Kai Evans

Kai Evans

Owner / Manager at Adventure Park Lubbock

About Kai Evans

Kai Evans is the Owner and Manager of Adventure Park Lubbock, a prominent family entertainment center located in Lubbock, Texas. Covering 20 acres, Adventure Park offers a wide variety of attractions and activities designed to serve families, groups, and the broader community throughout the year. Kai is responsible for overseeing the park’s operations, sourcing new attractions, and developing marketing strategies that keep the venue relevant and exciting for returning guests.

Kai has built her approach to running Adventure Park around a deep commitment to community integration. She believes that a family entertainment center thrives when it becomes a genuine part of the local community rather than simply a commercial destination. This philosophy drives her decisions about programming, partnerships, and the types of events the park hosts throughout the year.

One of Kai’s key strategies for keeping Adventure Park fresh is her hands-on approach to evaluating new attractions and products. She personally tests and assesses potential additions to the park before committing to them, ensuring that every new element meets the standards guests have come to expect. She also prioritizes creating flexible event spaces within the park that can serve community organizations, schools, and corporate groups, which helps drive consistent traffic outside of peak entertainment seasons.

A fun fact about Kai: Adventure Park Lubbock spans a full 20 acres, making it one of the larger family entertainment centers in the region, and Kai manages every aspect of keeping that large footprint fresh and engaging for guests who visit multiple times throughout the year.

How a 20-Acre FEC Stays Fresh, Seasonal & Community-Driven with Kai Evans

Kai Evans, Owner / Manager at Adventure Park Lubbock, shares how her 20-acre family entertainment center stays fresh, seasonal, and deeply connected to the Lubbock community. Watch the full episode (6:13): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sJz70ourPc

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[0:00] Hi, it's Ian from Attractions Insight. We're here with Kai from Adventure Park. Kai, how are you doing today? Doing great. Awesome. How's your IPA been so far?

[0:08] Lots of fun.

[0:09] Okay, cool. So, yeah, please tell me what is Adventure Park?

[0:13] So, Adventure Park Levik is 20 acre family entertainment center. So, go-karts, climbing, ropes course,

[0:20] mediate golf, really all things family fun is what we are. And then we've got race cars and more extreme things as well.

[0:26] That sounds incredible. Yeah, sounds like a lot of fun. So, I mean, uh, what are you looking for in an APA here today?

[0:34] So, we're always interested in just new technology. Um, there's usually small spaces we're trying to fill. What are the newest in games and kind of

[0:43] technology and then, uh, just keeping it fresh. So, what are things that we can kind of add and change our current facility? And so, uh, for us, we closed

[0:51] at zipline. So, we're looking at how do we make this maybe a winter attraction and add Okay.

[0:56] a tubing. So, That's one of the things we're looking at is that uh because your facility like also also goes outside as well

[1:05] and because we're not in an area where we have snow. So in our area we don't have a lot of snow. So expanding our season and you know making

[1:13] it a longer season and kind of adding to the Christmas and so that's one thing that we're looking at but really just how can you enhance what you have and

[1:20] make it better because things are always changing in the market with technology and so trying to add and make changes there. And this is not your first time here?

[1:28] No. Been here a couple times.

[1:30] Okay. What would you say is your favorite part? I mean, especially either recurring or maybe something new that you saw this year.

[1:38] Well, anytime you can like go to a froggy, you know, like booth and smell like rotted stuff. I mean, I don't know.

[1:45] It's just like it's really hard to explain, but it's like you all your senses are hiding between sight, sounds, smells. You know, we walked in and

[1:53] they've got water park sounds and smells and so it's like no other convention.

[1:59] It's fun. People are very nice and they want to they want to learn from each other and so it's a really great industry to be in.

[2:06] Yeah. I mean, I'm sure you've made some great friends. Uh, you know, just walking the halls here. Uh, and yeah, boy do we love froggies. Yeah.

[2:14] I mean, we're coming from the haunt industry among other things. And yeah, they're doing they're doing good work.

[2:18] And their smells are ridiculous. I don't think that's one of those you got to be there kind of moments because if I told

[2:26] you that sulfur smelled like sulfur, you might not believe me until you're like, how did they do that? It's a bottle about about this big.

[2:36] Yeah.

[2:36] Uh but in theme parks, you know, to have full rides and to be able to test out new games and to climb on climbing structures, like it's just it's a really

[2:45] neat atmosphere to bring the people that bring their kids and get to experience that. It's just it's neat. It's a lot of fun.

[2:51] Yeah. And I'm not super familiar with, you know, the operation of FEC, but I have to imagine having those demos

[2:59] here is a lot different than the catalog. You know, I'm I'm sure you've seen these people and maybe they've said, "Yeah,

[3:06] we've got this available." But I mean, can you tell us about kind of the difference about being able to like test

[3:13] it, see it, and see people enjoy it and stuff like that?

[3:16] Yeah. So, we visited with our redemption, like who we get our redemption from for our game room. And so, I see all these things online and in

[3:24] catalog that they send me, but sometimes they don't display well or the way that you expect them to look, it's smaller or larger. And so, to be able to see some

[3:33] of those things live, to be able to touch and feel, we've got attractions that need new netting. And to be able to test that out and talk to somebody instead of doing it by phone and email

[3:42] is nice. And so I think that kind of puts the world together where you can kind of connect but also put a face to the name and and uh but just really see

[3:50] things and be able to touch and feel and know the quality of product that you're getting. For sure.

[3:55] Yeah. I mean and the the vending makes total sense just because I mean you take a picture of a stuffed animal and you don't know if it's, you know, this size.

[4:02] You don't know if it's as big as the room. Like even when he says eight inches, like it can be a skimpy eight inch that's more like a seven

[4:10] measured from the neck, you know. Look, there it is. Yeah, if you say so.

[4:14] Yeah. If I could ask, um, how is your marketing? I mean, what is the kind of

[4:21] strategy that you use? Because you've got to be, uh, you reaching a pretty diverse audience with how many things

[4:29] you just listed. I mean, that that was a lot of different activities.

[4:32] So, our marketing uh, we mostly are online and digital marketing. So text campaigns, email campaigns, lots and

[4:39] lots of Facebook, Google, Instagram ads, uh is our primary, but um I mean we're always I mean that's another thing that

[4:46] is great to come to these type of places because things are ever evolving and changing and content and how we receive it and where we get it from is

[4:53] constantly changing. So it's good to see what other people are doing and just how the market's changing. And I think also you just have to be really aware of what

[5:00] your market is and know that every market is different. Like we're not Orlando, Florida. But we're in the panhandle of Texas and so um you know

[5:08] the way they market here inside of hotels and you know kind of cross promotion that doesn't happen as much as our community. Sure. And so I think just

[5:16] looking for ways in within your area to best effectively reach out to your audience and then just being involved in the community, right? Like you can't go

[5:24] wrong with being involved in whatever community you're in.

[5:27] Yeah. Yeah. And I was going to bring up that it seems like you are kind of you know doing some community outreach uh which as you should. I mean, are you a

[5:35] meeting place for your community sometimes?

[5:37] Yeah. So, we allow nonprofits to come in and use our meeting space. It's free.

[5:41] Um, so we just ask that they order food from us while they're there. And so, we want to be a place that if it's not booked, we want them to come in and use that space.

[5:50] Um, lots and lots of party. We're a party plate, so we do lots of celebrations. And so just being available for people whether they're

[5:57] celebrating a win in a game or the end of a season or end of a school year or seniors um just really being available

[6:05] for people to provide fun whenever they need it.

[6:07] Well, that's great. Uh thank you so much for talking with me.

[6:10] Fiser and uh