How Disney Finds the Future; David Min on Innovation at the Worlds Most Creative Company

Orlando (06:39.373) All right, David Minn, I’m so excited to have you here today. you are the vice president of corporate innovation at Disney. You and I have been trying to do this for quite some time. I’m so glad we made it happen. Thanks so much for being on the podcast.

David (06:51.787)
Well, thanks for having me. Looking forward to this.

Orlando (06:54.523)
well, great. I’m so glad. You know, David, we have viewers across film, television, music, advertising, publishing, and lots of other creative industries. Head of corporate innovation at Disney sounds like an almost impossibly broad remit. for somebody outside your particular corner of the company, what did what do people need to understand about what you do, where your team team sits inside Disney, and the problem ultimately that you’re responsible for solving?

David (07:22.313)
Sure, no, that’s a good question. So basically we’re part of the corporate development group and you know, we report up to the CFO, but I think what’s most important when we were set up in twenty eleven, it was really to have access to the CEO, right? Because it was it was a mandate at that time by Bob Iger to set up a group that would help bring external innovation into the company.

Orlando (07:38.22)
Mm.

David (07:46.579)
So, you know, today we have multiple innovation groups across the company. Walt Disney Imagineering, which has been legendary f over the, you know, decades. we have Studio Lab, which is part of the Studio Group, we have ESP and Edge, and then we have Disney Research as well, right? All of these groups are innovation groups, but they’re much more kind of internally focused. And the our group is really the ones feet on the street trying to find new technology trends and market, and that are

Orlando (08:03.661)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (08:15.085)
Mm-hmm.

David (08:15.497)
relevant to our growth strategy. And that’s what’s important. And that’s why we’re part of corporate development. We used to be both corporate strategy and corporate development together, but now it’s just part of corporate development.

Orlando (08:18.559)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (08:27.925)
Right, okay. you know, and and how do you’re also the head of the Disney Accelerator. How does the Disney Accelerator fit within that remit?

David (08:35.882)
Yeah, so the the Disney Accelerator, so to be clear, I’m not the I have somebody that works for me, the j who’s Bonnie Rosen, who’s the general manager of the Disney Accelerator. but basically that is a program we set up as part of the broader corporate innovation strategy, right? So we set up a series of programs to bring that innovation into the company. So I I I guess, you know, in some respects, to kind of be a little bit more specific, we’re

Orlando (08:59.479)
Mm-hmm.

David (09:05.685)
basically the conduit between, you know, Silicon Valley and the company, the Walt Disney company globally. And when I say Silicon Valley, I mean really the tech world, right? So and we work with venture capital firms, we work with the startup ecosystem, and we work with now the large tech companies like Google, Amazon, et cetera, as well to bring that innovation into our different groups across the company and then, especially when it’s startups, to help them navigate.

Orlando (09:27.629)
Yeah.

David (09:34.987)
through the company. And then as part of that, we set up programs. We have on the corporate innovation side of we set up programs like tech tours where we bring our leaders to different tech hubs throughout the well throughout the globe really. so to Silicon Valley to New York, Austin, etc. and then we’ve done other things where we have programs where we do trend updates for our

Orlando (09:35.661)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (09:50.859)
Yeah.

David (10:04.745)
leaders across the company. so like over the years, you know, when say for example, when blockchain and cryptocurrency and NFTs were hot, and that was a you know, relevant to us as a company with digital collectibles, we had to then educate those leaders across the company of what this was, because most people across the company were not really understanding what the technology was. So we do that kind of education and then we set up our marquee program.

Orlando (10:07.061)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (10:18.263)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (10:28.469)
Right.

David (10:33.764)
in 2014, which is a Disney Accelerator, which really brings the startups into the company so that we can actually have a hands-on approach between our leadership and those startup companies to then develop new things for us, right? New meeting and entertainment experiences. And typically, you know, they’re they’re companies that can you know help

Orlando (10:44.429)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (10:52.171)
Yeah.

David (11:02.731)
direct, you know, help us with that direction in, you know, accomplishing our growth strategy.

Orlando (11:09.451)
Yeah. It’s it’s interesting because we were a part of a a major studios accelerator. And I think that from the outside, prior to that, you see a s a company like Disney and you go, it’s a monolith, you know. And and I think that what you don’t realize is there are so many different business units and stakeholders and and everybody trying to all go towards, you know, growth and go towards experiences and things like that. But everybody has their little, you know, fiefdoms and and things like that. And so it’s, you know, you say,

The accelerator’s role is is helping navigate startups through that. It is a really tricky thing to figure out. you know, and and you do kind of, I think from the outside, go, well, what does a company like D Disney need with startups? You know, they can call Google, they can call Apple, they can, they have done many times. You know, so that was a really eye-opener for us. But how do you guys navigate that? How do you decide? this is a startup that that

Is worth us engaging with and we should bring their specialism in and help them grow within our ecosystem versus giving Google a call and going, hey, we want to do something that’s broadly similar. Why don’t we do it and own it?

David (12:21.814)
Yeah, no, that’s a that’s a good question because basically what you were describing, like shouldn’t we just work with large companies? When I f helped to start this group in twenty eleven, that’s typically what we did. We just looked to the larger companies. And but what we found is as you kind of seen have seen through the different tech cycles, that there were startups that were actually on the cutting edge, right? And those were the ones that were leading the way.

when it comes to creating new experiences. So that that whole concept was why I was brought over because previous to that I was with Steam Up Ventures, the Venture Arm of Disney, investing in these early stage startups. So we then started creating these programs, as I mentioned, and then bringing them into the accelerator. So we invest in those companies and and so we have skin in the game. And we then help them work together with our business segment to help them grow and become successful.

Orlando (13:03.852)
Mm-hmm.

David (13:21.103)
And you know, I think, you know, a lot of people think about innovation in various different ways. I mean, there’s four basic principles that we try to aim for, which is the collaboration, that ideation that you can then work, especially when it’s not a large tech company, you can ideate a little bit more than you because they’re developing their tech from the start as well, right? And then it’s how do we implement that? And then what kind of value do we create?

