The white-hot business of esports will be a focus when Ad Age Next, our biggest event of the year, convenes at New World Stages in New York this Nov. 13 and 14.

Our dedicated esports track on the 14th will include speakers such as:

Sharmeen Browarek, senior director of viewer engagement at Twitch

on using machine learning to fight bias in gaming

Jess Carbino, Bumble's sociologist

on the construction of identities and relationships in an online context

Brandon Snow, senior VP and chief revenue officer, Activision Blizzard Esports Leagues

on gaming's next play IRL

Glenn Minerley, head of esports at Momentum Worldwide

on brands' role in the entertainment culture ahead

Delane Parnell, CEO and co-founder at PlayVS high school esports league

on the future of competitive gaming

Next is all about the near future being shaped by innovation–which is, after all, the best kind of marketing, but much more than that too.

Day One features an afternoon of stimulating keynotes and conversations, culminating in Next Titans, a new live experience about six startups seeking funding and marketing support. They will pitch live to former Mondelēz chief media and e-commerce officer Bonin Bough, BlueRun Ventures General Partner Cheryl Cheng, former GE chief marketing officer Beth Comstock and VaynerX chairman Gary Vaynerchuk.

Day Two will take a full day to map the Next Blockbusters. Midday tracks will let attendees drill down on areas that particularly matter to them, including esports. And there will be networking.

Other Next speakers include:

Sophia Amoruso, CEO and founder at Girlboss

on connections as the future of currency

David Dancer, CMO at MedMen

on the cannabis boom to come

Kass Dawson, global head of marketing at Softbank Robotics

with the Pepper robot, on the future of human-robot interactions

Amy Emmerich, chief content officer at Refinery29

on content's next mission

Tony Magee, founder of Lagunitas

on cannabis in Lagunitas drinks and the culture

Jason Mars, CEO and co-founder at Clinc

on the rise of conversational AI

Claudia Mata, co-founder of Vertly

on cannabis in beauty

Megan Maloney, investor at General Catalyst

on the real future for blockchain

Pras Michél, founder of Blacture

on the future of media and tech for black culture

Natalia Oberti Noguera, CEO and founder of Pipeline Angels

on changing the "white bro" culture of Silicon Valley

Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit and general partner at Initialized Capital

on finding, evaluating and driving innovation

Ralph Santana, CMO at Harman

on the 65-mile-per-hour living room

David Shing, digital prophet at Verizon's Oath

on screens and our mental health

Meiling Tan, head of marketing at Waymo

on bringing self-driving cars to the public

Dara Treseder, chief marketing officer at GE Ventures

on how to accelerate change

Randall Wilkinson, CEO and co-founder of The Wilkinson Group

on the future of food and his company's robotic Wilkinson Mini Bakery

Jen Wong, chief operating officer at Reddit

on the future of community trust

Be there too on Nov. 13 and 14. All the info is here, including your agenda.