Big Questions, Crunch Issues & No Region Left Behind: Talking ILMC 2026 With Greg Parmley

Ahead of this year’s ILMC 38, scheduled to return to the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, England, Feb. 24-27, Pollstar caught up with Greg Parmley, head of the annual event, to talk about hosting the conference in such dynamic times.

Pollstar: It’s been another incredibly busy live entertainment year 2025, and things aren’t looking to slow down one bit. Do you have a different perception?
Greg Parmley: I think the market is in a constant state of flux, with some people doing incredibly well while others are struggling and asking big questions about how they can shape their businesses for success in the future. While everyone has seen the grassroots struggling for some time, we also know that the incredibly important middle of the market is a very tough place to be. This year, we’re running two specific sessions on that at ILMC, looking at both the mid-sized market and locations that are increasingly being bypassed by mega-tours. I think that’s a key watch-out for the future health of the industry.

How are the new conference elements you’ve added in recent years developing?
We’ve deliberately added elements to ILMC to reflect parts of the world that are growing rapidly – and this year Middle East and Asia will see whole strands of activity devoted to those key regions. We don’t leave regions behind, however, and view that focus as important to developing a wider relationship with businesses around the world. At ILMC this year, for example, we will be publishing our first edition of Latam Live, a new annual publication looking at the Latin market, which grew out of Latin Live at ILMC in previous years. And as touring exhibitions continue to grow in scale and ambition around the world, we’re very happy to have created one of the main international gathering points for that industry in Touring Entertainment Live.

Is there a particular aspect of this year’s program you’d like to highlight?
As ever with ILMC, we try to reflect the diversity of the international live music industry while also maintaining our position as the place people come to discuss some of the crunchier issues facing the business. This year, we have a remarkable group of newly-appointed leaders joining our Open Forum, including Saumil Mehta from Ticketmaster, Alex Mahon from Superstruct, Adam Wilkes from AEG Presents and Jessica Koravos from Pophouse, all chaired by Detlef Kornett from DEAG. And on Thursday we will be looking at the phenomenon of ‘glocalisation’, where the rise of global touring is also being offset by artists emerging from new regions, be that Latin America or India, and then going global almost instantly. Featuring global leaders such as Omar Al-joulani from Live Nation and Ashish Hemrajani from BookMyShow among others, that promises to be a must-see session.

Do you have any indications that the current political regime of the U.S. is affecting translatlantic relationships?
People can absolutely distinguish between the actions of a Government and a community at large. We have a fabulous U.S. contingent of live music execs who support ILMC each year and we love having them. Similarly, the U.S. remains one of the great places to perform, with knowledgeable and passionate fans, so I hope artists continue that exchange. We’re looking at artistic freedom of speech in one of our important sessions this year, and how promoters and organizers enable that, which is certainly a very relevant topic for lots of places and issues in the world right now.