Variety returns in-person for its annual Entertainment & Technology Summit, presented by City National Bank. This one-day event will explore advancing technology’s impact on TV, film, gaming, music, digital media and consumer brands.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00So, let's go down the line and introduce our panelists, Justyna Mukwa, Senior VP at a little
00:07family business called Parkwood Entertainment, with Beyoncé.
00:12Why don't you introduce yourself, tell us about your role at the company, how you think
00:16about entrepreneurship, what does it mean for Parkwood?
00:19Okay, great.
00:20Hi everyone, I'm Justyna, I'm the SVP at Parkwood, and entrepreneurship is kind of central to
00:29what we do.
00:32Everyone I think here knows who Beyoncé is, and the way that we approach each day is,
00:40what can we accomplish that we haven't done before?
00:43So that mindset is kind of shared with the entire company.
00:48I think everybody operates as their own business, as their own entrepreneur within, and presents
00:55new ideas and new opportunities.
00:58Entrepreneurship for us is, I would say, the central theme of creating something new
01:03and kind of managing it from beginning to end.
01:06And every day is a new thing, right?
01:08Every single day is a new thing.
01:11Now, Judy Tu, SVP, Senior Relationship Manager at Citi National Bank in the Entertainment
01:16Division.
01:17So, tell us, you know, how you think about this topic, what does it mean for Citi National?
01:24Absolutely.
01:25I work for the corporate film and TV financing team, and that's part of the corporate umbrella
01:30where we do music catalog financing as well as sports financing.
01:35And on the film and TV side of things, we really view ourselves as being additive and
01:41synergistic to all of our clients.
01:43So all of the panelists here are really on the forefront of innovation, thought processes,
01:50and doing things that haven't yet been done, as Justina said, but could potentially be
01:56possible and could potentially, should be done in the future.
02:00But we are a regulated industry, and so for us, it's really being a very good advisory
02:06and a trusted advisor to all of our clientele to be able to say what is actually possible
02:14versus what is potentially possible in the future versus what's possible now.
02:19Yeah.
02:20Next, we have Asa Kalama, who is Mr. Star Wars, among other things, at Walt Disney Imagineering.
02:28You're VP and Executive Creative Director at Imagineering.
02:35How do you think about this topic, and what does it mean?
02:37Yeah, so Walt Disney Imagineering, we're the group that's responsible for designing all
02:41the rides, shows, attractions, cruise ships, theme parks all around the world.
02:45And what's sort of unique about us is we have a single client, and that is our operating
02:49partners of all of those incredible lines of business.
02:53And I've had the pleasure of spending about a decade of my career in the research and
02:56development group, which is very much all about how do we do what Walt did from the
03:00very beginning of the company, which is to try to find and leverage the latest and greatest
03:04technology and innovation in the service of continuing to push and advance the type of
03:09storytelling and experiences that we offer to our guests.
03:12So it's been this incredible journey of how do we continue to grow this 70-year-old business,
03:18but at the same time, continually infuse it with new innovation.
03:21Yeah.
03:22Next, we have Asad Kizilbash, Senior VP of Product and Head of PlayStation Production.
03:28Everybody in the audience, there's a new PS5 Pro under your seats.
03:31I'm just kidding.
03:32Everyone's getting one.
03:37Tell us what you do and how you think about risk versus reward.
03:41Yeah.
03:42So I've been at a company, PlayStation, that's been around for 30 years.
03:46You're probably thinking, what am I doing on an entrepreneurial panel in a company that's
03:49been around for 30 years, that's part of a bigger organization that's been around for
03:5280 years?
03:54But part of my role at PlayStation is I created a brand new division called PlayStation Productions.
03:59And our role there is to adapt our video game IP to film and TV.
04:03And so our first show we ever did was The Last of Us, trailer is out this morning for
04:06season two.
04:07That was our first show we did.
04:10The first film was Uncharted.
04:11And so it was actually the idea of creating something new, a brand new entity within a
04:16very large blue chip organization, required an incredible amount of entrepreneurial spirit.
04:22And it's the two things that we focus on.
04:25As my role was creating a vision, creating the goals, building the team, naming it, getting
04:29the logo, getting everyone bought off on a vision.
04:32And part of your role as an entrepreneur is belief, is getting people to believe in what
04:37you're doing.