Orlando (13:46.229)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

David (13:51.093)
As a result of that, right? And so when you look across something like the accelerator, we’re we’re doing we’re hitting on all of that, right? And again, it’s about how do we bring them in? How do we, you know, there are some technologies that are relevant just to parks. There are some technologies that are relevant just to ESPN, you know, and so we also like you’re saying about companies are so big, we also have to keep up with the rest of our company, right?

Orlando (13:52.949)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (14:00.363)
Yeah.

Orlando (14:07.626)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Orlando (14:20.33)
Mm-hmm.

David (14:20.563)
and and what their initiatives are and what their strategies are so that we can help them with with that as well and support that.

Orlando (14:29.226)
Yeah. And, you know, when you’re so, I mean, I I imagine so much of your job is just keeping an ear to the ground and sort of, you know, keeping up to date with everything. You know, when you’re deciding whether to, you know, we where you’re looking at a technology and you’re deciding whether to sort of you know you know, when you’re evaluating technology, the founders, and their ability to operate inside a complex enterprise, what

What makes you say yes to that? You know, like what what makes you go, this is a company that’s gonna be able to navigate this and this is the right kind of you know, technology for us?

David (15:08.747)
So typically what we’ve learned over the last eleven, twelve years of doing this is that the the even though we’re I as I use the word broadly startups, it’s most times easier to work with growth stage startups, meaning that they’re not at the seed stage level, that they can actually, you know, they’ve raised some venture capital, that they have a product and market.

And then they can then work together with us. Because we found that from you know a trial and error process of doing this over the years is that when we brought say a seed stage company with say a team of three to five people, what we found is what you know the demands that we have as a corporate are so demanding that they couldn’t scale to the opportunity, right? So you know.

Orlando (15:41.1)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (15:59.009)
Yeah. Yeah.

Orlando (16:05.322)
Yeah. Yeah, if they’re still str tripping over their sock too well, you know, while while while trying to get a deal done with you guys, it’s not gonna work great. Yeah.

David (16:10.283)
Yeah.

Exactly. I mean that that exact that that is exactly as what has happened in the past, right? W we had three guys that came out of NYU, great entrepreneurs, great ex you know, enthusiastic. They had just graduated, they started this new startup and you know, it was a great product. And our group said, Okay, we we’re gonna launch this to ten million users and they were like, hold on. We don’t even know if our AWS contract allows us for that, right? Yeah.

Orlando (16:19.274)
Yeah. You’re right, yeah.

Orlando (16:25.888)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (16:33.718)
Mm.

Orlando (16:39.316)
Yeah.

Right, yeah. Yeah.

David (16:43.37)
So yeah, that’s why we kind of lean more to grow state. Yeah.

Orlando (16:48.5)
Right. And like, you know, you know, because I from the outside, it’s like you kind of have this really interesting thing where you’re seeing all these technologies being built outside, but then you’ve got the imagineers, as you said before, you know, this kind of incredibly storied, historically like, you know, historically impressive group of engineers and ideators who are thinking across the company. You know, yeah, how do you balance that? You know, how do you

How do you know? Do you start with the problem? I guess that’s the thing. Is like, do you start with the problem first or do you start with the technology? Is it just a sort of a beautiful cornucopia of things coming at you, whether it’s from the imagineers or outside, and you go, hmm, yes, that one. Ooh, no, I don’t like that one. Or are you going, we have a problem to solve. We want to go out into the market, whether it’s the market of our business units or the market of the open market, and find the right technology for this problem.

David (17:34.228)
Yeah.

David (17:47.243)
It’s a little bit of yes and yes, because we’re such a large company, right? that for example, with Imagineers, they’ll they’ll say they want to develop something for robotics, right? But there’s certain technologies that they’re looking for to help them create that, you know, robotic experience, whether it’s a guest-facing robot or behind the scenes, et cetera. And so we’re then out there looking for those solutions, right, that can help them with that.

Orlando (17:49.748)
Right, okay. Hmm.

Orlando (18:05.727)
Mm.

David (18:15.551)
Right. So that they can leverage that technology then to build what the amazing thing that they’re gonna build. On the other hand, sometimes we’re looking for a solution that can help create a brand new experience, and we’re seeing something in market that actually is something even we have never, you know, ourselves or the imagineers have never imagined, right? So a good example of that is, you know, about three cohorts ago.

Orlando (18:15.829)
Yeah.

Orlando (18:39.103)
Yeah.

David (18:43.957)
We brought in a company called Red Six that had developed augmented reality for for pilots of like top gun pilots, right? And so, you know, it was an augmented reality helmet that then could, you know, show that augmented reality in bright light under high speeds, you know, huge amount of G forces. Well, we in our parks have something with high speeds, bright light.

Orlando (18:46.677)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (18:52.191)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

David (19:12.35)
Lots of G forces which are roller coasters, right? So basically what we saw them do is create this experience in you know 20,000 feet up in the sky. And is what if we took that technology and then put that, you know, as a visor and then created an experience where you could theme one roller coaster 60 different ways, right? And so we put that together, and that’s what we, you know, tested with them.

Orlando (19:14.581)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Orlando (19:24.275)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (19:36.233)
Yeah. Yeah, wow. That’s awesome.

David (19:42.41)
Right. It was and it was a new way to create a new experience.

Orlando (19:42.964)
Yeah.

Listen, that that speaks so much to why I’ve been so excited to talk to you is because so much of this podcast tends to just drift towards AI all the time. It’s just this this you know, this elephant in the room we can’t get away from. What I think is so amazing about your job is like one of the things I’ve been so fascinated by is the Olaf robot. You know, like the

David (19:57.59)
Mm-hmm.

David (20:09.856)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (20:11.199)
The way that you guys get to take these technologies and put them not in just into your films and television and all of those sorts of things, and all the same conversations I get to have with everybody else about AI and post-production and all that kind of stuff. You guys are doing the the Olaf robot, for example, is a feat of engineering that piggybacks what you guys were doing from the Hall of Presidents years ago to something truly unique.

