Bridge Conference 2026 in Croatia to Feature Speakers from CAA, WME, EXIT & Sziget

The second edition of the international music, entertainment and technology gathering Bridge Conference returns to Umag on Croatia’s Adriatic coast, May 27-29. Last year’s debut of the international B2B gathering drew 300 attendees from over 20 countries. The second edition of Bridge Conference takes place at Petram Resort.

Newly confirmed speakers include Kádár Tamás (CEO, Sziget Festival), James Sutcliffe (Global COO, The Circuit Group, whose roster includes deadmau5, Fisher, Chris Lake and Cloonee), Alex Brees (Founder & CEO, un:hurd, which has supported over 65,000 artists), HOSH (DJ, producer and Fryhide founder), Lisa Branigan (Head of Production, Glastonbury Green Futures Field), and Rishi Patel (Co-founder, Plus Eight Equity Partners, alongside Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva). They are joined by Ruud Berends (International Festival Forum), Scott Halliday-Dillon (FourFour Digital), Jess Gould (Weezevent), Gideon Gootfried (Pollstar) and Sebastien Westerduin (CEO, Amplify).

They join previously announced speakers Maria May (Head of Electronic, Creative Artists Agency), Steve Hogan (Agent & Partner, WME), Greg Parmley (Managing Director, ILMC), Holger Jan Schmidt (General Secretary, YOUROPE), Fruzsina Szép (Festival Director, SUPERBLOOM and Lollapalooza Berlin), Sara Bazian (Strategic Partnerships Manager, YouTube Music), Ivan Milivojev (Co-Founder, EXIT Festival) and Dušan Kovačević (Co-Founder, EXIT Festival).

The three-day program is built around the most pressing questions facing the sector. Highlights include an opening keynote from EXIT Festival’s Kovačević and Milivojev tracing their journey from activist roots to European festival leaders; a CAA/WME session with Maria May and Steve Hogan on how today’s agents are shaping the electronic music landscape; a YOUROPE-presented panel on the European festival network with Szép, Schmidt and Kadar; a financial reality check on the economics of live events; and an investor panel asking what it takes to secure backing in music tech today. The program closes with a session on women leading electronic music.

Running alongside the conference, the Festival VR Experience Activation (courtesy of Expo Dubai) will offer attendees a virtual showcase across all three days. Jukebox Ventures, the startup accelerator offering up to £1 million ($1.3 million) investment for early-stage music, tech and entertainment companies, will also feature throughout, with selected startups pitching directly to investors during the conference.

Jukebox Ventures launched in October 2025 as a $15M early-stage venture fund, backing the next generation of founders working at the convergence of music, technology, and culture. We’re focused on pre-seed through Series A, with the aim of filling a real funding gap at the earliest stages of music tech.

“We’re currently in active conversations with more than 15 companies globally, and we’ll have more to share on specific deals at a later stage,” Alex Jukes, co-founder of Jukebox Ventures, told Pollstar, adding that Bridge Conference is going to be “a significant moment for us, we’ll be pitched directly by the founders of a strong cohort of emerging companies, and that face-to-face time is arguably the most important part of investing at this stage. You’re backing the people as much as the idea. We expect meaningful news to come out of the accelerator program!”

Jukes said that the live biz was “where we’re seeing some of the most interesting work right now, partly because the sector has been under so much pressure, rising costs, margins being reduced ticketing trust issues, the festival shake-out, and pressure seems to be forcing innovation.”

Beyond live, he continued, “AI is on everyone’s mind, but we’re more interested in the practical applications than the generative hype, tools that solve real workflow problems for labels, managers and agents. Direct-to-fan infrastructure is another area we have a lot of experience working closely with and fan engagement is a really exciting space we are very interested in exploring, asides to this we are keeping an eye on any unique and interesting events that are doing something a bit different and against the norms.

“Marketing tech and music data sit alongside that, there’s a real gap between the analytics the major labels can afford and what independent artists and managers have access to, and we think that gap is a big opportunity. And finally, the critical layer of rights and licensing, creator tools, content monetization, and foundations around royalties and payments. The founders solving those problems often have the clearest path to scale.

“Bridge is a good test of the waters for all of this, the fact that we’re seeing such a strong spread of founders applying to pitch tells there is so much exciting things happening out there!”

The full schedule details of Bridge Conference, including panel descriptions, speaker bios and registration information are available at bridgeconference.net

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_Originally reported by [Pollstar](https://news.pollstar.com/2026/05/20/bridge-conference-2026-returns-to-croatia-confirmed-speakers-include-caa-wme-exit-sziget/)._