6 Companies Helping to Change the Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company is constantly coming up with ways to innovate and change the game when it comes to the latest technologies.

©Disney

From groundbreaking attractions to new patents and immersive experiences, Disney remains at the forefront of entertainment innovation. The Company recently hosted its 2022 Disney Accelerator Demo Day, which showcased six different companies helping Disney build the future of those immersive experiences.

The 2022 Disney Accelerator Demo Day was held on November 10th — what’s Disney Accelerator Demo Day, you ask? It’s a celebration of the annual Disney Accelerator, “a business development program designed to accelerate the growth of innovative companies from around the world.”

This year, the Demo Day presentation included more than 15 senior executives from The Walt Disney Company in conversation with the founders of each of the six companies chosen for the Accelerator in 2022. The companies specialize in a variety of areas including augmented reality (AR), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and artificial intelligence (AI).

©Disney | Obtained via Medium — Disney NFTs

You can read the six companies chosen for Disney Accelerator this year and what they specialize in below:

Flickplay: Flickplay is a Web3 social app that enables users to discover digital collectibles tied to real-world locations that they can experience and share via AR. Flickplay is in conversations with Disney Consumer Products, Games and Publishing (CPGP) to create and deliver digital collectible activations within physical locations across the United States.
Inworld AI: Inworld allows users to create interactive, AI-driven characters for immersive experiences. Today, Inworld announced that it is in conversations with ILMxLAB, Lucasfilm’s immersive storytelling studio, to build developer tools for creating characters at scale in immersive worlds. Additionally, Inworld is exploring the development of an AI personality for Disney Star’s DisneyStarverse platform. At today’s Demo Day, Inworld demonstrated a ‘Droid Maker’ prototype that the company created in collaboration with ILMxLAB.
Lockerverse: Lockerverse is a community platform that empowers creators and brands to tell culture-defining stories and deliver unique access and experiences. Lockerverse is working with ESPN to launch a free NFT of the Celebration Bowl Trophy, to be exclusively first offered at the Celebration Bowl on December 17 in Atlanta.
Obsess: Obsess is an experiential e-commerce platform that enables brands to create immersive 3D virtual stores on their websites and on Web3 platforms. In early October, Obsess launched the Disney Music Emporium virtual experience, an immersive online store celebrating the wonder of Disney music. Obsess is also in conversations with Disneyland Resort and shopDisney to create a special retail experience.
Polygon: Polygon is a business layer for blockchain technology that allows developers and enterprises to build Web3 experiences. Polygon is working with Disney on developing a proof of concept for exclusive digital collectibles to recognize Disney employees during special occasions.
Red 6: Red 6 is an AR company that has created a patented headset and interface that works outdoors in dynamic, high-performance environments. Walt Disney Imagineering and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) are exploring opportunities to bring this technology into our story-driven environments for next generation experiences of the future.

Star Wars Metaquest Virtual Reality Experience

After the presentations, Disney showcased exclusive demonstrations from the 2021 and 2022 Disney Accelerator companies for the first time ever. The previous year’s companies displayed their technologies and recent collaborations with The Walt Disney Company, including:

Attentive: Attentive is a comprehensive mobile messaging platform that allows retail and e-commerce brands to connect directly with consumers through personalized communication experiences. This summer, Attentive launched an opt-in experience to provide Disney guests a seamless opportunity to communicate with Disney Theatrical Productions via SMS and email through www.aladdinthemusical.com.
CAMP: CAMP creates experiential retail stores and online media destinations for the whole family. CAMP launched two collaborations with Disney this year, “Disney’s Mickey and Friends x CAMP: An Extra Big Adventure”, now in Dallas, while New York City families are enjoying the magical “Disney Encanto x CAMP” at its flagship store this holiday season. These immersive and interactive collaborations travel to other CAMP locations every few months.
Miko: Miko creates adorable robots that are playful learning companions for children across 140+ countries and utilized by parents, educators and technologists. Earlier this year, Miko collaborated with Disney Publishing to launch animated storybooks featuring characters from the worlds of Disney and Pixar on its Miko 3 robot.

AR Goggles used for Windows Into the Wild ©Disney

It sounds like the future is rather bright for The Walt Disney Company in terms of technology and innovations — we can’t wait to see what these collaborations can produce!