David (20:35.2)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (20:37.589)
That is powered with AI voice. you know, it’s got Josh Gadd’s voice in there, it’s got you know, the the magnetic robotics that you can take off his nose, he’ll recognize that. It’s it’s such a tremendous feat of engineering that sole purpose is joy and and adding to an experience in a park. And the various different technologies that have to go into that, from robotics to AI to AI voice.

you know, synthetics and and things like that. You know, yeah, like so so and just what you said about the roller coaster and the visor and it’s that’s what what I think is so exciting about your job is it bridges so many of these different specialisms.

David (21:21.052)
Yeah, and that’s what that’s why I’ve been in the job for so long, because it never gets boring. Because you know, I used to you know, when people ask me like what are the sec technologies, especially VCs, what are the tech sectors you’re looking at? It’s easier for me to say I don’t do biotech or healthcare, right? Or fintech, right? But everything else is fair game. Because like you said, we’re you know, for something like Olaf with the Walt Disney Imagineering Group and they’re the

Orlando (21:24.107)
Yeah.

Orlando (21:32.745)
Yeah. Yeah.

Orlando (21:37.567)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

David (21:48.93)
WDIRD, which is research and development group within WDI, you know, there are technologies that they’re looking for because they’re creating those amazing creative experiences with other technologies that they bring in for different components, right? So, and you know, like even today, we’re looking for things like, you know, you see in market there are now starting to be robots with pure autonomy, right? And that’s, you know, just the beginning. And so, you know, are there

Orlando (21:59.143)
Mm. Mm.

Orlando (22:04.106)
Yeah.

Orlando (22:14.495)
Mm. Yeah.

David (22:18.346)
you know, technologies that they can use to create that experience for that, right? and then, you know, even even on those things like a robot, there’s also the materials that are related to that, right? So, you know, just in our last cohort, we had a company called HADI, which is 3D printing and it uses AI because it uses a a model to model out and do the basically the blueprint for the 3D printing. And just by the way, this is not just like

Orlando (22:22.634)
Yeah.

Orlando (22:29.673)
Hmm. Yeah.

Orlando (22:43.883)
Mm-hmm.

David (22:46.251)
you know, the small 3D printer that you see in your house. This is an industrial 10 foot like arm that is printing out different things, right? And it can and it can print out something, you know, as small as a coffee cup to something as large as a truck. Right. And so that’s an example of we’re using that in the parks, right? And again, I until we were seeing what they were doing, I was never thinking that this could be done. But

Orlando (22:54.015)
Yeah. Yeah, awesome.

Orlando (22:59.935)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Orlando (23:14.272)
Yeah.

David (23:15.594)
You know, if you look at throughout the parks, when you go on a amusement park, right, you’re there’s usually a vehicle of some sort that you’re in, right? Like, you know, boats or things like that, right? And so they can print those out in that three D printer and that are structurally sound and you know, if it has to float they it can they can make it float, fire retardant, etcetera. So that’s an example of like again.

Orlando (23:22.878)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Orlando (23:27.595)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Orlando (23:34.922)
Yeah.

David (23:41.982)
You know, you most people would look at that and say, that’s for construction, maybe, or s building a house. But you know, we’re using it to build experiences within the parks.

Orlando (23:46.165)
Yeah.

Orlando (23:51.273)
Yeah, it sounds like most companies in the world have to think problem first, then technology. You guys are in this this rarefied place where you get to see the technology and be like, I wonder if we can do something with Minnie Mouse in that, you know, or you know, or Woody or what you know. And that’s just so there’s something so playful and so fun about that. That I like I always thought, for example, augmented reality was a solution looking for a problem.

David (24:04.52)
I exactly, exactly. Yeah.

Orlando (24:18.398)
Whereas I feel like in your world, augmented reality is something magical that a kid while waiting in line can be looking through their phone and see characters popping out of things. And, you know, I saw I saw one of your I I’m not I’m spacing on the name, but one of your cohort companies, I think last year or the year before did something like that. And it was kind of, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah.

David (24:28.598)
Exactly.

David (24:38.933)
Yeah, that was a Lumix. Yeah. That was a Lumix. And they they were to create that where you’d see a statue, say, I think it was of one of the a little bird that suddenly then flew in the air, you know, as as you pointed your camera at it. Yeah. So yeah, that that’s an example of like it’s just, you know, hey, this is a great technology. What can we do with this? Yeah.

Orlando (24:51.4)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Orlando (25:01.578)
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think that that brings like up something that I just hear from whether it’s our viewers or just the people that we consult with all the time. But so for somebody listening who wants to kind of test a new technology inside their company, what should they define as success metrics? Because I imagine that just whether it’s technology first, whether it’s assessing whether the company can scale fast enough.

You’ve talked about a couple of different things where your experience is giving you these watch outs. You know, what do you think are the the universal truths that somebody in your position can can kind of, you know, can advise people on, that kind of can help people figure out where and how because now it feels like the technologies could be applied to any business. And we focus on only creative businesses. And we think creative businesses have very unique use cases.

David (25:54.357)
Right.

Orlando (25:57.821)
So, you know, w what what can they apply in terms of thinking or strategies or or you know learn from from your experience on?

David (26:06.762)
I I think when when they’re developing their product, right, and especially you know, they should develop it for the market, right? and not just think of, hey, this is something of technology that Disney could use, right? and so when they develop that, and and we’re very upfront and very transparent with, you know, founders that come in, like if you’re developing something and we like it.

Orlando (26:22.89)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (26:32.766)
Mm.

David (26:36.443)
but maybe you’re not at the right stage, we will let you know that and say, like, look, we just want to keep tracking you, and we’re gonna help to introduce you to different people throughout the company that that may be able to give you advice on how to develop something specifically for us. Right. and but I think it’s really, you know, again, as I mentioned, if especially if they’re early, is just get that MVP out, get kind of the signals that.

