I toyed with the idea of being the CEO of a fast food company and said, “I don’t think that’s really what I want to do.” But it’s like once you’re in the CEO position, it’s kind of like, yeah, I mean you know what you gotta do to be… Read More
These are areas which are growing. Europe and the States and Australia are mature markets. There’s no news news coming up in these countries, maybe eastern Europe, but most of them are just redeveloping existing exhibits and spending huge amounts of money. I mean, I would spend $50 million on… Read More
How did Bernard Harrison and Friends come about?… Read More
To what extent do you continue to be active in the zoological park field?… Read More
Well, because of my company, which I set up in 2002, Bernard Harrison and Friends, which designs zoos and ecotourism attractions, little bit of aquariums, not a lot, but we do have aquarium team. I’ve always basically been in the field, I mean in the zoo field. As I said,… Read More
Yeah, I think basically getting new stuff on a regular basis is very critical. Read More
If you could go back in time, what, if anything, would you have done differently?… Read More
I think I would’ve spent more time studying good exhibit design at a much younger age. And obviously I’m exhibit designer, so that’s my interest and focus. I only really got into understand exhibit design halfway through my career, and it’s only really been in the last 30 years out… Read More
So is there any advice you’d give the neophyte zoo director about the importance of marketing zoos or important aspects for a new guy, Gail?… Read More
Yeah, I think probably what my old chairman set down as the philosophy is probably the very critical, have something to bring the public back every year. I mean, okay, you’ve got usually got two or three different markets that market segments that you’re dealing with, but your local market,… Read More
Somehow if that can be broken, it’s good. Singapore has moved the Jurong Bird Park to Monday where the zoo is it’s called, this guy got a new name. Anyway, they’re building a new park. So it’ll be the fifth park, I think it’s called the Jungle Safari. And that… Read More
And I suppose you either do that through appealing to their outdoor experiences or to their phone, computer-based where you come in and everything can be picked up on the phone with QR codes and stuff like that. You talked about marketing and its importance. Read More
And the chairman of the board wants a commercial exhibit that will make money for the zoo and sell as much popcorn and and soda around it as possible. So it’s just quite that balance. But getting more zoos down that road of good-looking exhibits, which are functional, I think… Read More
How do you think zoos can improve their connection with kids and teenagers to heighten their zeal or awareness about the natural world?… Read More
Yeah, I think it comes back to that thing I was saying earlier about just interaction, especially younger children. The touch, the feel, the chase, the interaction through glass and the shows. So having animals that do that which connect with children. Or having, I mean, these things like tunnels… Read More
Issues would you like to see zoos address in the future?… Read More
My personal interest is design. And so I’m very interested in making sure that in the future, more zoos create better looking exhibits with an equal balance of naturalism. I mean, in a good exhibit, you’ve got four different components. You’ve got the visitors, the animals, the staff, the keeping… Read More
So I think probably the best would be to get a biologist with an MBA who understands the biology of the place, but also understands the commercial, the need for commercialization. And this is not very difficult to do. It’s just you find people with these kind of backgrounds. But… Read More
What issues would you like to see zoos address in the future?… Read More
Of what?… Read More