Pollstar Live! Panel Preview: Power Players – When Flat Is Down, Up Is Awesome

Pollstar Live!, the world’s largest gathering of live entertainment professionals, returns to Los Angeles April 14-16 and will be held at Loews Hollywood Hotel. The three-day conference is a flagship event for Pollstar magazine with compelling keynotes, panels, roundtables and the Pollstar Awards, celebrating the best in the business, along with plenty of opportunities to network and engage in insightful discussions.

Pollstar Live! kicks off with Production Live!, the one-day companion conference that features panels on all topics related to staging live events, including lighting, video, stage management, sound technique, concert production, regulations, security and more.

Click these links for the Production Live! and the Pollstar Live! schedules. Register for Pollstar Live! here.

Moderator
Dina LaPolt, Founder, LaPolt Law

Speakers
Colin Lewis, Global Tour Promoter, Live Nation
Rick Roskin, Co-Head of Global Touring, Creative Artists Agency
Rich Schaefer, President of Global Touring, AEG Presents
Kirk Sommer, Global Head of Contemporary Music & Touring, WME

For the first time in more than a decade, excluding the shutdown years, gross touring numbers for box office and ticket sales were generally flat.

Many chalk any slowdown as a return to reality following artificially inflated demand due to pent-up demand following the COVID shutdown, but expectations remain and more is always better when it comes to things like revenue and show counts — most of the time, at least.

The 2026 “Power Players” panel will see leaders from Live Nation, CAA, AEG Presents, WME, and LaPolt Law taking a hard look at what that leveling off may mean, what was learned, and how the industry can regain the momentum that defined this millennium. Also, with a year-round and cyclical business, it may be fair to argue what is truly up or down.

CAA’s Rick Roskin is co-head of the agency’s global touring division, which represents global superstars like Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Post Malone and many others.

Live Nation Global Touring’s Colin Lewis, meanwhile, is promoter for tours like Shakira’s worldwide stadium run, which continues this year on multiple continents and venue types as a smash-hit comeback for the She Wolf star whose hips never lie. AEG Presents’ Global Touring President Rich Schaefer, last year’s Bill Graham Award Winner for promoter of the year at the Pollstar Awards, sees continued success from Zach Bryan, Sturgill Simpson, Kacey Musgraves, Sleep Token and many others.

Meanwhile, WME’s head of contemporary music Kirk Sommer, last year’s Pollstar agent of the year after winning the Bobby Brooks Award, boasts a roster that includes talent like Adele, Arctic Monkeys, Billie Eilish, Benson Boone, The Killers, and Sam Smith, who reopened the Castro Theatre in San Francisco with a 20-date residency.

It’s truly a powerful and influential panel of speakers with varied roles, relationships and perspectives operating within a competitive environment, which is always sure to make for an enlightening and entertaining discussion.

Speaking of power, the panel will be moderated by something that can strike fear into the heart of any promoter or agent, a lawyer. In this case, that’s Dina LaPolt, founder of LaPolt Law, one of the entertainment industry’s most influential firms. Based in Los Angeles, LaPolt represents global superstars across music, film, TV and fashion.