Orlando (26:39.334)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (26:44.063)
Yeah.

Orlando (26:49.076)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (27:01.962)
Mm-hmm.

David (27:04.394)
there is demand and market for this or it creates an entertaining experience and and you know we’ll find you as as I mentioned, you know, my team are feet on the street. They’re you know, they’ve networked all with all venture capital firms looking for all different new technologies that could be relevant to us.

Orlando (27:07.668)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (27:18.206)
Yeah.

Orlando (27:26.258)
Yeah. It’s funny, you know, a lot of people say that, but not a lot of people do it. And I just, you know, from our experience, we met you a a few years ago. And, you know, every once in a while I’ll get an email from you going, Hey, I was just having a conversation with somebody and I thought that maybe you guys should speak. And and it’s a very generous place for you to operate from. And I’ve just I’ve heard a lot of people say that. Very, very few people I’ve met actually follow through on that and and really come good on going, Hey, listen, maybe this isn’t right over here, but

David (27:34.58)
Right.

Orlando (27:56.149)
But we’ll keep you in mind and we’ll talk it, you know, in the future. And and we’ve really appreciated that. And that’s why, you know, we like you so much. so you know, is there a place where you say, you know, where you say this is the type of thing that actually we shouldn’t do ourselves, or that, you know, we should be looking outside? Like, you know, you have an ex extraordinary internal creative and technical talent. You know, like where do you go?

David (27:58.208)
Right.

thanks, thanks. I appreciate that. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.

Orlando (28:26.091)
actually we’d rather this be an outside.

David (28:31.571)
I I don’t know if it’s if it’s necessarily we’d rather this be an outside partner. I think sometimes it the way it happens is if there’s an outside partner doing something in a new way that that we then need to work with them so that our, you know, engineers or our executives need to learn how that’s different, right? Whether it’s a new form of entertainment or a new

Orlando (28:54.026)
Mm.

Yeah.

David (29:01.194)
distribution platform, et cetera. So an example of that is, you know, we had a company called Anhomage that, you know, is a artist led AI for animation. And basically they distribute on YouTube. And that has now become the predominant platform for, you know, under eight year olds when it comes to watching content. Right. And so, you know,

Orlando (29:09.674)
Mm.

Orlando (29:18.985)
Yeah.

Orlando (29:26.152)
Yeah. Yeah.

David (29:30.196)
That’s an example of they have a very kind of data-driven approach to storytelling and creation of the content that you know informs their creatives. And it’s again, it’s a different way of doing this that then they can that our creatives can learn from. And we do that, and we brought them in the program specifically for that.

Orlando (29:41.039)
Hmm

Orlando (29:47.914)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (29:53.087)
Yeah.

David (29:57.118)
So it it and again, it wasn’t not necessarily, we need to have them do it outside the company. It was like, this company doing this outside the company is is been very you know, to our surprise, very successful at at doing this. And their their methodology of doing this is something that our people need to learn, right? And then we partnered with them and they’re doing something together.

Orlando (29:57.362)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (30:01.865)
Mm-hmm. Right.

Orlando (30:10.25)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (30:18.93)
Yeah.

Orlando (30:23.153)
Yeah, that’s great. Cause it it feels like evaluating and interrogating is a larger part of the job now as well. Because it seems like, you know, v you know, via API, so many people can do so many things. And and you almost, you know, everybody can pretend to do anything now, you know, or say, you know, once you unlock the money, yeah, I’ll be able to do that. You know, and it’s it is is that evaluation and testing and interrogating technology just a bigger part of the job now?

David (30:40.914)
Right, right.

David (30:53.806)
yes. Yes. We always have to do that, right? And especially now, like whenever there’s that tech wave, you know, when it was say for example when it was NFTs, right? We didn’t work with every digital collectible company. We had to find which one was the right one doing it in the right way for us, right? same thing with, you know, as we look now, there’s an AI boom, right? There’s so many AI companies out there, but which ones are the

Orlando (30:54.993)
Yeah. Yeah.

Orlando (31:03.561)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (31:07.261)
Yeah.

Orlando (31:14.141)
Yeah.

David (31:22.122)
doing it the right way, that are, you know, creator led, you know, things like that for us that kind of have that same approach that we align with us.

Orlando (31:26.195)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (31:33.923)
Yeah. Yeah, because it it feels like, you know, you guys sort of, you know, Disney moves stories between screens and physical worlds and products and experiencing is in a way that no other company really does so much. You know, you know, a single piece of IP is showing up in so many different places of a a person’s life. Where are you seeing the physical and digital worlds blend most successfully?

David (31:43.51)
Mm-hmm.

David (32:01.792)
So I think well obviously what you know you’re getting at is kind of the Disney flywheel which Walt invented, you know decades ago, right? And you know that that IP not just shows up in the movie but television and there’s a consumer product, et cetera. And certainly in the f kind of physical digital world, we’re seeing that day actually be even more amplified, right? Because now you can, you know, even just like what I was describing, like now you can launch a show on

Orlando (32:08.349)
Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Orlando (32:17.331)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

David (32:31.519)
YouTube, right, first, and then maybe that will become a movie. And you know, you see all of that starting to happen. You can have, as we were mentioning, Olaf, you have characters that are in the, you know, in the in a movie that then they become in the physical world, right? So all of that is is something that we are consistently looking at and it’s becoming much more predominant because of the technologies that are out there.

Orlando (32:32.985)
Mm. Yeah. Yeah.

Orlando (32:48.083)
Yeah.

Orlando (32:58.775)
Yeah. Yeah, because it’s, I mean, you know, when you sort of sandbox an idea. So let’s say you have a little a piece of technology and you go, okay, we want to see its iterations through something. Do you go, okay, here’s a small piece of IP that we’re willing to experiment on? You know, obviously people aren’t going to be testing a piece of technology with you, with Iron Man as the main character, whatever it is. You know, how do you?

David (33:20.584)
Right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Orlando (33:25.513)
How do you grow in that capability with a new piece of technology? You get something, you’re like, I think this is gonna be interesting. You know, how do you, how do you seed that within the organization and within the IP?