04:38So everything you do every day, every interaction you have, is about getting people to believe
04:42in your vision of what you're trying to do and create momentum.
04:45Okay.
04:46Donald Mustard, partner at Agbo, which is the production company of Joe and Anthony
04:50Russo.
04:51What are your thoughts on how do you think about this company and your role?
04:55Yeah, so my name is Donald Mustard.
04:57I am a partner at Agbo with Joe and Anthony Russo and Chris Burton.
05:02And what I do there is we are creating new IP and new stories that are built intentionally
05:10to be told and experienced across multiple mediums, which was kind of a really natural
05:15fit for me coming from the game and technology industry, where most of my career I've spent
05:21making games like Shadow Complex, Infinity Blade, and then for seven years as the chief
05:28creative officer of Epic, where I launched and directed Fortnite, right, which still
05:33remains like one of the biggest entertainment franchises of all time.
05:37And so I think, I mean, so much of what we're doing is, especially in technology and games,
05:42is you are, you live on the very bleeding edge of what is even possible, right?
05:48And so almost everything you're doing is risk, right?
05:52You constantly are living on the edge of risk and learning how to manage that, be agile,
05:58mitigate it.
05:59And, I mean, really kind of my core philosophy is, if you ever, I mean, you can not live
06:04on the edge of risk and you might be a little more safe, but if you really ever want to
06:09do something innovative and groundbreaking, you got to be taking massive risks all the
06:14time.
06:15Yeah.
06:17And then rounding out the batting lineup here is Adam Bergman, group VP of advertising data
06:22sales at Vizio, a TV manufacturer, but not just TVs, content services on top of that.
06:29That's right.
06:30So, yeah, it's wonderful to be here with everyone.
06:32I look after three different business units.
06:34I run sales, marketing, and the product roadmap for an ads division, the Vizio branded content
06:38studio, and a large-scale data licensing unit.
06:41We look at TV viewership behavior on our televisions and we empower the marketplace to understand
06:46consumer behavior, trends, what people are doing.
06:49We sit in this really unique position if we tie the entrepreneurship angle.
06:52This is a 22-year-old company that is minority owned and founder led, and we didn't exist
06:57five years ago.
06:58A few of us came and started these business units to accelerate the business.
07:01More thinking about all of these incredible people who are building experiences and building
07:06content.
07:07We want the best possible visual and auditory experience to bring those to life.
07:10So, I get to sit at a really unique bridge between user experience and monetization.
07:15How do we actually become a profitable company while building and delivering to our customers
07:19every single day?
07:20Okay.
07:21All right.
07:22So, I think a big question here is, you know, how, when you're looking at current industry
07:27trends, whether that's financial business, consumer behavior, something like that, how
07:31do you calculate what's going to be real and lasting, have a big impact on the business
07:38versus what might be a passing fad?
07:41I don't know.
07:42Who wants to take a first crack at that?
07:43Maybe, Asad, you want to?
07:48We said we would do that.
07:49We would do that joke.
07:50Yeah.
07:51Asad and Asad, and we're sitting right next to each other.
07:55They all figured this out, and they put us right next to each other.
07:57By the way, Star Wars is on PlayStation.
07:59Yeah.
08:00So, the idea about closely listening to the market and trends, especially when you think
08:06about entrepreneurs and sort of startups and small businesses, because I think the benefit
08:11you have when you're starting something new is agility, being nimble, and so I think that's
08:15something you have that others don't have, and you've got to leverage that.
08:18However, there is a balance that I think, and this is something we take as well.
08:21We do listen, and we always listen to the voice of the consumer and look at trends,
08:26but you've also got to have core beliefs and values and principles that you believe in
08:30that are also aligned to your strengths, something that you can do that no one else can, and
08:34the way we make a decision is if that trend does align with our beliefs, core beliefs
08:39and strengths, that is when we move on it, but that's when we also make the very difficult
08:43decision to say no to something that could be a trend, could be easy to do, but if it
08:48doesn't align with us, we've got to be proud, just as proud, of saying no to things because
08:52they don't align with our core strengths and our beliefs.
08:55I so agree with that.
08:57I think that, especially in any startup or even just as entrepreneurs, you're looking
09:01at things going, what can we uniquely do that other people are too entrenched or too siloed
09:08to even consider, and exactly what you're saying, you have to really understand what
09:12you're good at.
09:13What is your unique value proposition?
