Agenda

Every era experiences change. But today’s leaders are navigating something different: more platforms, more signals, more consumer touchpoints and faster shifts in behavior than ever before. Velocity is no longer just about moving faster—it’s about maintaining clarity, adaptability and strategic direction amid constant acceleration.

Opening the conference, leaders from The Athena Project and Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications explore why modern growth increasingly depends on the ability to interpret change, manage complexity and lead through continuous reinvention.

Marketing is not experiencing incremental change—it is being reshaped by a series of deeper structural shifts that are altering how brands grow, communicate, compete and create value. Join Rishad Tobaccowala as he  unpacks the five tectonics shifts redefining modern marketing and modern leadership—and why many of yesterday’s assumptions, strategies and operating models are quickly becoming obsolete.

As Athena Project Co-Founder Rishad Tobaccowala often reminds us, we are not living through a period of transformation—we are living through a period of continuous reinvention. In that environment, strategy alone is not enough. Competitive advantage increasingly comes down to capability: the collective ability of an organization to adapt, execute, learn, and perform while the rules are being rewritten in real time.

In the final analysis, organizations don't rise to the level of their ambitions—they rise to the level of their capabilities.

Marketing leaders are no longer simply managing brands through disruption—they are leading people, teams and organizations through a period of accelerating uncertainty. As AI reshapes workflows, consumer behavior fragments across expanding platforms and the pace of change continues to intensify, leaders face a more human challenge beneath the technology itself: how do you keep teams resilient, relevant, adaptive and motivated when the rules of the industry are being rewritten in real time?

In this candid conversation, Jonathan Halvorson and Marcus Collins explore what modern leadership demands in an era defined by constant reinvention, cultural volatility and organizational anxiety—and why the future may belong to leaders capable of creating clarity, confidence and momentum amid continuous change.

Few industries have evolved as rapidly—or as relentlessly—as digital media and marketing. Yet through multiple waves of technological, platform and consumer transformation, leaders like Helen Lin and Tara Walpert Levy have not only remained relevant—they’ve helped shape the industry itself.

In this candid fireside conversation, two of digital’s most respected pioneers reflect on leadership, reinvention, resilience and staying ahead of constant change. From the early days of digital media to today’s AI-driven era, the discussion will explore what it takes to build an enduring career, lead through disruption and continue evolving as the industry reinvents itself in real time.

The fragmentation of consumer intent is accelerating, the funnel is collapsing, and the traditional, intent-based search and discovery model is rapidly evolving. Subsequently, the formula for driving qualified consumer engagement and, ultimately, strategic growth is being altered - quickly. What does the rise of the AEO/GEO, agentic commerce, retail media networks, and more mean for your brand and growth as the new rules of engagement and intent capture are rewritten in real time? Join this roundtable of veteran, media innovators as they discuss the future of consumer engagement and integrated marketing communications and how to lead and manage your teams through this dynamic period of disruption and innovation.

There may be no more fitting place than Northwestern Medill—the birthplace of IMC—to examine how modern connections planning must evolve in an era of fragmented intent and compressed funnels. What new signals, tools, planning frameworks and measurement models will define the next generation of integrated marketing?

How are CEOs across the marketing services landscape leading during these complex and exciting times? How are they preparing themselves, their multi-generational teams and clients for a future simultaneously defined by extraordinary opportunity and innovation and equally concerning disruption and fear?