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Universal (UVV): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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Bob Dennis, Senior Director of Creative Studio & Resort Development, Universal Beijing Resort, In conversation with Nicholas Gordon, Editor, Asia Fortune

Brainstorm Design 2024: Designing Memories

Conferences

Bob Dennis, Senior Director of Creative Studio & Resort Development, Universal Beijing Resort, In conversation with Nicholas Gordon, Editor, Asia FORTUNE  

So I thought there would be a fireplace. Uh Fortune invited me to a fireside chat. So I thought there would be a fireplace. But we brought is, is how is is wordplay part of your tool kit for memorable experiences. Yeah, it's immersion. Don't you feel cozy? So we're, we're going to get into your thoughts on park design, how to build immersive experiences, how to leverage emotions. But I have to ask, I'm a fervent player of video games. What was it like for Universal to work with Nintendo? Oh Amazing. First of all, Miyamoto. So is a genius and uh it's a learning curve for both of us. Uh because in the world of video games, it's digital and our world is physical with steel and concrete. Um So it's a learning curve on both sides but an amazing partnership. So, so as mentioned, you know, you've worked in this space for over 30 years. I believe your first gig was working for a San Rio theme park back in 1988. How has theme park design changed over the decades? Well, I'm old. So um when we were designing theme parks back in the eighties we didn't have any computers, we didn't have computer assisted design. It was all done with a pencil and then ink and then of course you pulled your prints. Um But everything was exhibition then and the industry has changed so much that now it's immersion. Um And we're getting better and better at that, but we've been doing immersion since before the term was even coined. So, I mean, let's split at that. I mean, given your long experience kind of working with immersive experiences, you know, before, was a buzzword that people used. You know, how do you actually create such an immersive memorable experience? What's your toolkit? And I believe we have some slides, maybe even some audience engagement a little bit as we go through this. So I think the table stakes because of where we are, it's a good reference. The table stakes are excellent storytelling and of course, um you'll hear this often today. Um visual stimulation, sensory input. So you need a, you need a beautiful picture, but you also need a logical story that the guests can connect to and find their place in what it is that you're trying to present. So that's cable stakes and where you have to go further is you have to, you want people to connect to the story you have and most people forget about emotion. So every memorable experience can be done by senses here in Macau, you get a sense of awe, a sense of grandeur. But what's missing to make it an episodal autobiographical memory is emotion. So the best connection is always made through emotions and often people confuse feelings with emotions. So there's a million colors and everything that we do happens here, it happens inside the brain, regardless of how good your design is or how grand your experience is, all of it has to be encoded so that we have an experience without the memory. What's the point? Right? So most people don't realize that with three colors, you can make a million, a million different colors with eight basic emotions. You can also make a million different feelings. And it's very important to understand the difference between emotions and feelings. OK? Can you guys guess what this emotion is? We don't need mics, you can just yell it out just fine play along, right? So this is obviously joy. I created these images um to trick you in a minute. Um But yeah, these are facial expressions uh that evoke that particular chemistry happening in your limbic system. So you understand joy, the opposite of joy. Of course, the next one, sadness, right? And after sadness, I'll, I'll see if you can guess this one. This is the trick. Most of you are thinking love, however, love is not an emotion. Love is a feeling that is a combination of several emotions. It could be joy, sadness, disgust, right? And um these all come together in a symphony inside our brain that we equate with the feeling of love. So it's trust, trust is the emotion. This one is a good one discussed, right? This is baked into our limbic system for your survival. Um And so memories that are formed along with this emotion are deeply encoded anger when we have a perceived wrong. Um These also are strongly recorded, not as moments but as experiences. So they're, they're like little videos instead of a snapshot. If somebody makes you afraid, you will retell this experience over and over again in great detail. OK? Anybody anger, right? Same process. So every oh they made me so mad and then they'll tell you every little detail because it's been recorded as an autobiographical memory. It was, it was an experience. OK? This one, this one, Alfred Hitchcock was a master at this. We use it often too um anticipation. And then finally, uh this is where you take your redirect. So if you use the emotion of anticipation, the brain starts creating all kinds of scenarios on its own and it engages deeply in the frontal cortex. And what this does is creates more engagement and people are doing their own self reflection. And then of course, you do the redirect, you take them into a way that they did not expect the outcome to be and we get surprised. So we have these eight emotions then how are you kind of putting them all together? And leverage them into a memorable experience. I mean, some of these emotions make sense for a theme park setting, joy, surprise anticipation, even fear, some feel a little bit, you know, maybe not quite as easy to put into an entertainment setting like discussed. So how are you leveraging all of these emotions together to kind of tell a story in the real world? It's a good point. So you don't want to manipulate people and you don't want to use uh emotions as trickery. So it has to be authentic. And so I think most designers forget about engineering those emotions in putting together a recipe or a symphony that causes crescendos and date crescendos. And that, that working together engages the person into a story and they, they're all useful, but some, we use more than others, obviously joy. Um There's a