With the holiday movie-going season upon us, we assembled a list of anti-innovation quotes from notable Hollywood executives, inventors, and directors — just to show that no industry is without its nay-sayers who can rationally explain why change will never come.
“AI may be the most powerful technology that our company has ever seen,” and other quotes from CEOs about the impact of AI.
Former DreamWorks and Disney exec Jeffrey Katzenberg discussed the similarities between the arrival of AI technologies in the business world today and the arrival of computer-generated animation technologies in Hollywood in the 1990s.
One of the things Weis discusses in this video from Impact 2024 is the relationship between the creative and design teams at Imagineering, and the operators who run Disney’s theme parks, hotels, and cruise ships.
In the GenAI era, tech companies like OpenAI, Perplexity, and Runway are coming under fire for doing almost the exact same thing Google does when it “crawls” websites to allow users to find content on them.
Consumer Reports recently launched AskCR, an AI-powered chatbot that can answer subscribers’ questions based on the nonprofit organization’s research into a wide array of consumer products. Here’s how it was developed — and the challenges the team had to overcome.
In this podcast episode, we talk with Bob Weis, the former president of the legendary Imagineering division at Disney, and author of the new book “Dream Chasing: My Four Decades of Success and Failure with Walt Disney Imagineering.”
To live up to their lofty valuations, every generative AI startup needs big bucks enterprise deals — rather than just selling $12-a-month subscriptions to consumers. This deal is about Lionsgate using generative AI for its own internal purposes, rather than letting you generate your own sequel to the “Hunger Games” or “John Wick” franchises.
Josh D’Amaro, Chairman of Disney Experiences, which includes the company’s theme parks and cruise line, shares the principles that guide the company as it seeks to create unique in-person experiences and tell memorable stories.
At the annual South by Southwest conference in Austin, Luminate CEO Rob Jonas offered an overview of how music and video consumption changed in 2023. Here are 10 of the data points he shared…
How does a Formula One racing team think about innovation? We talk with Shergul Arshad, Head of North America for the Aston Martin F1 team.
When he first proposed building Sharpen, McGraw Hill’s app that has been called “the TikTok for studying,” Justin Singh didn’t know whether it would play well with the company’s target audience for the product — students looking for a new way to study that was more aligned with their lifestyle.
The Golden State Warriors’ VP of Technology, Daniel Brusilovsky, shares insights on his team’s strategy for creating stronger fan experiences and infrastructure through technology upgrades and partnerships.
Tim Clark is the Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer at NASCAR, the auto racing sanctioning and operating company, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. In this exclusive interview, he talks about leveraging new technologies to increase fans’ engagement with the sport.
As part of our most recent research report, Shaping Your Strategy for Web3 and the Metaverse, we spoke with Panos Panay, President of the Recording Academy and the Grammys, to hear about the Academy’s partnerships in emerging technology, what stage Panay believes emerging technologies are at, and his expectations going forward.
Personalization of products and services has become a major desire for many consumers across a variety of industries. We spoke with Ziad Sultan, VP of Personalization at Spotify, the music streaming platform famous for its customized user interface, to learn more about its personalization practices, get advice on how to integrate personalization into other organizations, and discuss his position on using new ideas in an organization.
“Innovation is a word that can mean everything – and nothing,” says Benjamin Stoll, Director of Strategic Alliances & Innovation at FIFA, football’s governing body. Unless, he adds, innovation activity can be tied to tangible value creation for FIFA and its constituents. We talked to Stoll in advance of this year’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Comcast SVP Ruth Dawson lays out the trends she’s paying attention to, and the three avenues that a Comcast Labs project can travel: a hand-off to the business, a temporary hold, or a full stop.
To shed light on how NASCAR stays connected with fans — and how it explores the potential of new technologies — we spoke with Craig Neeb, Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer. He says that delivering concrete results requires strong relationships with leadership, openness to the startup world, and an acute awareness of where a project’s biggest risks lie.
For decades, sports teams have relied on stats to track their performance on the field. Today, a growing number of teams are using more sophisticated data and analytics software to optimize their business performance as well. That includes the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, where Charlie Shin serves as VP of Data Strategy and Analytics.
Disney CEO Bob Chapek is looking beyond theme parks and video streaming services toward building an immersive digital “metaverse” — a kind of virtual reality environment that might enable Disney fans to take part in games and theme park-like experiences without hopping on a plane to Orlando, Anaheim, or Tokyo.
Jasmine Robinson, a Partner at Causeway Media Partners, talks about some of the recent investments her sports-focused venture capital firm has made, and what she sees coming next…
The world of sports is experiencing a highlight reel of disruption — from streaming content to legalized betting to digital collectibles like the NBA’s Top Shot series. We talk with Jordan Fliegel, Managing Director of the Techstars Sports Accelerator, to understand what matters most.
