How AI is empowering people to prevent gun injuries and deaths
An intimate, invite-only session with Microsoft, the Ad Council, RSM, and DEPT®, exploring how AI can empower people to take meaningful action on complex issues – helping them start vital conversations and protect the people who matter most, followed by drinks under the trees in the DEPT® Secret Garden.
The most important work today doesn’t just move people, it helps them act.
That’s what makes Agree to Agree different.
In the U.S., gun injuries have been the leading cause of death among children and teens for four consecutive years. It is one of the most difficult, and nuanced issues a brand or organization can engage with, and one where the fear of getting it wrong or offending someone can easily halt progress before it begins. Especially on such complex matters, people don’t just need marketing buzz words. They need support starting conversations from a place of common ground that can help protect their families and loved ones.
Agree to Agree built an AI-powered chatbot built to do exactly that. On AgreeToAgree.org, an AI chatbot helps site visitors access trusted resources to help initiate conversations about firearm injury prevention with greater confidence, care and clarity.
What to expect
Join Microsoft, the Ad Council, RSM, and DEPT® for a session on the launch of this work chatbot and what marketers from all industries can learn from it. A new standard for creative effectiveness, where the value of an idea lies not only in what it communicates, but in how it enables the consumer. Because in a market defined by fragmented attention and rising expectations, the real opportunity is not simply to capture interest. It is to create work people can use, trust and act on with ease
Your access to the Secret Garden
As friends of AdCouncil, you’ll have a wristband for the DEPT® Secret Garden waiting for you. Consider this your spot in Cannes for the week. Drop in when you feel like it, stay as long as you like, we’ll be there. Here’s what to expect:
- Real conversations from industry and brand leaders. No panels for the sake of panels. Just honest takes on turning AI into real growth, redefining how teams work, and the next generation of creative thinking.
- A space that works. Built for real meetings, real connections, and time well spent away from the noise. Grab a coffee, wander through the garden, or find a quiet corner to keep a conversation going.
- A curated selection of Cannes must-haves at the DEPT® Souvenir shop, open from June 23-25, 12:00 – 13:00.
Full program details can be found here.
Future of Marketing Initiative at Oxford University
An intimate, invite-only roundtable hosted by Oxford University’s Saïd Business School and the Oxford Future of Marketing Initiative. This session brings together the next generation of marketing leaders for a realistic discussion on the future of marketing leadership.
The organisation you’re going to lead will not look like the organisation you joined.
That is the reality for mid-career marketing talent who will be the future leaders of the profession.
So what is the skillset they will need to reach the top and thrive? What do they observe from their current vantage point, and what’s missing? Is it a complete rethink on AI implementation, a fresh take on evidencing impact, or a wake-up call on EQ in the workplace?
As Oxford University’s Saïd Business School crafts its offering to future marketing leaders, we want to hear from the next generation. Current CMOs are not invited to this future-focused Chatham House Rules sounding board, and genuine exchange of ideas.
Attendance is by invitation only, places are limited, and registration is mandatory.
Your access to the Secret Garden
As friends of the Oxford Future of Marketing Initiative, you’ll have a wristband for the DEPT® Secret Garden waiting for you. Consider this your spot in Cannes for the week. Drop in when you feel like it, stay as long as you like, we’ll be there. Here’s what to expect:
- Real conversations from industry and brand leaders. No panels for the sake of panels. Just honest takes on turning AI into real growth, redefining how teams work, and the next generation of creative thinking.
- A space that works. Built for real meetings, real connections, and time well spent away from the noise. Grab a coffee, wander through the garden, or find a quiet corner to keep a conversation going.
- A curated selection of Cannes must-haves at the DEPT® Souvenir shop, open from June 23-25, 12:00 – 13:00.
Full program details can be found here.
Beyond Artificial: The Real Work of Scaling AI
An invitation-only breakfast for brand leaders to turn AI experimentation into scalable impact, hosted by WFA beneath the trees in the DEPT Secret Garden.
Everyone’s experimenting with AI but far fewer are scaling it.
And the gap is less about the technology and more about what sits underneath it – how the organisation is structured, who owns the decisions, how teams are incentivised, and whether your ways of working are fit to move at AI speed.
As part of WFA’s new global project with DEPT, we’ve spent months speaking to senior brand leaders around the world to find out what’s working, what’s not and where the big opportunities are. Now we’re sharing what we found with WFA members and DEPT clients, over breakfast.