great one, anticipation. We try to stay away from fear and disgust, but they're used, we, we do use them. Um I want you to dive a bit deeper about kind of adapting these ideas, you know, a lot of universal zone properties, the properties of your partners like Warner for Harry Potter or Nintendo. These are things that exist on the page or on the screen. They don't exist in the real world. You know, as much as some of us would love magic to exist in the real world. It, it it doesn't. But how do you take these things that only exist? You know, in fiction basically and make them work as a real world experience. So this is why I'm losing my hair. Um So our, our creatives um Miyamoto Song JK Rowling, um They're amazing at creating worlds in print or production designers like Stuart Craig for film and they can pretty much create anything that they can imagine. So our job is to take that world and those stories and connect our guests to those characters. But we have to do it with steel and concrete building codes, safety requirements, throughput, operability. Um Basically, we shouldn't do anything because it's almost impossible. And yet we have many parts around the world that do just that. So um it, it's very difficult to, to translate, but we're very fortunate because we work with our IP partners and the films are there, we only get three or four minutes to, to kind of get people through that experience. Um And so we do a lot of callbacks, a lot of bringing up things that they saw or remembered in the film. And we have to do that in a way they can touch it. So a gag has to work every time, every day for years, not just to catch it, capture it on film. So I would say we use all the sciences um and all the arts and that our attractions are some of the most sophisticated machines there are. And I think that when you go to a theme Park. We don't want you to know that we try to keep that secret, but it's a fact. Um I want to stick on this film point for a second and how it connects particularly to one memory I have of going to Universal Studios, Japan when I was a very small child. I still remember seeing the Water World Exhibit for those who don't know. Water World is a 1995 film starring Kevin Costner. Um I'll say reactions to the film were mixed and being charitable. Um But I dare say the attraction is more, is, is, is more famous than the film at this point. Um It's in, it's in many of um universal parks. Um And so kind of why do you think this attraction in particular is so popular? And how does it fit in your philosophy for immersion and experience? We actually have some video that you can have talked for a bit first. It's a very good example. So the film mixed reviews on the film II, I don't think it was a blockbuster. Um But we were able to take uh from that film and use the emotions that are created by it and do a stunt spectacular. So not only was it visual, which is great and great sound and great lighting and great special effects, but everything is real. We don't use projections, there's real flames, we set the entire lagoon on fire and you will feel the heat from that and you will get wet. Um But in the story itself, we also engage many of the emotions, you may be angry at the villain. Um You feel some joy. So I think that the theme park experience in this example um has outlived the film and we're gonna show a little bit of it what actually happens on screen. Um So I want to talk about kind of another stakeholder in this discussion. We've talked about designers universal, we've talked about it partners, but there's also the fans um these are worlds with uh I'm going to call them very devoted fan bases, very passionate fan bases. That's true of Harry Potter. It's true of Nintendo, it's true of your um your peers at Disney, you have to work in Star Wars. Fans are passionate, they are also a little nuts. Um And so how do you kind of design these experiences in a way to kind of give fans what they want to make it memorable for them, but also managing expectations and managing it for those who maybe haven't read every single book a dozen times. So I think as designers, we often get caught up in our own story and um we, we wanna engage our visitors to remember what they want to experience. So at Universal, we really believe our guests are co creators. We engage often and constantly with those, not just the deep fans, but with uh the people that may not be deep fans, it's very important to get that feedback so that you're telling the story that they can get, that you're telling the story that they want to experience and that you don't get too stuck in what you want. Um So it has to be more objective, a little less subjective and constantly engaging with the feedback from the fans and we love hearing from them. Um And you're right, some of them are a little crazy, but we love that kind of crazy. Um You know, just kind of, it's gonna bring a kind of more examples of rides we've worked on. I mean, what's maybe another one of these exciting rides that you've worked on that really kind of shows your philosophy on, on designing immersive and memorable experiences. So the the awards are, are Industry's Oscars and we received it last year for Jurassic World Adventure. You all have to come to Beijing. That's the only place that attraction exists right now and that I believe really checks all the boxes on visual stimulation, um experiential design, but more importantly, emotion. So I remember when we opened, uh there was a 12 year old boy that was a guest of a friend of mine. And after going on that attraction, he asked me quite seriously, uh what do we feed our dinosaurs, right? So, so that type of sense, the suspension of disbelief um can only be found in, in, in the major players in this and that was why that is my favorite. I'm going to have to find an excuse to go find a story to write about it and then get work to expense it. Um But thank you Bob for, for walking us through the toolkit on how you build immersive experiences at universal. We're going to take a short break right now. Please help yourself to coffee, which will be served right outside the ballroom. Don't forget to pick up a copy of Gensler's design forecast 2025 report available at the desk on a first come first serve basis. So grab your copy. Now we'll meet back here for our next conversation promptly at 1045. When we come back, we'll hear from two of Silicon Valley's leading industrial designers and a panel of accomplished design leaders on customer experience. We'll see you back here soon.

