FT Live says it will host its inaugural Business of Entertainment Summit from 19-20 September in West Hollywood, California to find solutions to the industry’s biggest challenges, identify how collaboration can breed success and explore how businesses can capitalise on disruption.
The two-day summit will bring together key players across film, television, music and gaming for in-depth discussions on the state of the entertainment industry, added FT Live. Through a series of fireside chats, panels and interactive sessions, industry leaders and FT journalists will examine topics ranging from commercial strategies for Gen Z to reimagining the streaming model and the opportunities and risks of AI in entertainment.
The summit will feature business leaders, including Greg Peters, Co-CEO of Netflix; Tony Vinciquerra, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment; Jody Gerson, group chairman and CEO of Universal Music Publishing; Rebecca Glashow, CEO of BBC Global Media & Streaming; and Barry Diller, chairman and senior executive of IAC, among others.
“The entertainment industry is going through a period of prolonged disruption as new tech emerges,” said Chris Grimes, LA bureau chief at the FT. “As businesses come to terms with the new parameters of entertainment - new customers, new mediums and new opportunities - cooperation is more important than ever. It’s time for reinvention.”
According to FT Live, highlights from the summit include:
- Bill Kramer, CEO of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; Laura Naviaux Sturr, GM Operations at Amazon Games; Daniel Hong, Partner at Bain & Company; and Will McIntosh, President at Fandango & NBC Sports Next, on driving value across different mediums.
- Mike Minton, chief monetization officer at Twitch; Jordy Freed, head of brand, business development, partner marketing & strategy at Sony; Jade Sherman, agent, partner and head of digital at Gersh; Devi Mahadevia, senior vice president of strategy & growth at SoundCloud; and Paige Fitzgerald, COO at Patreon, on the opportunities and threats of a content creator economy.
- Alison Hoffman, president at Domestic Networks, STARZ ; Justin Wilkes, president at Imagine Entertainment; Josh Rosenbaum, partner and producer at Waypoint Entertainment; and Steve Martin, vice president at Lightspeed Studios, on the transformation of production and distribution.
- Sam Wu, CEO of Rakuten Viki and Jon Miller, CEO of IMC on what financing is needed to catalyse the entertainment industry in new regions.
