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HAUNTCON TOURS AND DETAILS ANNOUNCED

Haunted House Tour Road Trip DEADline!

Time is running out to sign up for the 2010 HAuNTcon preshow tour! I have to give the bus company a bus count on Monday April 12th, so please, if you are planning to join us on this great Haunt tour, go to https://hauntcon.ticketleap.com/haun...0-Registration and sign up!

Buses leave the Ramada Celebration Hotel at 8AM on Wed. April 28th and returns April 29th at 5PM 5 haunts, 4 meals, (in 34 hours) hotel and transportation for under $200! You sure can’t beat that price!

Our first stop is the Grimm House in Kissimmee, just down the street from the host hotel. A quirky year round Haunt owned by Vern McCarthy with a façade to die for! Then it is back on the busses for a trip to the pan handle of Florida for a tour of a really Haunted House!

NOTE: Buses leave the Ramada at 8AM on Wed. April 28 for thie overnight road trip. Attendees will be spendiing Wed. night in Tallahassee, returning to the Ramaga in time for the Thursday night tour.

Greystone Manor is a magnificent example of Victorian Architecture and reported by many to be Haunted by various ghosts. Owner Christopher James opens up the attraction each October for brave souls willing to enter the three story mansion. Just down the block, Christopher’s home is a step back in time and chocked full of antiques, ceramics and memorabilia of a long forgotten time, and we are graciously invited us to see what a fully restored museum quality Victorian house looks like.

After checking in at the hotel, we head off to Castle Dread for a full actor, lights of tour of this highly detailed, 3,000 square foot attraction with 10,000 square feet worth of props, animatronics and creative scares. Owner Debbie Tannes is a true lover of Halloween and the sophistication of this non-profit Haunt quite surprising.

No time to rest as we are back on the busses headed to the largest Haunted Attraction in Florida. Terror of Tallahassee is 12,000 square feet of great scares and illusions. Owner Kurt Kuersteiner is especially proud of the many pepper’s Ghost Illusions and the high scare factor of the attraction now in its eighth year at this location.

The next morning we tour the Old City Cemetery and hear stories of the restless spirits that walk the solemn grounds. There are lots of very unusual headstones and epitaphs on property, even one grave rumored to be a witch! Then back over for a lights-on tour of Castle Dread, to get a close look at the heave detail and ingenuity of this great haunt.

Heading west we arrive at Warehouse 31. Open for the first time in 2009, the attraction is owned by Red Mountain Entertainment. The large high capacity attraction has great sets and 8,000 feet of screams.

So the score is four Haunted Attractions and three Paranormal places in two days. The price for the tour includes meals, transportation, double occupancy accommodations and admission to the attractions. Pre-show Price is $195 for double occupancy and $235 Single occupancy.

2010 Transworld Halloween and Haunt Show

St. Louis, Missouri will be the site for the 2010 Halloween and Haunted House Tradeshow March 25-28, 2010. Visit their website at www.HauntShow.com. The event will feature several awesome tours, seminars and more. HHA is hosting a speed seminar session and a party for the whole industry.

Additionally The Darkness is opening for a haunt tour learn more at http://www.TheDarkness.com

More haunts will open including Fear Fest and Necropolis in Columbia, Missouri visit their website at http://www.columbiahaunttour.com

Over 100,000 square feet of animations, props, costumes, monsters and more will be on display! We hope to see you there!

HHA

THE DARKNESS TOUR IS COMING SOON

CORN MAIZE TRADESHOW AND CONFERENCE COMING TO BRANSON MISSOURI

CORN MAIZE TRADESHOW AND CONFERENCE COMING TO BRANSON MISSOURI
Tue, February 09, 2010

The 2010 Corn Maize Conference will be held in Branson, Missouri Nights of March 22-25 at the Big Cedar Wilderness Resort 612 Devil’s Pool Rd.
Ridgedale, MO 65739 417-339-5233 www.bigcedar.com.

During the confernence there will be seminars, education, a small tradeshow floor with vendors and all sorts of activities. Also during the conference corn maize owners and operators will get the chance to meet with other owners, learn new tricks of the trade and meetings will be held as well.

There will also be tours of attractions such as Eckert’s Belleville Farm located at 951 S. Green Mount Road Belleville, IL 62220.

In addition there will be several entertainment events at Silver Dollar City, and other attractions throughout Branson Missouri.

