Planned Parenthood CEO to Headline SXSW 2022 Conference
SXSW has just announced that Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson will be this year's first keynote, headlining a list of speakers and panels the conference is hosting for its 2022 in-person return (March 11-20).
Having already dropped its first 160 sessions, as selected by attendees via PanelPicker, today's speaker list draws from the worlds of entertainment, tech, futurism, and politics. SXSW Chief Programming Officer Hugh Forrest said, "At the 2022 SXSW Conference we will focus on building a future that is equitable and sustainable across society, culture, technology and policy," adding that Johnson "embodies these values as our communities continue to fight for reproductive freedom and civil rights for all people."
Johnson is the first keynote to be confirmed, but today's list also sees a series of speakers, including the first for the film festival side of the conference: Roman Coppola (yes, of those Coppolas). Oscar-nominated for his script with Wes Anderson for Moonrise Kingdom, and president of American Zoetrope, he'll appear with Leo Matchett, with whom he cofounded the Decentralized Pictures Foundation arts nonprofit, in a conversation moderated by freelance journalist and media attorney Barbara Bruni.
The conference also announced that WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon will be in conversation with Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini. A sports entertainment leviathan, the WWE has dominated televised wrestling for the last two decades. However, it has been shown to have feet of clay recently, as rival promotion All Elite Wrestling has gone from a minor new player to a hot property, going toe-to-toe with the WWE in the key 18-49 demographic. Expect the new wrestling war to be a hot topic of conversation.
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