Daily coverage of FCIF: Highlights from day 3 at the Fast Company Innovation Festival

The 2024 Fast Company Innovation Festival has also emerged as a place where innovators come to tell stories.

On Wednesday, on the third day of the festival, Lin-Manuel Miranda announced on stage that Grammy-winning singer Lauryn Hill would cover Miranda’s new song. Heroes a concept album. Meanwhile, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos gave a peak at some streaming figures to be released in the biannual engagement report, scheduled for release today.

These kinds of off-the-cuff moments have made the 10th annual festival fun and exciting so far. And the third day of the program did not disappoint, with 40 sessions and receptions focused on technology, sustainability, entrepreneurship, wellness, and creativity.

Below are Wednesday’s highlights:

‘We must always reserve the right to wisdom’

Over the past decade, Netflix has often taken a bold stand, saying it “won’t” do things like original programming, advertising, or live sports, only to later backtrack. So what gives? Sarandos shared that the word “never” is a way to focus, both on what is definitely happening and what doesn’t make sense at a given time.

But businesses are not religions, he added, and must remain resilient and ready for change. “I think we should always have the right to be wise.”

Shaking up the system, including going back on some of those “never” promises, will help the streaming giant stay competitive. And in a crowded market, Sarandos challenged their competitors to release their viewership figures, as Netflix plans to do today. He teased a key data point from Thursday’s engagement report: Viewers spent 94 billion hours watching Netflix in the first six months of the year. “That’s a lot of time.”

Is Miranda returning to Broadway?

It’s been almost a decade since the Tony-winning musical Hamilton first released off-Broadway, and there is understandable interest about when its fictional creator will return to the Great White Way. Could Miranda be charging back to Broadway with Heroesa concept album due out in mid-October that he co-wrote with award-winning actor and playwright Eisa Davis?

Although it was “really fun” to write the album, which is a retelling of the 1979 film Heroes, Miranda takes things one step at a time—especially because it’s a “tricky” thing to adapt to music or stage. “The plan is to just roll it out and see how people react.”

At the very least, Miranda hopes the album will resonate with fans of the film, which tells the story of a gang of street gangs who make their way from New York City to their Coney Island home. “It’s a movie we know well too [the album is] a love letter to that movie,” Miranda told the audience. “If you’re a movie buff, you’ll be very happy.”

Taking a provocative action

With the US presidential election less than 50 days away, the current political climate has been a constant theme of the festival. While immigration reform is desperately needed, it must not be political.

But world-renowned chef José Andrés says the harsh treatment of immigrants is the result of a blue-collar divide that doesn’t serve the needs of the American people or the economy.

“I go to blue states and red states in emergencies, and you know what I saw?” Andrés asked the audience. “In the worst times of humanity, the best people emerge, and you will see people in the kitchen helping to feed the American people, not because they are Republicans or Democrats, but because they are Americans helping Americans, people helping people.”

It’s also important to look beyond the “woke” battles that make the headlines to what’s really happening inside businesses, Elizabeth Gore, founder and president of Hello Alice, said during an interview. “What you see on the news is not what you see on Main Street at all,” he told attendees.

Speeding up versus slowing down

The festival highlighted how various innovators find inspiration—some people are inspired by the latest technology, while others choose to slow down.

Perhaps surprisingly, Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, is very keen on artificial intelligence. In fact, he told festivalgoers that the interactive AI tool—Copilot Pages, a new feature released by Microsoft earlier this week—is already part of his daily routine. “When innovation meets collaboration, the possibilities are limitless.”

Although Nobel Laureate and biochemist Jennifer Doudna has been pursuing CRISPR, the emerging gene editing technology, her creativity really flows outside of technology. “I’ve been doing my best to think when I’m not sitting in a lab or at a desk, but when I’m speaking frankly in nature, or even when I’m in my yard pulling weeds in my garden,” he said.

Similarly, Miranda said that she is often struck by thoughts that will not leave her alone while walking the dog, taking a shower or driving. “My best ideas come when I can’t write anything down.”