IAAPA is the leading global organisation for the theme-park and attractions industry — the body that brings together the people who design and operate the world's parks, rides, aquariums and immersive experiences. Since 2024, Studio Bound has been invited to create and produce the opening-ceremony show for IAAPA Expo and IAAPA Expo Asia, as well as the Legends and Honours events.
Designing for the most discerning audience
It is a distinct kind of commission. Because this is an industry founded on spectacle, its gatherings do not open with a speaker at a podium; they open with a show. And the audience for that show is the most discerning one we design for. Everyone in the room builds spectacle professionally. They understand precisely how an effect is achieved, because achieving it is their trade.
That reality shapes the whole approach. There is no value in scale for its own sake in front of this audience — someone present has always built something larger. What remains is the discipline at the centre of our practice: designing for meaning rather than magnitude. A ceremony sized to its moment, made with genuine craft, aimed at a feeling the audience will actually register.
For Patrick, it is also a privilege plainly stated. Working among so many established figures of the attractions industry — many of them long-admired — and being trusted to open the room they occupy is among the commissions the studio values most.
About Patrick Larsen
Patrick Larsen is an Emmy Award–winning production designer and the founder of Studio Bound. Since 2024, Studio Bound has created and produced the opening-ceremony show for IAAPA Expo and IAAPA Expo Asia. Over more than two decades Patrick has designed for the Expo 2020 Dubai ceremonies, Olympic broadcasts, Las Vegas residencies, and themed attractions across Asia and the Middle East.