Your First WWA Show: The Modern Operator’s Field Guide to WWA 2026

October 6–9, 2026 | Paris Las Vegas

WWA 2013

There is a point before your first World Waterpark Association Show when the agenda starts to feel like where do I start. There are education sessions you want to attend at the same time, a trade show floor full of companies you have heard of but never met, industry leaders who seem to know everyone, social events that stretch well beyond the official schedule, and an entire Las Vegas resort moving around you.

If you are new to the show, it is completely reasonable to wonder how you are supposed to navigate all of it, particularly when it seems like everyone else has been doing this together for years.

The good news is that WWA becomes much smaller once you start talking to people.

A conversation outside a breakout room may give you an idea you bring back to your park. A vendor may introduce you to an operator who already solved the exact problem you have been fighting all season. Someone you meet over coffee could become the person you call three summers from now when something goes sideways on a Saturday in July.

That is the part of WWA that is difficult to see on an agenda, and arguably the part that matters most.

So, if this is your first WWA Show, welcome. Here is the advice many of us wish somebody had given us before our first one.

1. If you booked the conference hotel, great. If you did not, do not panic.

At this point, we are only a few days out. Your flights are booked, your hotel is booked and changing either of them probably sounds like more trouble than it is worth.

If you are staying at Paris or Horseshoe, you did yourself a favor. Being able to come downstairs and walk into the conference area makes the early mornings considerably easier.

If you booked somewhere else, have no fear. Just remember this for next year and, more importantly, do not decide that you are going to walk to Paris every morning and back to your hotel every night simply because a map says your hotel is close.

Las Vegas distance is deceptive. A building can appear to be right there while somehow requiring a casino, a pedestrian bridge, three escalators and considerably more time than expected to reach it.

Figure out your rideshare, taxi or transportation plan before the first morning. You are going to get plenty of steps walking the conference center, the trade show floor and whatever happens after the formal agenda ends. There is no award for adding another three miles before breakfast.

2. Use Tuesday to make Wednesday easier

If you are coming in for the pre-show programming, Tuesday is one of the easiest ways to get your footing before the larger conference begins.

WWA University workshops and masterclass-style programs give you a concentrated day of learning with people who already understand both the industry and the show. Shameless plug to the workshop I am participating in... The Annual Golf Tournament gives you a more social version of the same advantage. Either way, you spend Tuesday getting to know a smaller group of people before everyone pours into the larger conference spaces.

That makes a surprising difference.

Walking into a room where it feels like everyone already knows everyone can be intimidating. Walking into that same room and recognizing three people from the day before immediately changes the experience.

Do not underestimate the value of simply having a few familiar faces.

3. Build a schedule, but do not let the schedule run your week

The Symposium is packed with education, and there will almost certainly be multiple sessions you want to attend during the same block. Review the schedule before you arrive, choose your first choice and keep a backup in mind.

Then expect the plan to change.

A hallway conversation will run longer than you expected. Someone will ask if you want to grab coffee. You will hear something in one session that suddenly makes another topic more relevant. At some point, the late nights may also catch up with you and one beautifully planned morning session may not happen at all.

It is fine.

The point of building a schedule is not to execute it perfectly. It is to make sure you are intentional about what you want to learn before the distractions and opportunities of the week begin. Another shameless plug, this is the session to be at this year!

WWA is one of the rare conferences where missing a session because you had a genuinely useful thirty-minute conversation with another operator may still be a very productive use of your time.

4. Go to the General Session

Even if you are usually the person who skips conference general sessions, go to this one.

The General Session is where you begin to understand why the World Waterpark Association feels more like an industry community than simply an annual trade show.

You will see peers and parks recognized, Emerging Leaders celebrated and Hall of Fame inductees welcomed. You will also hear about the work connected to programs such as the World’s Largest Swimming Lesson, which is a good reminder that the people in the room are connected by much more than attractions, attendance and revenue.

Water safety, professional development and the health of the industry are shared work.

For a first-time attendee, it is also one of the moments when the scale of the industry becomes visible. You suddenly see generations of operators, suppliers, designers and leaders sitting in one room together.