09:17Saying no is often so much more important than the few yeses you agree to because there
09:22might be things that are emerging or stuff that's really cool, but it doesn't actually
09:26align with what you can make specific that can really be innovative and push things forward.
09:33I so agree.
09:34I think that a lot of companies also have to ask themselves, is the thing that I'm trying
09:40to do new?
09:41Is it novel?
09:42Is it innovative?
09:45Sometimes it's all three, and other times it's just one, so you have to ask the questions
09:50of yourself and be willing to take the risk.
09:54I think we talked about risk on the panel earlier.
09:59The things that I can do are not the same things that Asad could do, right?
10:03You have to truly assess what is my place in the market and how is this going to be
10:06received?
10:07When you talk about trends or something being a fad, it may be for a particular person or
10:13a particular business, whereas if you do it, it becomes new and novel.
10:17I remember when the iPhone came out with copy and paste, and it was the new version of the
10:23iPhone and people were losing their mind, whereas BlackBerry at the time already had
10:28that technology.
10:31You might be doing something that feels like it's already been done, but the way you're
10:36doing it is different, or it is new to your audience, and they're going to receive it
10:41as something that they've always wanted.
10:43I think you have to assess what is it that I'm trying to accomplish at the end of the
10:47day.
10:48Isn't there a unique relationship there?
10:49I don't know why.
10:50You were talking, and all I could think about was discomfort, like the openness to discomfort
10:53in an organization, right?
10:56I don't know.
10:57I think the way we think about it, and I think maybe some will agree or disagree, the viewer,
11:00the average person, we vote with our behavior every single day.
11:03And so when you think about consumer trends, we vote with our behavior.
11:06We vote with our time spent.
11:07If you look at viewership, what people are watching, the amount of time spent in traditional
11:12formats, traditional cable television, has diminished rapidly over the last five years.
11:16We're a viewpoint of one with Vizio televisions, but in particular, we look at streaming time.
11:23Less than 30% of time spent in streaming is with major studios and their streaming extensions.
11:28So what does that say?
11:29People are reaching out, and they want more content.
11:31They want diverse content.
11:32They want diverse gaming experiences.
11:33They want something that's real and tangible that's personalized.
11:36So what that means is we oftentimes have to get out of our own way.
11:39Legacy tends to hold back that grit, that belief that we're going to go try something
11:44and be okay to fail.
11:45So you kind of have to marry all those things, and I think, again, in an area that is provocative,
11:51but also we're okay with discomfort.
11:53And it seems like there are some inflection points that you kind of have no choice but
11:58to try to, you know, get your foot in the door, 3D televisions, which are not a thing
12:02anymore.
12:03VR, virtual reality, right?
12:06Like maybe that's going to become a bigger thing at some point.
12:10How do you decide where to invest and how much to invest?
12:14Because you don't want to miss out, but you don't want to spend too much and, you know,
12:18have that capital go wasted.
12:20Anybody want to talk about VR at all?
12:22Yeah.
12:23I mean, I think we have a, we're in, again, a very sort of interesting business wherein
12:27we are very much, we make a very concerted effort to hide all of the technology that
12:31we employ because it's all in the service of magic and specifically creating memories,
12:36right?
12:37That's our product at the end of the day.
12:38It shouldn't be user manual required.
12:39Right.
12:40Exactly, right?
12:41And so we are constantly scouring, making sure that we're apprised of the latest and
12:45greatest capability if it's a VR experience, an AR experience, et cetera, but then looking
12:50at how can we misappropriate or misuse that technology in a way that still aligns with
12:56your earlier point, right?
12:57The core value of what we are as a company, right?
13:00And how do we make that as seamless and as transparent an experience for the end user?
13:05When it becomes clear that you've made a bet that's not going to pan out, I mean, how do
13:09you make that decision to say, let's cut our losses, move quickly?
13:14I think agility is everything and actually embracing the idea that like losing this whole
13:22concept of like sunk cost fallacy, right?
13:25That because we've sunk time, effort, money into a thing that we must complete this and
13:31if we don't just pivot or change our viewpoint that that somehow was bad or lost learning.
13:37Like get rid of sunk cost fallacy, number one, I think, and then I think beyond that
13:42it's just saying embracing the risk, embracing living on the edge and that discomfort and
13:47that fear of going, we will, because we're here, we will find the thing that will lead
13:52us to this kind of something new.
