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Higher education is in a moment of profound transformation driven not only by advances in technology, but also by growing demands for relevance, flexibility, and real-world impact. And while universities often look inward for solutions, the most promising ideas are increasingly emerging from beyond the traditional academic boundaries. Institutions like mine, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), and peer institutions like those in the University Innovation Alliance, are demonstrating what it looks like to prototype the future of higher education by engaging outside experts in the inside work of design. Uncomfortable at times? Yes. However, its how we build the future with the people we serve, rather than for them. At VCU, this approach has come to life through Shift Retail Lab, a signature program of the VCU da Vinci Center for Innovation. This nationally recognized storefront and innovation hub gives students and community members a place to test and launch ideas in real time. Its where entrepreneurship isnt confined to business majors, and feedback doesnt come in the form of a grade, but through actual user engagement. In just two years, Shift has supported over 300 student- and community-led ventures, from sustainable fashion brands to social impact startups. LIVED EXPERIENCE AND CULTURAL RELEVANCE But Shift is more than a space; it’s a living prototype of what inclusive, future-facing higher education can look like. It challenges long-held assumptions about who belongs in the university ecosystem and what qualifies someone to lead, teach, or inspire. That ethos came to life when Everette Taylor, CEO of Kickstarter and proud Richmond native, stepped inside Shift Retail Lab. He didnt just tour the space. He connected deeply with student founders, offered hard-won wisdom from his own entrepreneurial path, and modeled a radically different kind of leadership. It was forged outside the academy, grounded in lived experience and cultural relevance. After this, he said yes. Yes to delivering VCUs Spring 2025 commencement address. Yes to becoming affiliate faculty and teaching and mentoring university students. Yes to helping reimagine higher education despite, or perhaps because of the fact that he never completed college himself. That kind of yes is more than symbolic. Its transformative. Its the future. DIFFERENT CREDENTIALS In a system that still too often prizes pedigree over perspective, Everettes involvement signals a powerful shift: one that elevates real-world experience, entrepreneurial grit, and community credibility as valuable credentials. Its a bold endorsement of the idea that the people reshaping our industries should also be invited to help reshape our educational institutions. If higher education is serious about preparing students for an uncertain, rapidly changing world, then it must embrace and engage those whove already navigated it successfully on their own terms. Everette Taylor didnt just walk into a lab. He walked into the future of higher education and held the door open for others to follow. The world is changing rapidly, and the next generation of entrepreneurs, creators, and makers will need to be equipped with new skills. Skills that are applicable and not just taught in traditional classroom settings, he told us. I was inspired to get involved with Shift because they have seemed to get it right, that education has to come from out-the-box creativity to serve an inclusive community of people that need the support. I hope to bring my unique perspective, coming from an untraditional background to a group of students who also may relate to being the odd duck. I want to give them not only my wisdom through my own experiences, but the confidence to go down their own unique path. A BLUEPRINT FOR CHANGE This isnt just a feel-good story. Its a blueprint for change. Universities that are serious about innovation must do more than update curricula, digitize coursework, and embrace AI. They must rethink their very structures of who teaches, who learns, who leads, and who benefits. This kind of boundary-spanning work is no longer optional; it’s essential. The future of work demands agility, creativity, and collaboration. Students need more than lectures; they need labs. More than content; they need context. And more than credentials; they need confidence earned through experience. Ive been in the world of entrepreneurship and tech for 15-16 years, and this has been the most transformative era that Ive ever experienced, Taylor told us. Education has to evolve, and evolving now is already too late. It shouldve been happening. Things are moving at a rapid speed. Education programs have to be nimble and be able to pivot fast just like a startup or we will be doing the next generation a disservice. I believe VCU is on the right path, and I want to be a part of that. By engaging leaders like Everette Taylor whove built, failed, adapted, and thrived, universities like VCU are bridging the gap between aspiration and access. These universities are sending a clear message to students: Your background doesnt define your future, but your ideas just might. As we prototype the next chapter of higher education, lets make sure were building with students, communities, and industrynot just for them. Lets invite those whove forged their own paths to help pave the way for others. And lets remember that innovation doesnt happen in isolation. It happens at the intersection of experience, empathy, and action. Thats the future Shift is building. And were just getting started. Garret Westlake is vice provost for innovation and strategic design at Virginia Commonwealth University.
