The latest Harvard Business Review Ideacast features excerpts from a wide ranging interview with Disney CEO Bob Iger. It’s very rare for Bob to drop his CEO personality, but there are a few moments in this interview where I felt we were seeing the real… Read More »Harvard Business Review interviews Disney CEO Bob Iger
About two years ago Ed Catmull’s talk on keeping your crises small made the internet circuit (video of his speech). Now the Harvard Business Review has another great object lesson, that once again involves Ed Catmull. This time it’s a bit of Pixar mythology –… Read More »Another Business Lesson from Pixar
I wonder if the outside community realizes how much Disney has down for the Orlando region. One example is their participation in the community is their funding of the Disney Entrepreneur Center in Downtown Orlando. This center works with local business people to start and… Read More »Disney Entrepreneur Center considers move to mall
With the Box Office success of Toy Story 3, over $300 million world wide in just over a week, making it a solid 11 for 11 successes thoughts have already turned to the chances for going 12 for 12. But what about even farther into… Read More »Pixar Planning For Life After Catmull and Lasseter
Mashable was at a conference where Ed Catmull, the president for Pixar and Disney Animation, spoke on how Pixar is able to find success in innovation. He believes in the old saying “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than to ask permission,” but his corollary… Read More »Ed Catmull on How Pixar Succeeds
Merchants and business owners along Highway 192 in Osceola County have finally decided to get their act together. Prior to the latest economic meltdown, I wrote about signs of life in Central Florida’s most neglected tourist region. As you might guess, those improvements have been given back and the trend points even more down hill these days.
However the newly formed 192 Business Alliance has a plan to turn that around. The region will adopt a theme of…
“Orange Central” by painting the curbs or sidewalks orange. The theme would continue with a new public-transportation option consisting of two orange-colored shuttle buses. A new Web site would promote the area, and businesses would support the initiative with things like orange mints in their lobbies.
The 192 Business Alliance, the newly formed nonprofit group that drew up the plan, said something must be done, and quickly, to revive the sagging tourist strip west of Kissimmee. “We could have shuttle service here by spring break,” Brisson said. “We need something easy. We need something fast.”
It’s a good start, perhaps mints in the lobby is all that can be afforded in these times, but there are a few cracks in the plan.
Included in the strategy is a plan to build a sports complex focused on drawing amateur competition to the area. I’m a little skeptical of this idea. Have they not heard of ESPN’s Wide World of Sports? Disney is bound to take the lion share of the amateur sports business. That is ESPN WWOS’ whole focus and they can offer the ESPN brand and Disney magic, something Kissimmee can never match.
Perhaps the 192 Business Alliance is thinking that they would attract sports teams who would travel to central Florida and not compete on Disney property, but still package a vacation with their tournament by offering them a cheaper price for the same quality facilities, just without the ESPN experience. That could work, but I don’t see it as being a big driver, if it was, existing regional amateur sports facilities would be full already. Maybe they have a study that says differently.
Moving in on sports instead of convention business is an interesting angle, however think they need to be more ambitious. The name “Orange Central” is neither catchy, nor descriptive. Nobody is going to say, “let’s go down to Orange Central and see what’s going on.” But they’re on the right track, 192 does need better branding.
Follow me below the jump for a few more suggestions for the 192 Business Alliance and the Osceola County government to get moving on.
This morning in the Orlando Sentinel Jason Garcia compiled an informative look at the most recent trend to hit the Orlando area theme parks – interactivity. Let’s leave the debate as to whether guests actually desire this over passive entertainment while on their vacation aside… Read More »New Trend Same as the Old Trend
Back when the Walt Disney Company built Disney-MGM Studios as its third theme park in Central Florida the feeling was that Hollywood East was becoming a reality. Alas, the last 20 years have not been kind to the concept. Nearly every major studio effort has… Read More »Return of Animation to Florida?