The 30th anniversary of the HPA Tech Retreat may have just concluded, but the conversation continues to buzz across social media and in discussions throughout the community. After four days filled with stimulating talks, thoughtful debates, and valuable networking in the desert, the Retreat lived up to its reputation of driving its members and supporters toward the knowledge and perspective needed to navigate an ever-changing future.
The HPA Tech Retreat has always been a unique event. It's not just about attending conference sessions; it's about time and access-time to debate, reflect, and engage in meaningful conversations with industry peers. Attendees have the opportunity to network, converse, and interact with the brightest minds in the business.
The event kicked off on Sunday with a relaxing, bonding social day that featured a golf tournament, pickleball, yoga, and a bourbon tasting. The day culminated with a splashy welcome cocktail party, setting the tone for a week of lively discussion and connection.
From Monday through the end of the conference, a distinguished lineup of industry experts, artists, and visionaries took the stage to share their experiences and insights. Check out the full list of presenters here.
Innovation Zone: A New Stage for Technology Exploration
Monday morning's HPA Tech Retreat brunch welcomed attendees and opened the door to the Innovation Zone, an immersive environment for exploring new technologies and meeting experts. This year, the Innovation Zone debuted a stage, offering short tech presentations throughout the week, allowing attendees to experience emerging innovations firsthand.
Affordable Production Focus
Monday afternoon sessions, led by Mark Chiolis and Craig German, dove deep into the increasingly crucial topic of affordable production. Michael Cioni of Strada delivered an opening keynote, followed by presentations from industry leaders like Karyn Temple (MPA), Joshua Kulic (Mr. Beast), Rachel Joy Victor (fabric.ai), Renard Jenkins (IA2), Lori Schwartz (StoryTech), Angela Victor, Kathryn Brillhart, and many others.
AI in Film and TV Production: The Supersession
The 2025 Supersession topic, The Evolving Human Role in AI-Driven Film and TV Production and Post-Production Workflows. This session delved into the ever-evolving roles humans play in key business functions, as AI transforms the landscape. Panels examined how AI can enhance, rather than replace, human creativity.
One again the Supersession featured its Live without a Net segment, where live demos and tests go on during the conference. This year, professionals in animation, video editing, and visual effects attempted to complete tasks-traditionally requiring days-within a single day using AI-driven tools. From AI-driven analytics for marketing strategies to advanced scriptwriting tools, the session explored how AI is fostering a symbiotic relationship between technology and human creativity. How did it turn out? As expected, there were successes and learning curves, but the results were eye-opening.
Over 30 Panels with Industry Thought Leaders
Wednesday and Thursday's program, curated by longtime programmer Mark Schubin and the programming committee, featured more than 30 panels covering diverse topics. These sessions, led by an impressive group of panelists and moderators, provided valuable insights into the evolving landscape of media and entertainment. Schubin's Year in Review session was as insightful and popular as ever.
As always, the days were wrapped up with the popular What Just Happened segment hosted by Leon Silverman and Annie Chang, providing a lighthearted yet thoughtful look back at the week's highlights.
Breakfast Roundtables: Deep Dives with Experts
From Tuesday to Thursday, over 90 breakfast roundtables provided attendees the opportunity to engage in focused discussions with expert moderators on a variety of hot topics. The tables were packed, with lively debates and idea exchanges shaping the conversations.
A Memorable Week with New Insights and Connections
The VP Land Podcast, summed up the Retreat the HPA Tech Retreat stands apart from other industry events due to its carefully crafted environment. The event's structure naturally facilitates connections, and HPA has truly mastered the art of empowering meaningful interactions.
For other editorial coverage of the week, be sure to check out the reports from Carolyn Giardina at Variety, and imdb and James O'Neal at TV Technology. Additionally, search #HPATechRetreat on LinkedIn for a variety of comments, insights, and reflections. Feel free to share and post your own thoughts too!
Save the Date: HPA Tech Retreat 2026
It's never too early to mark your calendar for next year's HPA Tech Retreat! Join us from February 15-19, 2026, as we continue to shape the future of the industry. Planning for next year's event is already underway, and we're excited to make it even more impactful.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
31/08/2025
Legrand | AV, a global specialist and industry leader in audiovisual solutions, returns to CEDIA Expo 2025, taking place Sept. 4-6 in Denver, with a powerful li...
31/08/2025
Global media technology company Backlight will unveil new capabilities in its Iconik, Wildmoka, and Zype product lines at IBC2025 (booth #1.D09), September 12 1...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
The 30th anniversary of the HPA Tech Retreat may have just concluded, but the conversation continues to buzz across social media and in discussions throughout the community. After four days filled with stimulating talks, thoughtful debates, and valuable networking in the desert, the Retreat lived up to its reputation of driving its members and supporters toward the knowledge and perspective needed to navigate an ever-changing future.