David (33:39.232)
So typically what we’ll do is then we’ll work with that segment that controls that IP, whether it’s, you know, Disney branded television, the studio group, you know, Marvel, Lucasfilm, et cetera, or you know, Disney publishing, right? And so then, you know, like you were saying, you know, do we wanna try something out here? And maybe we need we don’t wanna use, you know, a top Marvel character, things like that. Well, but maybe there’s

Orlando (33:43.689)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Orlando (33:55.379)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (34:05.789)
Mm-hmm.

David (34:07.456)
Characters or stories within Disney Publishing for that we can use. And we’re doing that right now with an with a company today, right? but other times we see that evolve when you kind of bring that relationship together for one reason and then you start to see other opportunities develop because of that. So what I’m getting at is, you know, in 2017, we brought Epic Games into the Accelerator program.

Orlando (34:15.847)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (34:31.443)
Right.

Orlando (34:37.385)
Mm-hmm.

David (34:37.738)
And you know, at that point in time, that was pre Fortnite, right? So it was right before Fortnite really took off. And our idea was, hey, can you help us develop and you all might laugh at this, can you help us develop an augmented reality metaverse? Right. And and so, you know, that was the demo that they did on demo day of showing kind of Darth Vader. But you know

Orlando (34:43.41)
Right. Wow.

Orlando (34:55.152)
Mm. Mm. Right.

David (35:04.965)
suddenly then Fortnite took off and they said, Okay, well, sorry guys, we have to focus over here because, you know, this is just incredibly successful. But but it was that relationship that then s kind of transitioned into our guys using the Unreal engine and then div because they you know again this goes back to the collaboration and ideation, when you bring together the founders of a company like Epic Games and our leadership or ex

Orlando (35:13.895)
Yeah.

Orlando (35:22.803)
Mm-hmm.

David (35:34.919)
engineers and executives across the company, then it’s like, hey, we could use the Unreal Engine to help develop the software that we need for the LED stages, right? And that’s what they did. They created stagecraft. And there’s an example of then, you know, they wound up using that to shoot the Mandalorian in a brand you know, a brand new IP, right? And it was and you know, it’s it’s those types of relationships that

Orlando (35:41.365)
Yeah.

Orlando (35:46.001)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Orlando (35:55.762)
Yeah.

Yeah.

David (36:04.819)
Really, if it’s just a vendor or just a startup knocking on the door, chances are we would never be able to do that. But when you sit these people in the room, is what else can you have you ever thought about doing this and this it, you know, they’ll say, you know, yes, we did have, right? And it’s like, well, let’s do that together, right? And that happens, that serendipity happens throughout kind of the program that we’ve set up.

Orlando (36:08.498)
Mm. Yeah.

Orlando (36:13.448)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (36:18.108)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Orlando (36:28.124)
Yeah.

Yeah, I’m so glad you brought up the, you know, the the the volume stage and you know and and obviously like an Unreal Engine and and how that works. Cause do you feel a sense of like irritation or competition with other studios? Like so, for example, so much has been made of the AWS and and the MGM work with Luma Labs and Innovative Dreams on what they did with House of David, which is

David (36:57.055)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (37:00.476)
You know, a a hybrid production model using a volume stage. And, you know, is there a sense of we were doing that on Mandalorian, guys? Like, what’s all this fanfare about? Like we’ve been out front on this, you know, like we’ve been thinking about hybrid production. We created it. What are you guys talking about? Is there that sense of competition or irritation?

David (37:09.205)
Right, yeah.

Right.

David (37:19.303)
Right, exactly. Yeah.

I th I think there may be some sense of competition. I I don’t know, i irritation but but I wouldn’t say that. But but yeah, there’s a sense of competition to a certain extent. Yeah. And but I mean it’s it’s nice to be able to say, Hey, you know, Rob Brito helped develop stagecraft who’s, you know, our executive within ILM, right? And it’s like, you know and it’s always great to be able to point that that out, right? Yeah.

Orlando (37:27.11)
Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah.

Orlando (37:34.886)
Yeah.

Orlando (37:40.562)
Yeah.

Orlando (37:44.134)
Yeah.

Orlando (37:49.457)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, I you know, I mean, just in thinking about like I’m just, you know, obviously just ticking off the boxes of big pieces of technology that in my mind are are kind of game changing. I mean, like the the modular floor that that you guys are kind of built, the the one that allows you to kind of walk around independently, you know, inside like wearing a VR headset or something like that, you know, what like what is that?

Unlock creatively, where are you in your development? If something like that, you create that. I mean, from my mind, I saw that on a YouTube video and was like that to me, to you, actually means stuff has to move, like work has to be done on this. You know, great that we created it, but what the hell is next? What is the next step? What’s the thin end of the wedge? What does that look like? You create something that’s utterly game-changing, and where do you go?

David (38:37.426)
Right, right, right.

Orlando (38:48.873)
Where do you start? Where do you even begin with something like that?

David (38:52.105)
Well, with something like that, I mean, that’s our Walt Disney Imagineers, our and W D I R and D group that that developed that, right? And you know, they obviously are thinking for different experiences in the parks. And, you know, we’ve been asked in the past, you know, how can we commercialize this? I mean we that’s not really our specialty, but there are other groups in the company that are looking to try to figure that out, right?

Orlando (38:59.184)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Orlando (39:14.664)
Mm.

Orlando (39:21.914)
Yeah. But yeah, but s like s so whether it’s that technology or not, but like if that comes to you, you know, from the amount, if something comes to you that is really useful to you guys, where do you start?

David (39:22.463)
Yeah.

David (39:36.277)
Well, if it’s something that we you know, we will help to make sure that they get exposure with other executives in in the company, right? To to kind of if they feel like, you know, let’s say they develop something that’s relevant to ESPN, you know, I mean the advantage that our group has is because we work with everybody across the company, many times we know who’s the point person that would is relevant that would be relevant to. And then we kind of facilitate that that

Orlando (39:40.86)
Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Orlando (39:50.44)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (39:54.909)
Yeah.

