Variety’s Entertainment Summit at CES will return on Jan. 8 to the Aria Las Vegas. The summit is set to feature panels and keynote conversations with top executives and is open to all CES badgeholders. Ravi Ahuja, incoming president and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, is set to headline. Silvia Candiani, VP of telecommunications and media and entertainment for gaming at Microsoft; Amy Reinhard, president of advertising at Netflix; Fernando Szew, CEO of FOX Entertainment Global; and Jen Wong, COO of Reddit will also be featured.
Ahuja, currently president and COO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, will rise to CEO starting Jan. 2. He will join Cynthia Littleton, Variety’s co-editor-in-chief, on stage to speak to Sony Pictures’ unique position in the industry landscape. The Culver City-headquartered studio is home to recent feature film hits “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” “It Ends With Us,” “Venom: The Last Dance,” “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” and “Anyone but You,” and acclaimed gameshows and series such as “Wheel of Fortune,” “Jeopardy,” “American Idol,” “Shark Tank,” “Outlander,” “Cobra Kai,” “The Last of Us,” “Twisted Metal,” “The Night Agent,” “For All Mankind” and “Dark Matter.”
Candiani joins Melody Hildebrandt, CTO of Fox; Sara DeWitt, GM of PBS Kids and Adrienne Lahens, global head of content strategy and operations at TikTok Creator Marketing Solutions; and Hugh McBurgin, EY America’s AI and data analytics leader for the panel discussion “Succeeding With AI and Entertainment.”
Szew will be featured alongside Rahul Purini, president of Crunchyroll; Barry Jossen, president and head of A+E Studios; Angela Russo-Otstot, chief creative officer at AGBO; and Beatrice Springborn, president of UCP and Universal International Studios; in the conversation “Visionaries of Breakthrough Programming.”
The “Fans, Creators, and Marketers Unite!” panel will be moderated by Dennis Ortiz, principal of Deloitte Consulting LLP, and will feature Laura Jones, CMO of Instacart; Tim Clark, chief brand officer of NASCAR; Gigi Guerra, head of influencer marketing at Target; Darren Abbott, chief brand officer of Hallmark, and Tulani André, head of social media of NatGeo.
The “Building a Storyverse” through Innovation panel will talk about how companies are looking at opportunities across film, TV, video games, music, podcasting and more to tell their stories. Speakers include Nadine Zylstra, global head of programming of Pinterest; John Jelley, SVP of product and user experience at Peacock & Global Streaming, NBCUniversal Media; Carly Zipp, global director of brand marketing at Amazon Ads; and Shachar Scott, VP of Reality Labs Marketing, Meta.
Media and entertainment leaders weigh in on what they are excited about now and what new technologies are poised to make waves in 2025 in the “Breakthrough Tech Trends – What Will Stick?” panel. Joining Wong of Reddit are Paige Fitzgerald, COO, Patreon; Rebecca Glashow, CEO, BBC Media; Jennifer Koester, president and COO, The Sphere.
Netflix’s Reinhard will be featured alongside Alison Levin, president advertising at NBCUniversal; Bruce Campbell, chief strategy and revenue officer at Warner Bros Discovery; and Donna Speciale, president advertising and marketing of TelevisaUnivision in the panel discussion “The Business of Media.”
Further updates to be announced at a later date.
“We are honored to again host our Entertainment Summit at CES,” said Variety chief operating and marketing officer Dea Lawrence. “We’re grateful for all the executives joining our panels and keynotes as they engage in high-level conversations and provide industry insights for 2025.”
TalkShopLive is an official partner of the event and Deloitte, Ernst & Young and Shout! Studios are supporting partners of the event. Variety’s Entertainment Summit at CES is open to all CES registrants. Programming can be found here: variety.com/ces.
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