Program
Choose your sessions across two packed days of #content
Day 1
31 March 2026 | 09:00 - 17:00
08:00 – 09:00
Arrive, grab a coffee and get comfortable.
09:00 – 09:20
- Powerhouse Theatre
Welcome to Content Summit Australia
Featuring:
Acknowledgement of Country by Waveney Yasso
Introduction by Kurt Sanders, MC
09:20 – 10:00
- Powerhouse Theatre
Keynote: The Creative Structure Crisis
Old models of brand building provided an illusion of total control. Twelve-month timelines to nail a single ad. Multiple rounds of testing and approvals, all run up the chain to de-risk spend. Media buys designed to make the whole thing too big to fail.
That fragile ecosystem held together because the media landscape was monolithic. We could get away with monocultural brand ideas, uncomplicated channel mixes and a modest volume of creative output.
Those halcyon days are done.
As the mass fragments into a million niches, there’s no longer a single shared frame of reference for marketers to build from, and far less space for middle-of-the-road ideas. On top of that, the sheer volume of creative needed now far exceeds any leadership team’s ability to manage or approve it all.
This keynote explores what happens when we learn to let go of the fantasy of total control. It unpacks why brands must function less like sovereign militaries, and more like guerrilla cells; decentralised, autonomous units that can make decisions on the fly, rather than endlessly deferring to leadership.
Survive the crisis, or drown in approvals. Your move.
Presented by:
Eugene Healey
10:00 – 10:30
- Powerhouse Theatre
Full-time results: How the Broncos turn content into conversions
Fresh off a premiership and backed by more than a million fans, the Brisbane Broncos know how to turn hype into hard numbers. In this session, Creative Manager Tim Cossens takes you inside the team’s content engine, where every post, video and campaign is built to deliver for both fans and sponsors.
You’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at how Australia’s most followed sports team plans, creates and measures content that drives merch sales, grows engagement and brings serious commercial value to the club. For anyone chasing real results from creative work, this is a masterclass in how to keep your audience cheering and your stakeholders on side.
Presented by:
Tim Cossens
10:30 – 11:00
Morning tea
We're splitting!
Pick a stream and location
The Craft
- Powerhouse Theatre
Data that speaks louder than words
Numbers don’t have to be boring. ABC Digital Graphics Journalist Alex Lim will show you how data and design can uplift a story on any topic you can imagine – even the ones you’d never expect to work.
Alex’s work proves that numbers can sing, joke, persuade or even break your heart. A single infographic can be the missing hook, the emotional entry point or the backbone of an entire narrative.
The difference often comes down to how you present it. This session dives into the design decisions that turn raw information into something compelling, intuitive and impossible to scroll past, helping you lift your next project from spreadsheet to showpiece.
Presented by:
Alex Lim
The Playbook
- Stores Studio
Who let the humans out? The pet brand putting people over puppers
When you run a pet brand, the algorithm practically begs for cats and dogs. But Kazoo Pet Co flipped the script, turning the camera on their team instead.
Digital Experience Manager Lexie Mamo reveals how Kazoo’s two-legged stars stole the spotlight, and how employee-generated content has become the brand’s secret sauce, building trust, engagement and a genuine sense of community.
Presented by:
Lexie Mamo
The Edge
- Underground Theatre
Your brand’s everywhere. Is it behaving itself?
You’ve set the strategy, nailed the guidelines and rolled out the toolkit. But does everyone actually use it? When graphic design is your HR manager’s passion, and everyone’s just having a crack on Canva, consistency can unravel fast.
Hear from marketing leaders who’ve mastered the art of buy-in across every touchpoint, and find out how they maintain a cohesive brand presence when everyone’s got an opinion and a log-in.
Panel featuring:
Ally West
Freddy Hollow
Dimity Edwards
Facilitated by:
Rohan Williams
The Craft
- Powerhouse Theatre
Hooked: How to win an audience in 3 seconds
Three seconds. That’s all you’ve got before the algorithm, and your audience, moves on. Luckily, Travis Hunt from Explanimate knows how to turn those three seconds into gold. He’ll unpack the creative psychology behind hooks that stop thumbs mid-scroll and make brains go “ooh, tell me more.”