Pearlena Igbokwe, Chairman, Universal Studio Group, Debra Martin Chase, Chief Executive Officer, Martin Chase Productions, Nina Shaw, Founding Partner, Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein Lezcano Bobb & Dang, Sharon Waxman, Founder, Editor-in-Chief, CEO, TheWrap 

Most Powerful Women Summit 2024: Hollywood Power Panel  

Pearlena Igbokwe, Chairman, Universal Studio Group
Debra Martin Chase, Chief Executive Officer, Martin Chase Productions, Nina Shaw, Founding Partner, Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein Lezcano Bobb & Dang, Sharon Waxman, Founder, Editor-in-Chief, CEO, TheWrap 

Pearlena Igbokwe, Chairman, Universal Studio Group, Debra Martin Chase, Chief Executive Officer, Martin Chase Productions, Nina Shaw, Founding Partner, Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein Lezcano Bobb & Dang

Pearlena Igbokwe, Universal Studio Group, Debra Martin Chase, Martin Chase Productions, Nina Shaw, Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein Lezcano Bobb & Dang, Sharon Waxman, Founder, TheWrap 

All right. Hello. Hello everyone. Welcome. Um to this amazing assortment of powerhouse women who run the entertainment industry. Uh Pretty much pretty much. Ok, so, uh we're gonna get right to it right down to it. Um It's a tough time in the entertainment industry. People are being laid off, companies are going away. Companies are consolidating. Um You guys are in the trenches of it every day. So let's just talk, take it, get like, let's get real your view. How bad is it right now in the entertainment industry, you have many decades of experience between you, Palena. We'll start with you. How bad is it? Yeah. You know, look, I tend not to be an alarmist. You know, I think that there's probably lots of different times in our business when people thought it was the worst it's ever been. It's definitely challenging right now because I think there's been a lot of disruption in our business and people are being forced to rethink the business wholesale, which I think is really troubling for a lot of people. But I think in the midst of challenges, there's also opportunities to rethink the business, you know, and and perhaps it's an opportunity for us to, you know, think about how do we do it differently and who we do it with differently. So, yeah, it's, it's challenging, but I, I don't think it's necessarily horrible. Here's two things. One I have learned over the course of, you know, whatever 30 plus years you have to stay open and stay nimble because there's this, this build, this, this business is influenced by technology, culture, politics, you know, global economy. So you, you have to try and live in the present but also always look for it. But what I will say from the 30 years that I've been in business diversity is now a part of the business in a way that it has not been in the past. And part of that is a real recognition that there's money to be made. I mean, I was, you know, making this argument for years that diversity was good business and people were like, oh, I don't know if we haven't tried it out. We're scared to try it out. But now they know. And so there are more opportunities in many ways now now than there were even a decade ago. Yeah, let's talk a little bit more about that in a minute, Nina. What's your thought? Yeah, I, I tend to agree with um my colleagues uh because this is something that we see in the business and we've seen all along. I can remember when um cable TV, when the DV DVD world. So all these different things happened. Um, and it always felt like we weren't going to move along. The truth of it is, is that people have become much more adept at doing things in different ways. For example, you see a number of people in the business who really are small business owners and they're doing them in their homes at their computers. Uh So we see the advent of influencers and the way that they have impacted the business now, that's a group in the business that didn't exist 1015 years ago. And they have changed in many ways, the product we're seeing children's programming moving away from networks and broadcasting and into youtube. So, so every change is an opportunity, but it is a difficult time and I don't, certainly don't want to make. Um I don't, I don't wanna not talk about the people in the business, many of the below the line people who are finding it very difficult to adjust and, and we're seeing, I think for them a very, very tough times, but I have hope that we will come through it and yet um for each of you, um I think