You’re invited to start your Tuesday with us at the DEPT Secret Garden in an intimate morning of conversation, candour, and connection, exclusively for brand-side leaders. You’ll hear directly from three global brands on how they’re taking AI from experimentation to scale, the lessons they wish they’d learnt earlier and the steps that you might take to drive meaningful impact post Cannes.
By invitation only.
Your access to the Secret Garden
As friends of WFA, you’ll have a wristband for the DEPT® Secret Garden waiting for you. Consider this your spot in Cannes for the week. Drop in when you feel like it, stay as long as you like, we’ll be there. Here’s what to expect:
- Real conversations from industry and brand leaders. No panels for the sake of panels. Just honest takes on turning AI into real growth, redefining how teams work, and the next generation of creative thinking.
- A space that works. Built for real meetings, real connections, and time well spent away from the noise. Grab a coffee, wander through the garden, or find a quiet corner to keep a conversation going.
- A curated selection of Cannes must-haves at the DEPT® Souvenir shop, open from June 23-25, 12:00 – 13:00.
Full program details can be found here.
Show me the Green: When Sustainability Means Business
An invitation-only lunch for marketing and sustainability leaders to exchange candid insights on sustainable marketing and its impact on brand and commercial performance, set under the trees in the DEPT® Secret Garden.
Panels. Keynotes. Presentations. You’ll have plenty of those this week.
This is something different. This invitation only lunch is built around genuine peer-to-peer dialogue amongst global brand-side Marketing and Sustainability leaders. No panels, no presentations, and no passive audiences.
Instead, our guests pose questions, respond to one another, and share personal perspectives in a secret garden setting, all under Chatham House Rule. The format ensures that the most valuable insights in the room, the lived experience of the leaders like you, drives the conversation.
The topic is Sustainable Marketing Communications, and the discussion is grounded in early insights from a live research project led by WFA in partnership with the Future of Marketing Initiative at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, Revolt, and Kantar.
As a guest, you will hear what the existing evidence tells us about the link between sustainable marketing communications, brand value, and commercial performance. You will also connect directly with some of the 20+ CMO’s, CSO’s and industry leaders who have contributed to the work so far, hearing their first-hand perspectives on the potential of sustainable marketing to create value for consumers and brands alike.
Attendance is by invitation only, and places are limited.
Your access to the Secret Garden
As friends of WFA, you’ll have a wristband for the DEPT® Secret Garden waiting for you. Consider this your spot in Cannes for the week. Drop in when you feel like it, stay as long as you like, we’ll be there. Here’s what to expect:
- Real conversations from industry and brand leaders. No panels for the sake of panels. Just honest takes on turning AI into real growth, redefining how teams work, and the next generation of creative thinking.
- A space that works. Built for real meetings, real connections, and time well spent away from the noise. Grab a coffee, wander through the garden, or find a quiet corner to keep a conversation going.
- A curated selection of Cannes must-haves at the DEPT® Souvenir shop, open from June 23-25, 12:00 – 13:00.
Full program details can be found here.
DEPT® Future Club – Secret Garden Dinner
Join us for the Wednesday Secret Garden Dinner 2026, with an evening to talk shop, share a meal, and have a moment of calm during a busy week.
An evening at the Secret Garden Dinner.
In the middle of the Cannes Lions buzz, you’re invited to quietly disappear for the evening and join us somewhere a little harder to find and a lot easier to enjoy. Think long tables, shared plates, and conversations that don’t need an agenda.
Last year, it became one of those evenings people mentioned the next day, the kind you hear about and wish you’d stumbled into yourself. This year, you don’t have to.
At the DEPT® Future Club Secret Garden Dinner, you’ll find yourself among a small group of industry peers, where the focus shifts from schedules and name badges to proper conversations, new faces, and the kind of nights that unfold naturally.
By invitation only.
What to expect at the Dinner
- Tucked away in our Secret Garden, you’ll take your seat at a candlelit table and settle into a family-style dinner that’s meant to be shared, passed around, and enjoyed together.
- Rosé will keep appearing, music will drift through the background, and you’ll find it easy to move between conversations, whether you’re exchanging ideas or simply enjoying the moment.
- There’s no set agenda and nothing to perform, just a well-hosted evening with great food, an interesting mix of people, and enough room for things to happen as they do.
