur and Wall-E, both “living characters” audio-animatronics!

But very soon, D23 officials learned just how enthusiastic Disney fans would be for the special opportunities available. The first D23Epxo presentation in the Storytellers Theatre quickly filled to capacity. There were disappointed fans who were closed out of the Wonderful World of Vintage Disneyland presentation. We also each learned very quickly that it would be impossible to do everything we wanted to do on the schedule. Waits for these special seminars would get longer and longer as the Expo continued.

Later on Day 1, I attended “An Afternoon with Imagineering Legends”.

This was another personal highlight for me. Sitting in the same room with imagineers such as Marty Sklar, Alice Davis, X Atencio — all folks who knew and worked WITH Walt Disney! Facilitated by Marty, this session turned into a wonderful reminiscing exchange between all the panelists who shared great stories and memories with each other. It was truly a once in a life time experience. Afterwards, as part of the media team, I was able to attend a much more intimate press conference with these same folks and learn even more about their experiences as Imagineers!

Don Iwerks

Bob Gurr, Marty Sklar and X Atencio

Marty, X, Alice Davis

X Atencio

Bob Gurr

Bob and Marty

There was still more on the schedule but by this time I needed to have dinner, download photos and video and get ready for Day Two!

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