A Day in the Life of Jordan Carter
On any given day at Silverwood, you might run into Jordan Carter. He’s the park’s Director of Marketing and Entertainment Director, but despite the title, he tends to blend right in. He’s not pretentious. He wears shorts and a company polo shirt, just like the other employees do. But he’s always watching.
So, what does a marketing and entertainment director actually do? If you ask Jordan, he’ll probably say, “I don’t know. I just do things” which isn’t true at all, but it IS the kind of answer you would expect from a creative person. I recently followed Jordan around one afternoon to investigate this phenomenon further.
Like many of us, Mr. Carter grew up loving theme parks. But while you were contemplating if you really wanted to take another spin on those swirling teacups one more time, Jordan was busy taking mental notes on his surroundings.
“Whenever I would go, I would pay attention to the theming of the rides. What made them unique? Today, I try to bring some of that back here.”
This is Jordan’s 13th year working at Silverwood. He began bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as an intern in 2011 and was hired in the marketing department the following year at the age of 22.
Our afternoon began with a company business meeting in a large conference room located just above the Lindy’s restaurant. The marketing manager (Amanda), graphic designer (Allen) and social media brainchild (Bryce) were in attendance. The meeting was fairly short but covered a lot of information including:
- The park attendance numbers for June
- The need for a creative refresh on the park’s website
- Ideas for a new billboard
- Comparing Silverwood’s TV ads to the big guys at Universal Studios
- The plan for the next installment of the “Silverwood Show” web series
- Details for a Scarywood photoshoot and training
- Discussion for the promo of this year’s newest haunt
The meeting is adjourned, and I follow Jordan down to the train depot to board the 2 p.m. train ride. Jordan regularly rides the rails in the caboose car to watch how the show onboard plays out and makes notes of improvements that need to be made. He points things out along the way. I point out that my favorite animals on the ride are the rodents drinking beer upside down.
“What’s your favorite part of your job?” I ask.
“Just being creative,” he says. “At my soul, I just want to create. In the marketing department, they’ve given [my crew] a lot of freedom to create different programs, create campaigns and create new theming.”
An example of theming is the new Emerald Forest expansion over at Boulder Beach.
“That was all done within the marketing department,” says Jordan. “It’s really been fun to have worked on it.”
And then there is the entertainment side of things. Not surprisingly, Jordan gives a similar answer.
“On the entertainment side, it’s really the same thing. [I get to] write scripts, come up with shows, work with actors and work through their creativity. I think that there’s a lot of creative freedom here that I never would have expected.”
At the end of our train ride, we disembark. Jordan stops to compare notes with the heroine of the show. They see that I raise my camera, and they immediately pose for me. I follow Jordan down to one of the park’s lower offices where he drops off the money that was collected during the train’s “robbery.” Then we head over to his car and drive over to where to the site where a new haunt is being built.
There’s not much to see at the worksite for the haunt. Just the bare bones of 2×4 walls, but Jordan comes alive. He gives me a tour through each of dozen or so “rooms” inside. He’s excited to share with me the storyline painting a picture of what will go on there. It all sounds amazing and horrible at the same time.
On the way back to the park’s office area I ask Jordan what a typical day looks like for him, and I’m actually surprised that there is some rhyme and reason to the creative chaos. This day in particular is a Monday where he works on general entertainment and marketing projects. On Tuesdays, he works as the park’s manager on duty. Wednesdays are full of manager meetings. Thursdays are set aside for meetings with the entertainment teams and Fridays are a wild card where anything can happen.
Silverwood Theme Park is family-run business, and knowing how some family businesses are, I wondered if Jordan had any trouble fitting in.
“It’s been interesting for me because I don’t have any family over here, especially in Idaho. But the Norton family brought me in and treated me like family – all of us really – so, they put a lot of trust in us,” says Jordan. “That is something that I love [about Silverwood]. It’s not corporate. We have the ability to go directly to someone who can make the decision right now and move forward with that. I really enjoy working with Gary because he knows what he wants, and we are able to go forward with that.”
Meet the Conductor…
Jeffrey Totey and his wife live in the greater Seattle area and is a freelance writer and owner of Writer of Pop Culture website which focuses on pop culture, movies, TV, theme parks and more.
DON’T FORGET TO ENTER TO WIN SCARYWOOD TICKETS!
Comments (1)
Sounds fun
Add comment