MCH Group, the company behind Art Basel, is expanding into the media events business by acquiring a 20% equity stake in a new venture called Jupiter Festival.
The first Jupiter Festival Miami will run for four days, from October 6 to 9, 2026, at the Miami Beach Convention Center, the same venue used for Art Basel Miami. Organizers are aiming for around 5,000 senior decision-makers from more than 90 countries. Instead of the overlapping panel tracks common at industry conferences, the event will use a “One Stage, One Conversation” format, keeping attendees together in a single track rather than splitting them across competing sessions.
The speaker lineup includes Tribeca Enterprises CEO Rebecca Glashow, Fox One chief Pete Distad, Inside the NBA host Kenny Smith, YouTube’s Brian Albert, and former 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens.
“The industry doesn’t have an event that does what we do,” says William Mellis, CEO and co-founder of Jupiter Festival, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “I start with that as a fundamental premise. We’re all about the future of content. The industry is going through, I would say, a seismic change, not a transformational change. It’s far deeper than that, and in order to understand what the future of video content is, we bring the industry together with the senior people in the industry to explore, debate, and figure out what they’re going to do to be successful in the new paradigm.”
Mellis has a track record of building major B2B events. He previously helped grow Cannes Lions while at Ascential, as well as Money20/20. He co-founded Jupiter Festival with Eric Markgraf, the former Fox Sports CMO and an Emmy winner.
For MCH Group, Jupiter is a chance to move into a new area, media, alongside its existing Art Basel events around the world and other exhibitions.
“There is no doubt that media, even more than ever, represents a fundamental pillar of the cultural development of our societies,” says Andrea Zappia, group CEO of MCH Group, in an interview with THR. “Through our conversations at Art Basel, we try to instigate thought leadership moments, and so what we thought is that media is a very adjacent concept area in a broader cultural territory.
“When William came with the idea, we immediately recognized the potential behind the idea to invest and create a strong brand that can be, over time, one of the leading events that will connect people around such an important topic,” he continued.
The festival has also picked up corporate backing beyond MCH Group. Boston Consulting Group has signed on as a founding sponsor, and the Interactive Advertising Bureau has joined as a founding partner, helping shape the programming.
It’s worth noting that MCH Group counts James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems as its largest individual shareholder. Murdoch is himself a major player in media, having recently acquired New York magazine and Vox Media’s podcast business.
Content at Jupiter Festival will be built around six themes: AI, Branded Entertainment, Sports & Fandom, the Creator Economy, Distribution, and the Attention Economy. Mellis says the mix of speakers and attendees will sometimes “challenge and provoke the industry,” pointing to Evan Shapiro as one example, alongside senior industry executives.
“We’ve clearly assessed all our competitors and looked at it, and I believe there is a gap in the market for this festival, and that the whole concept is to bring senior people in the industry together in an environment where they can network, discuss, debate,” he says. “Yes, there’s great content, but it’s primarily a delegate-focused event designed to create networking.”
That’s meant to set Jupiter apart from traditional trade shows and awards-focused events like Cannes Lions. Instead of centering on an awards show, Jupiter is built as a “business festival,” using AI-powered matchmaking to help attendees network and make deals.
The goal is to earn a lasting spot on the annual media calendar, alongside other major events like CES, Cannes Lions, and the Possible conference.
