George Wade '79
George Wade '79 and the company he founded, Bay Laurel Advisors, a full-service consulting firm that helps clients create successful branded installations of Location-Based Entertainment facilities (LBEs), were featured in an article on the InPark Magazine website.
From the article:
For more than a decade, Bay Laurel Advisors has been focused on building successful story-based branding partnerships. Wade’s path in this industry started early with studies at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, followed by years at WED Enterprises (the forerunner of Walt Disney Imagineering) working on the development of EPCOT Center and Tokyo Disneyland, and then Landmark Entertainment on high-profile projects such as the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace and Universal Studios parks in Hollywood and Florida. He then joined Iwerks Entertainment, which was selling simulation theater systems. “There was too much emphasis on hardware, and not enough on selling the sizzle, the experience,” he recalls. Wade suggested uniting an action movie with a simulator experience. “Thirty years ago, that was a novel concept.” Robocop The Ride was the result, a then-revolutionary combination of simulator technology and feature film IP. It launched Iwerks on an entirely new trajectory and awakened an entire industry to the power of branded attractions.
MGM Studios was Wade’s next stop, where, as Senior Vice President for Location Based Entertainment, he developed licensing agreements and ways to structure business deals utilizing the vast MGM Studios film library as well as the iconic MGM Studios logo. “Every stage of my career – from theater school to Disney to Iwerks to MGM – every step taught lessons and opened my eyes to what was possible by fusing brand, entertainment and environment.”
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