PS/NExT Summit 2026 on Pace to Exceed Last Year's Sold-Out Inaugural Expo Attendance
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Coachella Valley Turns Out for New Experiences in Technology, Education and Community Dialogue
More than 100 Coachella Valley students will participate for free
Attendees will engage with and learn from more than 70 subject matter experts and panelists across the programming tracks.
PALM SPRINGS, Calif., June 19, 2026 — PS/NExT Summit 2026, New Experiences in Technology, will welcome attendees from the Coachella Valley and beyond June 22–23 at the Palm Springs Convention Center for one-and-a-half days of practical learning, community conversation and hands-on engagement with new and emerging technology.
PS/NExT is on pace to exceed attendance from last year's sold-out AI & Creativity Expo. At the same time, more than 100 Coachella Valley students are registered to participate free of charge, reflecting the Summit's commitment to expanding access to technology learning, workforce readiness and regional opportunity.
Presented by the City of Palm Springs Office of Economic Development and the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce, PS/NExT brings together residents, business leaders, educators, students, creators, civic partners and technology experts to explore how new technology, including AI, is already shaping work, learning, creativity, public life and the regional economy.
"From the beginning, PS/NExT was designed to be more than a tech conference," said Steven Stamstad, Palm Springs Technology Steering Committee Member and Business Programming Lead, PS/NExT Summit 2026. "This Summit gives the Coachella Valley a place to explore new and emerging experiences with technology and to engage in thoughtful conversations about privacy, ethics, workforce impact, the environment and regional benefit. Our goal is to help people understand how technology is evolving, what is possible, what deserves scrutiny and where human judgment matters most."
The vision for PS/NExT and the programming architecture for the 2026 Summit have been led by Palm Springs resident, Peter Loforte, Co-Chair of the Palm Springs Technology Steering Committee and Summit Programming Lead. His three-decade career as a leader at Microsoft shaped the vision of the Summit as a community platform focused on practical learning, expert perspective and the responsible use of technology in service of Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley.
A featured Day 1 closing keynote conversation, A Community Conversation, will take place Monday, June 22, from 4:10 to 5:00 p.m. in the Oasis Ballroom. The session will bring attendees together in a collaborative format beginning with a guided audience exercise focused on real-world scenarios about living with AI, where answers are rarely simple and often depend on context.
The session will then move into open Q&A and panel discussion with Baratunde Thurston, Dr. Thomas Spiglanin and Lisa Flynn. Together with the audience, they will explore critical regional topics including sustainability, trust, ethics, environmental impact and the safe and responsible use of technology in the Coachella Valley. Attendees are encouraged to bring their questions, ideas and skepticism to the conversation.
Thurston is a Webby Award winner, New York Times bestselling author and Emmy-nominated host whose work explores interdependence across relationships with one another, nature and technology. His work includes America Outdoors with Baratunde Thurston, How To Citizen and his latest project, Life With Machines. At PS/NExT, he will help frame a central question for the Summit: not only what can be built with AI, but what should be built, for whom, and with what responsibilities.
Flynn is a Responsible AI doctoral researcher and founder of Catalysts & Canaries. Her work focuses on how humans and AI can work together safely, securely and ethically by design. Dr. Spiglanin is Director of Education for Palm Springs Windmill Tours and brings decades of experience in technical education, renewable energy learning and public engagement around sustainability.
One of the Summit's most hands-on experiences is the Vibe-a-thon, a live business solutions sprint led by Philip Su, formerly of Microsoft, Meta and OpenAI, and now CEO of Superphonic. Local businesses and organizations are bringing real-world challenges into the Vibe-a-thon, where developers, builders, students and participants will use AI-assisted software tools to prototype working solutions during the Summit. The Palm Springs Hospitality Association and The Living Desert are among the participating organizations.
