Our Disney Institute team is set to hit the road for the summer in less than one week! And the first stop to experience our one-of-a-kind professional development course, Disney’s Approach to Business Excellence, is Columbus, Ohio. Here’s the list:
- Columbus, Ohio – July 13
- Plano, Texas – July 19
- West Jordan, Utah – July 26
- Redwood City, California – August 2
- Hanover, Maryland – August 9
Audiences in these five unique cities will learn alongside a celebrated group of Disney educators about some of our most prized, time-tested business insights and best practices that continue to drive the success of our parks and resorts today.
Our awe-inspiring team of regional facilitators, who collectively boast nearly a century of leadership knowledge at The Walt Disney Company, and countless hours dedicated to making magic for the millions of guests that visit our parks each year, will bring our exciting content to life. During the eight hour in-person session, attendees will better understand how they can unlock their own business potential by discovering proven Disney business practices that can be adapted and applied to their own organizations to achieve greater results.
Each course offering, comprised of two Disney facilitators, will illustrate and explore the three key pillars that make Disney experiences distinct, while continuing to carry our pursuit of excellence forward, including leadership, employee engagement, and service. Together, these pillars highlight the foundation for values-based leadership, creating a culture defined by desired behaviors, and designing and delivering world-class service with the customer at the heart of operations.
From networking, to making meaningful connections, and sharing first-hand professional experiences across many industries, our facilitators have a host of reasons to be excited about traversing America’s highways this summer! Disney cast members Rob Morton, Pat Jordan, and Julianna Alley are some of the engaging personalities that you may see over the next several months!
Engagement Manager Rob Morton, whose very first role was at Magic Kingdom as an attractions host at Pirates of the Caribbean, has worked at Disney for more than 43 years. After innumerable additional roles, from being a skipper on Jungle Cruise, to serving in leadership across multiple lines of business including transportation and guest relations or coordinating cultural exchange programs at EPCOT and helping open Disneyland Paris, Rob is happy to be at Disney Institute.
Rob says that he most looks forward to sharing the stage with one of our newer Disney Institute Senior Facilitators and traveling together with a fun team to bring the business behind the magic to Columbus and beyond. “After two years of sharing our content virtually, any opportunity to be in-person is a welcome one,” he said.
Julianna Alley, Engagement Manager for Disney Institute, with nearly 25 years of experience at the company says, “Getting to facilitate our Professional Development courses on our property has long been one of my favorite parts of the job. I am genuinely excited about this new opportunity for us to bring our programs to different cities around the United States and interact with folks who may have wanted to attend one of our onsite programs in Anaheim or Orlando but were unable to. Being in or near their city makes our programs more accessible and, in some cases, may enable people to bring larger groups from their organization or community. On a personal note, I have always loved to travel to places big and small so a bonus for me is that I may get to discover and explore some new cities along the way.”
Julianna was a member of the opening team for Downtown Disney Stores and Resort expansion team in 2001, and one of her most favorite roles to date was as Area Manager for Guest Relations during the 60th Anniversary of Disneyland Resort.
Senior Facilitator, Pat Jordan, who has been at Disney for more than 15 years, noted that our regional courses represent another opportunity to meet guests from all over! “It is always such a privilege to get to share Disney’s approach with guests and then watch as they begin to consider adaptations in their own organizations. My favorite part is hearing about guests favorite Disney memories!”
To view our full upcoming regional schedule in Ohio, Texas, Utah, California and Maryland and register for an in-person offering, visit here.
Our amazing sponsor of this professional development series is ODP Business Solutions™, formerly known as Office Depot Business Solutions™. Those who participate in a Disney Institute regional course will be presented with the opportunity to enhance their learning further with special discounts on office supplies, furniture, technology and more via a dedicated shopping page from ODP Business Solutions. In addition to these special discounts, registered participants can also receive a unique Disney art print after their first purchase through this site.
For more information, visit DisneyInstitute.com, sign up for our email newsletter, or follow us at @DisneyInstitute on social media. All courses are presented in English. Individuals must be 18 years or older to register and participate in a Disney Institute online course.
