In this episode of the T&D World Live Podcast, host Nikki Chandler sits down with Gina Weber, program director for T&D World Live, to preview the 2026 event and explore how the conference is evolving alongside the rapidly changing utility industry.

Drawing from her deep roots in the utility sector — including years at CenterPoint Energy and leadership within the Utility Analytics Institute — Weber discusses why the event’s “built by utilities, for utilities” philosophy remains central to its mission. The conversation highlights how attendee feedback, utility advisory boards, and real-world operational challenges directly shape the conference agenda and educational programming.

The episode examines the mounting pressures facing utilities today, including explosive load growth driven by data centers, aging infrastructure, grid modernization, cybersecurity, resilience planning, workforce transitions, AI adoption, and distributed energy resource integration. Weber explains how this year’s newly structured conference tracks are designed to help utility professionals navigate these overlapping challenges through focused conversations around grid operations and reliability, modernization and infrastructure, and digital innovation and analytics.

Listeners also get an inside look at several featured sessions and utility case studies from companies including ComEd, Florida Power & Light, American Electric Power, Great River Energy, Xcel Energy, and CenterPoint Energy. Topics range from AI-enabled digital twins and private LTE deployments to immersive workforce training, transformer visibility, and grid resiliency strategies.

The discussion also explores the growing role of data analytics and AI in utility operations, including how utilities are increasingly relying on trusted operational data to accelerate decision-making, improve reliability, streamline rate cases, and support future grid planning.

Beyond the technical sessions, Weber explains why the event’s smaller scale and collaborative environment make it uniquely valuable for networking and peer-to-peer learning. From interactive innovation showcases and audience voting sessions to candid utility-led discussions about lessons learned and operational failures, collaboration across utilities has become essential as the industry faces unprecedented transformation.

For utility executives, engineers, planners, operations leaders, analytics teams, and innovation professionals, this episode offers a detailed preview of the conversations shaping the future of transmission and distribution.