Your key to the Secret Garden
Join us for dinner and enjoy full access to the Secret Garden. If you can’t make it in the evening, you’re still welcome to join us during the day.
THE PROGRAM
MEET THE SPEAKERS
MEET THE TEAM
This is a DEPT® Future Club event
To find out more about the club and other event series, apply to become a member. Doors are open, slightly…
PIONEERING CASES
DEPT® Future Club – Secret Garden Dinner
Join us for the Tuesday Secret Garden Dinner 2026, with an evening to talk shop, share a meal, and have a moment of calm during a busy week.
An evening at the Secret Garden Dinner.
In the middle of the Cannes Lions buzz, you’re invited to quietly disappear for the evening and join us somewhere a little harder to find and a lot easier to enjoy. Think long tables, shared plates, and conversations that don’t need an agenda.
Last year, it became one of those evenings people mentioned the next day, the kind you hear about and wish you’d stumbled into yourself. This year, you don’t have to.
At the DEPT® Future Club Secret Garden Dinner, you’ll find yourself among a small group of industry peers, where the focus shifts from schedules and name badges to proper conversations, new faces, and the kind of nights that unfold naturally.
By invitation only.
What to expect at the Dinner
- Tucked away in our Secret Garden, you’ll take your seat at a candlelit table and settle into a family-style dinner that’s meant to be shared, passed around, and enjoyed together.
- Rosé will keep appearing, music will drift through the background, and you’ll find it easy to move between conversations, whether you’re exchanging ideas or simply enjoying the moment.
- There’s no set agenda and nothing to perform, just a well-hosted evening with great food, an interesting mix of people, and enough room for things to happen as they do.
Your key to the Secret Garden
Join us for dinner and enjoy full access to the Secret Garden. If you can’t make it in the evening, you’re still welcome to join us during the day.
THE PROGRAM
MEET THE SPEAKERS
MEET THE TEAM
This is a DEPT® Future Club event
To find out more about the club and other event series, apply to become a member. Doors are open, slightly…
PIONEERING CASES
DEPT® Future Club: Scaling Content in the Age of AI
Join us for an invite-only DEPT® Future Club event with Adobe and Brand Innovators.
AI is putting new pressure on how marketing teams operate.
More content. More channels. Higher expectations. One campaign turns into hundreds — sometimes thousands — of assets across channels, markets, and audiences. Assuming AI will help teams keep up.
So while output increases, complexity increases with it. Costs creep up. Risk grows. And teams stay busy without anything truly scaling.
AI is failing because it’s applied to systems that haven’t evolved.
Join us for a DEPT® Future Club dinner co-hosted by Adobe with a small group of senior marketing leaders to discuss how organizations are adapting and rethinking content, marketing systems, workflows, and teams in an AI-driven environment.
We’ll cover:
• Where AI is actually driving meaningful outcomes and where it’s just accelerating existing problems
• Why content is one place where the systems start to break under AI-driven demand
• What needs to change in how work flows — across content, channels, and teams — to make AI useful
• How leading organizations are rethinking ownership, roles, and decision-making in an AI-enabled model
• How to balance speed, quality, and control as scale increases
No presentations. Just a well-curated group and a real conversation over a memorable dinner. Focused on what’s working, what’s not, and where AI is still creating more friction than value.
This is a DEPT® Future Club event.
To find out more about the club and other event series, apply to become a member.
DEPT® Future Club is a curated series of gatherings for marketing and technology leaders who want to stay close to what’s next, and to each other.
It’s built on a simple belief: The best conversations — the ones that shape decisions, careers, and companies — rarely happen on stage. They happen in rooms like this. A space to pressure-test ideas, compare notes, and connect with peers you might not otherwise meet.
Program
DEPT® After Hours: Growth, Rewritten
We finally have the keys to our new home in New York City. We could have done a ribbon cutting. Instead, we’re opening the space the way we prefer. By bringing together people who are actively shaping what’s next.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Growth doesn’t look the way it used to. It’s no longer a funnel. It’s not owned by marketing alone. And increasingly, it’s being mediated by systems no one fully understands yet.
Product, brand, commerce, and AI are collapsing into something new. More connected. Less predictable. Still being figured out.
So rather than present a finished point of view, we’re hosting a night built around people in the middle of it.
Join us for a night of reinvention and perspectives on how growth is evolving across product, experience, and AI.