it's worth acknowledging each of you in your own careers, whether it's in the studio system or whether it's in independent producing or whether it's as uh a le a legal representation for so many people, Ava Duvernay and John Legend. And so many people I can go on about all their credits. It's like, absolutely remarkable. We have on this, we only have 20 minutes. So, um, what allowed you to think that there was a place for you because there were no models for the people. You were at a young age. And, well, I want to talk about each of your paths because they're so remarkable whether you're from New York or Illinois or Nigeria. Um, it's, um, it's an act of faith to create that path. And here you are now, still going strong, having incredible careers at a time where a lot of people are having to abandon the business frankly because it is so difficult, you know, how, how did you like, project yourself into the sort of key role you have now, you know, in some ways and in a very odd way. Um, it was a lack of opportunities that really made this so clear for me. I really didn't have. I remember when I was, I had gone a very traditional path after Columbia law school, gone to Big Law. And then from there, I was trying to get into the entertainment industry in, in the boutique law firm and no one would hire me. It was just an amazing experience to be as, as experienced a lawyer. I was with the kind of credentials I had and be unable to find a job. So I just went, I answered an ad in the news paper and ended up in a small law firm with great lawyers who ultimately trained me to be an even better entertainment lawyer. And then when it was time for me, I felt it was time to strike out on my own. It wasn't really a lot of other options. It was so funny how a lack of options can make, you can make your path very, very clear. And I ended up beginning my law firm. We just had our 35th anniversary. Um um I think with, with, um out being immodest, we are absolutely considered one of the top law firms and we're both with her would have been just kind of awkward otherwise. So sometimes when the doors are all seem to be closed, your way forward actually is a bit clearer because it's going to be what you make it. And that was really the lesson that I took from this. And I had such a great family, such as so many strong women in my family that, you know, they could do it. I had to do it, Deborah, how are you? So, I'd always loved film and television. My dad was huge, film, television buff. I was a lawyer. I practiced, you know, Harvard law school, big law firm, whatever. And I decided that what I really wanted to do in life was to make movies. I didn't know that nobody who looked like us was making movies. So it was actually you know, I got, when I got to Hollywood and I looked around and I'm like, really? And so, but I had, I, I was determined to do it. I wanted to do it and I figured other people are doing it so I can do it, which has been my philosophy, my whole life. So in some ways, it was like, you know, the ignorance of the situation, but also a belief in myself by that time because, you know, I, I successful kind of everything that I tried to do. And this is the thing I really wanted to do and I really wanted to have an impact on culture. I grew up not seeing people who look like us or felt like us on the screen. And I wanted to change that. And let's, let's, let's talk about some of the shows that you've made over the course of your career that have changed the way uh popular culture appears on, on our screens. Uh I mean, I know you, I, I can mention them. I mean, you did the Pelican brief and I, I actually do you ran Denzel Walk? We did uh devil in a blue dress and encouraging the fire and the preacher's wife and I picked the one that you didn't produce. OK. Di I say the Pri Cinderella Cinderella Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. One, am I right? OK. So stuff that equalizer, equalizer. OK. Together. Yeah. So these are things that have really had a big impact on shaping what, what the conversation is, what's conventional wisdom, what's normal, what's interesting and I'm really proud of it. All right. And thank you for that and should be Palena. So, you know, I was born in Nigeria, came to this country when I was very young. So I was obsessed with television because that's how I got acclimated to this country. And I think that's similar, similar story for a lot of, you know, immigrants and, you know, TV teaches you, you know, in some ways like values, like what are you supposed to