VNC Reveals Panels On Women's Live Experiences, AI Integration, and Venue Design

With VenuesNow Conference less than two weeks away, details have been announced for three panels: “Beyond The Ticket: Creating Live Experiences That Better Serve Women,” “Integrating AI Into Your Venue,” and “Design/Architecture: The Expanded Role Of Today’s Sports & Entertainment Facilities.”

VNC 2026 takes place Sept. 29-30 at the Sheraton Grand Seattle, marking VNC’s return to the Emerald City for the first time since 2021. Produced by Pollstar and presented by Marsh and Oracle, VNC brings together live entertainment, sports, and venue executives to address the industry’s most critical operational, financial, and strategic dynamics.

The Pollstar Live! Panel “Beyond the Ticket: Creating Live Experiences That Better Serve Women” will highlight findings from The Collective’s global study, “Her Frequency: How Women Amplify Value Across the Live Music Experience,” and explore how event organizers can better understand and serve women audiences through thoughtful programming, seamless experiences, and more relevant marketing. Attendees will leave with practical insights for building events that resonate more deeply with women while strengthening loyalty, engagement, and revenue.

Moderated by Pollstar Senior Editor Sarah Pittman, the panel include speakers Thayer Lavielle, who is the Managing Director of The Collective at THE·TEAM; Courtney Carter, who serves as Chief Revenue Officer of Seattle Sounders FC & Seattle Reign FC, and veteran music executive Christen Greene of Live Nation, whose work spans artist management, touring strategy, and live production.

Seattle Kraken Owner Samantha Holloway To Open 2026 VenuesNow Conference

“Integrating AI Into Your Venue” will examine how artificial intelligence is moving quickly from concept to daily operations across venues – and how successful adoption depends on more than the technology itself. It requires the right infrastructure, a clear cost and ROI framework, and a plan for managing privacy and disclosure risk. In this panel, leaders in facility operations, technology, and security will discuss how venues can evaluate AI use cases, measure performance and outcomes, and build the foundations needed to scale AI responsibly across venue systems.

Moderated by Adam Haskin, SVP of technology, engineering and security for Oak View Group, the panel includes Bryan Bedford, Cisco GM/Director of Sales & Consumer Industries; Chris Cline, SVP of Product at 24/7 Software; David Schwartz, CEO of MasterMind developer ABI; and Kevin Devore, Senior Principal & Technology Director at ME Engineers.

Lastly, details were announced today for the panel “Design/Architecture: The Expanded Role Of Today’s Sports & Entertainment Facilities.”

Today’s multi-use sports and entertainment facilities must be conceived, built and operated to fulfill multiple roles, taking into consideration an immersive fan experience, multiple revenue providers, efficient operation, various community functions, sustainability, and coordination and cooperation with the surrounding environment to propagate all of the preceding. In this panel, representatives of the design and operation of new or under-construction sports and entertainment venues will discuss how their projects are built from the ground up to serve expanded roles.

Speakers Include Mark Donnelly of Oak View Group, Ashlee Stokely, Head of Stadium, Operations & Experience at Nissan Stadium/Tennessee Titans and Loren Supp, Senior Principal and Head of Design for Populous’ Western U.S. offices.

Previously announced panels include the news that Samantha Holloway, majority owner of the Seattle Kraken and managing partner of One Roof Sports and Entertainment (the umbrella brand for the Seattle Kraken, Climate Pledge Arena, and One Roof Foundation) will be a featured speaker at VNC by taking part in an opening fireside chat moderated by Chris Granger, CEO of Oak View Group (Pollstar’s parent company). During the opening fireside chat, Holloway will share her perspective as a technology entrepreneur, investor, and operator, and will discuss how she brings her founder’s mindset to sports and live entertainment, combining operational rigor and data-driven decision-making with a strong focus on the fan experience.

Additional confirmed speakers taking part in VNC panels, keynotes and town halls include Emily Lindahl (Oak View Group), Sean Saadeh (Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment), Kosha Irby (All Elite Wrestling), Mike Hayes (UTA), Craig Newman and Bruce Solar (Paladin Artists), Paz Aparicio (Movistar Arena Madrid), Denis Sullivan (Feld Entertainment), Gary Hutchinson (Oak View Group), Laura Chiplin (Tottenham Hotspur), David Powell (Ethara), John Page (Acrisure Arena), Thayer Lavielle and Sara Dean (The.Team), Bryan Bedford (Cisco), Kevin Devore and Ryan Zoukis (ME Engineers), Greg Farley (MD Energy Advisors), Dani Stern (Honeywell), Adam Stover (Populous), Mike Sciortino (UBS Arena), Declan Weir (Stantec), David Reed (ModeScore & ActiveScore), Aaron Thomas (Columbus Arena Sports & Entertainment), Wesley Cullen (Oak View Group), Guy Dunstan (Co‑op Live), Kaity Dychala (PWHL), Gina Rotolo (Acrisure Arena), Ashlee Stokely (Nissan Stadium / Tennessee Titans) and Luke Tingle (Daktronics).

VNC follows the inaugural Secure Venues Summit on Sept. 28 at the Sheraton Grand Seattle, which is being launched by Oak View Group & Prevent Advisors. The event is programmed specifically for safety, risk management, and venue operations leaders, and will feature a Keynote address on the “State of Security in America: Trends, Evolution, and Adversaries in Preparation for the 2028 Olympics in LA” by Voviette D. Morgan (SVP, Safety & Security, LA 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games) and Mike Downing (CSO/President, OVG/Prevent Advisors).

Also taking place Sept. 28 is the pre-conference VNC Golf Classic, a separately ticketed event providing executive networking on the course prior to the afternoon SVS breakout sessions and opening reception.

To register for the VenuesNow Conference 2026 or the Secure Venues Summit, or for schedule updates and venue information, visit venuesnowconference.com and securevenuessummit.com .

_Originally reported by [Pollstar](https://news.pollstar.com/2026/09/18/vnc-panel-announcements-creating-live-experiences-that-better-serve-women-integrating-ai-into-your-venue-design-architecture/)._