The 525,300 square feet of floor space for the annual IAAPA Attractions Expo sounds like a lot of room — until you start trying to decide who goes where.

The IAAPA brain-teaser is not a carnival game, thrill ride or frozen theme-park beverage. It’s the time-consuming process of deciding where every vendor’s booth will go in the 525,300 square feet of floor space for the annual IAAPA Attractions Expo.

“I equate it to either a jigsaw puzzle or a game of Tetris that all kind of comes together during the course of this process,” said Ryan Strowger, senior vice president of exhibitions, conferences and sales for the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, which moved its headquarters to Orlando last year.

There’s a strict pecking order, determined by seniority, in both IAAPA membership and as expo exhibitors. But the process begins with companies’ submitted requests and wish lists. Some exhibitors want prime corner spots. Others hope to be near business partners — or far from competitors. The possible proximity of fog machines, food smells and laser lights can be factors.

“We build games, so we’re noisy. Not everybody likes to be near the noise,” said Jack Mendes, chairman of IAAPA’s spaceallocation subcommittee and president of Bob’s Space Racers, based in Daytona Beach. “Some people like being around us because we draw a lot of people, and that‘s the crowd they want to sell to.”

After the space-request deadline passes, the floor — think nine football fields — is wide open each year. The first 150 companies, in order of seniority, are contacted by IAAPA staffers to settle their spots for the year. The first call goes to Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters, a manufacturer that has exhibited for more than 80 years.

“When they pick their spot, the hall is empty. They’re No. 1,” Mendes said.

This year, after those first 150 slots were assigned, the committee met in a ballroom at Universal’s Portofino Bay Hotel for a two-day session to fill the exhibit space, which is set up annually in the North-South Building of the Orange County Convention Center. Representatives from various industries – such as water parks, plush toys, high tech and rides — sit in an arc facing a gigantic projection of the updated floor plan. Open spaces are blue; other colors are spots already assigned.

There also are areas to designate for 70,000 square feet of outdoor space and, for the first time, about 30,000 square feet in a temporary, climate-controlled structure adjacent to the convention center.

“Now we have web-based technology that allows us to assign the booths in real time,” Strowger said. “They get an immediate notification when their booth has been assigned. And they have the ability to say ‘You know what? That’s not exactly where I’d like to be.’ ”

IAAPA also uses social media to update the industry when placements are determined.

“We’ve really seen the engagement of people beyond this room,” Strowger said.

The IAAPA Attractions Expo, slated to remain in Orlando