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E-Commerce
The streaming wars have seen giants of entertainmentNetflix, Disney, Warner Bros. Discoveryduke it out for consumers, each with a fast-growing library of original movies and TV to keep viewers coming back. Roku is a bit of a dark horse in this race. But the platform’s recent hit series Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross suggests the scrappy underdog might just become a real contender. At the Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York this week, Roku head of originals Brian Tannenbaum told the crowd it all started with a text message. Ross’s agent sent Tannenbaum just a handful of words: “Tracee Ellis Ross. Solo travel show.” It was enough. You only need to hear Ross speak once to know why. The daughter of legendary Motown singer Diana Ross, a theater graduate from Brown University, and an eight-year veteran of hit comedies Girlfriends and Black-ish, Ross knows how to thrill audiences. “It’s televisionyou want to give them a show, you know?” she said on stage at the festival. “You want a belt, you want a shoe, you want to give ’em a little razzle-dazzle.” The show premiered on the free, ad-funded Roku Channel in July. Over three episodes, Ross journeys solo across Morocco, Mexico, and Spainschlepping four checked bags through busy airports; seeking serenity in the sound of birds chirping and winds whistling between trees; and quipping away the awkwardness of dining in a restaurant as a party of one. It’s since become Roku’s most-watched unscripted original series. A catalyst for magic That’s a big deal for Roku, which is known for hooking up streaming devices, but less for making art itself. On paper, Solo Traveling had a fitting recipe for a brand thatas far as The Roku Channel goesis perhaps still on the riverbanks of mainstream. It blends a quirky host with the premise of going it aloneand it opts, daringly, to do this all unscripted. Something clicked with its timing, too. Solo Traveling has struck a nerve today, five years after the isolation of the COVID pandemic, when anxiety over the economy, politics, and climate change is heightened, and a loneliness epidemic persists. The zeitgeist feels more doom-and-gloom than everand there’s desperation for escapism. Is that why the show took off? In the unscripted space, “the best shows are the ones you can see yourself in,” says Tannenbaum. What would it be like if I was singing on American Idol? Or if I were on an island, like Survivor? Or, if I were traveling solo?” Throw in a dynamite host, and the power of top-notch production, engineering, marketing teams, and “when those catalysts combine, that’s when you get the magic,” he adds. Ross has a different take on the appeal of traveling alone. “If you’re not waiting for a certain thing, or a certain person, to go out and live your life, what would that look like?” she asks. “If you’re not allowing culture and society and the norms to tell you who you should be, what would you be doing?” She isn’t afraid to be honest: For Ross, flaunting her fashion wardrobe plays a major rolehence the four checked bags. “I will never stop loving clothing and buying clothing,” she says, “and travel is an opportunity for me to adorn myself and create a sense of joy and beauty for myself out in the world.” Seeing a brave new world In 2018, Ross added “entrepreneur” to her resume by founding Pattern Beauty, a hair care line designed for natural hair that’s been picked up by retailers like Sephora, Ulta, Target, and Macy’s. She’s also been vocal about staying single into her 50s. “I don’t have children, but I made a company,” she says. “We all get lonely. It’s not evidence that my life is broken. It is evidence that I am a human being.” She added, “I wanted to bring some of that forward [in the show] because there must be some examples that are between Joan of Arc and cat ladies . . . And I have worked very hard to become the badass professional that I am.” Meanwhile, Solo Traveling was just as much a foray for Roku as it was for Ross. Founded by an ex-Netflixer in 2002, the company became synonymous with cord-cutting, dominating that transient moment after consumers began ditching cable but before the technology to screencast from mobile apps existed. Its first “box,” released in 2008, was revolutionary, allowing users to play Netflix on TVs via the internet. Today, Roku is a $15 billion company that’s cornered the market on streaming TV operating systems, reaching 90 million American households. But the focus its own content came later. The Roku Channel debuted in 2017, but Roku didn’t start making original content until 2021 (after it bought the library from the defunct streaming service Quibi). In August, it ventured into streaming services with Howdy, a $2.99-a-month subscription. For now, both Roku and Ross are just exploring. At one point in Solo Traveling, Ross muses, “Not having long relationships, not having children, has allowed me to explore things of my own humanity . . . It has deposited me here, at 52, in an experience filled with joy, loneliness, grief, delightall of it.” “It’s a reflection of what I care about in the world,” she said at the festival. “And I don’t mean me. I mean the idea that we all get to craft our own lives, that we get to live our lives on our own terms . . . It’s somebody telling the truth.”
