Lauren WeinsteinMay 18, 2023

BREAKING: #Disney kills billion dollar development plan in Florida

Disney Imagineering move to Florida from L.A. area has apparently been canceled, and team members already moved or planning to move are being offered opportunity to return to L.A. This will be very good news to most of these employees.

Show threadMatt BlazeMay 18, 2023

@lauren Very interesting.

(Canceling the move probably makes sense even for reasons having nothing to do with DeSantis. Imagineering seems to draw heavily on the talent pool in LA/Hollywood, far more so than FL).

Show threadLauren WeinsteinMay 18, 2023
@mattblaze They were losing key employees who didn't want to go, as you'd expect.
Show threadChoong NgMay 18, 2023
@lauren @mattblaze Putting an office there more or less means they can't hire anyone trans or who has a trans member of their family, similar restriction on visiting vendors, and on top of that with the RTO push employees with a big tech spouse will be looking at sacrificing significant income when they get a local FL job. Seems like a lot of trouble with no payoff other than maybe better Cuban food.
Show threadMatt BlazeMay 18, 2023
@choong @lauren Absolutely. There are significant current and potential staff who just can’t safely live there, and plenty more who would be simply unwilling to do so. That’s reason enough, but I’m just saying even without the political factors, the move made little sense. Imagineering draws heavily on the creative and craft talent native to the LA area film industry, which just isn’t in FL to nearly the same degree.
Show threadChoong Ng
@mattblaze @lauren Oh that makes sense. I don't know much about how they operate other than the few bits in Randy Pausch's talks that made it sound cool and technically interesting.
May 18, 2023 at 9:28pmWeb