Orlando (39:59.453)
Yeah. Yeah.

David (40:04.679)
that relationship and that introduction there. So we’re helping my point is we’re kind of helping our internal groups just like we do with external groups.

Orlando (40:06.525)
Yeah.

Orlando (40:14.138)
Yeah. And and so, you know, right now you’ve picked, I think, the cohort for this year’s Disney Accelerator. You’re not allowed to tell me or the audience who they are just yet. but you’re gotcha. Understood, but I do still have questions. and those questions are like, okay, so I imagine that you see

David (40:24.125)
No. Not until everything’s signed, sealed, and delivered. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Orlando (40:38.822)
Like trends coming out in each of the cohorts as new technologies become available and and people build their specialisms. What are you seeing in this cohort that you’re most excited about?

David (40:50.067)
I think there’s just everything from autonomous robots to, you know, new content creation tools that are ha being developed. you know, there’s all things like another big trend in market is what they call virtual populations where, you know, you use AI agents as kind of digital twins of humans for research and

Orlando (41:01.468)
Mm. Yeah.

Orlando (41:10.386)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (41:16.07)
Mm-hmm.

David (41:19.263)
focus groups and things like that. you know, and and you know, there’s there’s a lot of trends that, especially because of AI, there’s a lot of trends that are developing in market, not necessarily, you know, AI that’s going to, you know, replace people, but, you know, trends that are happening that that AI then supports, right? and you know, and again, for us, we’re always kind of, you know, focused on, you know, a creator led approach.

Orlando (41:27.176)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Orlando (41:38.673)
Right.

David (41:48.669)
Responsible use of AI, things like that. That’s all important.

Orlando (41:48.956)
Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, looking at the cohort, what do you think is the part of the company or the even the the user or consumer or watcher’s experience that’s most likely to be transformed when you look at the the cohort this year?

David (42:11.458)
that that that’s a tough question. you know, honestly, I I yeah

Orlando (42:13.541)
I totally I was I’m gonna I’m gonna pick at each side of it, you know, but I I totally respect if you say say I can’t answer ’cause you know, give away too much. But

David (42:22.834)
Yeah, I mean it it it and I can’t answer not because I don’t want to answer or any restrictions, but a lot of times and that’s the you know amazing thing about the program we have is that we don’t know sometimes. Sometimes, you know, you’re gonna bring in, you know, executives to meet with the company and they’ll together on their own come up with something amazing that they would decide to do.

Orlando (42:28.144)
Right. Yeah.

Orlando (42:36.84)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

David (42:52.762)
And and it’ll, you know, blow everybody away. Yeah.

Orlando (42:52.871)
Yeah.

Orlando (42:56.624)
Yeah. I mean, and then I guess okay, so I’ll I’ll get you out of the hot seat on that one. I won’t I won’t try to uncover the the cohort companies. I don’t have a little list here of like, that means they’re probably talking to these guys. okay, all right. All right, fantastic. okay, so I mean, then on the business side, I’m obviously so you know, some of the people that watch us are, you know, are thinking about how AI works in it and you know.

David (43:01.19)
no, it’s okay.

David (43:09.765)
Soon enough, soon enough, in about four to six weeks. Yeah.

Orlando (43:24.018)
brick and mortar basic services and things like that. What are the what are the problems or the opportunities that the business units most often come to you with internally, where they go, we’re looking for this or how do we solve for

David (43:39.461)
I I would say that you know it it always depends on the year and what’s going on in market. you know, I alluded to kind of talking about YouTube being kind of this new platform for children, child children’s entertainment taking off. You know, the other kind of

Orlando (43:47.152)
Mm-hmm. Right.

David (44:03.891)
Audio s now see audiences, I was gonna say other vertical, but verticals are now taking off, right? And so you know, we my group it was actually in a tech tour. So a couple years ago, we were on a tech tour and met with Sequoia Capital and one of their partners there briefed us on this growing phenomenon in China.

Orlando (44:19.687)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (44:29.883)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

David (44:30.317)
of vertical entertainment. And so that that was you know something that was eye-opening to us. and you know obviously we’ve had very successful people in the media and entertainment bus business try to tackle this over the years. And so there’s an example of we then brought in Drama Box, which was in our last cohort, because that was you know as much of

Orlando (44:37.947)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (44:46.95)
Yeah.

David (44:57.68)
a learning experience for our teams as it was, you know, anything else. You know, just grasping that there’s a new technology. I mean, we s you see audiences moving to this vertical entertainment. And there are ways of doing it that you c you know don’t un you can’t really get the handle of until you actually talk to the successful people doing it. Right? So for example

Orlando (45:05.51)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (45:11.591)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (45:20.071)
Mm, right.

David (45:27.002)
with the big learning out of drama box was the fact that it’s not simply taking an episode and chopping it up into one minute or two minute episodes. It’s it’s restructuring the storytelling, right? So basically they have created and not just Drama Box, but the the entire category has learned to kind of create the structure and the the the editing of the episodes

Orlando (45:48.839)
Mm-hmm.

David (45:56.358)
such that you’re constantly getting, you know, a hook at the end or a climax or a cliffhanger, et cetera. So much like, you know, the way I try to explain it to traditional people that have been in the traditional media and entertainment businesses, you know, years ago, if you and I don’t know if you’ll remember this, Orlando, I when it’s the younger people when I’m start talking about this, they’re like, I don’t understand what you’re talking about. But you know, it was Desi Arnaz and the I Love Lucy show where he created the three camera format, right?

Orlando (46:00.924)
Yeah.

Orlando (46:14.427)
Yeah. Right. Right. Right.

yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

David (46:26.3)
And it wasn’t just, hey, they took three cameras and they did the sitcom. It was actually structuring the sitcom so that they structured it around the commercial break and there was a cliffhanger to make you sit through the commercials to stay with the program. It’s

Orlando (46:39.589)
Yeah. They created the the yeah, the four act structure for TV. Yeah. Yeah.

