‘Pollstar Live!’ Conference Tabs Jon Bon Jovi, Steve Ballmer, Jeff Ament As Keynoters

The Pollstar Live! conference has announced its keynoters for its February conference for the live entertainment industry.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Jon Bon Jovi will be a featured keynote speaker and will also be honored with the Milestone Award at the Pollstar Awards ceremony.

Bon Jovi’s panel — “How To See A Million Faces And Rock Them All” — is set for February 7, the middle day of the conference, which runs February 6-8 at Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.

On Feb. 8, the event will feature Steve Ballmer, cofounder of Ballmer Group and Chairman of the L.A. Clippers, and Jeff Ament, bassist for rock band Pearl Jam. The two will participate in the “Music, Basketball & the Intuit Dome” keynote, which will cover Ballmer’s vision for live entertainment at Intuit Dome, an Inglewod, Calif. arena set to open later this year as the home of the Clippers. The discussion will also Ament’s career as a member of Pearl Jam and their mutual admiration for basketball and music.

The keynoters are just some of the industry personnel confirmed to speak at the Pollstar Live! conference. Other participants include artists Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi of the Tedeschi Truck Band, Jarred Arfa (EVP, Head of Global Music at Independent Artist Group), Josephine Vaccarello (EVP of Live at Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp.), Brittanie Delava (VP of Global Touring, AEG), John Boyle (Global Chief Content Officer at ASM Global), Stacy Vee (EVP at Goldenvoice), Jen Haas (Promoter, I.M.P.), Brad Wavra and Hans Schafer (SVPs of Global Touring, Live Nation), among many others.

This year’s edition of the annual Pollstar Live! conference, which also includes Production Live! (Feb. 6) and the Pollstar Awards (Feb. 7), will tackle issues affecting the opportunities and challenges currently facing live entertainment, including the economy, ticketing, sustainability and technology.