13:54Actually, can I build on that?
13:55Because this is a really good point about the idea of just you've got risk and you have
13:59to, you're going to make mistakes, there's going to be things that don't work out.
14:02The idea is this stock scale paradox, this idea that you have a belief that the future
14:07is going to pan out okay, but you've got to have the discipline to know that things are
14:11going to go wrong in the short term and what you've got to avoid is the good day, bad day
14:16cycle and getting caught up in that.
14:18You've got to be able to think longer term that everything's going to work out right
14:21and move on quickly and also the other thing is forgive yourself.
14:24You're going to make mistakes, you've got to learn, but you've got to do it quicker
14:27to your point.
14:28I 100% agree.
14:29I think to your point, the idea of learning is lost, right?
14:33And so yes, it may not be something that panned out the way you wanted it to, but what did
14:37you learn as a result?
14:38How is that going to help you for the next thing that you're going to do?
14:42How does that build on the next idea?
14:44Sometimes out of a mistake comes something very beautiful at the end.
14:48It might be a byproduct of like, well, we were aiming to do this, but we ended up doing
14:52this and this thing is now successful or we know the next time that we approach this,
14:57we're going to approach this in a different way because the audience didn't react to it
15:01in the way that we wanted to.
15:03Maybe we weren't listening or maybe we bet on something that is no longer relevant.
15:08Do you have an example of when that happened at Parkwood?
15:11Well, we tend not to make mistakes at Parkwood.
15:14Beyonce, without naming names.
15:20Let me see.
15:21Not to put you on the spot.
15:22No, no, no.
15:23I don't feel put on.
15:24I think for us is we really pivot very, very quickly.
15:27We say on the pulse of like, what is happening?
15:30Is this meeting our goals and objectives?
15:33And if not, why?
15:34We are constantly asking questions to understand, is this going?
15:39And so to say that we've never made mistakes, I don't think that that's accurate.
15:44But what I will say is that if we are going down a path and we feel like we are not achieving
15:48what we intended to achieve, we pivot immediately and we take note of why didn't this go the
15:55way that it was intended to.
15:58I think the beauty of our business is that a lot of it happens behind the scenes.
16:02And so in the forefront, it's magic, whereas behind the scenes, we know that that didn't
16:07go according to plan.
16:09And so the next time we do it, it's like we got to do it better.
16:12And the point you raise is about avoiding the good day, bad day type of thinking.
16:17Judy, how do you coach people in the entertainment industry about thinking long term and not
16:24just reacting to one piece of bad news or something like that?
16:28Absolutely.
16:29I think everything about life really is the long game.
16:33And I understand that there are day-to-day thought processes that then for every institution
16:37would be different.
16:38For something like Aibo and Vizio, you guys have done a great job pivoting, thinking,
16:44and being very nimble.
16:45Same thing with Parkwood.
16:46There are legacy companies like Disney, as well as Sony, who have legacy businesses,
16:53but part of the business is also could potentially be a very new thought process.
16:57And for us as a financial advisor, as well as other infrastructures within the entire
17:05industry, so your business management firms and your law firms, I think our job, you know,
17:09one of the questions I had when I first was asked to be on this panel was, oh my gosh,
17:14what's a banker doing on this innovative, you know, panel, which is amazing.
17:19But it really is, it is the infrastructure that allows for all of these companies to
17:24actually move forward.
17:26And so our thought process is always really listening to all of our clients, regardless
17:32of where they are in their life cycle and or divisional as they're building and outreaching,
17:40and giving them very honest opinions about not just our thought process, but from a capital
17:46perspective and from a financing perspective, and really just from a longevity perspective,
17:53what we think related to what they're trying to deploy.
17:59And over time, I think it has actually served us well, as well as all of our clients.
18:03Our clients don't always love the answers that we give, which is we're not really sure
18:07if this necessarily is going to work, but in this particular case, this is equity risk,
18:12so please go ahead and find equity versus senior debt.
18:16But we always try to provide as honest of an opinion and as quickly as possible, because
18:22we believe in long-term relationships.
18:23We want you to succeed.
18:24Yeah.
18:25Day-to-day, good day, bad day, maybe good quarter, bad quarter type of thing.
18:30I mean, cost of capital, financing budgets, those matter to publicly held companies.
18:36Is there, you know, how do you make the case for taking new risks, making new investments,
18:42right?
