FCIF daily roundup: Highlights from day 3 at the Fast Company Innovation Festival
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The 2024 Fast Company Innovation Festival proved once again to be the place where innovators come to break news.
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On Wednesday, day three of the festival, Lin-Manuel Miranda announced on stage that Grammy-winning songstress Lauryn Hill will headline Miranda’s new Warriors concept album. Meanwhile, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos offered a sneak peak at some streaming figures that will be released in a biannual engagement report, scheduled for release today.
These types of unscripted moments have made the 10th annual festival both lively and entertaining thus far. And the third day of programming didn’t disappoint, with 40 sessions and receptions that focused on tech, sustainability, entrepreneurship, wellness, and creativity.
Below are some highlights from Wednesday:
‘We should always reserve the right to get smart’
In the past decade-plus, Netflix has often taken a bold stand, saying it would “never” do things like original programming, advertising, or live sports, only to later reverse course. So what gives? Sarandos shared that the word “never” is a way to focus, both on what’s happening for sure and what doesn’t make sense at a given time.
But businesses aren’t religions, he added, and they should remain nimble and prepared for change. “I think we should always reserve the right to get smart.”
Shaking up the programming, including going back on some of those “never” promises, will help the streaming giant remain competitive. And in an increasingly crowded market, Sarandos challenged competitors to release their viewership figures, as Netflix plans to do today. He teased a major data point from Thursday’s engagement report: Viewers spent a whopping 94 billion hours watching Netflix in the first six months of the year. “That’s a lot of time.”
Is Miranda returning to Broadway?
It’s been nearly a decade since the Tony-winning musical Hamilton first debuted off-Broadway, and there’s understandably considerable interest about when its innovative creator will return to the Great White Way. Could Miranda charge back to Broadway with Warriors, the concept album due out in mid-October that he wrote with award-winning actor and playwright Eisa Davis?
While it was “really exciting” to write the album, which is a retelling of the 1979 film The Warriors, Miranda is taking things one step at a time—particularly because it’s a “tricky” story to adapt musically or for the stage. “The plan is just to release it and see how people respond.”