Themed Entertainment Association (TEA)
Mar 25, 2010 2:32 PM
Website: www.themeit.com
Markets Served:Experience” environments including theme parks, museums, zoos and aquariums, visitors’ centers, malls, hotels, and schools
Demographic:Broad; from landscape architects, to building trades and owners and operators.
AV Membership: Yes
Member Benefits:Member listings, job board, events
Key networking opportunity:Meet designers, architects, and service suppliers working on a range of project sizes from lower-budget to international projects
Key events: TEA Summit; THEA Awards, annual TEA SATE conference
Don’t miss: The monthly enewsletter with a roundup of outstanding requests for proposals (RFPs) and bid tenders; Los Angeles-based program for Emerging Professionals
Many themed environments are large project-based jobs that bring together smaller vendors who are at a disadvantage in jobs that take many years to complete, may be overseas, and are often paid and negotiated by big companies on terms that suit big companies. In an effort to create equality, TEA was born to give vendors some clout.
Initially, TEA sat on one side of the table while clients sat on the other. But as mutual trust and respect grew—and as themed environments proliferated at all budget levels— TEA began to accept client members. The modern TEA was born as a networking and support association that serves the entire industry and brings people together to mutual benefit, says director Gene Jeffers, formerly VP of public affairs for NAB and head of media relations for the Red Cross.
The current president is AV integrator Steve Thorburn, and many past presidents have come from AV. This month’s THEA awards honored many AV-heavy projects of all sizes, and integrators participated in the TEA Summit, a conference for industry leaders who meet annually in March.
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