Last week I saw the documentary film “Waking Sleeping Beauty”. Its about the renaissance of Disney animation from 1984 to 1994 – the good and the bad. I joined in 1993, a year before “The Lion King” came out, to help support the custom-built technology they used to make the films. It was, and will likely always be, one of the best jobs I’ve ever had – a fusion of passion, artistic achievement, technology elegance, and consumer reach that was inspiring.
One of the two filmmakers of WSB is Peter Schneider. He was the head of the Animation division at the time I joined. One of the things I admired was the mission statement he would talk about in group meetings. It’s the shortest and most direct one I ever heard – “We tell stories”. It may seem deceptively simple, but there were a lot of things behind it and what it represented. Among them was the point that the style of animation wasn’t important, whether there were musical numbers or not, or what kind of technology was used. Ultimately all the decisions and energy were in service of telling a great story, something that can entertain, touch the heart, and be worth retelling.
In many ways MobileXpeditions is a direct product of those days. There is something powerful learning about a place or event while actually standing in that location. Mobile technology can deliver stories, games, and information at the moment they can have the most impact – in the real world while you are “there”. Books, websites, and TV shows are great and have their place, but what if there was more?
What if you could tell the story of your organization, your location, your history, your brand in a new and visceral way? Deliver it to your consumers and fans where they can most use it? That’s what we’re building at MobileXpeditions. The great part is, as amazing as my experience at Disney was, I’m even more excited about MX.