The show happens just PRIOR to the 2010 Transworld Halloween and Party Show held in nearby St. Louis, Missouri on March 25-28, 2010 (www.HauntShow.com).

The two shows are working together to grow the business of corn maze, hayride, pumpkin patches, and the Haunted House Halloween Attraction industry.

During the St. Louis show you will get the opportunity to tour one of America's best haunted houes 'The Darkness' located just minutes from the St. Louis convention center. To get more information about the haunted house tour visit their website at www.TheDarkness.com.

To learn more information about the Corn Maize Conference visit their website at www.cornparty.com.
corn maize, branson, missouri, conference, halloween, haunted house show

Haunted House Industry Updates by HauntWorld.com

We hope you prosperously survived the 2009 Halloween season. Most are probably gearing up for the October 2010 haunting season already. Hauntworld.com and HauntWorld Magazine are here to help you more than ever! Our first 2010 issue of HauntWorld Magazine, issue 23, will be on your doorsteps soon with even more information than ever before. The 2010 HauntWorld Magazines will focus more than ever on articles rich with content intended to directly benefit your haunt business. The latest issue takes us to the New England area to learn from the successes of Fright Kingdom and Haunted Overload. This magazine also features several how to articles about creating top notch movie-style trailers for your haunt and capturing breath-taking photos of your attraction for marketing. We feel strongly that HWM issue 23 is the best issue we’ve ever produced with 68 pages of information to help your business!

HWM issue 24 is already in the works and will feature Dent Schoolhouse in Ohio plus all the haunted attractions in Kansas City, Missouri. HWM issue 24 will teach you the ins/outs and dos/donts of buying your own building, plus include concepts of detailing your haunt and creating original storylines throughout. You won’t want to miss HauntWorld Magazine issue #24!

This summer, we will publish HWM #25. Currently, we are looking for article ideas and deciding on which haunts to cover. We welcome your feedback so if you have suggestions, please contact us today! Email: darkrides@sbcglobal.net.

HauntWorld Magazine will be getting a new magazine website. Coming soon…www.HauntedHouseMagazine.com! The new website will be uploaded prior to the 2010 Transworld Haunt and Halloween Attractions Show and feature nearly a hundred articles to help your business. If you wish to subscribe to Hauntworld Magazine or purchase back issues now, go to www.HauntedHouseSupplies.com.

Speaking of the 2010 Transworld Haunt and Halloween Attractions Show, it’s once again being held in St. Louis, Missouri March 25-28, 2010. The show features more vendors, bigger show floor, more seminars, more events than ever before. Learn all the details about this year’s show at www.HauntShow.com. During the show, The Darkness Haunted House will open for three haunt tours including a behind the scenes tour on Thursday March 25 and live actors events on March 26 and 27th. The Darkness has already been upgraded for the 2010 season. The early renovations are specifically to accommodate the attendees of the March Transworld Show. To purchase tour tickets or to learn more details, go to www.TheDarkness.com.

Lastly, we are writing to inform you it’s time once again to renew your banner ads and online marketing campaigns on Hauntworld.com. If you wish to reserve your space for 2010, please contact Patti Ludwinski direct at blacklightminigolf@sbcglobal.net. If you are an existing HauntWorld Banner advertiser, the deadline to renew is March 5th, 2010. We will open up Banner Ad sales inside our booth at the Transworld Haunt and Halloween Attractions show (booth #328), so to avoid a bump in banner ad location, be sure to renew your ads by the deadline.

We have added some new and very exciting elements to Hauntworld’s network of websites for 2010 including a haunt directory on www.HauntedHouseMagazine.com, www.HauntedHayrides.com, and a new improved server to handle even more traffic, much more. Please contact Patti today to discuss your 2010 marketing plans, blacklightminigolf@sbcglobal.net. Our 2010 sales deck is available and ready to go. Last year, the HauntWorld network set new records on traffic counts and we expect to exceed that for 2010! Additionally, all featured haunts from Hauntworld.com were featured on www.MapQuest.com through an exclusive deal Hauntworld signed with AOL.com. To prevent any server outages with the expected 2010 traffic, we have quadrupled our server capacity. We are now looking forward to our biggest year ever!

We look forward to working with you again in 2010 and hope to see you at the 2010 Transworld Haunt Show! Make sure to visit the Fright Forums on Hauntworld.com at http://www.hauntworld.com/haunted_house_forums/ to chat with the haunt industry!

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us!

Happy Haunting,

Hauntworld.com Staff

2009 HHA Year in Review

2009: Year One of the Haunted House Association!