18:43I'm looking at you, Adam.
18:44Yeah, yeah.
18:45Well, look, I think, well, it's funny.
18:46You know, we were talking, it's kind of before the group assembled about these short-term,
18:49long-term bets, right?
18:50How you take this short-term, you have to forgive me.
18:52I was giggling because you were like, give me an example where something went wrong.
18:55I was like, all I could think about was many years ago when we started selling TVs for
18:59a small period of time without remotes, because we were fully bought into our mobile app and
19:05every consumer was going to turn on their TV with a remote.
19:07What we failed to realize is that our retailers then reclassified the TVs as monitors and
19:11not smart televisions.
19:13And by the way, that was seven, eight years ago.
19:16Today, millions of customers power their Vizio smart televisions with their remotes.
19:19So we weren't wrong.
19:20We were off base in our timing.
19:22So exactly.
19:23And so it comes back to this like short-term, long-term.
19:26So when you start thinking about capital investments, how we think about, you know, what is the,
19:30our risk tolerance for tech debt, our risk tolerance for staffing into a project that
19:34may or may not have a truly finalized revenue case, you have to be comfortable with trying,
19:41right?
19:42You have to be comfortable with thinking about how you're going to shift investment from
19:44one area to the business, to the other.
19:47We think a lot about, okay, where does the true consumer value oftentimes, I think we're
19:51all proven right.
19:52If you deliver a great consumer experience, monetization and revenue will follow.
19:56So if you stick with a really simple principle there, it's okay to be wrong.
19:59Anybody else want to take that?
20:01I just wanted to add, I think for us, our approach is that of a newsroom where like
20:07we have teams that kind of pressure test the idea.
20:11And so you have literally a B team or a C team that is saying, here is, here is the
20:16alternative to what you're trying to pursue, or these are the things that we have to consider.
20:21And I think that for everybody, as you are pursuing a new idea, it should be, and what
20:27if we fail?
20:28And what does failure look like?
20:30I think if you build that into your plan, then it feels safer and it feels like something
20:35that you're able to do, as opposed to this big, you get to this big point and then you
20:39fall.
20:41And you've already planned for it or built for it.
20:43And then you're like, okay, well, what did we learn as a result of it?
20:46You go on to the next thing.
20:47Yeah.
20:48Because you want to believe it'll work, but if it doesn't, you need to be ready for that
20:53as well.
20:54Absolutely.
20:55It ties a little bit to like fear-based goal setting, right?
20:56Where you're like, well, what is actually the worst possible thing that could happen
21:00if this went wrong?
21:01And more often than not, you think that through and you're like, oh, these are totally, these
21:05are results that I can mitigate that we could sort of dilute down the actual impact.
21:11But if you learn something, then it was not a lost opportunity.
21:15If I can just build on a point around risk segmentation, even Donald said a while ago
21:20and being able to setting goals.
21:22One thing that I think there's a fallacy that I don't believe in is you often hear that
21:26it's good to take smaller, try and get smaller quick wins.
21:30And I genuinely believe that's probably the wrong approach when you want to make an impact.
21:34Because the only thing you find out when you try to do smaller quick wins is that you spend
21:37a lot of time working with something no one gives a shit about.
21:40And in order to put the stakes in play and to get everyone to believe in what you're
21:44doing, you've got to take, you've got to swing for the fences.
21:47You've got to take those big bets because what it does, it gets everyone rallying around
21:51something.
21:52And then if you're successful, you get the most important thing that every entrepreneur
21:55needs, which is momentum, right?
21:58Moving inertia.
21:59And so that's what we did with PlayStation Productions.
22:00We said the first TV show we want to do has to be big and the first movie has to be big.
22:05So we did The Last of Us and Uncharted and it could have failed.
22:08It could have easily failed and you can't think of that way.
22:11You've really got to swing for the fences to create momentum.
22:13I think that's such an important thing.
22:15Get rid of that inertia.
22:16Yeah.
22:17Last of Us.
22:18Sorry.
22:19Because if you can achieve momentum, what that does is it just paves the way for so
22:24many opportunities for you to keep building on and building out.
22:28Right.
22:29And so I agree.
22:31It's a huge swing than not, right?
22:33Because you get that opportunity to get all that kind of wind behind you.
22:38And you get that experience over time to increase your batting average, as it were.
22:42Well, instead of talking about strikeouts, let's talk about triples or home runs.
