Disney ImagiNations 2018

The Gede Experience 

Each year, the famed Imagineers at the Walt Disney Company organize a creative challenge for college students around the world. Regardless of the prompt, each challenge pushes engineers, designers and more to dream and bring to life exciting concepts in the same way that the Imagineers do by focusing on stories, details and more. In 2017, the Imagineers put forth the following prompt:

"Choose an actual abandoned or 'ghost town' from anywhere in the world and re-vitalize it!

It might be as a working town, a historical landmark, a living museum, a themed experience, or whatever else you can dream up. Consider historical value and respect for the traditions and communities of the original and surrounding areas.

You can integrate the entire town, or carefully selected sections that best serve your idea and the location. Be mindful of any environmental impact that your proposal may have. What technological advancements will be necessary to not only develop your idea, but to engage guests to your new creation both in person, and before, during and after a visit?

How will your idea appeal to families? In what ways will it be accessible to as diverse an audience as possible? Is there a social service component to your creation that will be of value to the local community or beyond?

Please do not use Disney IP (Intellectual Property) in any part of your proposal."

I was fortunate enough to find a team of similarly created and motivated Notre Dame students to join me on the quest to re-vitalize a ghost town. Winnie Mangeni, Mark Miclean, Andrew Poirier and I all really enjoyed working on this project and are currently awaiting results from our project submission. 

After long brainstorming sessions at our few first few meetings, our team decided to move forward with a relatively unknown locale: Gede, Kenya. Gede was a former trading and cultural center on the eastern coast of Kenya, near Mombassa, that was eventually deserted and left to the elements. Since around the 1300s, the temples, houses and other establishments in the village have been decimated to rubble and ruins and a poorly-run tourist destination. 

Our goal, then, was to revitalize Gede and restore its cultural prominence and power within the region as a place to showcase the wares and treasures of the surrounding areas as well as developing a family experience that could be both fun and educational. In this light, our concept centered on two major attractions: the multi-cultural fair and the AR ruin tour experience. At the multi-cultural fair, situated just outside the gates of the village's ruins, guests could explore the museum filled with artifacts and history, watch traditional shows and rituals in the central commons, shop with and from local vendors, and eat and drink delicacies from the region. After being grounded in the time and culture at the fair, guests are invited to don a pair of "Augmented Reality" glasses and follow a tour through Gede's ruins. On this tour, the glasses allow guests to visualize the ruins as they once were as they are rebuilt in front of your eyes and obtain even more information about them through audio narration and textual overlays.

Below is the final deliverable we presented to Disney Imagineering for judging, which earned us recognition as Semi Finalists (top 30 out of over 300 teams)!