Conference News: Newsweek’s New Destination; The Nest Covers Climate Week NYC; ICS Cyber CFP
A New Destination for Newsweek: Travel has changed considerably over the past decade. Everything from how you book a trip to how you enter your hotel room has been supercharged by technology. Also, destination decisions are being driven by experiences, entertainment and more. Enter Newsweek’s New Destinations World Summit, which will (for the first time in 2026) offer two days of content in Las Vegas from 15 – 16 September. According to the conference team, the event will convene “global leaders in travel, tourism, aviation, hospitality, technology, and entertainment to examine the forces shaping the future of international destinations.”
Making “Space” for Next Gen Media: Jupiter Festival Miami, is a new gathering from 6 – 9 October that is self-described as “where media, entertainment and sports meet to explore what’s next.” They are inviting streamers and studios, athletes, brands and tech innovators to discuss how best to deal with a fragmented media landscape. A recent Variety article put it well: “As Art Basel is for visual artists and the Tribeca Film Festival is for filmmakers, Jupiter Festival Miami aims to be the event that offers crucial networking, exposure and collaboration to the world of creators and digital content producers.” They have already confirmed media icon Evan Shapiro as well as speakers from Superconnector Studios, Fox One, Youtube and the Palmer Group.
Submission Opportunity: SecurityWeek’s Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Cyber Security Conference, happening from 6 – 8 October in Nashville, is one of the largest and longest-running event series focused on industrial cybersecurity. The audience is made up of thousands of ICS cyber security stakeholders, including operations and control engineers, IT, government, vendors and academics. The agenda covers ICS/SCADA topics including protection for SCADA systems, plant control systems, engineering workstations, substation equipment, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), and other field control system devices. SecurityWeek is now seeking speakers for the 2026 event. The CFP closes 20 June, but submit early, following these guidelines, to improve your chances of acceptance.
Conference Manager Q&A: Luan McKenna is Head of Content for The NestCampus, a centerpiece of Climate Week NYC which will return to the Javits Center from 22 – 24 September. We spoke with Luan to discuss how his team is differentiating The Nest from other Climate Week events and what’s new in 2026.
Speaker Strategies: There are a lot of things happening during Climate Week New York. How do you differentiate your event from the others? Climate Week New York is a wonderful but chaotic occasion. Happening during the United Nations General Assembly means there are so many people in town and so many events happening all across the city. Our event has two things that are in short supply then – a huge venue and an incredible location close to where the Climate Group have their gathering (The Nest Campus is at Javits Center North). UNGA and CWNY bring everyone together, but we aim to be a central hub for the global leaders of the resilience economy. We will also offer AI-Powered apps that let attendees know who they should be meeting. This is common at tech events but isn’t common yet at Climate Week.
Speaker Strategies: Are you doing anything new or different in 2026? The Nest Campus is under new leadership this year which will expand event content. Serial events entrepreneur, Jon Weiner (Money 20/20, HLTH, Shoptalk, HumanX) has acquired The Nest and brought in Peter Gilmer as CEO, who has over two decades of events and sustainability background with Web Summit and other global climate initiatives. From a content point of view this means that the stage will not only feature our traditional range of sustainability leaders (CSOs from Fortune 500s policy makers, NGOs and major coalition bodies) but will also include investors, innovators and the founders of the latest game-changing technologies.
Speaker Strategies: What is the most important trait of a good speaker? There are so many ways a speaker can add value to an event. The most obvious is by being interesting, inspiring and informative while on stage. But there is so much more. I like the speakers who show up and commit. After their main stage talk, they participate in a more interactive session where attendees get to ask them questions. They also take part in the fun networking activities – the receptions and the dinners. Basically, they engage and are present. Those speakers are the best.
Speaker Strategies: What do you love most about your job? I love learning about what many of my speakers are doing. There are some incredible inventions and innovations happening. It gives you hope for the future at a time when you don’t always see it. Being able to curate conversations with people who are making a difference is rewarding.
Coming Up Next Week: At AWE USA, the XR+AI ecosystem meets 15-18 June in Long Beach. AWE will cover such topics as digital twins, immersive art, and gaming under the 2026 theme, “I, Spatial: Humans Empowered by Spatial AI.” Also from 15-18 June, Identiverse takes place at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and describes itself as the “world’s largest event dedicated to digital identity and digital trust.” Healthcare of Tomorrow from U.S. News & World Report (17-18 June) convenes hospital and health system executives and other industry leaders at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, DC to examine how AI is transforming care delivery and operations and how best to navigate policy changes. VivaTech unites over 180k attendees in Paris from 17-20 June for one of Europe’s biggest tech and startup events. WORTH’s Living Well: Optimizing Health and Longevity is a one-day private forum exploring the science, strategy, and leadership shaping the future of health and longevity on 17 June in New York. And from 14-16 June in Toronto, global communication professionals gather at the IABC World Conference to learn, connect, and share ideas that shape the future of the industry.