Is it a film? Is it a game? It's both and neither. Maureen Fan, CEO of 6-time Emmy winning Baobab Studios will share how they created Invasion!, Asteroids!, and Crow: The Legend, all of which have won Emmys for Best Interactive Media. She will also show how they integrated AI and made you the main character in their recent piece, Bonfire. She will share the experiments they've done to make you, the audience matter in their interactive narratives.
Maureen Fan is CEO & Co-Founder of the 6 time Emmy-award and Annie winning interactive animation studio Baobab Studios, whose mission is to inspire you to dream by bringing out your sense of wonder. We make YOU matter. Baobab was named Most Innovative Company for 2018 by Fast Company and is creatively led by Eric Darnell, the co-writer and co-director of Antz! and all 4 Madagascar films. All their qualifying projects, including Invasion!, Asteroids!, and Crow: The Legend have won an Emmy for Best Interactive Media. They've attracted talent such as Oprah, John Legend, Constance Wu, Ali Wong, Diego Luna, Lupita Nyong'o, and Ethan Hawke. Maureen has held leadership roles in film, gaming and the consumer web. She was most recently vice president of games at Zynga, where she oversaw three game studios including the FarmVille's, which contributed 40 percent of the company’s revenues. Previously, she worked on Pixar's Toy Story 3 film and at eBay in product management and UI design. Her collaboration, The Dam Keeper, directed by Dice Tsutsumi and Robert Kondo, was nominated for the 2015 Oscar Best Animated Short. Maureen was also named one of ‘The Most Creative People of the Year’ by Ad Age for 2016 and more recently Variety crowned her as one the execs to watch.