It’s part storytelling science, part design instinct, and fully essential if you actually want people to notice your stuff.
Presented by:
Travis Hunt
The Playbook
- Stores Studio
Leveling the playing field: How AFL Play is welcoming more girls and new families into footy
Plenty of Aussie kids grow up with a Sherrin in the backyard. But for many girls and families discovering footy for the first time, whether they’re new to Australia, new to sport or simply new to the game, footy hasn’t always felt like a space they were invited into.
AFL Play is tackling that problem head on. Through inclusive thinking and a willingness to meet families where they’re at, they’re opening up the game to entirely new audiences.
Serena O’Brien will walk through the behavioural insights guiding this shift; unpack the cultural cues, motivations and barriers that shape parents’ decisions, and show how rethinking the customer journey through an audience first lens is reshaping the way they connect with non-footy families and invite them into the game.
If you care about participation, representation and building programs people genuinely want to be part of, this is your playbook for growth.
Presented by:
Serena O'Brien
The Edge
- Underground Theatre
Angry, angry algorithms: Publishing through perpetual disruption
From link posts getting ghosted to zero-click search stealing your traffic, publishers are used to riding out the chaos. But how do you stay strategic when the rules change every week?
Hear from editors and content leads who are testing, tweaking and still managing to sleep at night, finding smarter ways to reach audiences and stay relevant when the digital ground won’t stop shifting underneath them.
Panel featuring:
Britney Deguara
James Frostick
Tom Fogden
Facilitated by:
Brittanie English
12:30 – 13:30
Lunch
12:40 – 13:20
Lunch & Learn
- Stores Studio
The eavesdropper’s edge: Smarter social listening that works for in-house teams
Most marketers think they’re doing social listening when they’re really just babysitting their notifications. Sked Social will break down how social listening – not just social monitoring – can be used strategically to identify trends early, shape content calendars and manage issues before they escalate, all without leaning on expensive enterprise tools.
You’ll see how listening insights connect directly to KPIs, helping you build stronger business cases and influence decisions. You’ll also learn what actually matters when choosing a tool, what you can skip, and how resource-light teams around the world are using social listening to outperform competitors with far bigger budgets.
Presented by:
Gabriella Torres-Soler
The Craft
- Stores Studio
The missing middle: Why your content gets attention but doesn't convert
Your brand is investing in social media. You’re getting engagement. But when it’s time to turn that attention into business outcomes, something’s missing.
The issue isn’t your content or your team. It’s that discovery platforms are being treated like relationship platforms. Social media is brilliant at gathering attention, but terrible at building the deep trust required for conversion.
In this session, Isaac Peiris introduces a clear framework for understanding Discovery vs Relationship Platforms. He’ll unpack why so many funnels collapse in the middle and how to rebuild that gap, and he’ll share real examples of brands that have moved audiences from rented attention to owned relationships.
You’ll leave with a practical channel framework, examples of effective middle-funnel nurture, and approaches you can apply in complex corporate environments, from government to financial services.
Presented by:
Isaac Peiris
The Playbook
- Powerhouse Theatre
Bold or bust: The business case for braver brands
Australia punches above its weight in sport, but in brand-building, we’re a bit further back in the medal tally. Data from Kantar, the world’s leading AI-native marketing data and analytics company, shows our brands are less meaningful, less differentiated and less likely to command a premium than global competitors.
But brand strategist Ryan France argues that Aussie brands can be at the top of the tally – as long as marketers think bigger, bolder and braver to compete on the global stage.
Powered by 20 years of data from Kantar BrandZ, the world’s largest brand equity study, Ryan will expose what our comfort has cost us, and how bravery – in messaging, strategy and the boardroom – can unlock value and sustainable growth. It’s a push to step out of the safe lane and build brands people actually rate, not just recognise.