If that room feels intimidating when you walk in, come find me. You can sit by me. Shoot me a note on LinkedIn right now, and we can make a plan.

5. Walk the trade show floor without hiding from it

I say this with the credibility of someone who used to do exactly the opposite.

When I attended trade shows as an operator, I was perfectly capable of flipping my badge around, putting my head down and moving through an aisle without making eye contact. If I wanted to speak with a vendor, I wanted to be the person who decided when that conversation started.

Then I moved to the supplier side of the industry and realized how much useful information I had been walking past.

Yes, suppliers are there because they sell things. But good suppliers also speak with hundreds or thousands of parks, attractions and operators. They hear the same problems come up repeatedly. They see patterns develop across the industry. They often know who has already solved something you are trying to figure out.

That can become incredibly useful long after the trade show ends.

Imagine it is August and your park is running low on tubes while your normal supplier is backordered. Someone on the supplier side may know that another park has excess inventory, may know who can drop-ship what you need or may be able to connect you with an operator close enough that somebody can put the tubes in a van that afternoon.

Those relationships are built long before the emergency happens.

So walk the floor with some curiosity. Ask what people are seeing. Ask what operators are struggling with. Ask what has changed since last season. You are under no obligation to buy something simply because you stopped at a booth.

Think of the trade show floor as a giant source of industry intelligence. Take what is useful, bring the ideas home and keep the contacts that might matter later.

6. Go to the Annual Reunion Party, and stay for the photo

The Annual Reunion Party is one of the things I would tell every first-time attendee not to miss, but the part I especially want you to stay for is the photo.

After one of my early WWA Shows, the industry magazine eventually arrived at the park with the giant reunion photo on the cover. I found myself in the crowd and immediately showed my lifeguards and leads.

There I was, microscopic and extremely proud of myself.

It was not because appearing in a conference photo represented some enormous professional accomplishment. It was because I felt like I had become part of something.

Seventeen years later, that feeling has stuck with me. Many of the people I met through this Association became friends, mentors, peers, customers, partners and people I could call when I needed help.

Take the photo.

You may be surprised how much it means to you later. The party itself is also excellent, so there is really no downside here. One last tip - you will need your ticket to enter, it is part of your name badge you receive at registration. Just wear the badge if you want. Most people will. For those of you reading who are not new to this event : 3rd floor of the Paris hotel, Wednesday night, 7:30p.

7. Treat the social part of the show as part of the show

Some of the strongest relationships you build during WWA will happen nowhere near a session room.

They happen over lunch, while standing in a hallway, on the trade show floor or later at whatever Las Vegas bar is suddenly attempting to accommodate a few hundred waterpark people at the same time.

Do not assume that the useful part of the conference ends when the final education block is over.

If someone asks, “What are you guys doing tonight?” and you have the energy, go.

You can sleep Saturday.

There is one important warning for first-timers, however: the innocent five-minute hotel-room lie-down is dangerous. Many experienced WWA attendees have gone upstairs with every intention of “just changing quickly” and have never been seen again that evening.

Once you touch the bed, the odds are no longer in your favor.

If you are new and do not know where everyone is going, ask. Grab someone you met earlier. Ask a committee member. Ask the person sitting next to you in a session. Most people are perfectly happy to pull someone new into the group.

That is part of how this industry stays close.

8. Say hello to the people who make WWA work

WWA is not simply the speakers you see on stage. It is the full-time staff, Board members, volunteers, committee members and industry people who keep raising their hands to contribute something.

Meet them.

You do not need a clever networking opener or a perfectly rehearsed introduction. Ask where someone works, what session they have enjoyed or what they are looking forward to during the week.

If everything else fails, ask where you should eat in Vegas.

You will receive six opinions, two arguments and potentially a dinner invitation.

One of the fastest ways to stop feeling like the new person is simply to start introducing yourself.

9. Pack for the desert outside and the freezer inside

If you have already checked the forecast for next week, you know Vegas is planning to remind everyone that it is located in the desert. It is going to be hot during the day.

That does not mean you should pack exclusively for heat.

Once the sun goes down, the desert can cool off quickly, and convention centers have a remarkable ability to maintain room temperatures that suggest somebody is attempting to preserve the attendees for scientific research.

