DAM Los Angeles 2026
At DAM Los Angeles 2026, we recognize that every DAM journey is unique. That's why we have dedicated sessions designed to meet you where you are and help you move forward.
- What’s next in the DAM Ecosystem
- Foundations of DAM: Building the Bedrock for Scalable Success
Attendees are welcome to cross between foundational and advanced content.
Rights, Licensing and Compliance in the AI Era
At all stages of the digital life cycle, brands must manage and protect their digital assets throughout the marketing and creative ecosystem
- Managing rights, licensing, and compliance is critical in the AI era.
- DAM systems help manage legal permissions and restrictions.
- Tools can enforce policies and track asset usage.
- Intellectual property protection and legal compliance are essential.
Moderator: John Horodyski
Click here for the full abstract.
How AI Agents are Already Transforming DAM for the Future
Context:
- AI agents go beyond basic automation functionality to offer transformative capabilities for DAM.
- AI agents carry out tasks autonomously, observe their environment, make decisions, and take actions to achieve specific goals with little to no human involvement.
Fireside chat host: John Horodyski
Click here for the full abstract.
Prepping for the Sprint: How to Get Ready for AI and Encourage Leadership Buy-In
- How to make the most of the time before your AI enterprise adoption – including metadata cleanup and optimization strategies.
- Key pitfalls to avoid in the early stages of AI adoption, especially when defining and implementing AI use cases.
Jezmynne Amergin, Digital Asset Management Librarian, Simplot Company
Joe Madhess, Digital Asset Management Librarian, Simplot Company
Click here for the full abstract.
What It Takes to Make AI Actually Work in the DAM
From Metadata Chaos to Machine Intelligence.
Most DAM teams want AI but often lack the metadata, taxonomy, and governance foundations for reliable results. An AI-ready DAM needs strong structural preparation and vendor-neutral AI enrichment, supported by clear taxonomy, metadata rules, and governance.
Current AI workflows – like alt text generation, keyword extraction, similarity search, and clustering – work best with human-in-the-loop review, scalable automation, and a clear adoption roadmap to ensure accuracy and smooth operations.
Erin McElrath, Digital Asset Manager, LinkedIn
Click here for the full abstract.
Migrating a DAM System as a Solo Arranger - Metadata Re-Imagined
The Susanne Kester Archives at the Skirball Cultural Center (SCC) in Los Angeles collects and preserves materials that document the SCC’s history, exhibitions, and community, cultural and educational programs.
Whilst preparing to migrate a DAM system the SCC Archives is re-imagining the metadata structure of Skirball's digital collections.
Shaula Stephenson, Managing Archivist and Systems Analyst, Susanne Kester Archives, Skirball Cultural Center
Click here for the full abstract.
The Evolution of DAM: From Static Library to Intelligent Engine
- The quantity and variety of assets organizations generate is skyrocketing.
- Customers expect those assets to be deployed in timely, personalized communications.
- At the same time, customers increasingly use AI to surface content and make decisions.
- That’s why, in marketing organizations, DAM needs to evolve.
As AI rapidly reshapes how content is discovered, assembled, and experienced, traditional DAM strategies are no longer enough.
Sarah Iskander, CEO, North America, gateB Consulting, Inc.
Click here for the full abstract.
The DAMS as an Organism
Requiring Guidance, Stewardship, Flexibility, and Change
The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) Experience
OMCA’s DAMS supports Art, History, and Natural Science, evolving continuously to meet growing user and departmental needs. It adapts workflows and content structures in real time, ensuring the system stays aligned with operational realities.
Cross-departmental content delivery is streamlined through portals and integrations with the Collections Management System, while automation boosts efficiency. Current challenges include managing permissions, scaling the platform, and maintaining vendor support.
Erik Almlie, Digital Asset Systems Administrator, Oakland Museum of California (OMCA)
Saba Moghtader, Digital Asset Data Coordinator, Oakland Museum of California (OMCA)
Victoria Feeney, Collections Data Coordinator, Oakland Museum of California (OMCA)
Click here for the full extract.
