Jessica Alba, Quinta Brunson, Dwyane Wade, Steven Yeun and more are among the list of Hollywood speakers and attendees for the Creative Artists Agency’s 2023 Amplify Summit.
The invitation-only event kicks off June 26 in Ojai, California, and will bring together leading artists, thought leaders and executives of color from the entertainment, sports, media, brand and technology industries. While there, invitees will have a chance to explore business and social justice initiatives, as well as potential collaborations that could “accelerate transformative change in leadership spaces and popular culture,” according to the event’s organizers.
“CAA Amplify has long leveraged CAA’s role as formulators and connectors to create business opportunities for our communities by bringing decision makers together in one space,” said CAA’s Natalie Tran, who has been a lead organizer of the summit since its inception. has been. “Now more than ever, the collective expertise and influence of the CAA Amplify network are essential to drive stronger storytelling collaborations and partnerships that will help drive change in our industries.”
The full list of attendees is often across multiple sectors and titles and has notable award nominations and wins. That includes actors Lupita Nyong’o, Yeun, Xolo Maridueña, Thuso Mbedu, Yara Shahidi and Jillian Mercado; directors Ava DuVernay and Blitz Bazawule; showrunners Quinta Brunson and Sierra Teller Ornelas; recording artists Chloe and Halle Bailey, and Becky G.; comedians Roy Wood Jr. and Ego Nwodim; NBA pro athletes Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul; author Anand Giridharadas; media personality Tabitha Brown; The Honest Company founder Alba and CEO Carla Vernón; Planned Parenthood President Alexis McGill Johnson; president of the Ford Foundation Darren Walker; and co-founder and CEO of Inflection AI, Mustafa Suleyman, among others.
Sponsors for the 2023 CAA Amplify Summit are Frito-Lay North America, the nutrition division of PepsiCo, Inc. and leading global alternative asset manager TPG. Additional support comes from financial services provider Wells Fargo.
The annual summer summit is one of CAA Amplify’s initiatives. That includes the CAA Amplify Town Hall, special livestream events that address pressing social issues. The inaugural iteration took place in June 2020, where more than 11,000 artists and cross-industry leaders attended to discuss the state of affairs in America and actions to end systemic racism. In April 2022, CAA’s Full Story Initiative partnered with UCLA’s Center for Scholars & Storytellers (CSS) to explore the business impact of Authentically Inclusive Representation (AIR) in film, conducting a study showing that films with higher AIR scores perform better perform at the box office. and have more favorable reviews from critics and audiences.
Other work includes an October 2020 study on the demand for TV with diverse on-screen talent produced in collaboration with entertainment analytics leader Parrot Analytics; in December 2018, in collaboration with shift7 to explore the correlation between female-led films and box office success, and the box office implications of films passing the Bechdel test; and in June 2017, the CAA Motion Picture Cast Diversity Index, which helped determine the correlative factors of diverse casting, diverse audiences and box office success, and their broader implications.
