Thursday, January 19, 2006

imagineering workout


The best way to get started is to stop talking and begin doing.
Walt Disney

Went to a great luncheon this afternoon for PRSA where an Imagineer from Walt Disney came to talk about jump starting your creativity. I took notes frantically because the presentation really spoke to me in so many ways.

Some highlights include thoughts like:

Don't get it right, get it written. You have to begin the process and break through the barrier of a blank page/screen. Look at it as an exciting opportunity rather than a frightening one and make your mark.

IDEAS AREN'T ENOUGH, LEARN HOW TO SHARE.
Being an ideas person isn't enough. Being able to do something with them and communicate them to others makes them mean something.

He mentioned how he wasn't an architect or an engineer but what he was passionate about telling stories. So now he's a show writer for Disney and in the book The Imagineering Workout he writes about how to strengthen the story telling experience. Making it memorable for all who see and hear it.

The key is to take something your passionate about and make it what you are in life. You might even get paid to do it.

Prepare to be INSPIRED!! She (inspiration) is very fickle and will want to be taken to dinner immediately when she shows up.

Luck is where opportunity meets preparation.

Larry David, co-producer of Seinfeld, is known for carrying around a small note pad to jot down ideas and thoughts that come to him wherever he may be. Meet inspiration when it comes and act on it.

Take time to REFILL THE WELL.
give yourself permission to recharge and fill yourself up with sights and sounds of the world in order to go back and create something bigger and better than if you hadn't taken the time

Think outside the cage, they'll get the idea.

Example: When originally pitching Animal Kingdom to Michael Eisner, an Imagineer kept getting the cold shoulder. Eisner said that nobody really cares about animals...They're boring and unexciting. The next opportunity he had to share the idea to Eisner and all of the top management of Disney, he brought a Bengal Tiger with him into the conference room without a cage and sat the animal right in front of everyone. After that, Animal Kingdom was accepted and no one ever said again that animals were boring or unexciting.

Ideas EVOLVE and ADAPT, prepare to do the same.

We all have our own ideas and certainly if you let it evolve and take input, the final idea will be much better than the original.

The end product of an idea is great because of the ideas of a team and the collaboration that occurs. Don't be afraid of people who are better than you.

There are over 1,400 Imagineers worldwide...

BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF A NEW IDEA!
Think on your feet.

At one point in time, Imagineering was the stepchild of Disney but NOW they are recognized as the difference that makes Disney what it is today -- MAGIC!

Tell YOUR STORY and pay attention to the details.


1 comment:

Fairy Tales and Fireflies said...

When do I get to see your soul collage card? huh? huh?