Bring a sweater.

This is also probably the right place to answer the question every first-time attendee eventually wonders but may not want to ask: what do people actually wear to WWA?

The answer is almost everything.

You will see business casual, park polos, jeans, vendors dressed a little more formally, people in suits because they like wearing suits and operators who still look very much like operators. There is no reason to reinvent yourself as Corporate Conference Person for four days.

Wear something you are comfortable spending an entire day in and something you are comfortable meeting people in.

If your park and your managers allow jeans, jeans are fine. If you make the rules, congratulations, you have even fewer people to ask. Check the forecast and make a decision.

There is only one firm recommendation from Attraxion.ai on this subject.

Do not wear your park-approved cargo khakis.

Ever.

We mean ever, not simply at WWA.

They have served their country. Let them rest.

Comfortable shoes, layers and a sweater will get you much further.

10. A few small Vegas things become surprisingly important

Use the show app. It becomes useful very quickly once people start posting, connecting and realizing they have been standing twenty feet away from each other all morning. You will get an email about downloading the app.

Plan for coffee if coffee matters to you. The Starbucks lines at the conference hotels have a way of looking manageable right up until they leave you feeling personally betrayed. If you need a specialty coffee to function like a normal adult, build the extra time into your morning. Otherwise, grab the basic coffee available near the breakout rooms and keep moving. Missing the first ten minutes of a session because you underestimated a Las Vegas Starbucks line is an extremely avoidable first-timer mistake. Even mobile ordering can feel like a lie. My personal tip - find the CVS and stock up on whatever your caffine fix is and just be prepared. Speaking of saving time, meals, and money - your lunches during Trade Show days are included in your registration and they come correct. The staff does an amazing job at making sure we are well fed, and comfortable. Some of my best discussions at WWA have been pre planned by setting up what time and with whom, I grab lunch on the floor.

Outside of lunches on tradeshow days, if you are working within a tight per diem, ask people where they are eating. There are affordable options if you know where to look, and suppliers may also be happy to grab lunch or dinner with you.

One more thing here, remember that taxis and rideshares use designated pickup areas at the major hotels. You generally cannot walk out onto Las Vegas Boulevard and summon an Uber from wherever you happen to be standing.

And, because this lesson deserves repetition, do not believe anything that looks “right over there” on the Strip.

It probably is not.

11. Find the part of WWA many first-timers overlook

One of the most valuable parts of WWA is also one of the easiest to miss: the committees.

This is where attending the Association once a year can turn into actually becoming part of the work happening throughout the year.

Committee members help surface education topics, contribute to sessions, articles and webinars, and bring the challenges they are seeing in their own operations into a wider industry conversation. They help turn individual experience into shared knowledge.

The important thing for a first-time attendee to understand is that you do not need to wait until somebody decides you have been in the industry long enough to participate.

Talk to committee members. Ask what they work on. Ask how people get involved. Tell them which part of the industry interests you.

If you see committee time listed at the WWA booth for your specialty area, go over and introduce yourself.

Every committee member was new once too, and many of them will be more than happy to pull another person into the conversation.

That is also one of the things I have always loved about the waterpark industry. We visit each other’s parks, ask each other questions, take pictures, borrow good ideas, improve them and pass them along again.

Your WWA First-Timer Promise

Before you get on the plane, make yourself a few promises:

• Build a session plan, but forgive yourself when it changes.

• Go to the General Session.

• Have at least three real conversations on the trade show floor.

• Stay for the Annual Reunion Party photo.

• Join one lunch, hallway or late-night conversation.

• Meet someone from WWA staff, a committee or the volunteer community.

• Ask somebody for help before deciding you do not belong.

• Bring at least one idea home that makes something at your operation better.
  

The room only feels enormous until you start meeting the people in it.

Come to your first WWA as the new person, but do not spend the week trying to stay that way. Ask questions, meet people, pay attention to what other operators are doing and take something useful home with you.

Years from now, you may remember a great session or a new product you saw on the trade show floor. More likely, you will remember the people you met, the conversations you had and the point during the week when you stopped feeling like you were attending someone else’s industry event.

See you in Vegas.