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E-Commerce
With the ink barely dry on its deal to buy Paramount, Skydance is reportedly already looking to roll up another major entertainment company. Paramount Skydance is working on an offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, a media mega-brand that owns disparate brands ranging from CNN and DC Studios to HBO. CNBC reports that the mostly-cash bid would price Warner Bros. Discovery at around $22 to $24 per share. Skydance, now Paramount Skydance, was founded by Oracle co-founder Larry Ellisons son David Ellison, who operates the company as its CEO. His sister, Megan Ellison, is already an established name in Hollywood as the founder of independent film production house Annapurna Pictures. With Paramount in its quiver, Skydance now owns Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, CBS, CBS News, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and Showtime, among other entertainment properties. If the company succeeds with rumored plans to buy Warner Bros., it would also pick up Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Studios, DC Comics, Turner Classic Movies, New Line Cinema, HBO, HBO Max, CNN, the Discovery Channel, the Travel Channel, TBS, TNT, Warner Bros. theme parks. Warner Bros. Discovery is currently worth north of $45 billion. Shortly after the deal closed, Ellisons Paramount announced a $7.7 billion deal to stream all UFC fights in the U.S. for the next seven years. The partnership reportedly doubles what ESPN was paying to air UFC matches a mark of Ellisons aggressive approach. Warner Bros. plans interrupted If Skydance Paramount lands Warner Bros. Discovery, the merger would interrupt the latters plans to split itself into two public companies by 2026. In June, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it would divide its assets into two parts: a streaming and studios company and a global networks company. The streaming company would peel off DC Studios, HBO, HBO Max, Warner Bros. Television and Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group while the latter would focus on sports, news and traditional TV, including CNN, TNT Sports, Discovery and Bleacher Report. This separation will invigorate each company by enabling them to leverage their strengths and specific financial profiles. This will also allow each company to pursue important investment opportunities and drive shareholder value,” Warner Bros. Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels said of the plan. While massive media consolidation is the name of the game in recent years, Warner Bros. wouldnt have been the first entertainment giant opting to divide and conquer. Late last year, Comcast announced that it would spin a chunk of its portfolio off into its own cable TV and digital media-focused entity initially called SpinCo and since renamed to Versant. Its portfolio of brands is set to include USA, CNBC, MSNBC, E!, Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango. The Ellison family builds a media behemoth As an outsider media company, Skydance is uniquely positioned to make splashy moves on entrenched entertainment giants. Thats largely thanks to its links to the elder Ellison, who earlier this month briefly surpassed Elon Musk as the richest man in the world. Oracles stock has soared by more than 40% in 2025, driven by cloud revenue and planned AI investments, including an eye-watering $300 billion 5-year deal with OpenAI. Oracles name has also long been linked to a plan to force ByteDance to sell TikTok to a U.S-based owner that was initiated during the first Trump administration but still hasnt come to pass. David Ellison is moving swiftly to consolidate media companies under his banner and it likely has the political goodwill with the Trump administration to succeed. Skydances $8.4 billion merger with entertainment industry pillar Paramount was approved by the FCC in July. That same month, Paramount paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit from the Trump administration targeting it and CBS News over an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris. While many legal experts viewed the $10 billion lawsuit as frivolous, Paramounts decision to settle was criticized as a bid to endear itself to the Trump administration. A week prior to the FCC approval, CBS announced that it would kill Stephen Colberts The Late Show, which regularly lambasts Trump. After Paramount decided to settle, Colbert famously denounced the decision as a big fat bribe. The Ellison familys unimaginable wealth certainly positions it well to fulfill its ambitious media dreams, but Larry Ellisons history as a Trump ally might prove just as potent. The Trump administration has wielded its regulatory power in shocking ways that are already reshaping the media landscape, which is in a period of unprecedented consolidation. Earlier this week, ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air after the late night host accused Trump supporters of leveraging Charlie Kirks death for political gain and insinuated that Kirks shooter may have been aligned with the political right. Echoing conservative backlash against Kimmel, FCC Chair Brendan Carr criticized the hosts comments and threatened to use the regulatory agencys might under Trump to punish its detractors a threat that seemed to prompt instant action from ABC. I mean, we can do this the easy way or the hard way, Carr said. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or theres going to be additional work for the FCC ahead. Carrs comments and ABCs apparent capitulation inspired an outpouring of concern that the Trump administration is violating the First Amendment by wielding its power directly to quell its critics. Even some Republicans have expressed free speech concerns, including Senator Ted Cruz, who characterized the Kimmel situation dangerous as hell and right out of Goodfellas.
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E-Commerce
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