Presented by:
Ryan France
The Edge
- Underground Theatre
The long listen: How podcasts create the most loyal audiences
In a world flooded with content, attention is no longer the goal. Connection is. And podcasting is one of the few formats still earning that connection at scale.
Audiences don’t just listen, they return, building trust with voices they choose to spend time with, week after week. Drawing on more than 20 years across broadcasting, podcasting and original IP development, Amelia Chappelow will unpack why podcasts outperform other formats when it comes to loyalty.
Learn how creators find the spark that gives their work a distinct creative perspective, why audiences bond with voices rather than topics, and how parasocial relationships form without being manufactured.
With case studies from Australia and the US, Amelia will show how intimacy can scale and how creative clarity can become a repeatable business asset.
If you want real fans instead of fly-bys, put your headphones in for this one.
Presented by:
Amelia Chappelow
The Craft
- Underground Theatre
Death by brief: When clients want everything, everywhere, all at once
In 2026, creative production is under pressure from every angle. Budgets are tighter, timelines are shorter, and work is expected to scale effortlessly across billboards, bus shelters and TikTok.
That’s the world Compadre Picture Co.’s Katherine Cooke and Sam Scoufos operate in every day. Working alongside agencies, marketers and brands, they deliver high-end television commercials and advertising stills, guiding ideas from early conversations through to final delivery.
In conversation with Lindsay Thompson, Art Director at The Star Entertainment Group and former Creative Director of Khemistry, they’ll pull back the curtain on the messy, magical world of production, and explore how to keep your best ideas intact when the work has to actually get made.
Panel featuring:
Katherine Cooke
Sam Scoufos
Facilitated by:
Lindsay Thompson
The Playbook
- Powerhouse Theatre
The campaign that changed the rules. Literally.
It started as a national conversation and ended as global news: 36 Months’ push to lift the social media age from 13 to 16, the first reform of its kind anywhere in the world.
Director Greg Attwells shares how it happened, what it cost, and what the campaign revealed about power, persuasion and the platforms shaping us all.
Presented by:
Greg Attwells
The Edge
- Stores Studio
In an era of automation, is creativity the last job left?
AI is revolutionising almost every aspect of our lives and is now almost impossible to avoid. Yet creativity appears to be one area where humans still have the edge. Research shows there is no correlation between intelligence and creativity, meaning the vast effort spent increasing the intelligence of LLMs to expert level across multiple domains has little impact here. In fact, optimising for intelligence may even decrease a model’s creativity.
Yes, people are using AI to produce creative work, but the benefits are uneven. Evidence suggests the least creative gain the most, while the most creative gain the least. The result is a levelling up of output, alongside growing homogeneity and stagnation. Bias remains a concern too, particularly for those who identify as BIPOC, queer or neurodivergent.
Low-level, high-volume tasks will be automated. Higher-order creativity is another matter. And so, Creativity, however broadly we define it, may be one of the last jobs left.
Presented by:
Andy Blood
15:00 – 15:40
Nodo Networking Break!
Split by job title:
Social media managers and content creators – Turbine Platform
Communications, PR and content managers – Bar Area
Brand and marketing managers and coordinators – Plaza
Other? Choose who you’d like to meet above!
15:40 – 16:20
- Powerhouse Theatre
Science of the lambs: The formula for Australia’s favourite ad
If there’s cricket on the TV, the beaches are packed and the barbies are firing, then you know it’s just about time for the must-see moment of the summer – the Australian Lamb ad.
Now in its third decade, the Summer Lamb Campaign has become an annual event on the Australian calendar. Commissioned by Meat & Livestock Australia, it carries the weight of an entire industry in a single piece of work that people actually look forward to seeing and sharing each year.
Now Nathan Low will reveal how the lamb ad keeps landing. The man behind the marketing at Meat & Livestock Australia will break down the science behind the sizzle, and share the creative guidelines the campaign never breaks; the boundaries it’s willing to push; and the lessons his team have learned from more than 20 years of making ads that make sense.
