Disney Legend and Imagineer Joe Rohde unlocks the secrets of creativity in this powerful exploration of imagination, innovation, and life lessons for turning vision into reality.
In this inspiring narrative, Imagineer, explorer, and Disney Legend Joe Rohde offers a master class in creativity on a world-spanning journey to discover the origins of personal creativity, the power and potential of enterprising groups, and the remarkable parallels between collaboration and exploring the real world.
With lessons drawn from his celebrated career and life experiences—leading projects such as Disney’s Animal Kingdom, ventures into space tourism, field expeditions to far-flung corners of the world, managing design teams, and working with corporate executives—Rohde dives deep into the nature, nurture, and practice of collaboration. He explains how to keep ideas to true to their origins while allowing for improvisation and accident to enhance, not derail, creative endeavors.
These are stories of inspiration and invention, challenge and transgression, success and failure, laced with humor, contemplation, poignancy, and even life-threatening danger. Whether your interest in creativity is personal, professional, or you just want to peek behind the curtain of a renowned creative mind, Rohde’s lessons provide a guide for connecting your creative pursuits with others and the larger world.
Joe Rohde is a Disney Legend, creative consultant, former Disney Imagineer, artist, traveler, storyteller, and conservationist. An Experience Architect for Virgin Atlantic, he was previously the Executive Designer and Vice President, Creative, of the Walt Disney Imagineering division, where he was the lead designer of Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park and Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa, among other projects. A graduate of Occidental College, he is well known for his trademark earring, made up of souvenirs from decades traveling to remote corners of the world. He lives in Sacramento, California, with his wife.
Rohde will be in conversation with Bethanee Bemis, a museum specialist with the Division of Political and Military History at the National Museum of American History, where she works to ensure the intellectual and physical care of the division’s 150,000+ political history objects. She has been part of the exhibit team for several exhibits at NMAH, including most recently the forthcoming Mirror, Mirror for Us All: Disney Theme Parks and the American Experience. Her fields of interest include the development of national symbols and the evolution of the national narrative. Her current research focuses on the Disney them parks as locations of the formation and negotiation of the American identity.