October is big for baseball fans and all eyes are on the SF Giants, leading the playoffs after a five-year hiatus. For Faham Zakariaei, who directs the team’s special events, the busiest part of the season means Nike partnerships, fan groups, and influencer marketing.
”From the corporate side, a lot of times, a [startup engagement] program gets started, but the people who have to do the physical work of integrating the startup’s technology view the startup as just any other vendor, and they don’t understand that it’s a three-person company,” says Ken Durand, a former emerging tech exec at Ericsson and Dover Corp. who is now running a startup accelerator on behalf of Comcast NBCUniversal. More of Durand’s advice inside…
COVID-19 has accelerated the digitization of entire industries, changing everything from where we work to how we watch sports. NHL Florida Panthers’ Chief Strategy Officer is leading the organization’s transformation with data-centered marketing and creative strategies to build a larger fan base.
In its 42-year history, ESPN has consistently pushed the boundaries of innovation and technology in the sports realm — from cable television to TikTok. Here’s what they’re hoping to achieve with a new virtual innovation center.
Michael Shaw, Vice President and Head of Experience and Innovation for the Miami Marlins, discusses projects that create a unique fan experience, and explores the future of the game in a post-COVID world.
Edwin Wong works with data to identify trends in Vox’s audience. That information can be used to identify stories that most interest readers…
Jon Snoddy of Walt Disney Imagineering gave an inside look at the culture that makes his team tick and his vision for how the physical and digital worlds are converging.
The US Tennis Association’s CMO shares storytelling tips and explains how her team stayed connected digitally with fan’s during the most recent US Open.
How did the Portland Trail Blazers innovate to keep close to fans throughout the COVID-19 pandemic? The team’s Chief Commerical Officer explains.
Executives at Samsung, Google, and Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light and Magic talk about business shifts they expect to endure in 2021.
In order to accurately cover an election pivotal to the country’s history, The Washington Post spent a year testing an election mapping tool and built a lead locator. Here’s how they did it.
Ken Wee, Chief Strategy Officer of Activision Blizzard, shares insights on esports, the company’s focus on its biggest franchises, investing in mobile games, free-to-play offerings, and more.
Barre3 CEO Sadie Lincoln explored how the company approaches innovation and how the company pivoted to meet the new demands of 2020.
The desire to escape in 2020, if only for minutes or hours, has become an obsession, creating the perfect tipping point for virtual reality. See how Lucasfilm’s ILMxLab has harnessed that energy…
Time spent streaming is up 60 percent since the start of the pandemic. But this not to say that digital will replace the physical. What’s the future of live entertainment?
When it comes to digital tools, some offer real solutions. Others provide “vitamins” that are nice to have but not essential. Learn how to find the tools that solve real challenges.
In the midst of COVID-19, many of sports venues are increasingly empty, and sport no longer holds as central a place in our lives. There is a real urgency to change how live sporting events operate.
Pixar’s VP of R&D, Guido Quaroni, explains how and why the company encourages collaborative work. ”A culture of too much individualism…is always a dangerous place to be,” says Quaroni. Here’s how Pixar’s culture operates.
We’ve gathered the best pieces of recent advice from our live show, report, and other online coverage to help you imagine the future and plan your next steps.
What can you learn from the creative cultures of Walt Disney Imagineering and Pixar? Leslie Iwerks, a documentary filmmaker, has made films about both organizations. She shares what she observed in this replay of “One Quick Thing.” Iwerks is joined on the show by two unnanounced guests: her father, Don Iwerks, who worked directly with Walt Disney, and a former Disney Imagineer, Josh Wachman.
Lauren Xandra, Vice President of National Research Group, explains COVID-19’s impact on the relationship between consumers, entertainment, and communication.
Two leaders of the Panasonic Hollywood Lab predict how entertainment will become even more personalized in a post-COVID world. They also discuss environments that promote healing and relaxation.
When looking for updates on the impacts of coronavirus, many have turned to news publications for information. Edward Roussel of Dow Jones discusses the changes.
Few companies have experienced more of a surge of customer interest than Peloton Interactive, the maker of Internet-linked exercise bikes. We spoke to Rick Paster, Peloton’s VP of M&A Integration…
“Any step a company takes to foster innovation is praise-worthy,” says Marty Yudkovitz, formerly of The Walt Disney Company. “But…a lot of what is going on…is window dressing.”
”In my experience, the most powerful motivator to encourage innovation was peer recognition,” says Ed Leonard, Co-Founder of Bred Ventures and former CTO at DreamWorks Animation. Leonard shares more on what senior leaders do at companies like DreamWorks Animation and Disney to shape a culture of innovation…
“I have always tried to make everyone aware that failure is not a corporate death sentence,” says former Disney CEO Michael Eisner. Here are some of the biggest failures Disney has experienced in the last 20 years — and how the entertainment giant has bounced back.
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