LASN headed out to the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) Exposition, Oct. 16-17 in Anaheim, Calif., appropriately enough just across the street from that playground for children and adults, Disneyland.

The NRPA get-together got an early start with 13 preconference workshops on Sunday Oct. 14, and eight offsite adventures, including a tour of the San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, a hike through the limestone canyons of the Irvine Ranch and exploring public art at Colony Park in Anaheim, the city’s newest “Art in Public Places.”

GameTime (Chattagooga, Tenn.)

Competing against Disneyland for crowds is challenging, but the NRPA Exposition was well attended. The two-day expo of products and services was spread out over two exhibit halls at the Anaheim Convention Center. It was fairly typical of industry shows across the country, but of course this one focused mostly on showing the latest in playground equipment to engage kids. Note: Some of the NRPA crowd did some playing of their own at Disneyland at a special Tuesday evening/night event of amusement rides, followed by a reception.

Landscape Structures (Delano, Minn.)

There were 362 exhibitors by my count for the expo (see photos for a few examples), including six firms that do landscape architecture, all of whom LASN has proudly featured in our magazine: Hitchcock Design Group (Naperville, Ill.); Kimely-Horn and Associates (Gold River, Calif.); RDG Planning & Design (Des Moines, Iowa); RJM Design Group (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.); Sasaki (Watertown, Mass.); SITE Design Group (Carlsbad Calif.); and Stantec (Saint Paul, Minn.).

Little Tykes Commercial (Farmington, Mo.)

NRPA also had an extensive line-up of continuing education classes (208) and speakers (462) over the course of three days (Tuesday through Thursday).

The 2013 NRPA Exposition is set for Houston, October 8-10. For more information, visit www.nrpa.org.

Berliner Seilfabrik Play Equipment Corp. (Greenville, S.C.)

Meglio Unionland (Atlanta).