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At our Masters of Design event Wednesday night at the Chelsea Art Museum, we caught up with some of our expert design bloggers to find out how some of the most creative minds in the business start their day.
The Fast Company Now Daily Newsletter delivers five Fast Company stories to your inbox every weekday morning. It features the latest news about technology, design, and ethonomics, as well as articles from the print magazine.
Along with Now Daily, we've created a series of weekly newsletters featuring the best of each week's stories in Leadership (M), Design (T), Technology (W), Ethonomics (Th) and the Best of Fast Company (F). You can sign up for these newsletters, or update your subscription settings, by visiting the Newsletter subscription page. Thanks for reading.
Fast Company recently organized a forum devoted to exploring the role business can play in developing sustainable, alternative energy. Here are some highlights from the event.
1. Rich Ross, President, Disney Channels Worldwide
A lifelong TV addict, Ross has expanded Disney's channels beyond the box into film, radio, mobile, and online. But he'll be remembered most for unleashing Hannah Montana and High School Musical on the world.
2. James Schamus, Chief executive officer, Focus Features
In addition to being a CEO, he's a veteran screenwriter, Columbia University film professor, producer, marketer, distributor, and sometime composer. Schamus, 49, cofounded Focus in 2002, which has produced Oscar winners Milk and Lost in Translation. Coming soon: Taking Woodstock, Schamus's latest screenplay for director Ang Lee.
3. JJ Abrams, Founder, Bad Robot Productions Star Trek is winning the summer box office race, thanks to Abrams' ability to warp time at will. Past, present, and future coexist as a kind of fluid that cannot be contained in his movies and TV shows. The camera jumps back and forth in time. Characters age and grow younger again. Time itself accelerates, then slows. "It's intriguing to play with exactly when you learn elements in a story," says the Emmy-winning writer-director-producer, referring to Lost, his biggest hit on the small screen. "It engages audience members in a puzzle where they begin to question everything. It makes them look for clues in what they're watching in a way traditional narrative doesn't."
4. Tyler Perry, Owner, Tyler Perry Studios
Perry controls an entertainment empire and moneymaking machine that includes the hit show Tyler Perry's House of Payne and movies featuring his alter-ego Madea, a jumbo, no-nonsense granny with a knack for physical comedy. His seven films, which rarely cost more than $20 million, have grossed upward of $300 million combined--four of them opened at No. 1--and sold 25 million DVDs.
5. Ed Leonard, Chief technology officer, DreamWorks Animation
Whether it's making Shrek come alive, guiding the 20 million hours of computing time to build Kung Fu Panda, or putting the amoeba-like B.O.B. into 3-D for Monsters vs. Aliens, DreamWorks' problems eventually find Ed Leonard--and success tends to follow.
6. Hayao Miyazaki, Cofounder, Studio Ghibli
When Pixar's animators need inspiration, they watch Hayao Miyazaki's movies. The giant of anime has been elevating cartoons into epic cinematic events for more than two decades, with fantastic, award-winning films such as My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away. This summer, Miyazaki may finally get his commercial due in the U.S. with Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. Disney/Pixar creative chief John Lasseter worked with megaproducers Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy to build a stellar voice cast (Tina Fey, Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson) and to secure Miyazaki his widest U.S.-theater release yet.
7. Neil Gaiman, Author, screenwriter
Gaiman's built a global community of fans of all ages and in many media, including comic books (Sandman), novels (American Gods), TV (the BBC's Neverwhere), and a children's novella turned 3-D movie (Coraline).
8. Maurice Sendak, Writer, illustrator, producer
The extraordinary Maurice Sendak has sold millions of copies of Where the Wild Things Are (1963) and In the Night Kitchen (1970); more recently, he collaborated with Tony Kushner on the play Brundibar. Sendak, now 80, has inspired generations of dreamy kids--including director Spike Jonze, who directed the film version of Wild Things premiering in October.
9. Nora Ephron, Author, director, producer
Nora Ephron is partly responsible for the rise of the chick flick--and Meg Ryan's career (Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail). Her films have grossed nearly $1 billion so far, and her newest, Julie and Julia, which opens in August, is the first movie based on a blog.
10. Bonnie Hammer, President of NBC Universal Cable
USA Network's ratings have soared under her watch--its 2008 prime-time viewership was the largest ever for any basic-cable channel--and her products contributed more than $1 billion to NBC Universal's profits last year. Hammer has a rep as a terrific programmer--Monk and Battlestar Galactica blossomed under her--and NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker recently put her in charge of a new production studio.
1. Reed Hastings, Chief Executive Officer, Netflix
Reed Hastings could have stuck with his first breakthrough idea--Netflix recently mailed its 2-billionth DVD. Instead, he's swiftly embraced streaming online and direct to TV via Netflix-ready devices made by LG, Samsung, Microsoft, and others. So far, it seems to be working: Netflix's stock price has doubled since last November, reaching record highs.
2. Michele Ganeless, President, Comedy Central
First came South Park, then The Daily Show and its Colbert spin-off. Now Michele Ganeless is expanding into digital territory. Comedy Central has launched Web sites for all its shows as well as stand-alone sites such as Jokes.com, the largest Internet archive of stand-up videos, plus videos from Sarah Silverman, Carlos Mencia, and Dane Cook.
