The FCC chairman and NBA commissioner join celebrities including talk show host Conan O’Brien and actor-director Edward Burns for the star-studded 61st annual gathering of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The annual event put on by the cable industry’s primary trade organization opens today in Boston.

The show coincides with TVWeek’s naming of its prestigious Cable Television Woman of the Year honoree. That story, featuring a must-read in-depth interview about the future of TV, can be found if you click here.

As for the cable show in Boston, THR reports that O’Brien, Burns, the FCC’s Julius Genachowski and the NBA’s David Stern "will all be speakers during daily general sessions, along with top cable TV industry executives including Turner Broadcasting Chairman Philip Ken, Comcast Cable President Neil Smit, Time Warner Cable Chairman Glenn Britt, ESPN President John Skipper, News Corp. Deputy Chairman Chase Carey and Fox Sports Media Group Chairman David Hill.” 

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Genachowski, the keynote speaker, will appear Tuesday and will take part in a session with Michael Powell, the former FCC chairman and now president and CEO of NCTA.

Stern, the commissioner of the NBA, will join ESPN’s Skipper, Fox’s Hill, Turner Broadcasting’s David Levy and moderator Darren Rovell of CNBC for a panel discussion of the impact of digital media on sports.

CNN’s Piers Morgan has a number of roles in the three-day Cable Show, including conducting an interview with O’Brien and moderating a panel on the blurring of traditional business boundaries that will feature Time Warner Chairman Jeffrey Bewkes and Cox Communications President Patrick Esser along with News Corp.’s Carey and Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos.

Actor and director Burns will be a part of a panel titled “Digital Disruption: The Impact of Digital Distribution on the Future of Entertainment, Communications and Commerce in Our Daily Lives,” the report notes. Also taking part in the panel, which will be moderated by CNBC’s Julia Boorstin, will be Comcast’s Smit along with VECO President Reo Caraeff and Verizon Wireless President Dan Mead.