22:47Anybody on the panel have an example of a risk maybe you weren't totally sure was going
22:52to play out the way you thought, but turned out to be a big game changer?
22:56I don't know.
22:57Anybody?
22:59Anybody?
23:00We don't like to brag on this.
23:02Donald, you've got loads, surely.
23:05It's a little game called Fortnite, surely.
23:07Anything?
23:08I mean, like everything I've ever done, right?
23:10I mean, that's like...
23:11But...
23:12No, no.
23:13I mean, like...
23:14Oh, my goodness.
23:15I don't...
23:16So many stories.
23:17But Fortnite.
23:18Right?
23:19Fortnite was...
23:20I've heard of that.
23:21Yeah.
23:22It was something that was one of those huge swings.
23:25Right?
23:26And we felt like we had an idea that was just very unique for the moment it was in.
23:33And we had a vision of what would happen if you approached building an IP, a game world
23:41that really kind of had a very different perspective of what entertainment could look like in that
23:48timeframe.
23:49Especially in 2017.
23:50And we took this huge swing.
23:53And it began to work.
23:55It really began to work out of the gate.
23:57And what that gave us was confidence and momentum to lean in.
24:01To really lean in.
24:02And then really try the crazy stuff.
24:04Crazy things like the Battle Pass.
24:06Crazy things like virtual concerts.
24:08Right?
24:09Where live you would have tens and tens of millions of people attending a Travis Scott
24:14concert.
24:15There were so many...
24:16I mean, experiment after experiment after experiment.
24:19Some of them were massive.
24:20Some of them weren't.
24:21But because we had so much momentum behind us, it let us just continue kind of along
24:26this path of innovation.
24:28And it just led to success after success.
24:30And so now today, Fortnite has hundreds and hundreds of millions of players.
24:34And continues to be able to drive that innovation because of that momentum and achievement.
24:40So when are we gonna see a Fortnite movie?
24:42What's happening with that?
24:44You know, not...
24:45This is where...
24:46So I actually very strongly believe that there are a lot of things that the best expression
24:52of it is across multiple mediums.
24:54Other things, not always.
24:56Right?
24:57And Fortnite has a...
24:58I'm not part of Epic anymore, so it's not even my purview.
25:00But there's a lot of things about Fortnite that are so unique to the medium it's in that...
25:07Who knows?
25:08Maybe a movie makes sense.
25:09Maybe it doesn't.
25:10Maybe a theme park.
25:11I don't know.
25:12But I mean, I do...
25:13To your point, right?
25:14I do think there's something very important about understanding what the medium does really well.
25:17You have to understand what the thing is that you're creating.
25:19Yeah.
25:20And how to take the most advantage of...
25:22In our case, it's the physical built dimensional world.
25:24Like, what can you do there that is unique?
25:26That can offer something that you can't possibly get anywhere else?
25:29And then how do you optimize whatever that story is for that medium?
25:33Well, to me, it's...
25:34And I don't know if this applies to literally everything.
25:37Probably everything that we work on up here.
25:39But to me, a lot of it's trying to understand the core fantasy of what you're creating.
25:45And then how do you best kind of fulfill that fantasy for the people that are enjoying whatever you're creating, right?
25:52You've got to understand your core fantasy.
25:54And then you've got to pay it off.
25:55I mean, a small anecdote.
25:57I mean, when we built Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, that was literally where we started.
26:01We started not from the place of, you know, we've got this hallowed IP.
26:04What are the places that you want to go to?
26:06But rather, what is the core aspirational...
26:08What is the wish fulfillment?
26:09Like, wish fulfillment that you want to deliver against?
26:11And then organizing the entire experience around that.
26:14That's it.
26:15Judy, let me ask you, you know, the Fed just cut rates half a point last week.
26:20We talked a little bit about that.
26:21That's not triggering a lot of activity right now because people are...
26:24I mean, these are multi-year types of financial considerations.
26:28But what, you know, from where you sit, where do you see the appetite for risk-taking, entrepreneurship, new investment?
26:36Are we in a holding pattern?
26:38Are we up?
26:39Are we down?
26:40I would say, again, from a banking perspective, it's probably the most boring of industries.
26:45But what it is is it actually creates, you know, it is a lifeblood, right?
26:49It creates debt capital in addition to equity capital to allow all of these companies to work well.
