Let's talk about the Live Events Stage now. What were some of the best sessions in your view on the stage at ISE 2025? And how do you plan to build on them for 2026?  

The whole dream of this project within ISE was to really reflect the last 12 months from the live touring industry. So the fact that we got to bring, Paul English who was heading up Adele Live in Munich was just a real dream, because we'd covered it in the magazine a couple of months before. And then getting to go over some of the stories, especially for a show that did break so many conventions, it broke records in terms of the size of LED. That session definitely brought the people in, and it's a chance to bring the magic of live touring into the trade show environment.  

And then another highlight was having Marta [Pallarès] from Primavera, a Barcelona-based festival, coming into the trade show and talking about what they’ve got involved for this coming year. She gave some really interesting insights into what it is like to organise a festival these days, especially when we're talking about headliners and what that means: is a headliner gonna come and headline our festival or are they gonna go and do their own tour, their own arena run or stadium run? It gave a real insight into the market.  

For the Live Events Stage at ISE 2026 we've got many ideas, but I think one thing we're hoping to bring to the stage is some real hands-on demonstrations from end users working in the live events industry. We can't announce too much yet, but we are gonna have some front-of-house engineers and some system designers, lighting designers, and potentially video directors as well, to give a real insight of ‘I work on this tour and this is how I make things happen’, to give a real insight into workflows and what actually goes on in the darkness at a live show that people don't often see.  

Obviously we're TPi, we are the live touring magazine, but we are also opening up the subject matter a little bit this coming year. There are some big opening ceremonies coming up in 2026, especially with the [football] World Cup. So we're hoping to have a bit of an insight into the world of large-scale opening ceremonies. And we're also bringing in our sister publication Mondo dr, who are gonna be giving some insights into the world of in install and the innovations going on there: the facilitators of live events, if you will, and the technology going on within that market. So yes, it's all very exciting. 

You can read the other parts of our interview with Stew Hume here and here.

Stay informed! 

ISE is the world-renowned annual tech show for the AV and systems integration industry, taking place in Barcelona, 3-6 February 2026. For updates on technologies for live events, including audio, lighting and staging, and to discover more about ISE 2026 as details are released, sign up for updates. 

Don't miss out – join our community today and keep up to speed with all the latest industry trends.