Non-Traditional Marketing Mash: THE BLOG WITH THE DOUBLE R: IzeaFest Takes Busch Gardens Howl-O-Scream

Tonight was my first interaction with the people of IzeaFest 2009 in Orlando, FL and it was Awesome! IzeaFest is a festival created by the like named Orlando based interactive company, Izea, to bring like individuals who are passionate about social media together to share ideas, learn and grow the industry.
It was so cool to have the opportunity to interact and get to know like minded individuals from all over the country. Now, I know I am not one of those extremely dedicated bloggers that in some cases makes a living by being a professional blogger, but blogging and interactive marketing is something that I am very interested in so it was nice to be able to bounce ideas of people that don't look at you like you have three heads when you talk about how you need to tweet out photos of your trip.

Speaking of three heads, Busch Gardens Howl-O-Scream was awesome. Being a resident of Orlando for the last four years, I have been many times to Universal's Halloween Horror Night and although I am a fan of what Universal does, I was very impressed with what Howl-O-Scream brought to the table. The scare zones were great in their placement in the park, design and overall creepy-ness, however there were a few characters whose make-in lacked in detail. But, that, of course, is a minor flaw. One thing that was a little of a peeve of mine from my experience was there was not enough directional signage, so make sure you grab a map and use park landmarks to guide yourself to the next haunted houses.

The Haunted Houses. Wow, they were great. I am so impressed with what Busch Gardens has built up over the years. They were all very creative and very visually appealing. My favorite house wasnt even one of the primary houses, but absolutely loved it! It was called "13" and, of course, I was automatically drawn to it since that is my lucky number, but wow, it was awesome. It is based on a Hell's Angels type of motorcycle bar that has gone seriously a rye with gore on the walls and people coming at you from every angle. I'm telling you, it really felt like it was real! If you have the chance to visit, make sure you check this house out. It is so much better than anything that Universal has in their scare inventory! My group pretty much got to experience the entire run of the haunted houses so I would be more than happy to give some pointers on which to visit.

The Rides. I finally got to ride Sheikra and my gosh it was great! I just took this video off of YouTube so you could get an idea of what this ride was like and so you would understand why it was so funny that when I yelled to the group, "all right, who's going with me?!" all the guys in the group wussed out and all the girls screamed that they wanted to go! It was really funny.
At the end of of it all, as you exit the park you get to actually witness the House of Vayne runway show which was wicked cool! Check it out!