aspire to? What are you supposed to believe in? Um And so I had this deep seated desire one day to, to work in television, but it's deep seated because I never thought it would happen because I didn't know anyone who worked in TV. And it wasn't until I got to college and I was looking for a summer job one day I saw on the board it says NBC was looking for summer associates colleges. Yale, by the way. So, you know, so, so it was like my mind exploded because I didn't know that people worked in television and they could pay you to make TV shows. So I applied, I got the job and I spent two summers in New York and it was like life changing for me. II, I was in the business, you know, and then I had to figure out how to get a, uh, a permanent job in the business. That was not as easy as I thought I applied everywhere and no one wanted me. Um, so I went to do something else and worked in financial services for a while. And then I decided when I, I want to go back into entertainment and figure it out, I went to business school and then eventually, uh, made my way into a Showtime network on the marketing side, hoping one day I'd get to the entertainment side and I did after a few years and I came out to L A and I was just determined to go, you know, for my path. Now. It's interesting because already I, where I was, I felt so improbable, you know that, oh my gosh, I'm this immigrant kid who's now in entertainment. I kind of felt like there's nothing I can't do because I've already done this. And what made me feel like there was a path for me. I went to an event and I saw this woman who was a producer, she had produced Courage under fire. And, you know, all those other things that she produced and I saw her and I said, oh my God, there's this black woman who's a producer out there, you know, producing these amazing shows and by the way, always looking amazing. And uh and, and so I thought, like, wouldn't it be great to try to, you know, that maybe I could find, um, you know, a path in there as well. So, um, so that's, you know, it, it is a little bit of not knowing any better, you know, and sometimes not having another, you know, option. Um, that sort of gets you there and just, you know, it's a slow and steady path. It, it wasn't like I had a friend or an uncle who called someone and got ready for the job. Mine was, I say to people, I was the third. You guys are the anti nepo lady. I mean, I say to people, I was a 30 year overnight sensation. You know, like when I got this job, when I got this job, you know, uh as chairman, I mean, pe it was kind of like rich. She came out of nowhere, you know, and got this job and, you know, and that's for some people that was the perception and for me, it was, you know, steadily working in the business and hopefully performing well, you know, to get this job, I just want to mention a few of the shows that Palina has been, I don't have only have a couple of cards here, but at Showtime, Dexter nurse Jackie. Um is there anything you want to mention from your showtime at the moment? Masters of Masters of Sex. I love that series at NBC. She was responsible. Shows like this is us the black list. You've heard of any of the shows. Um, um, she was all, she's right now she's in charge of, um, NBC. Like a lot of production that includes things you're not seeing. You ever watched a Law and Order or? That's right. But then also, then also hacks hack girl, five of any, any winning hack, the Gilded Age bel Air Umbrella Academy. So, really? Yeah. And I, yeah, ok. Stop there Sharon. But I wanted to also point out that, you know, it looks like you're here and you've been here and it's always been like this, this, you know, you talk about the beginning of your career and nobody would give you a job. But even when you're on the path of a career, there are moments that are really challenging and when you ask yourself, can I continue to do this? And I just wanna ask you Deborah because you and I spoke, she was in Prague the other night at 11 p.m. talking to me awfully nice location scouting. Um So that's, you know, the job's fun for sure. But I mean, it's high risk and you mentioned that like that's something if I have it right that 10 years ago. So quit. Yeah, I was out so talk, talk about that. I just, you know, it was a time in the business, knows for sure because I was sitting over your house in tears. But um it was just a time in the business where nobody was interested in making TV or movies about women, about women of color, about people of color. It just was not happening. I would