If you want to understand how an ad becomes unmissable, this is the anatomy lesson.
Presented by:
Nathan Low
16:20 – 17:00
- Powerhouse Theatre
From fangirl to founder: A Q&A with Lucy Blakiston (Shit You Should Care About)
It started as a group chat. Now it’s a global media brand with millions of followers and zero bullshit.
Lucy Blakiston, creator of Shit You Should Care About, scrolls back through the SYSCA story: the posts that changed everything, the pivots that kept it real, and what it’s like running the internet’s most relatable news feed.
Presented by:
Lucy Blakiston
Facilitated by:
Brittanie English
17:00
Wrap up & close
Day 2
1 April 2026 | 09:00 - 17:00
08:00 – 09:00
Arrive, grab a coffee and get comfortable.
09:00 – 09:10
- Powerhouse Theatre
Welcome back to Content Summit Australia
Featuring:
Day 1 recap by Kurt Sanders, MC
09:10 – 09:50
- Powerhouse Theatre
How Specsavers use brand codes to achieve outrageous levels of salience
Those iconic green and white ellipses and a tagline the entire country can finish without so much as blinking. Specsavers have weaponised their brand codes, shaping them into cues audiences can spot instantly.
This session reveals how Marketing Week’s reigning Brand of the Year keeps those codes razor-sharp, repeatable and instantly recognisable, without letting things go stale. Expect a clear-eyed look at the discipline and creative consistency that help the brand stand out everywhere it appears, with salience you don’t need a sight test to recognise.
Presented by:
Anri McHugh
09:50 – 10:30
- Powerhouse Theatre
Keynote: Pitch perfect: How to sell your content strategy
Strategy decks are where good ideas go to die – unless you can sell the story behind them. That’s where Emily Yeo comes in. As Strategy Director at The New York Times, she’s made a career out of turning slides into stories that win hearts, budgets and headlines.
With a background spanning social, influencer and content strategy, Emily knows how to get the tough rooms on board, from hard-to-please execs to creative teams who just want to skip to the fun part. In this keynote, she’ll share how to make your strategy sing, your presentation stick, and your audience actually care.
Expect hard truths, practical fixes and behind-the-scenes stories from a strategist who knows how to turn sceptics into believers.
Presented by:
Emily Yeo
10:30 – 11:00
Morning tea
We're splitting!
Pick a stream and location
The Craft
- Underground Theatre
From DMs to IRL: Building offline communities online
The best communities don’t live in comment sections. They show up in real life. Whether it’s a brand, a run club or a marketing network, the trick is using social to create something people actually want to belong to.
In this session, Chanel Clark (The Marketing Club), Tayla Dodd (Brewing Brands) and Ryan Taylor (Griffith University) unpack how they’re turning online engagement into offline energy.
Expect practical ideas, cultural insights and a few FOMO-inducing examples of what happens when your followers stop scrolling and start showing up.
Panel featuring:
Chanel Clark
Tayla Dodd
Ryan Taylor
Facilitated by:
Rohan Williams
The Playbook
- Powerhouse Theatre
Red tape, green light: Taking risks in a risk-averse business
If you’ve ever had a great idea buried under feedback rounds, this one’s for you.
For most marketers, risk-averse cultures are where bold ideas go to die. Not for Keshnee Kemp. After Cosmo and Channel Nine, she took on Woolworths, navigating layers of sign-offs and supermarket regulations to launch the brand on TikTok and drive a standout employee-generated content strategy.
She’ll share how to sell brave ideas to cautious rooms, win trust, and sneak a little bravery into even the beige-est brand.
Presented by:
Keshnee Kemp
The Edge
- Stores Studio
LIVE: The Brand Hunch Podcast
Marketers know brand building matters.
The real question is, how much should be driven by data, and when should we trust good old-fashioned intuition?
In The Brand Hunch podcast, host Lindsay Rogers sits down with senior marketing leaders from brands like Aldi, Canva, RM Williams, and Who Is Elijah to discuss the power of brand building as a commercial driver. Together, they unpack how to measure impact, when to back creative bravery, and why brand deserves a seat at the table.
