NAB 2026: Creators, Media Leaders, Storytelling Legends and AI Step Into the Spotlight as Lineup is Unveiled

NAB Show 2026, taking place April 18-22 (exhibits April 19-22) at the Las Vegas Convention Center, has announced its speaker and session lineup, covering the creator economy, filmmaking, streaming, artificial intelligence, broadcast technology and journalism.

We're seeing a moment where technology, creativity and business are all evolving at the same time, said Karen Chupka, Executive Vice President, Global Connections and Events at NAB. The 2026 NAB Show brings that entire ecosystem together to explore how those changes are shaping the future of storytelling.

NAB says current registration shows a 200% increase over 2025 in attendees who describe themselves as content creators, influencers or podcasters, with self-described producers of social media content up about 150%.

Creator Lab - The Creator Lab, presented in partnership with Adobe and Blackmagic Design, returns with a larger footprint. Sessions include Beyond Views: Measuring Creator Impact, Creator Survival Guide: Contracts, Burnout & the Business of Building Content, and Are We Nervous Yet: A Creator's Guide to AI.

Media and Entertainment Theater - In partnership with The Ankler, the theater will host sessions on media industry business. The Scary-Smart Business of Horror will feature Markiplier, filmmaker and creator behind the feature film Iron Lung ; Akela Cooper, screenwriter of M3GAN and Malignant ; and Michael Clear, President of Atomic Monster. The session will be moderated by Natalie Jarvey of The Ankler.

Other sessions include The Cost of Bearing Witness: Journalist Safety in a Polarized America, moderated by CNN anchor John Berman; The Evolving Paradigm of Broadcast News with veteran broadcast journalist Deborah Norville and Perry Sook, Chairman and CEO of Nexstar Media Group; and Who Controls the Pipe? Platform Distribution, Power and the New Deal Economics, featuring Matt Schnaars of NBCUniversal and Tedd Cittadine of Roku.

CineCentral - Cinematographer Sir Roger Deakins will appear April 20 at 1:30 p.m. in a discussion with his wife and collaborator James Deakins about their careers and book Reflections: On Cinematography. CineCentral programming covers cinematography, directing and camera operation, with workshops including The Storyteller's Guide to Production on a Tight Budget.

AI and Streaming - NAB Show has added a second AI Pavilion to the show floor. Sessions include a Fireside Keynote at the NAB Show Streaming Summit with Robert Schildhouse, CEO of Direct to Consumer at BBC Studios; Orchestrating JioHotStar Traffic: Scaling a Video Workflow for 72 Million+ Concurrent Viewers ; The Augmented Studio: Supercharging Creativity with the Power of AI with Anil Jain of Google Cloud and M rcia Mayer of Google DeepMind; and Powering Intelligent Media: From AI Experimentation to Real-World Impact with Silvia Candiani, Vice President of Telecommunications, Media and Gaming at Microsoft.

Also new this year, the Enterprise Video Strategies track covers how organizations are scaling video across communications, marketing and operations.

The four-day Sports Summit, powered by Lumen Technologies, will bring together executives from leagues, media companies and technology platforms.

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/03/23/nab-2026-creators-media-leaders...
	See more stories from svg

More from Sports Video Group