David (46:44.337)
Exactly, exactly. And so when you look at the verticals, the successful vertical companies, they have created that down a little bit differently, down to the second, right? I mean, they know at like the five second mark you have to have an event happen at the fifteen second mark is and and again, you know, from a long, you know, long form story structure like you know the traditional screenplay format is by fifteen have inciting incidents.

Orlando (46:54.171)
Yeah. Yeah.

David (47:14.598)
end of your third act and first act I mean in you know by page thirty, you know, but it’s the same thing, but now within, you know, a hundred and twenty seconds, right? And and that’s what keeps it going for them, right? And and it’s really interesting to see that when you watch these, that if you really dig in, it you can then start identifying those those different story turns, just like you can, you know, in television or movies.

Orlando (47:17.755)
Yeah. Yeah.

Orlando (47:23.611)
Yeah, yeah.

Orlando (47:28.06)
Yeah.

Orlando (47:44.72)
Yeah, a hundred percent. I mean, it’s you know, as you like, you know, I mean, you know, Star Wars New Hope was the classic example of Joseph Campbell’s, you know, hero’s journey in a three-act structure. but I think you’re absolutely right. I think that you know, one of the things that we’ve learned just doing this is like now we have a 60 second edited intro with highlights from the episode. That has just changed, that is a format reality, you know, that you have

David (48:05.598)
Right.

David (48:12.744)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (48:13.265)
To respect. You, you know, and and I think a lot of people in the creative industries are kind of like, no, it should be done this way. And it’s like, no, everything has its rules. I worked in advertising for a really, really long time and I would produce Nike ads. Nike ads had their rules of engagement. And, you know, and there was a certain amount of massaging the rules, sure, but you you had rules you had to follow. That’s the same with vertical. It’s the same with online and you know, it’s a TikTok.

David (48:28.36)
Right.

Orlando (48:39.739)
You have to have a hook in your opening one point five seconds. There are rules to these things, you know, and and it’s yeah, it’s fascinating to see the the vertical dramas. I’ve I’ve watched a fair amount of them just as well, because I’m trying to understand the rules, understand what people are engaging with.

David (48:41.06)
Exactly. Yeah.

David (48:55.314)
Yeah, and and it and it’s amazing how quickly that has grown. you know, and globally. I mean that’s the thing that’s you know, and and I to a certain extent and again this is all speculation, you know, you saw cancellation of soap operas and things like that, because a lot of the the verticals audiences, female, eighteen to fifty four year old females, you know, did that provide a gap, right? in market for something that they were looking to

Orlando (48:58.884)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Orlando (49:02.81)
Yeah.

Orlando (49:07.866)
Yeah.

Orlando (49:12.497)
Yeah.

Orlando (49:18.769)
Yeah.

Yeah.

David (49:25.02)
to be entertained by.

Orlando (49:27.589)
Yeah, I mean, I I guess that, you know, the other question I wanted to get around is is UGC, which, you know, obviously is such a wonderful opportunity. It’s another, you know, user-generated work is another form of entertainment. I mean, you know, so many of us got into creative work because we are entertained by the work we get to do, you know, and and it’s it’s a joy, it’s a treat. I think that, you know, I won’t say the S-word, but but I

David (49:44.435)
Right.

Orlando (49:55.301)
I think what I really liked about, you know, where you you guys were have been coming from is this is something that, you know, people getting the opportunity to play with IP is actually can be a good thing if guarded correctly. you know, and I think that, you know, there are there are great examples like Star Wars Beggar’s Canyon, you know, that that is somebody has created this outside of the Disney ecosystem. And

There seems to be a certain amount of allowing a a certain bit of that to be okay. I is there a is there a, you know, external UGC-based possibility for people who wanna try out and play with these characters in a contained way? You know, that obviously somebody can’t be just, you know, going out and and playing with your characters, but is there a future where

David (50:43.11)
Yeah.

Orlando (50:52.048)
There is some sandbox, some contained and possible scenario. And again, if you either don’t want to answer or have me cut this out like with you know, just let me know.

David (51:01.522)
Yeah, I mean yeah, I think there’s a possibility. I I think, you know, it’s hard for me to say on that one right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I know Bob Bob alluded to that in in the open AI deal, but we can’t talk about that right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, that’s okay.

Orlando (51:05.542)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (51:09.424)
Sure. Okay. No, that’s fine. I’ll cut out that whole section. Don’t you don’t you worry about

Orlando (51:19.544)
No, no, no, that’s fine. I’ll I’ll I’ll take that completely off the table. Don’t worry. great. Okay. getting into okay, so and are there any UGC things we can talk about?

in either consumer experiences or or that’s fine. No, let’s let’s keep it off the I think bet better to better to to stay well away from it. okay great. I mean you know then the I mean really I kind of you know I wanted to kind of you know finish up with just some thoughts around you know what lessons you’re learning that like our audience can kind of take away with, you know, and go, all right, I’m

David (51:42.482)
Yeah, I

Orlando (52:05.534)
So many people don’t have the opportunity as you do to keep your ear to the ground. I feel like so many of the people I’m talking to are going, you know, I just can’t even pay attention to what Google’s doing. I mean, that that’s just off the table. Or, you know, or I’m solely focused on Cloud, because I can only keep up with one of these platforms. You know, I’m I’m too busy watching my margins fall and trying to to address that as a business reality, you know, and and I’m interested in AI.

David (52:25.628)
Right, right.

Orlando (52:35.022)
I’m interested in technologies that can help me stay competitive, stay relevant, help me get some of my margins back. But I just don’t know how to stay up to date. And I don’t know where to start with bringing some of these things into my company. sometimes in our creative output. Like I said, we really only work with and so many of our audience are creative companies. So they’re creating creative output, but they’ve also got internal, you know, you know, business.

David (53:04.358)
Right. Right.