Catch Lindsay live in conversation with Anri McHugh, Head of Marketing – Awareness & Consideration at Specsavers ANZ. In this live fireside recording, they’ll lift the lid on the strategy, thinking, and decisions behind one of marketing’s most memorable brands.
Presented by:
Lindsay Rogers
Anri McHugh
The Craft
- Powerhouse Theatre
Going for gold – shaping Brisbane’s story for 2032 and beyond
Brisbane’s story isn’t just being written in stadiums and infrastructure projects. It’s being told every day by the creators who capture the city’s people, places and moments as they unfold.
As Brisbane moves toward the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the opportunity for local storytellers has never been greater. But 2032 is just one chapter.
Join Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner and a panel of Brisbane storytellers for a conversation about where Brisbane is heading, how the city’s voice is evolving, and the role creators play in shaping how Brisbane is seen, felt and understood, both locally and globally.
This session will explore how authentic local stories can build civic pride, elevate Brisbane’s global profile and position the city as one of the best places in the world to live and visit.
Panel featuring:
Adrian Schrinner
David ‘Luttsy’ Lutteral
Lise Carlaw
Sarah Wills
Facilitated by:
Louise Bezzina
The Playbook
- Stores Studio
No session in the Stores Studio at this time
Choose between the Powerhouse Theatre or Underground Theatre stages or have a free session.
The Edge
- Underground Theatre
How brands hack your brain (and why it works)
You don’t need a lab coat to get inside your customer’s head – just the right strategy. Sarah Pelecanos, Founder of TwentyTwo Digital, has been exploring how neuroscience and marketing intersect to uncover what really drives decisions.
She’ll break down what happens in the brain when people see, click and buy, and how you can use those insights to create content that sticks. Expect practical takeaways you can apply straight away, plus a look at how brain-tracking tech is shaping the future of marketing.
Presented by:
Sarah Pelecanos
12:30 – 13:30
Lunch
12:40 – 13:20
Lunch & Learn
- Stores Studio
Designed for discovery: Creating content for AI search and social
AI-powered search and ad platforms now play an active role in deciding which content and creative get seen, and which never make it to the surface.
Alpha Digital’s session is a practical, behind-the-scenes look at how those systems evaluate content across search and social. They’ll break down how large language models interpret intent, prompts and page structure, and how paid platforms read creative signals.
You’ll get clear guidance on structuring content so it’s easier for AI systems to interpret, and avoiding the traps that erode effectiveness.
It’s your practical reset on how to think about content and creative when algorithms, not audiences, decide what makes the cut.
Presented by:
Mateusz Kardas
Liam Challoner
The Craft
- Stores Studio
Curation in the age of infinite creation
Join Namita Sopal, Pinterest Agency Lead, and Daniel Klug, Omnicom’s Director of New Media, as they unpack the next shift in creativity, from making more to choosing better.
AI has made output cheap and abundant. The risk is a future of more content and less culture. This session explores curation as a modern creative craft, and why distinctiveness now comes from taste and restraint.
We’ll look at what this shift means for culture, creativity and brand relevance in an age of infinite creation, and why the brands that win will rise above the algorithmic average through clearer choices and stronger boundaries.
Presented by:
Daniel Klug
Namita Sopal
The Playbook
- Underground Theatre
Driving change that sticks: Communications built for impact
Awareness is nice, but behaviour change is better. Sarah Morgan from Bespoken has a knack for building campaigns that don’t just shape the conversation – they make people feel something, they make people do something, and occasionally they even panic Parliament into a response.
From pineapple growers to local governments, Sarah has helped turn niche frustrations into national talking points. She’ll break down how to find the emotional pressure points that get a community behind an issue, shift behaviour or give a policy problem the sunlight it needs.
If your team wants to make a meaningful impact, this is your cheat code. Come for the stories; stay to rethink how powerful good comms can really be.
