Category: Featured

In 2007, the Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s visionary CEO Susan Neugent and her team engaged Thinkwell to reimagine their much-loved (but well-worn) third-floor children’s exhibits. At the time, Thinkwell was still new to the museum world, and Susan’s leap of faith initiated a rich and rewarding collaborative partnership that would lead to Naturequest, a groundbreaking children’s exhibit that celebrates its tenth anniversary this week.  

“From the moment we kicked off the design process in 2007,” notes Fernbank’s current CEO Jennifer Grant Warner, “we intentionally set out to create something fresh that had not been seen before at museums for young kids. Our team at Fernbank, alongside our colleagues from Thinkwell, were committed to developing this uniquely immersive space that was rooted in science and education curriculum from top to bottom, providing inclusive opportunities for all  learners to explore the natural world…in a safe, indoor environment.”

Naturequest was intended to shatter the conventions of typical children’s exhibits by creating a playful, highly explorable landscape that piques each visitor’s innate sense of curiosity without relying on didactic text or explanations. Anchored by a multilevel treehouse and a meandering virtual interactive river that winds from the mountains to the coastal reef, Naturequest provides a comprehensive, accurate, region-specific overview of Georgia’s complex biosystems. Since it’s opening, the exhibit has provided ten years of adventure to its guests, but getting to opening day was an adventure all its own.

To start with, the logistics of creating a bespoke, aspirational, indoor forest on the third floor of the building were daunting. Fernbank’s main loading dock was located four floors below, on the opposite side of the building, impractically far away from the space. Thinkwell proposed a radical solution, punching a new hole in the building three stories above an adjacent service area, and the Fernbank team unflinchingly approved the plan. It proved to be an invaluable decision, minimizing the impact of construction on the rest of the museum.

Another key objective was to include a floor-to-ceiling view to the natural forest just outside, which required the demolition and relocation of the office of the Museum’s CFO, Catherine Nowell. With typical Fernbank spirit, she unhesitatingly agreed to the plan. 

Due to the “haute couture” nature of the exhibit, every element had to be custom designed, tested and installed onsite. Once construction was underway, the Thinkwell team, led by Project Manager Courtney Kleinman, was embedded with Fernbank’s staff in Atlanta to oversee the placement of everything from the largest tree to the tiniest fossil in the rockwork strata. 

As scenic elements arrived, they became furniture for the project team; the treehouse an ad hoc conference room, fallen logs became workbenches, the under-construction ladies room served as the flooring vendor’s field office, and a faux dugout canoe was a welcoming spot for a quick power nap. The team spent all of their waking hours together. “For a while I thought I was married to (Technical Director) Gene Rogers. We drove together, worked together, ate every meal together,” Art Director Gwen Ballantyne said. 

Gwen sculpted and baked animal figures and rockwork samples in her apartment for Nassal’s scenic team, who used the models as guides for the full-sized rocks, caves, and strata they sculpted in place. They meticulously added fossils, geodes and other inclusions selected by Fernbank’s geologists to the appropriate layer of strata. They molded tree bark samples from the trees just outside to create accurate copies inside. “I was so impressed with the rockwork team from Nassal,” says Ballantyne, “They were brilliant and so patient with us and everything we were asking them to do, which was crazy hard. Everything they did was stellar.”

Elsewhere, Gwen worked with the flooring vendor Rubbertek to custom mix their primary colors to create the perfect color gradients for the riverbed, beach, and reef, an effort that they had never accomplished previously. While art directing a tree stump, Ballantyne became so captivated by the history conveyed in tree rings, that she joined the Tree Ring Society.

Meanwhile, Kate McConnell, who had already learned the Latin names for hundreds of indiginous species of plants and animals in concept development, installed animal paw prints throughout the space, each set representing a different creature and telling a unique story. Kids can follow those prints and see where the creature emerges from the grass, pauses for a drink, and finally darts away again. Kate got so caught up in the effort that Thinkwell CEO Joe Zenas unofficially dubbed her V.P. of Animal Tracks.

The tech team hung and focused lights and mapped projections in the now open, naturally lit space. They also installed computers and software, rigged interactive elements, and mixed twenty-six separate audio zones together to create a seamless, accurately immersive soundscape in the compact space. Even the soundscape is Georgia-specific, with bird and insect noises selected specifically for their accuracy to each zone of the exhibit.

“There is no more destructive force in nature than a four-year-old-child” said Rogers, and all of the Naturequest team aggressively field-tested every touchpoint to make sure they could withstand the onslaught of the destructive forces to come.  they jumped, smashed, pulled, and pushed every new set piece and element trying to break it. “Is this good to go?” asked Chris Hawkes before grabbing a balance beam log with two hands and tearing it out of the floor. “Apparently not.” Thinkwellian Cynthia Sharpe would frequently pressure-test play elements, once putting her foot through a crab pot, then testing prototype acorns, seashells, and game pieces by smashing them to the floor or against a wall. When a transfer basket for a seed dispersal activity proved too fragile, Cynthia hand-knitted a pouch instead, a solution that remains to this day.

