Williams Inference

Art of Inference

An interactive workshop designed to teach the practical skills of inferential scanning, synthesis and reporting.

To register interest please contact us.

...very good, stimulating, eclectic...
We look forward to attending the next one.

#14 More Fun : a Paradigm for the '90s

Reports - Volume 22 (1995)
05 September 1995
"People need joy quite as much as clothing. Some of them need it far more." Margaret Collier Graham, American Writer (1850-1910) Customers crawl through mazes, roll around in a room filled waist-deep with colored plastic balls and laugh. They are grownups playing at Viacom, Inc.'s newest adult entertainment fun house called Block Party. No real kids are allowed unless accompanied by an adult. "At first you feel kind of stupid, but then you let yourself go," says a 28-year-old patron. "I feel like a kid again." While theme parks traditionally target families or children, entertainment companies such as Viacom and Walt Disney Co. are now preparing for adult singles and older couples. The demographics of the nonfamily sector are huge and growing fast. Disney calls its targets "prefamilies" and "post families". A Berkeley psychologist explains to a Wall Street Journal staff reporter, "We are so hungry for play, but are rusty at it." A quest for fun boosted this year's theme park revenues--expected to reach $5 billion, compared with $321 million in 1970. This summer 45 state-of-the-art roller coasters were introduced in 41 parks. Nearly $1 billion was invested in new and existing facilities. Over 255 million people moved through the turnstiles in North American theme parks like Walt Disney, Paramount, Six Flags, MCA, Anheuser-Busch and Cedar Fair. Disney's third quarter results were led by the company's theme-park segment where revenue rose 20 percent to $1.16 billion. Europe has joined the increase in theme parks. There are now more than 30 theme parks operating in Western Europe. New ones open each year. Time Warner will open a $270 million Movie World next spring near Bottrop, Germany; Lego World plans a $126 million park near Windsor, England; Sega Enterprises will start a computerized indoor theme park in London. The London Times reports a record breaking 500,000 pleasure seekers are expected to visit British theme parks the first weekend in September. Fun in England is about to become more scary, as rocket scientists and computer whiz-kids team up to design Ferris wheels higher than Big Ben and roller coasters that travel upside down. The popularity of roller coaster rides leads to the inference that FUN is permeating our cultural fabric. We wear five earrings in one ear, shave our heads and tattoo our bodies. We rollerblade through traffic and snowboard down ski slopes. We drive more convertibles, Harley Davidsons and Pathfinders. Hiking boots, baseball caps, backpacks and jeans are everyday fashion. Increasingly, we demand more fun in our jobs and education. "Fun on the job," for example, is a corporate goal for AES Corp., an independent power producer in Montville, Connecticut. It seems to work. Turnover is below 1 percent a year. "By fun, we are not talking about Friday afternoon beer busts," says Chairman Roger Sant. "Fun is when you're intellectually excited and you are interacting with each other." In Irvine, California, a not-so-typical cluster of offices called Lakeshore Towers is home to 40 companies. Hugging the base is a one-and-a half-acre casting pond where workers can fly fish for bass on their lunch hour. There is a sand volleyball court. An 11,000-square-foot health club attracts employees in the evenings. "Companies pay a lot of money to have an office here. We've got to focus on ways to make them happy," says the property manager. The necessity to entertain is also true in education. The blur between education and entertainment has been capitalized on by Broderbund Software Inc., one of the most successful purveyors of "edutainment" software for kids. Its popular geography game, "Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?" blends educational fare with storytelling. Broderbund recently acquired Learning Co., a producer of children's educational software and the popular Reader Rabbit series. The combination offers parents and schools one-stop shopping for a wide variety of "fun learning". Fun-loving Bill Gates and smiling Warren Buffett sharply contrast the ever-somber leaders of yesterday like Henry Ford and J.P. Morgan. A cultural change of the information age includes more fun and the creativity that fun produces.