DAM’s Role in the Tech Stack - The Critical and Evolving Role of DAM as it Integrates with AI-driven Technology
- AI adoption across marketing, creative, and product teams makes a single source of truth for digital assets essential.
- Without proper controls, organizations risk losing visibility, ownership, and trust in their assets.
- Forensic watermarking and embedded metadata (including C2PA) are critical for authenticity and attribution.
- Strong version control is needed to manage upstream and downstream hand-offs.
Moderator: Kathleen Cameron, Senior Digital Assets Operations Manager, Marketing Operations, Google
Click here for the full extract.
How Atlassian's Teamwork Principles Helped to Build a Working DAM in 90 Days
Atlassian urgently needed to migrate from a legacy asset management tool to a modern, scalable DAM system. In just 90 days, a fully functioning DAM prototype was built from scratch, migrating hundreds of thousands of assets and onboarding thousands of users across the organization.
The success of the rollout was driven by Atlassian’s core teamwork principles – openness, collaboration, and agility. Cross-functional teams, vendors, AI agents, and admins worked seamlessly together, demonstrating how strong teamwork can transform a complex DAM migration into a strategic advantage for marketing and creative operations.
Kris Lackner, Technical PgM, DAM Taxonomy, ATLASSIAN
Click here for the full abstract.
DAM at a Crossroads - What 2026 Buyer Trends Reveal About the Next Market Shake-Out
- What buyers are really doing in 2026 - shifting priorities, suite fatigue, roadmap scepticism, and a growing move toward modular ecosystems.
- How the market is evolving - simultaneous consolidation and fragmentation, rising challenger vendors, and the mixed impact of AI.
- What’s coming next - evidence-based forecasts on vendor exits, acquisitions, and the next major shake-out.
- How to prepare - practical guidance on what teams should do ahead of renewals to avoid being caught on the wrong side of market change.
Jarrod Gingras, Managing Director and Principal Analyst, Real Story Group
Click here for the full abstract.
Guiding DAM in Global Enterprises - The Art of Ensuring DAM Maturity Across Complex Global Organizations
- How global enterprises scale DAM - from early alignment and adoption to advanced integration across the content supply chain.
- What senior leaders have learned - practical approaches to metadata governance, change management, creative ops alignment, and AI readiness.
- How to sustain momentum - strategies for engaging stakeholders, demonstrating value, and driving global adoption.
- What’s next for enterprise DAM - practitioner insights into DAM 3.0 and what they’d approach differently in hindsight.
Liana Cave, Senior Director, Marketing Technology, DELL Technologies
Jarrod Gingras, Managing Director and Principal Analyst, Real Story Group
Click here for the full abstract.
Quantum Business Archaeology - Uncovering Hidden Systems that Break DAM
- Spot the invisible systems - uncover the shadow spreadsheets, workaround processes, and hidden databases that quietly derail DAM success.
- Use a structured discovery framework to map people, processes, and systems before design and deployment.
- Turn complexity into clarity with practical approaches that make these hidden structures visible, measurable, and fixable.
- Unlock fundamental transformation by resolving the unseen blockers that undermine implementation, adoption, and long-term governance.
Christina Aguilera, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Synthis
Bastien Minniti, Worldwide Head of Technology Services, Amazon MGM Studios
Click here for the full abstract.
The Right Way to Select Technology - Lessons from the Front Lines
- How to choose technology the right way - grounding decisions in real user needs, future-state use cases, and clear business requirements.
- What to avoid - why demos, sales pitches, and rushed RFPs often lead to costly misalignment.
- What actually works - proven selection frameworks, realistic proof-of-concept scenarios, and building internal alignment before engaging vendors.
- What’s changing - how AI, modular architectures, and shifting vendor ecosystems are reshaping the rules of technology selection.
Moderator: Jarrod Gingras, Managing Director and Principal Analyst, Real Story Group
Click here for the full abstract.
If you have a story to share, please contact Christine Le Couilliard at christine@clecevents.co.uk.