All of the tireless work and attention to detail was put to the test on opening day. The team held their breath as the first wave of kids entered the space. As expected, they jumped, smashed, pulled, and pushed every element. Grown ups explored as well, some laying across the virtual river, climbing up the central tree, or hanging out inside the narrow burrow. Kids beckoned to parents and caregivers to share discoveries and even sought out other kids to help with cooperative games. They had turned over stones, climbed trees, explored caves, and hopped across the river. Naturequest was now theirs.

As the activity wound down towards the end of the day, Gwen Ballantyne noticed an elderly docent gazing in wistfully through the circular windows at the entrance, “The children love it,” he whispered, “Looking at this, I just want to be a boy again.”  

“Naturequest was a game changer for Fernbank,” asserted Dr. Bobbi Hohmann, Fernbank’s VP of Programming and Collections, “Our younger visitors don’t realize that they are learning as they play and, of course, our adult visitors have just as much fun in the space!”

Brandi Berry, VP of Marketing agreed “I knew we had created something very special and innovative when Emory University included Naturequest in their field research of early childhood education. Ten years later, I still want to climb up the inside of the tree every time I visit the exhibit.”

“Naturequest has been pivotal for Fernbank in many ways,”  Jennifer Grant Warner adds, “ the exhibition has helped Fernbank grow as an organization, expanding our reach and being recognized for our commitment to science education. Best of all, to this day, we see kids light up when they enter Naturequest and realize this space is just for them – they speed through to get their bearings and then dive into their favorite area to explore, which is exactly as we had hoped.” 

Naturequest was the product of an unprecedented partnership and collaboration between Thinkwell and the Fernbank Museum that continues to this day. Since opening in 2011, the multiple award-winning Naturequest has exponentially increased memberships, opened the door for new exhibits like WildWoods and Nature Stories, and has made Fernbank one of the most treasured spots in Atlanta. Happy anniversary Naturequest, and congratulations to our dear friends at Fernbank. It is a privilege playing with you.

Creatives in the event industry have a deep-seated need to entertain people. It’s what feeds the soul, making the world a better place one concert, play, and smile at a time. With a perfect storm of this year with a pandemic and economic crisis hitting all at once, this period of time has been compared to the Spanish Flu and the Great Depression. However, large gatherings were encouraged during the Spanish Flu to boost morale during World War I, and despite the Great Depression, people still had just enough money to still pay for the occasional evening of entertainment. 

Today, entertainment venues of all sizes are shuttered—and have been for months. For decades, the sheer magnitude of the impact of entertainment and events on our global economy hasn’t garnered the kind of public and governmental support it should have, and now the lack of significant economic aid to this sector threatens to ravage both it and the people who work in it long term. Gary White, a British producer, colleague, and good friend of Thinkwell, has dedicated himself to amplifying this issue and increasing visibility of how the pandemic is affecting so many in the live events industry.

A show and technical director, producer of large-scale events having worked on projects ranging from the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Sochi, Russia to the Lumiere London and beyond, Gary’s knowledge of a great show knows no bounds. Once COVID hit the world and the events industry immediately was put on hold, Gary saw the need to bring people emotionally together. He spearheaded a campaign to pay it forward to National Healthcare Service employees by getting as many venues, icons, and locales to #LightItBlue every Thursday night at 8:00 pm. It represented the entertainment industry’s way of engaging the public and thanking the front-line employees for their work during the pandemic. After #LightItBlue and #MakeItBlue took off, Gary shepherded the event through the spring, joining forces with Thinkwell to expand the reach to the United States and beyond. This gave Gary time to step back and focus on what was about to come next…

In mid-July, Gary was approached by colleagues at the Professional Light and Sound Association (PLASA) to be the lead producer for the #WeMakeEvents campaign. A natural progression from his previous endeavors, where the events industry paid respect to the healthcare industry, this new campaign focuses on the needs of the hundreds of thousands of professionals and companies in events and entertainment themselves. #WeMakeEvents strives to bring awareness and understanding of the threats the COVID crisis poses to the industry by broadcasting an iconic ‘red alert’ cry for help. With thousands of people who make their living creating, organizing, and implementing events at a variety of scales out of work, the industry urgently needs aid and public support. Gary set out to raise awareness of the struggles his colleagues and the industry at large have faced since March. 

