About

In 2022, we launched X Tracks Licensing Summits to help reconnect the licensing industry post-pandemic through high-level education and networking. Our journey began in November 2022 with a premiere Summit in Los Angeles focused on digital entertainment, anime, and gaming. By September 2023, we brought X Tracks to NYC, expanding content to cover Web3, anime, video games, DEI, toys, and the metaverse.

In September 2024, X Tracks returned to L.A., putting a major spotlight on how AI is reshaping licensing and exploring future growth categories including food & beverage licensing, anime in fashion, experiential activations, selling merch through video games, short-form digital entertainment, neurodiversity in the workplace, and what Walmart looks for in licensed IP—plus so much more.

Our Bentonville Summit in June 2025 was a tremendous success, bringing together top executives and innovators from across the licensing ecosystem in Walmart’s backyard. Now, we’re gearing up for our Toy IP-focused X Tracks Summit in Los Angeles on September 10, 2025, during Toy Previews week, promising another unmatched afternoon of insight, education, and networking.

History

Steven Ekstract co-founded License! Magazine in February 1998, building it into the world’s leading business publication for the $340 billion global consumer products licensing industry. Recognizing globalization trends, he merged License! Magazine with License! Europe in 2008, creating a single global source of intelligence for the licensing industry.

In 2018, as Brand Director for the Global Licensing Group at Informa Markets, Ekstract led international expansion with new Expo launches in China and Japan. During his time as Group Publisher of License Global, he helped triple the licensing industry’s growth over two decades, while partnering with the industry’s top trade fairs, including Licensing Expo, Brand Licensing Expo, Licensing Expo Japan, and Licensing Expo China.

Today, through Global Licensing Advisors, Steven provides strategic counsel, market insights, and global connections to IP owners, manufacturers, investors, and media worldwide

Specialties

Content driving Commerce, Branding and identity, licensing and retail, Pop Culture and International markets

Steven Ekstract is well known and respected as the founder and former Publisher (20 years) of License Global the leading trade publication for the global licensing industry. He is also a successful Licensing Event Organizer having been instrumental in developing all the major industry trade events around the globe including Licensing Expo, Brand Licensing Europe, Licensing Expo China, and Licensing Expo Japan and launching the NYC Licensing Summit. Ekstract and his partner Sharon Weisman, have the support of key global licensees and licensors to develop a series of small, curated licensing summits that bring to market under indexed properties that have significant retail potential.