Variety’s Entertainment and Technology Summit will highlight the impact of AI

VarietyThe Entertainment and Technology Summit on September 26 will feature industry leaders discussing the impact of advancing technology on TV, film, gaming, music, digital media and consumer brands. The one-day event, presented by City National Bank, will take place at The London West Hollywood.

Among the guests is Eli Collins, Google DeepMind Vice President of Product Management, who will speak on the panel titled “Generative AI – Succeeding With the Genie Out of the Bottle.” He contextualizes how breakthroughs like the Transformer laid the foundation for today’s generative AI boom, and underpin the image, video, and other AI models that are disrupting the industry.

“We’ll see AI tools that serve as creative collaborators… imagine a movie that changes its tone and pace to match your mood, or a music playlist that evolves with your tastes throughout the day,” says Collins. “Most of us have a video camera in our pocket all day; Think of the stories you can tell in a world where AI lets you transform the images you create in any way you can imagine.”

Annie Luo, EVP of Global Partnerships and Strategic Development at Peacock, will be part of the “Perfecting the Business of Streaming” panel. Her team is focused on launching innovative partnerships and cites Peacock’s deals with InstaCart and JetBlue as key examples.

She details the streamer’s mixed virtual reality partnerships with Meta. “A growing part of the creative business we are focusing on is virtual and mixed reality with partners like Meta,” says Luo. “We have a multi-year deal that brings Peacock and the iconic NBCUniversal IP to a variety of Meta’s Reality Labs surfaces, including Horizon Worlds and Mera Quest headsets. This allows us to innovate around our IP and attract new, younger audiences.”

Former “Modern Family” star and host of “Dinner’s on Me with Jesse Tyler Ferguson,” Ferguson will speak on the “Podcast All-Stars” panel, explaining how he tries to get the word out about his podcast by talking to fans to engage in conversations and conversations with guests via social media. “People can visually see the connection we have and listen to it in the podcast itself,” he says. “Each episode is a little different in terms of how I distribute it on social media.”

Warner Bros. TV’s Channing Dungey and DC Studios’ Peter Safran are this year’s keynote speakers, sharing their insider knowledge on the changing scope of the entertainment industry due to technological advancements. Pinterest CCO Malik Ducard and NBCUniversal President Scripted Lisa Katz are among the speakers for the “Entertainment Content Visionaries” panel and will outline new strategies for creating projects that connect with audiences.

Erin Oremland – General Manager, AgilLink and SVP, and Head of Ecosystem Delivery – will discuss how entertainment companies are building infrastructure in a panel called “Advancing Financial Operations in an Uncertain Media Marketplace.” In the panel titled “Power Couple: Entrepreneurship + Entertainment,” industry leaders discuss how they are working to find innovative ideas to drive growth.

In the panel “Expedia Group Brands: Empowering Digital Creators and Commerce,” Expedia Group’s Lauri Metrose highlights a groundbreaking initiative in the travel industry as she collaborates with influencer Caroline Baudino. Similarly, on the panel ‘Marketer Renaissance – Masters of Storytelling Across Platforms’, industry leaders discuss their strategies for impactful storytelling across platforms, including outdoor, online, TV, print and merchandise.

Tim O’Brien, CRO of Scopely, speaks with guests on the ‘Game Changing Deals’ panel about the mega-deals and mergers that have transformed both traditional entertainment and the video game industry. It will be followed by “Building Cultural Bridges in the Global Streaming Entertainment Era,” a panel of Amazon leaders representing various entertainment services and divisions who will discuss how the streaming media landscape can serve as a conduit for diversifying audience reach while building of equality.

An event schedule can be found here.