Arthur Fogel & Louis Messina In Conversation Announced For Pollstar Live! 2019

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Arthur Fogel, chairman of global music and president of global touring for Live Nation Entertainment, and Louis Messina, CEO of Messina Touring Group, two of the biggest figures in the concert industry, have been announced for Pollstar Live! 2019.

“So These Two Guys Walk Into a Stadium: A Conversation with Arthur Fogel and Louis Messina” takes place Wednesday Feb. 13 from 1:15 to 2 p.m. as part of Pollstar’s annual flagship event Feb. 11-13 at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif.

“If I do a panel with anybody, I want to do it with Arthur Fogel Because I admire Arthur so much,” Messina said in a statement. “He and I are very similar in style. And, I have nothing but respect for him.”

Fogel added, “I have a ton of respect for what Louis has accomplished and I look forward to our conversation at Pollstar Live! in February.”

To give you an idea of the astounding year Fogel and Messina have had, for the 2018 chart period (Nov. 23, 2017 through Nov. 21, 2018), Live Nation Global Touring grossed a total of more than $621.1 million on 298 shows with 5,144,945 tickets sold, while Messina Global Touring grossed nearly $550.2 million on 187 shows with 5,283,339 tickets sold. (Those numbers, according to the World Bank 2017 stats, are bigger than the GDP of 15 countries.)

The Pollstar Live! conference is the world’s largest gathering of live entertainment professionals, with two full days of panels with the industry’s top executives and multiple networking opportunities. Pollstar Live! is preceded by the 5th annual Production Live!, catering to the logistic and operational side of the industry, and culminates in the 30th annual Pollstar Awards.

Be sure to check out the latest Pollstar magazine, featuring an extensive cover feature Q&A with Louis Messina, who has had one of the most extraordinary promoter careers of all time. He discusses going from local New Orleans promoter to regional promoter when he joined Allen Becker’s Pace Concerts out of Houston to national promoter when Pace was rolled-up by Robert Sillerman’s SFX and then Clear Channel. Since launching Messina Touring Group in 2001, Messina has had a major impact on the touring business with artists Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift and Kenny Chesney among the most successful stadium artists of 2018. And then there’s his Led Zeppelin kidnapping story …

Over his 37-year career, Arthur Fogel has earned a reputation as a fierce ally to some of the biggest names in music, working behind the scenes to build worldwide tours that are among the most memorable and highest-grossing in history. In June 2018, Arthur was awarded the Order of Canada, one of the highest honors of achievement given by the Canadian government. Fogel personally oversees many of Live Nation’s largest tours, connecting artists with millions of fans around the globe. In 2018 alone, he promoted Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s OTR II Tour, U2’s eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE Tour, Justin Timberlake’s Man Of The Woods Tour, Phil Collins’ Not Dead Yet, Live! Tour, and Sting & Shaggy’s The 44/876 Tour.

Registration for Pollstar Live! 2019 is open now. Confirmed speakers include United Talent Agency’s Ken Fermaglich, Atlantic Records’ Harlan Frey, United Talent Agency’s Steve Gordon, songwriter Kevin Griffin, C3 Presents’ Leca Guimarães, Nederlander Concerts’ Alex Hodges, This Fiction’s Seth Kallen, Vector Management’s Ken Levitan, Kevin Lyman Group’s Kevin Lyman, Paradigm Talent Agency’s Mike Marquis, Live Nation’s John Reid, Global Music Marketing’s Alissa Pollack and more. Visit Pollstar.live for more information.