26:56And so from our perspective, it's always about the long game.
26:59So, of course, the Fed is starting to cut rates.
27:03But if you look at the dot plot, there are additional rate cuts coming.
27:06But this is going to be over multi-years.
27:08And, again, even when the rates were moving up some years ago, we never took a look at, you know, hey, what's happening this month or next month.
27:17We're looking at where is it really going to end up in terms of stabilization.
27:22But is it shifting people's long-term plans or thinking at this point?
27:26Absolutely, because cost of capital is going to reduce.
27:30But, again, I think from our perspective, the approach is always relatively consistent.
27:36With everyone on the panel and everything that I'm hearing, it's music to my ears in that you have all of these companies who are being incredibly thoughtful about how they approach risk.
27:47And from my perspective, it is not just about swinging for the fences and having wonderful ideas, but it also is how is a business actually trying to mitigate and figure out their downside?
27:58So with sufficient amounts of equity capital in addition to senior debt, that's what makes businesses run and make businesses successful.
28:07Absolutely.
28:08I think that, you know, for us, you know, even in our business, we are looking at the trends and we are looking at what's happening.
28:17We're considering people's share of wallet.
28:19What is their likelihood to purchase given the current state of affairs, right?
28:23Is this something that somebody is going to be inclined to do?
28:26Buy whiskey, use a hair product, go to a concert, listen to this specific type of music.
28:31All of these things, you know, are very important, I think, to all of our businesses in understanding how consumers are going to operate.
28:40How closely do you follow those inputs?
28:42I mean, are you tracking them?
28:43Very.
28:44Hourly?
28:45I don't know.
28:46Not hourly, but it's a regular part of our consideration.
28:50So we're looking at this, depending on what it is, on a weekly basis, a monthly basis.
28:54For sure, we're looking at overall what are our long-term and short-term goals and how does that, you know, how is that going to affect when something is a planned release, for example?
29:05Yeah.
29:06Does it make sense?
29:07When is the next release?
29:08Which one?
29:09I'm trying to get some answers.
29:13Well, we've got a couple of minutes left.
29:15Let me just ask, you know, here's a blue sky question.
29:18What would you change in your company or the industry at large?
29:21You know, what bottleneck, roadblock, you know, characteristic would you change to, you know, make a risk that you think we're taking would be a better gamble?
29:33I've got one.
29:35It's only topical because my daughter just went to college.
29:38So I do a lot of speaking gigs at colleges and art colleges, creative colleges.
29:42Education in the U.S. has got to be more affordable for more people.
29:46There's a lot of great young people out there who've got great ideas, creative ideas, and the education system has to be there to lift these people up and provide opportunities.
29:55And that would help you at PlayStation.
29:57Yeah.
29:58Well, it helps us because it gives access to great talent and give people functional ways to learn and grow.
30:04It's just so expensive.
30:06And, you know, coming from Europe, it's so much more affordable there.
30:09And so that's just one.
30:10That's like if I had a very giant big wand, that would probably be it.
30:14And it's also topical because I just spent a fortune on my daughter's college.
30:19Any other crystal ball, blue sky?
30:24You know, I'll piggyback on what you just were saying.
30:26So I don't know if it's a magic wand as much as I think what I'm most excited about for the next, you know, 10 years is many more people on this planet having access, especially if you want to be in entertainment.
30:42Right?
30:43Like there is an argument that this is the greatest filmmaking tool ever invented.
30:49Right?
30:50If George Lucas had this in 1977, it would have been like what you can do with this device and the software on it is like this is probably a better filmmaking tool than everything we had even 20 years ago.
31:02Right?
31:03And so this is an empowering thing that could let anyone anywhere, if you have the right idea, the right story, the right whatever, you can create something.
31:11With this, you can give it to people all over this planet.
31:16And the tools and the technologies that are being developed today are going to, I think, multiply that by a factor we can't even imagine right now.
31:27And so what's exciting to me is that we will be able to not just make stories and make things for people everywhere, but we will be able to receive, I think, a whole new medium of entertainment is going to emerge over the next decade.
31:41And I hope to be part of inventing it, but I can't wait to just be able to receive everything that's going to happen.
31:49I think it's going to be amazing.
31:50And just to build off of that, I think, I mean, to your point aside about those down days, there's nothing that I find more inspiring.
