San Diego, CA — When you’re the keynote speaker at a conference of experts who regularly push the frontiers of their field, it helps to have been there and done that. Bran Ferren, executive vice president, Creative Technology and Research & Development for Walt Disney Imagineering brings just such credentials to SC98, the annual high-performance computing and networking conference.
In fact, Ferren actually defined the final frontier, at least the movie version, as director of special effects for “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier”. His special effects work also grabbed audiences who saw “Little Shop of Horrors”, “Altered States” and other films. He’s also thrilled the bejeebers out of theme park visitors who have ventured into such attractions as the “Indiana Jones Adventure”, “Honey, I Shrunk the Audience” and “The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror”.
In his SC98 presentation, Ferren will offer his views on storytelling, creativity, and visualization. This year’s conference will be held in one of Disney’s two backyards – Orlando, Fla. Ferren speaks at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 10. SC98 will be held in Orlando, Nov. 7 -13. Ferren heads up both Disney’s Creative Technology and R&D groups which serve the entire Disney organization.
Ferren, who attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the New York Drama Desk, the Los Angeles Critics’ Circle and the Maharam Foundation Annual Theater.
A native New Yorker, he holds memberships on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable of the National Academy of Sciences, the NSA, NRO and Army Science Advisory Boards, and is a consultant to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.