Walt Disney Imagineering is one of Fast Company’s 2021 Best Workplaces for Innovators. This honor recognizes companies that successfully foster cultures of innovation and encourage employees from top to bottom to discover, explore and invent. Fast Company partnered with Accenture to create a series of metrics designed to evaluate the role innovation plays in company culture and this year selected 100 organizations globally.
One of the secrets to Imagineering’s success is pairing diverse backgrounds and expertise to develop concepts and then collaborate through to completion—from engineers who work with writers, to programmers who work with designers, to choreographers who work with roboticists. Imagineers around the world represent more than 100 different disciplines, including architecture, choreography, design, programming, robotics, sculpture and writing.
Imagineering is the creative force that imagines, designs and brings to life all Disney theme parks, resorts, attractions and cruise ships worldwide. Founded in 1952 as WED Enterprises to design and build Disneyland, Imagineering is where imagination and creativity combine with cutting-edge technology to create unforgettable experiences. These experiences are brought to life by a diverse array of talented Imagineers from around the globe who work collaboratively to enhance and expand on Walt Disney’s legacy of immersive storytelling.
Josh Gorin, who leads Imagineering’s Blue Sky and Creative Strategy, tells Fast Company, “When people come to visit Disney, they want to enter a world where anything is possible. As Imagineers, it is our challenge to apply both creative and technical skills to make that magical world come to life. We have to keep upping our game—that means innovation in storytelling and technology.”
At Imagineering, examples of innovation can be seen around every corner; it’s an environment in which making the impossible possible happens year after year. A more recent example cited in Fast Company is the Spider-Man animatronic swinging into action high above Avengers Campus with gravity-defying, acrobatic feats never seen before in a Disney park.