How Disney Can Become
The next great theme park
I recently visited Disneyland in sunny southern California. As a grown-up working in the tech industry, the experience was equally magical and disheartening. If you haven’t already, you should first read my friend Matt’s post about the same trip.
The problems Matt’s post discusses sum up to this: you can’t have a 21st century theme park built with 20th century technology.
Disney parks attempt to hide technology, but it’s impossible for a geek like myself to not peek behind the cardboard cutouts. How long does it take to figure out what type of servo-motor is driving a particular surreal character’s off-beat wave?
That’s not to say that Disney is completely lagging. The Imagineering team has been pioneering a host of innovative applications, from experimenting with 3D-printed optics to an RFID-enabled bracelet that replaces your credit card, room key, and fast pass. The latter is part of a billion dollar project to revamp the park experience at DisneyWorld.
Despite all this, it seems that the Disney team is still approaching technological innovation with an analog mindset. Perhaps the team should ask “How can we transform our park experience using new and exciting technologies?” instead of “How can we include this technology in our park experience?”
Making sense of the experience, the element missing most was interactivity.
How can animatronics stack up with captivating digital experiences like the ones designed by Zach Lieberman, SpaceBrew, or Skrekkogle?
Technology today is catching up to our expectations. To Matt’s point, where’s my iPad? Lowering the stakes, we searched for the Disneyland park app, hoping a mobile digital layer would enhance the traditional park experience.
Unfortunately we’re unlikely to find out because Disney’s mobile app simply cannot be downloaded at the park (there’s no wi-fi and we’re not driving back to our hotel). Fortunately, 183 other non-Disney apps are stepping in to fill that void with anything from personalized maps to crowdsourced wait times.
I can almost imagine the meeting where a group of Disney execs prioritized graphics or animations over a usable interactive digital experience.
What excites me most is how close Disney is to being great at digital. I would argue that all the ingredients are there and there’s just a recipe missing: Disney has to start behaving as a technology company.
Today’s fastest growing, most profoundly impactful companies are using a completely different operating model. This digital and ever-evolving model builds industries and companies faster than ever before. And it’s embracing this very model that is keeping some of the greatest traditional companies at the front of their packs.
And that may be the one thing can’t be replaced by magic.
