As announced earlier, SnitchSeeker and various other Harry Potter fansites are participating in a press conference with Thierry Coup, vice president of creative development for Universal Creative. We discussed various developments with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter throughout and updated this story periodically.

UPDATE: Several interesting details were discussed about Ollivander's Wand Shop.

It is set up so that it has an air of being around forever; you will be greeted by the wandmaker (not Ollivander, but someone working for him at Hogsmeade); you'll walk in the shop, see stacks and shelves of wand boxes at numerous levels. It's very intimate inside the shop, and very tall, according to Coup, about 30 feet high.

Potter film set designer Stuart Craig will be creating some of the wands, approved by J.K. Rowling. The wand will choose the wizard who owns it, which will be done by special and unique processes (though no detail yet). There will be a wand fitting, and if it doesn't work out, there will be interesting effects, including flowers wilting and lightning and thunder outside the windows of the shop itself. If the right wand does choose you, more effects will occur, such as the lamp lighting up just like in the first movie, and you will have the option to buy it or not. T

here are 13 different types of wand wood for the choosing, which are unique to the shop, and visitors' wood type will be determined according to their birthdate on the Celtic calendar; children will have their own special wands, too, through a 'build-a-wand' feature.

• At Dervish and Banges, there will be wand accessories that can be bought (though sadly can't be revealed now).

• The wand choosing process can take anywhere from two to five minutes at least to much more. Pricing range has not been determined; the wand choosing itself won't be charged, just the wand itself.

• There will be wands from some of the main characters wands - hero wands - including in sets, which are made by Noble Collection; this is different to the personal wands that will be chosen for 'wizard' guests to the park.

• As for the shops in Hogsmeade, they are near completion (about 90 percent), but there are still "final touches" to be done to them.

• Hogwarts Castle, from the exterior, is "very large." Iconic rooms, such as Dumbledore's office, the Dark Arts classroom, the common room (presumably Gryffindor's) and the Great Hall, amongst others, will be there and to scale.

• Many props will be displayed from the Harry Potter film sets, such as the Flying Ford Anglia (which sadly did not fly).

• The Owl Post and Dervish and Banges are the smallest shops, Ollivanders is slightly larger, and Zonko's joke shop is the largest. There are no queues to get into the shops, despite being interactive experiences as well as shops.

• There are no plans yet for expansion within the park, but it is a possibility.

• The shops will be as close to the films' version as possible (as shown by the early Ollivander's shop photos). Coup and the rest of his creative team opted to make it as faithful to the original project as possible.

That's it for now! We'll have much more on the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in the coming months!

UPDATE: We have a couple audio clips from this morning's conference, including Coup describing Ollivander's shop, and some of the questions he answered in regards to the theme park's current construction. We've included a transcription of some of the more interesting bits below the clips.

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