Variety’s Entertainment and Technology Summit Will Highlight AI Impact

Variety’s Entertainment and Technology Summit on Sept. 26 will feature industry leaders who will discuss 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 be hosted at The London West Hollywood. 

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

“We’re going to see AI tools that serve as a creative collaborator…imagine a film that adapts its tone and pacing to match your mood, or a music playlist that evolves with your tastes throughout the day,” Collins says. “Most of us have a video camera in our pockets throughout the day; think about the stories you’ll be able to tell in a world where AI lets you transform the footage you’ve shot in any way you can imagine.”

Annie Luo, EVP of Global Partnerships and Strategic Development at Peacock, will be on 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 describes the streamer’s mixed virtual reality partnerships with Meta. “A growing area of the creative business we are leaning into is virtual and mixed reality with partners like Meta,” Luo says. “We have a multiyear deal that brings Peacock and iconic NBCUniversal IP into a variety of Meta’s Reality Labs surfaces, including Horizon Worlds and Mera Quest headsets. This allows for us to innovate around our IP and bring in new, younger audiences.”

Former “Modern Family” star and host of “Dinner’s on Me with Jesse Tyler Ferguson,” Ferguson will speak at the “Podcast All-Stars” panel, explaining how he tries to highlight his podcast by engaging with fans as well as promoting conversations with guests through social media. “People can visually see the connection that we have as well as listen to it in the podcast itself,” he says. “Every episode is a little different on how I push it out on social media.”

Warner Bros. TV topper Channing Dungey and DC Studios’ Peter Safran are this year’s keynote speakers, sharing their inside knowledge of the changing scope of the entertainment industry due to the advances in technology. 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 to create projects that connects with audiences. 

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

In the “Expedia Group Brands: Empowering Digital Creators and Commerce” panel, Lauri Metrose from Expedia Group highlights a groundbreaking initiative in the travel industry while collaborating with influencer Caroline Baudino. On a similar note, in the panel “Marketer Renaissance – Masters of Storytelling Across Platforms,” industry leaders discuss their strategies for impactful storytelling across diverse platforms, including outdoor, online, TV, print and merchandise.

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

A schedule of events can be found here.