The GDC Festival of Gaming team has unveiled the inaugural lineup for the Luminaries Speaker Series, a new three‑day program debuting in 2026 and designed specifically for senior decision‑makers shaping the future of the games industry.
This program is an executive‑level series that will explore the macro forces influencing long‑term strategy across gaming, including emerging platforms, transformative technologies, global market shifts, cultural trends, IP ecosystems, and organizational leadership.
Running Tuesday, March 10 through Thursday, March 12 within the week-long timeframe that GDC Festival of Gaming runs, the Luminaries Speaker Series program will take place at the 500‑seat Blue Shield of California Theater at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Attendees can expect high‑level insights on platform strategy, cross‑media IP development, player behavior, and long‑horizon decision‑making from experts from gaming, policy, investment, and technology sectors.
Here’s the Luminaries Speaker Series Sessions announced so far, with more scheduled to be announced soon:
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AI Trends and Futures: Ask Us Anything!
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Bryan Catanzaro, VP Applied Deep Learning Research at NVIDIA
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Alexandre Moufarek, Product Lead, Inception at Google DeepMind
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Julien Merceron, CTO of Bandai Namco Studios
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Fireside Chat with Brian Ward, CEO of Savvy Games
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Brian Ward, CEO of Savvy Games
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The Attention Equation: How Gaming Wins Consumer Focus and What Comes Next
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Kabir Ahuja, Senior Partner of McKinsey & Co.
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Ichiro Otobe, Sr. Client Development Advisor of McKinsey & Co.
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Itamar Benedy, CEO of Anzu.io
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Moritz Baier-Lentz, Partner & Head of Gaming, Lightspeed Venture Partners
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Other Notable Speakers Include:
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Aaron Loeb, President of LEGO Digital Play
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John Spitzer, VP of Developer and Performance Technology at NVIDIA
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Marcus Liassides, SVP, Global Head of Digital at Mattel
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Bill Kleyman, Co-founder, CEO of Apolo.us
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Access to the Luminaries Speaker Series is included with a Game Changer pass, and registration for GDC Festival of Gaming is available at gdconf.com. GDC Festival of Gaming takes place in March 9-13, 2026 in San Francisco, CA.
