Conecta Fiction & Entertainment is taking its 10th edition to Magaluf-Mallorca, marking both an anniversary for the international content forum and its first landing in Spain’s Balearic Islands.
Unveiled last week at a press conference in Calvià, Mallorca, the 2026 edition — rebranded this year as Conecta Magaluf-Mallorca — will run May 25-28 at the Meliá Calvià Beach Hotel with a broad program spanning industry panels, workshops, screenings, matchmaking sessions and closed-door executive exchanges.
The program is aimed squarely at the business questions now facing the content industry, from AI and vertical microdramas to IP control, financing, commissioners, formats and the creator economy.
Conecta Magaluf-Mallorca forms part of Event Conecta, Inside Content’s platform for international industry gatherings linking creativity, business and technology across Europe and the Americas.
Its 10th edition brings together producers, distributors, commissioners, investors, broadcasters, streamers, digital creators and market analysts at a time when the sector is looking for new production models, clearer financing routes and stronger international partnerships.
“We will be offering more than 40 activities featuring nearly 100 speakers, in a year in which we are celebrating our tenth anniversary in a very special way,” said Conecta director Géraldine Gonard, presenting the program.
The edition will focus on “all the key players that shape our industry: from creators to distributors, including commissioners, investors, producers and digital content creators, not forgetting the media, whose work is essential to us all,” she added.
One of the meeting’s main showcases will be a special public screening of Movistar Plus+ original series “Many People Need to Die” (“Se tiene que morir mucha gente”) produced with Corte y Confección de Películas and Living Producciones. Created by Victoria Martín and based on her novel of the same name, the series stars Anna Castillo, Macarena García and Laura Weissmahr.
Recently selected for Canneseries 2026, where it had fans, the series is scheduled to premiere on Movistar Plus+ on May 21 before its Conecta screening May 27 at the Peguera auditorium.
AI and Microdrama Take Center Stage
The program’s potentially srigest debate may be around AI and Vertical Microdramas on Trial, staged May 27 as a mock trial led by Omdia analyst María Rua Aguete. The session will examine AI’s impact on production, ethics and creative work, while also addressing the rise of vertical microdramas as a mobile-first format.
The mock-trial format will ask whether microdramas represent a natural shift in viewing habits or a break with traditional media models, with the audience acting as both jury and interested party.
That debate will be paired with a practical AI workshop on May 26, where creator Paco Torres is set to produce a full vertical-series episode in front of attendees using only artificial intelligence models. The session is designed to show, in real time, how generative tools are entering production workflows.
Market intelligence will also be part of the program. PlumResearch’s Jonathan Broughton will lead Focus on Fiction: What’s Next? while The Wit’s Caroline Servy will deliver a parallel analysis of entertainment, offering a global analysis of scripted and unscripted demand.
Closed-Door Access, Commissioners and Formats
Conecta is also placing a strong emphasis on curated access. Conecta Summit, an invitation-only session, will bring together 20 senior international executives from studios, streamers, production companies and big tech in a closed-door, off-the-record setting.
Rather than a conventional panel, the Summit is conceived as a direct peer-to-peer exchange designed to open the way for future international collaborations.
Conecta Creative Lab will operate as the event’s international think tank, with its conclusions feeding into the Conecta Mallorca Report, a strategic document setting out recommendations for the media sector.
Commissioning priorities will be addressed in Focus on Commissioners, with confirmed participants including Morad Koufane of France Télévisions, Alberto Fernández of RTVE Play, Michele Zatta of RAI and Ludovica Fonda of Mediaset Group. For producers, the session offers direct insight into what major European buyers are looking for.
Entertainment formats will have a strong presence. Formats: Reviving, Sustaining and Launching will bring together André Renaud of Warner Bros. Discovery and Nick Smith of All3Media International to examine how large international groups are shaping project development and IP control.
The corporate view will be countered by Independent Producers: Who Is Still Standing?, with Avi Armoza of Armoza Formats, Miroslav Radojevic of Global Agency and Simone de Pruyssenaere de la Woestyne of Primitives discussing how independents are competing in a market marked by mergers and acquisitions.
A further session, Creators vs Broadcasters: Who Owns the Future of Entertainment?, will look at the relationship between linear players and digital-first talent. Sebastian van Barneveld of Talpa Studios, María Arroyo of Seven.One Studios International and Catherine Alvaresse of Banijay France are among the speakers.
A separate financing workshop, with Luis Piñas of Bankinter, Alexandra Lebret of AXIO Capital and Sebastián Vibes of Green Screen, will address financial structuring for audiovisual projects.
Emerging talent remains part of the event’s make-up. The second edition of Pitch Talent, organized with the screenwriting labs IsLABentura Canarias, CIMA Impulsa and DAMA Ayuda, will showcase emerging screenwriters and creatives selected by each lab, joined by Mallorcan screenwriter-director Ferrán Bex.
The event will also host a breakfast with the Spanish Television Academy dedicated to original sports-themed content, featuring Marta García of IB3, Javier Martínez of You First-Gersh and Juan Andrés García “Bropi” of Movistar Plus+, moderated by sports journalist Matías Prats Chacón.
Magaluf’s Culture Push
The Magaluf setting is part of this year’s edition. Local and regional authorities framed Conecta’s move to Calvià as part of a wider effort to reposition Magaluf through culture, sport and the screen industries, adding professional and cultural events to a destination long associated with seasonal tourism.
Jaume Bauzà, the Balearic Islands’ regional minister for tourism, culture and sport, said backing events such as Conecta helps position the islands “as a benchmark for the creative industry on an international scale,” while linking culture, technology and year-round quality tourism.
Calvià mayor Juan Antonio Amengual framed Conecta as part of Magaluf’s wider shift toward cinema, literature, music and culture, alongside initiatives such as ‘Calvià, Plató de Cine.’
For Conecta, the Magaluf-Mallorca edition marks both an anniversary and a fresh test of its role as a working forum for the international content business.
Marking the forum’s 10th edition, Conecta will also pay tribute to Variety’s International Features Editor John Hopewell. Gonard described Hopewell as “a great journalist and international figure in specialized journalism,” placing the tribute within a program that brings the press into the same professional conversation as buyers, producers, commissioners and creators.
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