31:56I will literally go watch YouTube videos of like independent creators on days where I feel down and just be blown away and inspired by a singer songwriter or, you know, a short filmmaker, knowing that all of that amazing talent is out there like in that they have this platform to be discovered is, I think, profoundly rewarding.
32:15But I think also the types of creative expression are continuing to evolve in a really meaningful way.
32:20I think the virtual worlds that you helped sort of build allow for a new type of creator-led storytelling that, to your point, will unlock new types of entertainment and formats that we can't even conceive of right now.
32:33This presents new risks, though, right?
32:35And new dangers.
32:37I mean, you talk about AI.
32:39You talk about ubiquitous democratic filmmaking technology.
32:46I mean, how does Parkwood deal with, I mean, people can do fake Beyoncés, right?
32:53There's only one Beyoncé.
32:58Well said.
33:00There's only one Beyoncé.
33:02Most of us up here, our job and our opportunity is to be—the trend of yesterday is the trend of yesterday.
33:11Like our opportunity is to create the next trend, right?
33:14Like Beyoncé does.
33:15I mean, that's what it is.
33:16I think we look—our viewpoint of the world is what is tomorrow and how can we create it, right?
33:22And so that's our job.
33:24That's a big task.
33:25Anybody have any closing thoughts?
33:27Where are you going to be in a year after you take the next big risky bet?
33:31Adam.
33:32I'm just going to stay with it because we wake up every day thinking how does the smart television meet the smartphone, right?
33:38That chasm is what keeps us up every single day.
33:40And the whole concept of democratizing content production, we started a platform two years ago called Visiogram where you could film content on your phone and send it directly to somebody's television.
33:49It started because our CEO was traveling the world, knew his mother was watching TV at the time, wanted to send her a video from the Philippines.
33:56And he's like, she's on her phone.
33:58Like she's watching her TV right now.
34:00How do I make that connection?
34:01So the idea of making everybody a creator is sort of—I don't want to say undercutting the establishment, but creating a new path for people to explore and create and distribute.
34:11To me, we're in the distribution business, not the development business.
34:15So how do we empower those around with these brilliant ideas and these brilliant concepts?
34:18And to the point, the most powerful tool in your pocket, we're on a journey where the biggest screen in your house meets the smallest screen in your house.
34:25And I think that's what we think about every day.
34:27Alistair, any final parting thoughts here?
34:30Yeah, I mean the only thing I'd say is I think part of our job—I love the idea that we want to help build the future.
34:36I think our job is also to help inspire as well.
34:39And that is everything we do every day.
34:41We should be doing things that matter, that have an impact.
34:44And that goes back to taking the risks, swinging for the fences, but most importantly is inspire.
34:49Technology—I love what you said right at the start.
34:51Technology should not be something you see.
34:53It should be hidden.
34:54It's a means to people to create new things.
34:57So yeah, I always think I want to inspire people going forward.
35:00That's the most—everything we do needs to inspire people to do new creative things.
35:05Alistair, next big thing from Imagineering.
35:09Well, I mean I think one of the areas that, again, we started to touch on that I continue to be really inspired by
35:14is the idea of participatory experiences.
35:17How do we not only tell stories for audiences, but how do we create environments that allow them to,
35:22in some cases, leverage our built environments, our virtual environments,
35:27to help create their own storytelling and to unlock additional platforms for people to be creative and expressive,
35:33but in a much more interactive way than we've ever been able to before.
35:38Judy, last words.
35:40I think from our perspective, again, being the infrastructure within the industry,
35:45honestly, if there are slightly less regulatory limitations,
35:49we can definitely be more helpful in terms of stretching your just regular capital dollars.
35:54Right now, I think equity has to take a lot of that.
35:57Senior debt usually is always last dollar in, first dollar out.
36:00That's not going to change, but the regulatory environment, since I started working many, many moons ago,
36:06has changed significantly, and it would be nice to be able to have somewhat of a regulatory relief.
36:13And, Justina, you will have the last word here.
36:15Anything to look for or expect from Parkwood?
36:19Yeah, I think that at the end of the day, quality always wins out,
36:23and I think to the points made here about technology,
36:27if the thing that you're doing is at a level that either meets or exceeds consumers' expectations,
36:35you'll always be successful.
36:37Very good.
36:38Well, that's the panel.
36:39Thank you so much.
36:40Great discussion.
36:42Appreciate everybody coming out.