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