Gary once again leveraged his vast international network, utilizing his expertise to spearhead this new campaign. As an industry that was the first to close and will be one of the last to open leaving millions out of work, the livelihood of every stagehand, producer, and technician became the utmost importance in this awareness campaign. Gary’s focus on creating a megascale, streamed event that was highly visible, safe, and leveraged the skills and talents of events professionals was the natural way to fulfill PLASA’s intent and garner attention worldwide.

The inaugural event was on August 11, 2020: more than five thousand professionals gathered over 20 cities across the UK, such as Manchester, Edinburgh, and Cardiff, with the core of the event taking place on London’s South Bank. The fully live-streamed event featured an event crew dressed in red while holding up red lights into the sky, signifying a ‘red alert’ asking for financial support for the families impacted by the months-long shutdown of events and performances. 

#WeMakeEvents has now gone global, reaching 28 countries, and is continuing its efforts to raise money and lobby governments to provide assistance for millions of event professionals out of work for the foreseeable future. Gary and his volunteers have successfully created a wide array of ongoing events both digitally and socially distanced – all completely pro-bono. Artists around the world have stepped up to host “Survival Sessions” – their take on live-streamed jam sessions. Additionally, the #WeMakeEvents website hosts a “Speakeasy” room featuring a variety of options including skills workshops, live stream open sessions, and quiz nights for event professionals to sharpen their skills and network with peers. 

On December 18-19, #WeMakeEvents’ final event of the year is one of silence. For one night only across the United Kingdom, thousands of people will ‘sleep out’ where they live or traditionally work (pending local restrictions) as an effort to raise awareness of the nearly three million people who have fallen through the cracks of government support during the pandemic. 

What 2021 will bring for everyone is still a guess. For Gary, his focus is simple: taking it a day at a time to help the industry. He noted: “This is about fundamentally being a good person and caring for everyone. It’s something I live and breathe for every day.” It’s a good standard to hold ourselves to as we do our part in enduring this pandemic, waiting for that red light to turn to green. We eagerly await the day when thousands of talented individuals finally able to return to doing what they do best: bringing people together and creating happiness through breathtaking events. 

Please join us at Thinkwell this year as we support #WeMakeEvents in this truly important initiative. You can donate directly or get involved at  www.wemakeevents.com

On July 31st, 2019, The Twilight Saga: Midnight Ride made its grand debut at Lionsgate Entertainment World in Zhuhai, China. This innovative attraction was the world’s first to combine a fully interactive virtual reality experience with a high-capacity, individually-reactive motorbike motion simulator ride. 

Thinkwell partnered with Lionsgate and the Hong Kong-based Lai Sun Group to bring Midnight Ride from an initial blue-sky idea in 2015, through a multiyear process of design and development, to installation, testing, and ultimately welcoming the attraction’s first midnight riders. This unique achievement was only made possible through the close collaboration with the attraction engineers at CAVU Designwerks and DreamCraft Attractions and the computer animation specialists at Framestore. Yet the journey is never complete on opening day.

As Midnight Ride took guests on a journey through perilous winding forest trails, the attraction’s debut year saw plenty of its own unexpected twists and turns… including a temporary closure due to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, followed by a grand re-opening in June 2020 with enhanced health and safety guidelines.

The long journey proved worth it, however, as later that November The Twilight Saga: Midnight Ride was honored by the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) with a Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Attraction category. The Thea Awards have been awarded by the TEA since 1994 with the stated goal of bringing recognition to achievement, talent, and personal excellence within the themed entertainment industry.

Among the unique factors recognized by the judging committee, Midnight Ride is one of only a few major theme park attractions to give guests meaningful story agency during their experience. Within virtual reality, guests have the ability to choose their own moonlit path as they’re sent on an interactive motorcycle adventure alongside fan-favorite Twilight character Jacob Black and the rest of the wolfpack. This includes the ability to see and react to their friends within the motion-enhanced VR world, such as when they split off from the trail, speed ahead or fall behind, or are even attacked by the vampire Newborns, leaving each rider seemingly the last remaining of their group.

Other projects with Thinkwell’s involvement in past years that have been recognized by the Thea Awards include: Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi (2020 awards, theme park), Warner Bros. Studio Tour – The Making of Harry Potter near London (2013 awards, studio tour), Fernbank NatureQuest in Atlanta (2012 awards, museum exhibit), The Jurassic Park Institute Tour in Japan (2005 awards, traveling exhibit), and The Imagination Workshop in Temecula (2005 awards, limited budget).

The Thea Award recipients for the 2021 ceremony were officially announced on November 19th, 2020. Thinkwell, with all of our partners who helped make this attraction a reality, are thrilled and humbled to see Midnight Ride recognized by our industry peers who placed it among the ranks of many of the world’s most influential and impactful themed experiences.