The Planning of the Grand Opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

I recently had dinner with some friends and we begin to discuss what an amazing year we've had with the Opening of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort. In talks with them I found that a few of my friends played a huge part in the grand opening as well part of the opening team. When I asked how the project worked, it was clear that this info would work great with understanding how they planned and executed the project. So I begin to ask a few questions regarding the project team. As I move forward into my project management team class actually hearing what they did and how they planned it and how long it took. So a close friend of mine sat down with me and explained how it worked for her in the event aspect of it.

Due to the number of entertainment and opening of this huge anticipated add on to Islands of Adventure they created a Harry Potter event team. They were involved with working with marketing and sales to promote the attraction all the way to booking talent, planning of the VIP grand opening. This 180 day Project began in January. This included traveling to expos to advertise what to expect in the Wizarding world of Harry Potter. The team consisted of 6 people: 2 managers, 1 supervisor, and 3 coordinators. This team dealt with getting talent to expos, setting up private events for the grand opening, getting everyone on the team on board with the product and brand.

The first thing they did was familiarize themselves with the product and the language of the brand. They then worked with the show directors on talent that would be  needed for traveling. If they needed Beaubaxtons and Durmstrings for marketing of the HP world, they worked with the show directors to identify top talent for expos and showcases for the company, and the new island. The break down of the management team is what I found to be very interesting: One manager and two coordinators dealt with talent and booking. The other manager, the supervisor and one coordinator dealt with grand opening and its execution. Those dealing with the grand opening dealt with media, celebrity VIP, for the grand opening. With the teams being split up, they came together every two weeks to do a touch base of where they were and if they were behind and required additional help. They also wanted to make sure they were kept within their budgets and talent budget. Closer to the opening of the island, the project teams met each week to make sure they were on schedule. With the wizarding world making an official grand opening on June18, the team found that they made their deadline on booking all talent for opening and rehearsed how the grand opening will work.  They also had to keep in account the media and VIP party. This took both teams to come together to work on making this successful. The planning for this party started 2 months in advance and with both teams working together  they were able to complete on time and pull off the celebration and VIP party with a major success.

 HP stars at theVIP/Celebrity Opening

http://wdwdailynews.com/universal-studios/wizarding-world-of-harry-potter-grand-opening-kickoff-celebration-photos/

          

 

VIP Celebration

                               http://www.kidsmomo.com/2010/harry-potter-theme-park-now-open/