go in the pitch stuff. People's eyes would glaze over and, and, and, and, and honestly, I, I do believe part of my success is that I have been on a mission, you know, like I said, I wanted to have an impact on culture and imagery. And so then all of a sudden I found myself just throwing stuff up against the wall like, oh, this is a story about a dude. It just didn't, you know, it didn't have meaning for me. And if it doesn't have meaning for me, I can't sell it, I can't shape it. And so I, um and so I, I said, finally, I'm like, well, maybe this is the universe's way of saying it's been a good run. You need to think about doing something else. And so I literally spend, I've been at Disney for 20 years, grateful for that. But also, you know, had become kind of legacy wallpaper because everybody who was invested in me personally was long gone. And so I took a year what, you know, I'm still working, but to explore their options, should I practice law, film, finance, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever. And when I finally decided that no, this is, well, actually Vernon Jordan was the one who, who's a longtime friend and I was 18. I had known him since I was 18 years old and I went in and I told him this whole story was a known expert in the entertainment industry, but like AAA expert in my life in my life and knew me well. And he sat there and he listened to me and poured my heart out and he looked at me and he said, you are too old to do anything else. He said, what a warm heart, right? He said, you, you have a great reputation, you have great relationships, you have great experience, you need to figure out how to make it work. And it was that kind of boom, boom, you know that I was like, yes, you're right. And, and also I want to say one thing, literally, these women have held me up and I know we've helped each other. And so that and for this audience, you know, it's really important to know for a long time and, and that's important. No, it is. Uh Deborah and I actually met, I was a summer clerk. Deborah was a paralegal law firm and it was me and her and Anita Hill. And we were like, we were the three, we were the three black women, right? Yeah. And Anita was AAA summer clerk also. And I've known for Lena since the very early, I was, yeah. Now we work together and now when I took over a studio, I said, what producers do? I want to be in business? He called me uh you know, out of the blue and said, you know, are you interested? And I'm like, yes, yes. So it's the sisterhood is really important that that is so a let's tell you, there's representation that you guys are, have carved pathways for representation. You have created a sisterhood. And i it's really visible um throughout the industry, the number of women of color who are dominating in the industry. It is a, it's Shanda Rai who said that she was your intern or something like that when we talk about mentorship, right? These things really do matter and your careers are long enough that you're not, you're still working and people who were your interns are, no, I like, you know, didn't know at the time but like are in their prime, you know, from Shonda who wrote Princess Diaries Two for me and Hathaway, I discovered and Blake lively and Jesse Williams. I mean, so now all of a sudden, I I got the end with, you know, but it's, it's such an important point because I think these relationships are the things that hold you up in the world and you have to stay close to them. I mean, I have this great relationship with John legend, which is because of you because remember that night, so I called, I called Nina. I said they called me his producing partner called they need a lawyer. Nina was in the car that night met me at John's house, signed John and got the bonus of Chrissy and got the bonus of the whole family. And, and then John called me and said, well, I there's this young woman, she's from Philly, blah, blah, blah, on and on. And it turned out to be Linta Bronson who created this great show, Abbott Elementary. And all of these are this all started with me going to John's house that night with you. OK. So that, that those are all words of wisdom. They're gonna make me rap. I'm not going before I hear from each of you 30 days to the election. Kamala or Trump. What's your case? Oh Come on, we know we know it matters to everybody on this stage. Not. Who are you voting for? Who do you think? Oh, Kamala Car Carolina. Is this a question like three more questions? Kamala? All right. Yeah. OK. You heard it here. Thank you guys.