Presented by:
Sarah Morgan
The Edge
- Powerhouse Theatre
Future-proofing your career: The marketer’s guide to what’s next
AI’s writing copy, shaping strategy and pumping out video content before you’ve finished your morning coffee. Platforms keep shifting, attention spans keep shrinking, and the skills that got you hired might not get you promoted. So how do you stay relevant when marketing keeps reinventing itself?
This panel brings together marketing leaders to unpack the skills that matter most now, and the ones that’ll keep you ahead of the next big shake-up. Expect sharp insights, honest career talk and a few reality checks about what it really takes to future-proof yourself in a changing industry.
Panel featuring:
Cass Barker
Dr. Nicolas Pontes
Anthony Bianco
Facilitated by:
Kurt Sanders
The Craft
- Underground Theatre
The fandom framework: Turning customers into cultists
Real loyalty doesn’t come from a free coffee or a birthday voucher. It kicks in when people feel the kind of genuine connection that makes them talk about you unprompted, or proudly wear your merch in public.
GolfBox’s Freddy Hollow knows that flavour of loyalty well. After two decades in the trenches, he’s seen what happens when brands stop chasing transactions and start building tribes. This session pulls apart the psychology of fandom, as Freddy walks through the storytelling tools and participatory tactics that help brands shift from being followed to being loved.
If you want your brand to live in someone’s life rather than their inbox, this is your blueprint.
Presented by:
Freddy Hollow
The Playbook
- Powerhouse Theatre
Hot takes only: How to move the needle with a youth audience
Gen Z can smell inauthenticity faster than you can say “brand voice.” But Georgia Tappy, Social Media Manager at RMIT, has cracked the code on turning serious messages into content that young audiences actually want in their feed.
She’ll share how to make complex topics simple, important messages entertaining, and brand values feel human, all while keeping up with culture, trends and community insights that actually matter. From TikToks to Close Friends lists to newsletters that don’t suck, you’ll learn how to choose the right platforms, connect with your followers and lessen content overwhelm.
Presented by:
Georgia Tappy
The Edge
- Stores Studio
The billion-view blueprint: Inside GetAhead’s social strategy
“What do you do and how much do you make?”
It’s the question everyone wants to ask, but no one’s supposed to. By putting strangers on the spot, GetAhead has created a content engine fuelled by honesty, curiosity and a healthy disregard for taboos.
Now, CEO Sam McNamara lifts the lid on GetAhead’s social strategy, and shares how their mix of transparency and humour keeps people watching, talking and signing up. Come for the voyeurism, stay for the insights on what really makes content connect.
Presented by:
Sam McNamara
Facilitated by:
Brittanie English
15:00 – 15:30
Afternoon tea
15:30 – 16:10
- Powerhouse Theatre
Marketing or morals: Why not both?
Good marketing gets attention. Great marketing earns trust. This panel dives into how brands and creators are rethinking the ethics of engagement, from authentic storytelling to the tactics we use to earn attention.
Contemporary artist Rachael Sarra, Intrepid Travel’s Yvette Thompson and Veracity Research’s Erin Core bring fresh perspectives on what ethical marketing looks like in real life. From who’s in the story to how it’s told, and whether the tools we rely on are helping or harming, they’ll challenge marketers to think critically (and a little less cynically) about the impact of their work.
Panel featuring:
Rachael Sarra
Yvette Thompson
Erin Core
Facilitated by:
Brittanie English
16:10 – 16:50
- Powerhouse Theatre
In the age of AI, do humans need to be creatives or curators?
When AI can churn out headlines, visuals and videos in seconds, where is human input most valuable – in generating original ideas or exercising exceptional taste? Are we the inventors or the editors?
This live debate brings together thinkers and practitioners from across content, culture and technology to explore how our roles are shifting. Expect spirited takes as both sides make their case for the future of creative work.
You’ll laugh, you’ll think, and you’ll probably leave questioning your job description.
Team Curators:
Andy Blood
Namita Sopal
Team Creatives:
Adam Brunes
Karin Du Chenne
17:00
After party
