Michael Shaun Conaway

Mr. Michael Shaun Conaway serves as Chief Executive Officer at Storyworks, Inc. http://storyworks.com/work Mr. Conaway is Co-Founder of Ncite Neuromedia Inc. [1]

"Michael Shaun Conaway (MFA, 1993) recalls that one of the first lessons he learned at Naropa's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics was there was never one right way to do things. While everyone had an opinion, he learned that ultimately his writing succeeded or failed because of his choices. "As a writer and author, I had to be very secure in my vision. More than learning to write at Naropa, I learned to become the owner of my own creative vision."

"That confidence has served Michael Shaun throughout his career. Living in Los Angeles in the mid-90s, Michael Shaun launched his gaming and film career in the CD-ROM era. His first project was developing a game with the music of BB King. Gaming work translated into creating and directing television commercials, first animation, then live action. "If there's a theme to anything I've done in my career, it's that I've been completely willing, for better or worse, to jump in and say this is the way it's going to be."

"A turning point came in 2000, when making the documentary Principles of Alignment in Science and Nature. This venture inspired Michael Shaun and his partner Alex Melnyk to look at what kind of business they wanted to be. After a sabbatical in Italy and Australia to work on screenplays, they returned to the States with a renewed focus on leadership development. "We started kicking around this notion of only doing products that are good for people and good for the planet. We're not puritanical about who we work with, but I've certainly come to the point where I only want to work on projects that express my purpose, harkening back to my early Buddhist days, of liberating people's greatness."

"As they continued to work on leadership development through film, they noticed that they weren't seeing the outcomes they hoped for. They returned to gaming to create more interactive leadership training. Their first project was with Coca Cola, and internal metrics revealed that the program was a great success. This inspired the launch of NCite, a gaming platform devoted to bridging "that gap between 'understanding' and real and lasting behavior change." Currently, they are working on personal development gaming platforms, looking to extend their knowledge of human interaction beyond the corporate world and into everyday relationships." [2]

In case that doesn't keep them busy enough, Michael Shaun and Alex also have a film company, Watermoon Films. With seven properties total, four in production, works range from documentary to dramatic feature films. They are also investigating interactive possibilities so that audience and filmmaker can engage in dialog. "

Films

• Wake Up! The Movie - Director
• Being One - Director [3]
• Allignment in Science and Nature - Director