Experts weigh in on the science behind some of its early studies.

How would a universal vaccine work?

Francesco Militello Mirto/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Health

the question on the table is can we develop what's referred to as a universal coronavirus vaccine, something that will protect us against the future epidemic or pandemic. The idea of a universal coronavirus vaccine is obviously gaining currency now and more and more people are starting to work on it. The work is all I think still in the laboratory there are not clinical trials yet of these universal vaccine ideas definitely a global effort. I mean there are research groups around the world working on this and health authorities around the world that our interest in this. The step is the coalition for epidemic preparedness innovations. Uh, it is a relatively new international organization. It is a public private partnership. It involves lots of national governments, it involves the World Health Organization and it also involves private non governmental actors such as the Melinda Gates Foundation. So with interested in creating these efforts that are happening globally to create a universal vaccine. And thinking that's going on around how you might do that. And and what happened is a grit Stone, which is this California biotechnology company caught the attention of step uh, and you know, looking at these efforts globally, obviously decided the Grit Stones effort was the furthest along maybe the most promising and it's decided to provide almost $21 million I think 20.6 million is the exact number of funding to help Grit Stone run a phase one clinical trials of its universal vaccine in South Africa. And that trial is supposed to start by the end of the year, we formed Grit Stone about six years ago. And the reason we started the company was to try and improve and extend the benefits of cancer immunotherapy using the immune system to kill us. And so as we build grit Stone we had to establish and build two technologies. The first was to identify from all of the different protein mutations that happened in the um yourself which ones could be good targets for the immune system. The second challenge was once I've identified those great targets. The technical term is antigens. How can I administer them to a human to drive a really strong killer T cell response against those antigens. We've been working on this in cancer now And we then as the Star Kobe to pandemic unfolded we realized that we could take these two technologies and potentially apply them to Sars-Cov-2 because most vaccines generate good antibody responses to the virus but not so much on the killer T cell side. And when you have a natural immune response to viral infection you make antibodies and you make killer T cells. It's a reasonable supposition that there's real value in getting the killer T cells side of the equation revved up. I don't see this as a top priority at the moment designing an annual flu vaccine. Tight shot. It's perfectly okay to do some research on this but it's not the immediate priority. I don't think if we had a universal coronavirus vaccine that would prevent any future coronavirus outbreak. Everyone should be immunized with it now on a just in case basis. That's kind of the much more extreme idea because it would basically say let's immunize uh seven billion people on a just in case basis against something that we don't know will happen or when it would happen. So the more plausible and more conservative version of the concept is to have something with reasonably likelihood of certainty of efficacy and have it available to be mass produced and rolled out as and when needed. Then you get into the details of how would you do this? Some of them seem to be based on the idea that if you have a really really strong antibody response against SARS cov two, there would be enough cross reactivity to deal with other corona viruses that are not the same but sufficiently similar. So that's one concept and that's based on making a better version of the coronavirus vaccines that we all now know about from what I've read about the Grit Stone concept, it is largely based on inducing t cell responses against conserved regions of coronavirus is Well, that's a bold concept, should we say. And it's not one that's in sync with most of the other designs or with what we know about protective immunity against coronavirus is our platform. And the reason step is interested in it is that it's a slightly different form of RNA called self amplifying RNA that carries the potential benefit that you can use lower doses to achieve the same or perhaps even better benefit. Uh And that's why dozing is important. Uh you can do that because as the name suggests, the RNA makes copies of itself which means you can use a smaller delivered dose to actually achieve the same effect. And because you actually get double stranded RNA A. That looks really foreign to your immune system and may stimulate an even stronger immune reaction, which is what makes this kind of worth studying separately from the regular M RNA vaccines. You can't really run an efficacy trial against a virus that is crossing over to humans in 20 to 50 years time. Perhaps that you just literally don't know what it is. So you can't run an efficacy trial. So you can only really gauge your success on a relative immunogenicity. What induces the strongest immune responses that are the most cross reactive against viruses? That is a reasonable expectation that a future pandemic virus might mimic. And that's the only way that I could see of doing it. What is your best estimate of a future pandemic virus based on what we know and how well might this vaccine perform against it? And no, that's going to be some degree of judgment calls? I think first of all we should say that is this worth trying. I think the answer isn't undoubted yes because the nihilistic approach and to say too hard. Don't even bother just wait for the next pandemic and we'll try and deal with it when it comes. That comes at a huge crisis in terms of human lives and economic costs and suffering as well. Do I know the answer? Of course not. I think what we're doing is developing a scientifically rational, valid approach. It's based on human data. I think that's important, optimal doses, optimal formulation, optimal content to make sure the immune response is appropriate. That's all on the table. That's what we're working on now and a skeptic might say I don't think you're going to solve that problem. Well you may be right, I hope to prove you wrong.