Orlando (53:04.538)
workflow management op opportunities and uplifts and things like that. For somebody who has a limited amount of time, you know, where do you, where would you suggest that they start? you know, either again with the problem or with the technology?

David (53:22.982)
I I guess i it it is there’s no

you know, one single solution. I mean, you really have to look broadly across multiple things. I think, you know, just getting an understanding of, you know, especially if it’s technology focused, you know, taking a look at the new technologies that are coming out of Y Combinator, right? Just read a you ha you use Claude to summarize the list of companies from Y Combinator. you know,

Orlando (53:48.816)
Mm.

Orlando (53:52.454)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

David (53:58.768)
What are the companies that, you know, are coming out of tech crunch, you know? and but also, you know, if if you’re in kind of on a corporate side or a professional looking for these companies, you know

start making a relationship with venture capital firms, right? And those vent and just understanding which venture firms are kind of investing in technologies that are relevant to you, right? And I think also that’s one piece I think I should have probably started with is just get an understanding of what are the types of things that would be relevant to you. Right? Don’t try to do everything all at once, right?

Orlando (54:23.547)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (54:28.742)
Mm-hmm.

David (54:39.053)
and and then ’cause you know, they’ll have conferences dedicated to certain technologies or certain segments of business that

you know, then you see a a variety of technologies. And that’s important, right? To to either again attend those conferences or use clause and summarize the companies in that conference. You know, things like that. Right. And and I’m I’m you know very grateful to have like a team that now, you know, looks across all of those. And so and they they help out a lot because, you know, like you said, you just get caught up in your

Orlando (54:55.087)
Yeah.

Orlando (55:01.028)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (55:12.038)
Mm-hmm.

David (55:21.376)
day to day and sometimes it’s hard to see what’s what’s coming next, right?

Orlando (55:26.948)
Yeah. Do you do you still encounter, you know, because again, the conception of a Disney is that everybody’s innovation and and you know and technology and opportunity focused. Do you still encounter groups of people or individuals who are just like, no, this is the way it needs to stay and and I’m you know, and and they’re resistant to the change or resistant to the technologies?

David (55:52.604)
I wouldn’t say that necessarily that they’re resistant to any technologies. I think the the thing is that, you know, they’re so busy in their day to day that, you know, and there’s traditional w you know, that this is this isn’t just unique to Disney, this is to any corporation. And why like this is my pitch for why you need an innovation group like we have, is that you know, when you set up a pro

Orlando (55:55.814)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Orlando (56:04.005)
Hmm. Yeah.

Orlando (56:10.179)
Yeah. Yeah.

Orlando (56:15.439)
Yeah. Yeah.

David (56:21.257)
These programs that provides focus, right? And it takes them out of their day-to-day to then get them to see these new things or new ways of doing things. Like I was talking about the tech tours. We literally bring people into, say, a a f factory that’s building robots, right? So that they see this is not something just we thought about. They’re actually building these things.

Orlando (56:24.089)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (56:32.133)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Orlando (56:42.051)
Yeah. That’s cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

David (56:48.295)
And when you hear the founders talk about how they develop this, you know, you’re just amazed, right? And or you know, the the thing about the accelerator that’s great is that, you know, in past years, I there was one executive in particular, Ben Sherwood, who used to be the head of our media networks, you know, he would he would tell me this is my favorite day of the year, because I get pulled out of my day-to-day to see all these new things, right?

Orlando (56:54.403)
Yeah.

Orlando (57:07.134)
Mm-hmm.

Orlando (57:13.305)
That’s great. Yeah.

I bet it would be. That would be like I mean, I’d be like a kid in a candy store. That’s so great.

David (57:17.937)
And and yeah.

Yeah. And so that’s you know, and so it’s it’s I wouldn’t say people are resistant. I would say that, you know, they just don’t have the time to then see these things and then we’re able to bring them together to focus on these technologies and then actually, you know, either direct their teams to try this out or to move it forward, yeah, themselves.

Orlando (57:28.399)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Orlando (57:41.391)
Yeah.

It’s funny, we we often say start with education, but I think that the way you just put it is is more it’s more Disney really. It’s start with excitement. Start with getting them excited. The the education, the goal of the education should be excitement, should be interest, should be making it, you know, making learning seem fun. So that then there’s a a willingness and an excitement to do something rather than, you know, again, I’ve been for years, I’ve been like, it starts with education and and then wondering why everybody’s not

David (57:54.556)
Yes.

David (58:02.875)
Exactly.

Orlando (58:12.887)
jumping and skipping into the room. Yeah. Well that’s great. I mean, listen, I’m I’ve I’ve always been so kind of impressed by your job and as well the way you do it with a great deal of of charm and and responsibility. And like I said, you know, you you really, you know, right up front you said you’d do something and put us in touch with people and whatever else. You always did. And it was a a great deal of integrity.

David (58:14.196)
Exactly, exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Orlando (58:42.079)
And, you know, I just you always kind of feel with Disney personnel that, you know, maybe the people you meet behind the curtain are gonna be, you know, any sort of way or, you know, and or not gonna live up to the promise of it. And I’ve just my experience of you has just been that you’ve just been so great and so generous. And as you’ve been today, like spending time talking with me, it’s it’s just been a real treat. Thank you so much.

David (59:07.464)
Well thank you Orlando. It’s been great talking with you and also working with you over the years. Yeah. Yeah.

Orlando (59:11.705)
Yeah. Yeah. Well it’s I mean it’s been an absolute treat. And please, like, you know, keep like maybe, maybe I can kind of ask you about the the cohort when you finally do the deals. but I will be watching, I will be watching avidly because I get quite excited going, my god, how are they gonna use that? That’s gonna be great.

David (59:24.114)
Yes, happy to do that, yeah.

David (59:32.092)
Yeah. Yeah. It’ll be a fun cohort, definitely.

Orlando (59:35.865)
I bet. Well good luck with it. Thank you so much. I I so appreciate the time, David. All right, take take care. Bye bye.

David (59:43.103)
Thank you, Orlando. Thanks for having me. Take care. Bye.