RenderCon lineup highlights AI/media

RenderCon 2026 is putting Hollywood dealmakers, graphics executives and digital artists on the same stage on April 16 and 17 in Los Angeles. (rendercon2026.com) The conference is scheduled for Nya Studios in Hollywood and is hosted by the Render Network Foundation, which bills the event as a two-day program on “the future of media, technology, and art.” (rendercon2026.com; renderfoundation.com) The announced speaker list includes Ariel Emanuel, executive chairman of WME Group and chief executive and executive chair of TKO, Richard Kerris, vice president and general manager for media and entertainment at NVIDIA, and media artist Refik Anadol. (rendercon2026.com; rendercon2026.com; rendercon2026.com; rendercon2026.com) RenderCon’s 2026 pitch is less about futuristic demos than about production problems: keeping “creative intent,” handling “real deadlines,” and making artificial intelligence and rendering tools reliable enough for studio use. (rendercon2026.com; rendercon2026.com) In plain terms, rendering is the computing work that turns 3D scenes, visual effects and simulations into finished images, and newer artificial intelligence systems are being folded into that pipeline for tasks like generation, iteration and world-building. RenderCon says this year’s sessions will focus on where those combined workflows still break down in “control, consistency, and scalability.” (rendercon2026.com; rendercon2026.com) That helps explain the mix of speakers. Kerris’s role at NVIDIA centers on GPU infrastructure for studios and broadcasters, while Anadol’s studio uses machine learning and large-scale rendering for installations including work at Sphere in Las Vegas and his DATALAND project in Los Angeles. (rendercon2026.com; rendercon2026.com) Emanuel’s presence points to the business side of the shift. His speaker page ties him to a long-running relationship with OTOY chief executive Jules Urbach and to conversations about the convergence of media, art and technology. (rendercon2026.com) The broader roster widens that frame beyond one company or one art scene. RenderCon has also announced Rod Roddenberry of the “Star Trek” franchise, Blender Foundation chief executive Francesco Siddi, XPRIZE founder Peter Diamandis, comic artist Alex Ross and executives from Promise AI, LTX and Artechouse. (rendercon2026.com) Render Network’s own description of the event says it is aimed at artists, filmmakers, studios and artificial intelligence startups, with main-stage talks, artist panels and hands-on side-stage sessions. That puts agency leaders, software builders and creators in the same room a few days before the conference opens on April 16. (renderfoundation.com; rendercon2026.com) The immediate test is whether RenderCon produces practical answers for studios and creators now weighing how much artificial intelligence belongs inside real production pipelines. The event opens Thursday, April 16, at Nya Studios in Hollywood. (rendercon2026.com; rendercon2026.com)