INNOVATORS Gold Award - New Orleans City Business

INNOVATOR
Imagination Movers
Key innovation: interactive and educational entertainment
for kids
Where they’re based: Harahan
Top executive: Rich Collins, Scott Durbin, Dave Poche
and Scott “Smitty” Smith, executive producers
Year introduced: 2003
PHOTO BY FRANK AYMAMI
THE IMAGINATION MOVERS began six years ago as a
group of four New Orleans dads who liked to make up
songs and silly antics to entertain their kids.
That’s when journalist Rich Collins, elementary
school teacher Scott Durbin, architect Dave Poche and
New Orleans fireman Scott “Smitty” Smith started kicking
around the idea of creating their own musical TV
show. Living a few blocks from one another in the Mid-
City/Lakeview area, they gathered at each other’s homes
to write songs late at night after putting the kids to bed.
“There were probably a half dozen songs that were
born within a month of us starting to think about this
project,” said Collins, a former managing editor of
Gambit, who played several instruments in high school
and college bands in the Washington, D.C., area before
moving to New Orleans.
When they started performing some of their material
in concerts, they had no idea they were about to become
genuine national rock stars. With their trademark blue
coveralls, trashcan drums, rock and roll vibe, and interactive
elements, their performances are a hit with kids and
parents.
Their big break came when a Disney executive caught
their act at Jazz Fest. On Sept. 6, 2008, they finally realized
the dream that has driven their success all along,
when the “Imagination Movers” television series premiered
on the Disney Channel.
All four members star in the show and serve as its coexecutive
producers. About 100 local crewmembers are
on the set at the Harahan production studio. In negotiating
the deal with Disney, the group insisted on keeping
the project local so they could pay back the community
for its longtime support.
“When we decided to buy these blue polyester jumpsuits
and start singing about snacks and naps, our
friends, families, colleagues — the entire city, basically —
just applauded and encouraged us,” Collins said.
Tim Williamson, president and co-founder of The
Idea Village, said the Imagination Movers’ success owes
to their “extreme passion about what they are doing.”
The group came to the business incubator in 2003 seeking
guidance in getting their company started.
Williamson views their story as an inspiration to other
aspiring entrepreneurs and proof of the viability of New
Orleans’ cultural economy.
“We’ve always been a great creative place for music
and food,” Williamson said. “What the Imagination
Movers are validating is that we are also a place that can
commercialize our creativity.”•
— Sonya Stinson
The Imagination Movers, from left, Scott Durbin, Scott Smith, Dave Poche and Rich Collins, made their national TV debut Sept. 6 on The
Disney Channel.
22A 2008 Innovator of the Year