Beyond The Music has confirmed its first speakers for the 2026 conference programme: actor Steve Coogan, director Michael Winterbottom and Greater Manchester mayor Bev Craig. The programme lands at MediaCity, Salford, for the first time this October, running four days from the 6th to the 9th and now listed in the festival tracker.
Beyond The Music is a music and media industry forum that runs alongside a new music showcase festival. This year's conference carries the title Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, continuing the event's stated aim of tackling the biggest issues facing the creative industries. Its centrepiece, the All Content AI Summit, closes the programme on the Friday, and organisers have opened initial seat releases for it.
Coogan and Winterbottom brought Manchester's 1980s music scene to life together in the film 24 Hour Party People. The rest of the speaker list carries several senior figures from UK music and broadcasting: Stacey Tang, co-president of RCA Records UK and chair of the BRIT Awards committee; Sophie Jones, incoming chief executive of the Royal Television Society; and YolanDa Brown, chair of the BPI. Craig, appointed mayor of Greater Manchester earlier this year, rounds out the opening names.
The conference also runs a strand built around the people managing some of this year's most discussed campaigns: Tommas Arnby, who manages Yungblud, and Dan Lambert, who manages Kneecap, will each take part in sessions on the work behind their acts. Further additions to that strand, and to the wider bill, are expected before the event.
Further names round out the early bill: Tom Gray of the Ivors Academy will deliver an address, and BPI chief executive Dr Jo Twist gives a keynote. British-Ugandan singer-songwriter Daudi Matsiko takes part in an "In Conversation" session run with the charity Music Support, while Michael Adex, founder of artist-management company NQ and manager of Manchester rapper Aitch, returns to the festival as both speaker and curator, bringing Sunderland songwriter Tom A Smith onto the bill.
The facts
- Steve Coogan, Michael Winterbottom and Bev Craig are the first confirmed speakers
- Beyond The Music's 2026 conference runs October 6-9 at MediaCity, Salford
- This year's theme is Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
- The All Content AI Summit closes the programme on the Friday
- Managers Tommas Arnby and Dan Lambert will discuss Yungblud and Kneecap
- Bev Craig became mayor of Greater Manchester earlier this year
- Tom Gray, Dr Jo Twist, Daudi Matsiko and Michael Adex round out the early speaker list
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