“The new consumer is absolutely starving for something from the brand they support other than the products they buy,” says Alexandra Waldman.

Universal Standard cofounder on company's decision to support Planned Parenthood

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Why Universal Standard decided to support Planned Parenthood

Alex. I mean the questions of the female founder double standard and scrutiny go beyond, I think go beyond just investors. Um, you know, we've seen a lot of, we've seen a lot of concern, um, that it's, it's the press, its employees, it's your customers holding holding companies that are both run by women. And I think especially stand for something or embrace some sort of social justice mission may put themselves up more for failure or be put up more for failure. And I'd be curious, um, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on this, this whole conversation. So really a really a timely question because what people expect from companies today is quite different than, um, even a few years ago, certainly partly because of social media and I think partly because of the, um, political challenges, sociopolitical challenges of the last five years. I think that I think everybody kind of scratched their head and said, you know, you know, we've got to change something because we're not, we're not going anywhere good. And so we um, had to decide who we wanted to be, and then we had to be it unashamedly. So just to give you an example, one of the organizations that we support very publicly is planned parenthood. And it's a controversial thing because there are people who are like, you know, I have very strong feelings About it one way or the other, and we we knew that as a company, um, you know, providing health care to two women, uh, was something that we felt very strongly about. And so we decided to publicly take a stand of support and support them financially through various sales or through collaborations. Um, and we kind of did it. We we sort of pulled the trigger and then we waited to see what would come our way. And it was amazing because there was almost no pushback uh, which told us that we understood our audience very well. Uh it also actually told us that the people who shop with universal standards want and expect our brands to fly the flag for what we stand for, what we believe in, and that it mattered to them, and that it um actually, um very often push them closer to the brand because they were proud to be associated with it in some other way other than just through the clothing. And throughout the five years that we've been around, we have uh, leaned more and more into what we believe in, um, both in terms of, you know, the social change, both active and reactive uh, with Black Lives Matter. And with, you know, I was taking a stand of our own that sometimes was difficult for for some of the audience that we had acquired early on to to kind of believe in or stand behind, but over the five years of being consistent with that, um we've really learned that the new consumer, this new consciousness is absolutely starving for something more from the brands they support than just the products they buy. They want to know that they are aligned in some other way. Um so this has definitely been something that um I think made us just a better company. We have our our return customer rate is so unbelievable that when people, um when we tell people that they're just like they're skeptics, but obviously, you know, we have full accountability and transparency to our board, so I can assure you this is all true, but on a bad day we have um 80 return, right Our customers, once they become customers, they are customers for life, like they really stick with the brand and every time we do any kind of um social content in terms of, you know, um whether it's with planned parenthood or blue jeans go green or supporting initiatives uh for you know, various organizations almost always um uh female or environment focused. Uh The response is tremendous and I know that it only sort of makes our brand stronger. Um and I really do believe that the shift, this sort of post social media shift um has become a very important aspect of running a successful business, at least it has for us.

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