The sixth annual ESPN Edge Innovation Conference returns to The Walt Disney Company’s New York headquarters at 7 Hudson Square on Thursday, bringing together leaders from companies shaping the future of sports to spotlight the innovations transforming how fans experience the games they love while offering a glimpse of what’s next.
With ESPN set to air its first-ever Super Bowl on February 14, 2027, this year’s conference will offer a special look at how Disney and ESPN are harnessing innovation to reimagine how fans engage with the biggest annual event on television.
Among a list of panels include a Super Bowl LXI panel featuring Lisa Salters, Steve Ackels, Andy Tennant and Tim Reed, with another diving into immersive viewing opportunities featuring Drew Carter, Ryan Dornbusch and Peter Murphy.
The full list of speakers and panels can be found here.
Big ideas. Bold innovation. ESPN’s first Super Bowl. Ellen Carnero (Manager, Business Development & Innovation) previews how this year’s ESPN Edge Innovation Conference brings it all together.
What makes this year’s ESPN Edge Innovation Conference different?
A lot of it comes down to timing. We’re about three months out from ESPN’s first-ever Super Bowl. Edge has always been about getting ahead of the big moments, so this year we get to put that on stage.
Andy Tennant, who runs Super Bowl production for us, is joining Steve, Lisa and Tim to talk through what fans can expect. Star Wars Funday Football, the animated alternate telecast we’re doing with Lucasfilm, the NFL and Beyond Sports, is a good example of an innovation-style idea going out to a massive audience.
I’m also really excited that we’re announcing Adobe as an ESPN Edge Innovation collaborator for the next three years. That’s a big deal for us. It’s a long-term commitment to building creative technology and AI together, so we can plan further out, test bigger ideas and scale the stuff that works. We’re thrilled to have them in the ESPN Edge family.
And the lineup is exceptional. We kick off with our core collaborators, Accenture, Microsoft, Meta and WSC Sports, talking about pushing the limits of the technology. Then we get into where content creation is headed, with folks from ESPN Originals and 30 for 30, our ESPN Digital Content team, and Anamorph. We’ve got an immersive content conversation with Meta and Cosm. And we’ve got the NBA, TMRW Sports and the ACC on how leagues are innovating for their fans. Shae Cornette is hosting, which always makes the night fun for any First Take fans out there.
One more thing I love is that we’ve got a Tech Alley space onsite with immersive experiences from Accenture, Microsoft, Meta and WSC Sports. You hear from the people who built this stuff, and then you get to try it yourself.
What has your team learned about this conference over the years? Why will this be the best one yet?
It’s been great to watch it grow. We started in 2021 completely virtual, and we stayed virtual in 2022. Then we came back in person, first at Pier 17 and now here at Disney’s headquarters at 7 Hudson Square.
Being in person changed everything. You can tell when someone’s actually seen a demo, talked to the team behind it, and tried it. It sticks and creates connection to our brand. Last year we had 184 different companies in the room, up 11.5% from the previous year, along with reps from our league partners at MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL, NHL, PGA, USGA, USTA, TGL and WSL. We also had the Wall Street Journal, ABC, USA Today, Variety, Morning Brew, SBJ [Sports Business Journal] and Sportico there. To me, that shows the industry really sees the value in Edge.
What we’ve learned most is that Edge is really a working lab. It’s not just a showcase. Every year there’s more testing, more partners and more innovation, and we’ve gotten better at taking the things that work and scaling them out.
Inside ESPN, they turn into tools and workflows our teams use every day. And for fans, they turn into things they can actually watch and play. Think about the animated alternate telecasts, like Toy Story, The Simpsons and Monsters, Inc.
Or ESPN Football Island in Fortnite. Or SportsCenter for You, where highlights are tailored to each fan, which we built with WSC Sports. All of that started as ideas in the Edge lab, and now it’s out in the world, owned by their business units and scaled.
The other thing we’ve learned is that the best work happens when everyone builds together from Day 1. Accenture has been with us as a founding partner, and our partners really dig in with us. Adding Adobe for the next three years gives us a chance to do the same on the creative side, which I’m really pumped about.
As for why this one will be our best yet, so much of what we’ve been working on is coming together right now. The Super Bowl, animation, personalization, immersive, creative AI. A few years ago those felt like separate projects, and now you can see how they connect. We’ll also show a look-back at the first five years, which is a fun way to see how far we’ve come. And since it’s free to watch, fans and partners can see it wherever they are.
Anything else to add?
Just that this isn’t only for people in our industry. If you’re a fan who’s curious about where sports is going, come watch. It’s free at espnedge.com/conference and it’s also streaming on ESPN’s YouTube channel. We go live on Thursday, Nov. 12, from 5-7 p.m. ET.
If you miss it live, you can catch it afterward. The last couple of years are on YouTube already, so you can see how much has changed. And tell us what you think on social with #ESPNEDGE. We read everything, and it helps shape what we build next.