How Disney Uses Technology to Create Magical Experiences with EVP & CIO Diane Jurgens

On the 17th episode of Enterprise Software Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (Abnormal Security) and Saam Motamedi (Greylock Partners) talk with Diane Jurgens, EVP & CIO of The Walt Disney Company. Disney is an American multinational entertainment and mass media company, pioneering experiences in film, TV, theme parks, and more. Today, Diane shares how Disney uses technology to create magical experiences for their guests, next-generation innovations that reimagine film production, and her best practices for building a culture of innovation.

Quick hits from Diane:

On Disney’s next-generation film production technology:  “We do a lot of our filming on stages with something called Stagecraft, which is an integrated, virtual production environment. In traditional movie making, you'll construct a physical set but then you might film with a green screen. With Stagecraft, instead of virtual post production, it’s displayed live; you have these physically constructed partial sets that allow the directors, actors and the camera operators to position themselves accordingly. Then you have a much more expansive virtual reality set with models from different cities, different countries, even different worlds and shoot live to that. It allows actors to see and visualize what they're actually shooting in; it's really unparalleled creativity to render this in real time.”

On Disney utilizing animatronics at their theme parks: “My nephew loves Spiderman and we were at Avenger’s Campus. If you've been there, Spiderman comes out and interacts with the audience and then he crawls up high on the building and does a major flip in the air and lands on the other building. Well, our imagineers actually have designed and built animatronics. So my nephew absolutely could not believe that was not a person.”

On Disney’s partnership with startup ecosystems: “The accelerator program starts by vetting a large number of startups and this year the theme was Web3. And out of those companies, they narrow it down to a smaller number and then senior leadership gets together and we listen to their pitches on their technology. Our executive sponsors in different business units give them meaningful feedback on the applicability of their technology, but also some coaching and mentoring on how to work with large companies like Disney.”

On Disney’s customer centricity: “100% of the focus of everybody who comes to work at Disney is how to delight, and that storytelling in surprising people. At D23, we unveiled Avatar, the next 3D movie from James Cameron, and to see the surprise and delight [was amazing]. That movie was made with the audience in mind [in terms of] how to make that immersive experience as best as it can be.”

Recent Book Recommendation: Investments Unlimited by Helen Beal

--

Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Enterprise Software Innovators is a show where top tech executives share how they innovate at scale. Each episode covers unique insights and stories that will help you succeed as a technology leader. Find more great lessons from tech leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/

Enterprise Software Innovators is produced by Josh Meer and Luke Reiser