Ben Armstrong, NETHERWORLD Haunted House



One year ago this month an interim board of your fellow haunt owners first gathered to start framing a new organization dedicated to a simple premise - to Protect and Promote the Haunted Attraction industry. Thanks to the unending enthusiasm and support of the first board of directors and the haunted houses, industry leaders and vendors who were there every step of the way I am happy to report that the first year of the Haunted House Association has exceeded all expectations!



Our organization now has a solid set of bylaws with very critical components. The first being clearly-defined term limits, which ensures that the board of this organization is always moving and evolving, and constantly bringing in fresh blood. The second being that only haunted attraction owners or operators with 5 or more years of experience may sit on the board, bringing real wisdom and clear focus to this group.



So what was accomplished in 2009? One of our big concerns was a safety outreach to find those start up folks who might not have the clearest grip on how to haunt safely. We created a series of “do and don’t” tips submitted by our members embedded with cool images and haunted house tips. These were presented on several websites and promoted with a two month advertising campaign in Fangoria magazine designed to reach a national audience. We also created a complex Crisis plan that was sent to our members to help them plan for proper disaster response.



So why have a safety outreach, why go beyond the membership to promote best practices? Last season there were at least two situations where guns were discharged causing injures in haunted houses. In an eerie coincidence one of our safety tips dissuaded gun use and our crisis plan discussed this very issue in detail. Clearly a safety outreach is critical and should be expanded to protect both us as haunt owners, and our customers from unsafe operators. This out reach is core to our mission and will be expanded by this group in future years.



In the area of promotion there were some truly amazing results. For our members we presented the first association sponsored haunt finder to help promote member attractions. On the national stage HHA’s participation with America Haunts with the ongoing national PR campaign netted great results, including portraying haunted houses in a positive light on CNN, Yahoo Homepage, MSNBC, Inc Magazine, Reuters, The National Post and The LA Times, among others. One of the crowning achievements of this year’s campaign was getting an awesome haunted attraction on the CBS Evening News on Halloween! One of our core goals is to show the world that haunted attractions are serious entertainment venues, and this is exactly the sort of promotion we need to build on year after year.



Some of our industry’s top haunted house vendors participated in the HHA discount program, which translated into amazing savings on all manner of Halloween goods and services for all HHA members. We were also able to offer subscriptions to both haunt industry and Amusement Trade publications, and research healthcare options for haunters.



HHA also strove to mend fences, and work hand in hand with other industry groups. We consulted closely with IAHA President Patrick Konopelski, for example to develop marketing information for both of our organizations to share. We published press releases and haunt lists from Hauntworld, Americas Best Haunts, and Haunted Attraction Magazine on our front page blog in the spirit of inclusiveness as well, because they were all promoting the haunted attraction industry in a positive light.



So what does 2010 bring?



- Our first election takes place in January, ushering in new officers and board members as per our bylaws. Holding the election next month ensures that the HHA leadership will be organized and ready for our meetings and events at the March TransWorld Halloween and Attractions Show. Several VERY experienced Haunt Owners have stepped up, and I expect great things from this new board!



- A new powerful affiliation with TransWorld will bring HHA many ways to help promote the industry and deliver new benefits to its members - including our special Members Only Brain Storming session, networking events, and more!



- A brand new website and URL www.HHAssociation.com



- Many more exciting bits of news that will be released in the coming months…stay tuned!



So In closing I want to thank everyone who helped HHA on its amazing first year voyage, especially the board who gave up so much of their time and skill for something they believed in. Larry Kirchner and Hauntworld for all of his tireless efforts, forward thinking, endless promotion and use of so many of his assets, TransWorld and Jennifer Braverman for really going above and beyond for us in our first year, Steve Kopelman of Haunted House.com for his huge promotion in 2009 that gave us the capital to get rolling, John Kennedy of Haunted Attraction Magazine for his support and even handed approach to our organization, and America Haunts for bringing us into the PR Campaign. Also a huge thank you to ALL the vendors who donated product to our auction and who continue to participate in our vendor discount program. This would be almost impossible without your support!



Lastly I want to thank you the Haunted House Owners who stepped up in year one to join us on our quest to protect and promote the haunted Attraction Industry! I hope you join up again in 2010 and bring all of your haunted house peers along for the ride! Together we can take this industry forward, and keep showing the world just how much Haunted Houses Rock!

Thanks!



Ben Armstrong

Haunted House Association President 2009