Disney Represents At The 2018 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing
This year more than 20,000 attendees from around the world traveled to Houston for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) 2018. It’s here that technologists and recruiters from across The Walt Disney Company showcased the technology behind their memorable characters, iconic stories and immersive worlds. Attendees discovered the latest innovations, meet with representatives from hundreds of companies and celebrated the role and contributions of women in technology.
The Disney Career Expo booth gave GHC attendees the opportunity to connect with technologists and recruiters from across their segments, including: Disney|ABC Television Group; Disney Parks, Experiences, & Consumer Products; ESPN; The Walt Disney Studios; Lucasfilm/ILM; Direct to Consumer and International; Disney Streaming Services; and Pixar. Over the course of three days, Disney representatives met, interviewed and extended employment offers to top female talent in the tech space.
Disney Demonstrations
At GHC’s Technology Showcase, some of the innovative women who are helping to shape the future of technology in their roles at The Walt Disney Company presented four uniquely Disney demonstrations that highlighted some of the newest innovations being created across the worlds of Disney:
- The cutting-edge technology Disney showcased included the Na’vi Audio-Animatronics® figure from Pandora—The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The Shaman of Songs figure is a collaboration between Walt Disney Imagineering and Disney Research. The Audio-Animatronics figure is also the most complex of its kind!
- Attendees stepped into virtual worlds at the Disney•Pixar Coco and Marvel virtual reality (VR) demonstrations. Alexa Hale, manager, Production Technology, was involved in creating the Disney•Pixar Coco VR experience. “The viewer can actually interact with the world, so we needed to make sure that [in the experience] everything looked as phenomenal and absolutely stunning as it does in the movie,” Hale explained.
- Technologists from ESPN shared a look into the new ESPN app and ESPN+ streaming service. The app recently surpassed 1 million subscribers in just over five months! ESPN+ also allows users to stream their favorite sports programming on any device. Furthermore, ESPN software engineers partnered with technologists at Disney Streaming Services to make the project possible.
- Disney technologists created an augmented reality (AR) wall using iPads and Disney’s custom AR application. The famous “purple wall” located in Magic Kingdom park at Walt Disney World Resort inspired this demonstration. Attendees were also invited to virtually share how they dream big!
Disney Coding Challenge
Disney also invited GHC attendees to test their skills with the first-ever Disney Coding Challenge. Quoc Nguyen, manager, Engineering, shared, “For this challenge, we used an existing ESPN engineering team question [and asked attendees to complete it] using the languages Java, JavaScript, Swift and Python.” Top performers received prizes in celebration of their accomplishments.
We brought an extra touch of Disney magic to GHC by partnering with artist Jerrod Maruyama to create a Minnie-inspired design. This design pays tribute to women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). Tote bags, laptop stickers and T-shirts all displayed the new design. Additionally, #DisneyTech was the top-trending branded term during the conference across social platforms.
Disney participation in GHC is just one of the many ways that the Company supports women in technology. “In the entertainment industry, diversity and inclusion are often thought of as ‘in front of the camera’ initiatives. However, they are important for every aspect of the business—not just what we do, but also how we do it,” says Brandon Tao, event representative, Campus Programs. “Attending events [such as GHC] shows that Disney is an advocate for diversity and inclusion in all areas of entertainment, and specifically lifting up women in technology.”
To explore opportunities at Disney, visit DisneyTech.com. Follow DisneyCareers (#DisneyTech) on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to hear more about their technology, their employees. You can also learn how they are aligning technology, content and platforms to deliver world-class, personalized entertainment experiences to consumers around the world.
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