3. Dave Morin, Senior Platform Manager, Facebook
He's Facebook's strategic thinker on the next big thing in social media--identity protection on the Web. The issue is who is going to set the standards for open-identity protocols that would enable you to safely take your online profile and relationships with you everywhere on the Internet. Morin's team recently launched its own open-identity application, Facebook Connect, which lets users log in to some 8,000 sites and applications.
4. Stephen Chau, Product Manager, Google Maps and Google Earth
Incorporating photos into online maps wasn't a new idea at Google, but no one had figured out how to pull it off until Stephen Chau tackled what became Street View, the company's fastest-growing product of 2008. Vehicles equipped with a half-dozen cameras covered much of the United States and are now photographing nine other countries.
5. Evan Williams, CEO, Twitter @ev Site getting more buzz than F-book. Yearly traffic up 1,200%. Estimated worth = $500 million+. Wow! #twitter
6. Blaise Aguera y Arcas, Partner architect, MSN and Microsoft Visual Earth
Techies have long sought to display huge files in high resolution without crashing a computer. Blaise Aguera y Arcas did it, with software called Seadragon. Microsoft bought Seadragon and integrated it into photosynth, the 3-D photo application popularized by CNN in its presidential-inauguration coverage. As Microsoft incorporates zooming into more applications, Aguera y Arcas will transform how we experience visual data.
7. Susan Wu, Chief executive officer, Ohai
How do you make money from things that don't exist? Susan Wu intends to show you. The first venture capitalist to focus on virtual goods--products that don't exist offline, such as Facebook gifts and everything your avatar needs in Second Life--Wu is the doyenne of this growing niche. Her startup focuses on massively multiplayer online games and will count on virtual goods for the bulk of its revenue.
8. Henrik Werdelin, Chief creative officer, Joost
Inspired by how people move in the real world, Werdelin has led the transformation of Joost into a "learning" site that tracks how you watch and what you share with friends, and customizes itself by, say, automatically moving up your fave features. The strategy is working: In the past five months, traffic has quadrupled and the Joost iPhone app has been downloaded 1.5 million times.
9. Scott Schuman, Blogger
Scott Schuman started his fashion blog, The Sartorialist, to "share photos of everyday people I thought looked great." More than 2,000 posts later, the former Valentino marketer has a monthly column in GQ, a six-figure book deal with Penguin, and a booming photography business. Oh, and he says The Sartorialist lures roughly 120,000 visitors a day.
10. Chris Ferguson, Founder, Full Tilt Poker
He was the first poker player to win a tournament prize of more than $1 million. Now Chris Ferguson has claimed some $7.3 million in winnings. But his biggest bet was starting Full Tilt Poker with 12 pros who join in online games instead of the usual one or two. Full Tilt is one of the fastest-growing poker sites in the world.
June 1-2 in San Francisco, Join Vice President of Disney.com Jason Davis, Executive Director of Marketing for Walt Disney Records Kelly Hugunin and Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Disney Online Paul Yanover as they cover everything from generating submissions and managing logistics, screening and judging to defining success.
This is the event where you'll find out what leading-edge technologies youth are using today--and will be using tomorrow. You'll also get an insider's view into youth-focused tech and media startups and learn how to leverage social media, gaming, virtual worlds, mobile and more to authentically reach youth.
Gain insight from new research on youth and technology
Get the latest trends in mobile, social networking, virtual worlds and online video
Hear how brands and non-profits are using social media to reach youth
Learn how to attract and engage young talent
Meet a new group of "totally wired" youth entrepreneurs
Click here to register, and enter the code FC for a 30% discount.
Hurry and take advantage of this exclusive Fast Company offer--a full year, that's 10 issues of Fast Company magazine for only $12.97. Your first issue will ship tomorrow (the next business day) and you'll receive continuous service through our Automatic Renewal Program, which means in using your credit card, your service will never be interrupted when your subscription year ends. (Go green! Save paper! Save time with automatic renewal!)
Act Fast and you could receive our latest issue featuring Fast Company magazine’s inaugural ranking of the 100 Most Creative People in Business, with Jonathan Ive, SVP of Industrial Design at Apple, in the top spot, and Melinda Gates of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ranking at No. 2.
The list includes engineers from Facebook and Google, movie directors and fashion designers, architects and inventors. Rounding out the top 10 are Shai Agassi, CEO, Better Place; Reed Hastings, CEO, Netflix; Rich Ross, President, Disney Channels Worldwide; Tero Ojanperä, EVP, Nokia; Sandy Bodecker, VP of Global Design, Nike; Michele Ganeless, President, Comedy Central; Jon Rubinstein, Executive Chairman, Palm; and James Schamus, CEO, Focus Features.
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TWTRCON SF 09--Hotel Nikko, San Francisco, May 31, 2009--is the first conference entirely focused
on Twitter as a business platform: how to use Twitter to reach and
engage customers, influence opinions and activate markets.
Learn how to:
Create your Twitter business strategy
Explore applications that create revenue
Use Twitter to listen to customers and respond
Network and share ideas with leading business, marketing, media and
PR executives, key Twitter developers and social media experts