The Vibe-a-thon is designed around a practical promise: bring a problem or workflow challenge and work toward a usable tool. Selected teams will build throughout the Summit and present live demonstrations during the closing showcase, giving attendees a direct look at how new technology tools can help address local business and community needs.
"The all-volunteer Technology Steering Committee, partnering with the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce, has invested thousands of hours of time, talent and network connections to create an exceptional community learning opportunity," said Brian O'Connor, Executive Producer, PS/NExT Summit. "Their contribution is making it possible for students, educators, business owners, creators and residents to engage directly with subject matter experts who are shaping these tools and leading the conversations that matter. This kind of shared learning can strengthen the valley, our businesses and our workforce."
Across the Summit, learning tracks are designed to meet people where they are, whether they are curious beginners, small business owners, educators, students, artists, civic leaders or experienced builders.
In the Business Track, AI in Business Today: Where It Helps, Where It Doesn't, and What Matters Most will help business leaders evaluate where AI is delivering meaningful gains in productivity, customer experience and operations, and where human judgment, creativity and relationships remain essential. What Actually Works: What Business Leaders Are Learning About AI will bring local leaders together to share what they have tried, what is working, what is not, what surprised them and what they wish they had known sooner.
In the Education Track, Education Insights and Inspiration — The Faculty Perspective will focus on the value of human teaching in a world increasingly shaped by machine learning and generative AI. The EDU Sessions — The Student Voice will give students a platform to speak directly about their hopes, concerns and lived experience as technology reshapes learning, academic integrity, access and the future workforce.
For residents and families, Protecting Yourself From AI Scams and Deepfakes will examine how voice clones, deepfakes and AI-assisted scams work, including practical guidance for verifying sources, protecting personal data and helping family members understand what to watch for.
In the Creativity × AI Track, Who Owns the Story? will explore rights, likeness, authorship and trust, giving creators a practical framework for protecting their work, collaborators and economic leverage as AI reshapes film, music, images, immersive media and creative business models.
The Summit also features Shaping the Future of Medicine — AI and the Human Part No Machine Can Replace, a keynote conversation with Eric Leroux, MD/MBA, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Eisenhower Health. The session will examine the gap between what AI can do, what people trust it to do and the human center of medicine that technology should protect rather than replace.
PS/NExT will also present HYBRID WORLDS, a Digital Media Gallery exhibition curated by artist and director of THE ELEMENTAL, Cristopher Cichocki. Screening throughout the Summit on the LED media wall, the exhibition features video works by Jeff Frost, Alexia Saigh, Cristopher Cichocki, Robert Seidel, Cameron Gainer, Glen Wexler and Reine Paradis, exploring the intersection of nature, digital media and technological transformation.
The Summit also includes Spotlight Artist sessions with Cristopher Cichocki and Glen Wexler, highlighting the relationship between art, technology, ecology, authorship and visual culture. Cichocki is an interdisciplinary artist and curator rooted in the Coachella Valley for three decades, working across painting, land art, light and space, sound, technology and natural science. Wexler, born and raised in Palm Springs, is a photographic artist and digital imaging pioneer whose career spans nearly five decades, from traditional darkroom practice to early digital imaging, CGI and current explorations of AI as part of the continuum of image-making.
PS/NExT Summit 2026 takes place June 22–23 at the Palm Springs Convention Center. Passes are available at PalmSpringsNExT.com. Coachella Valley students attend free of charge. and reduced-rate resident passes are available.
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About PS/NExT Summit
PS/NExT Summit, New Experiences in Technology, brings together the community and leaders in AI, emerging technology, creativity, business and education to develop skills, solve challenges, spark innovation and expand economic opportunity across the Coachella Valley. The 2026 Summit takes place June 22–23 at the Palm Springs Convention Center. Visit PalmSpringsNExT.com to learn more.
Media Relations: Ron Sylvester E: ron@rstvinc.com M: 562-760-8111
Summit (On-Site) Media Contact: Liz Sklar E: lizsklar82@gmail.com M: 760-969-8250