MIDDLE EAST all problems and deal with them as early as we can . The role of the project manager and the technical division is to look for bad news . It is to look for problems and deal with them now . Not later . We ’ re doing a great job .”
Without exception , everyone we spoke to at Dubai Parks and Resorts had a love of theme parks running through their bloodstream . A passion that Priddy epitomises . He says : “ I majored in theatre technology in UCLA . That is really all about lighting , audio , rigging , scenic construction and stuff like that .” This eventually led to a call from Walt Disney requesting that Priddy join its team building scenery for the Epcot Center . “ Typically theme parks at that time used the Hollywood film studios to build all the scenery but it didn ’ t have the capacity for Epcot so we needed to set up our own . So we built 3.5 million square feet of scenery plus Tokyo Disneyland at the same time and shipped it out of California in 18 months . It was a lot of all nighters but it was a lot of fun .”
Earlier on , Priddy mentioned that R & D is part of his responsibility , and it is a fascinating part of a theme park as new and unique attractions are sought . He says : “ It ’ s natural for all of us . You see something and you say ‘ Ooooh ,
“ When we mature as a park and we have the right dialled-in level of talent , I know for a fact that we will become known as one of the top innovators in the business ”
– Matthew Priddy , CTO
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