In a space that evolves over the course of the night through music, carefully curated food and drinks, visuals, and unexpected moments.
the speakers
Program
Join DEPT® at Cannes Lions 2026
Just off the Croisette, away from the noise, a space designed to slow things down.
A return to the trees, where the focus shifts back to the craft and the conversations behind it.
The Secret Garden is back this year.
Last year, in the middle of everything Cannes tends to be, the Garden became one of those places people kept finding their way back to.
Just off the Croisette, under the trees, it had a different kind of energy. There was shade, a bit of a breeze, friendly faces, and the sense that you could sit down for a moment without immediately checking the time. People dropped in between meetings and, more often than not, stayed longer than planned.
Across the day, it was filled with senior leaders from brands, tech, and the creator world. Conversations moved easily between AI, innovation, and what’s actually changing in the work. Smart, open, and refreshingly unforced.
It filled up quickly too. And yes, we had to say no more than we would have liked.
So this year, we’re keeping it much the same, just a little more considered. Still invite-only. Still intentionally limited. The same setting, with a bit more space to settle in and the same kind of people you’d hope to run into. A place to step out of the noise, find some shade, and get into conversations that are actually worth your time.
If you make it in, you’ll see what we mean.
What to expect in the Secret Garden
- Real conversations from industry and brand leaders. No panels for the sake of panels. Just honest takes on turning AI into real growth, redefining how teams work, and the next generation of creative thinking.
- Work you can step into. Interactive and immersive tech experiences that bring ideas to life and show how it’s actually being done.
- A space that works. Built for real meetings, real connections, and time well spent away from the noise. Grab a coffee, wander through the garden, step into the studio, or find a quiet corner to keep a conversation going.
- A curated selection of goodies and Cannes must-haves at the DEPT® Souvenir shop, open from June 23-25, 12:00 – 13:00.
GROW BUSINESSES IN AI
How to win discoverability and conversion when algorithms (and agents) decide. A how-to guide to leverage discoverability, differentiation and growth for brands in a world where AI decides what customers see, buy and do, from commerce to GEO and Social.
FUTURE OF WORK / Deptify®
What AI-native teams actually look like. Live demos. Real operating models. In-depth conversations about how AI is changing the way we work and how empathy will become as business-critical as automation. Officially launch Deptify® with live demos for clients.
NEXT GEN CREATIVE
How brands ship culture at speed and keep craft intact when AI enters the workflow. From the new rules of the influencer and brand operating system to the eternal conversation of the role of AI in creativity, we’ll dive deep into the craft element to celebrate examples of how brands and creators are driving the next era of creativity.
It’s happening again
The Garden’s coming back, and so are the conversations you didn’t plan but were glad you had. We’ll share the rest soon.
THE Program
Time and Location
08:30 – 10:15
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Moderator: Robert Dreblow, WFA
Session
Breakfast panel by WFA (invite only)
Where the real conversations happen before the day begins.
Time and Location
10:30 – 11:15
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Terri Wang, Growth Leader, OpenAI |
Grace Kao, CMO, Snap | Antonia Wade, CMO, PwC
Host: Fortune
Session
Lessons from the most innovative CMOs: rethinking growth in a B2A world
The customer journey is being filtered, shaped, and decided by AI before a human gets involved. Business-to-Agent isn’t a tactic; it’s the new reality. Together with Fortune, the CMOs who saw this coming first share where the shift is already showing up in revenue, retention, and CAC, and what growth looks like when agents are in the room.
Time and Location
12:00 – 13:45
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Moderators: WFA, Revolt, Kantar, Oxford Said Business School
Lunch
Roundtable lunch – WFA’s value of sustainable marketing (invite only)
A Chatham House-rule lunch where the most valuable thing in the room is the lived experience of the people in it. Senior marketers from WFA, DEPT® and Oxford’s Said Business School in candid conversation about what sustainable marketing is actually worth.
Time and Location
14:00 – 14:45
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Sona Iliffe-Moon, CCO, Yahoo | Jessica Qaasim, Head of Industry, Google | Emily O’Hara, VP Global Brand & Media, eBay | Ashley Penn, Senior Director, Marketing, Adobe
Session
The new rules of scaling brands with AI
Scaling used to mean consistency. Now it means consistency at speed. AI makes output easier, but it also exposes everything that doesn’t hold up. The brands getting this right aren’t just adding AI to the mix, they’re rethinking how communication flows across teams, markets, and channels. Find out how they’re keeping quality high while everything accelerates.
Time and Location
19:00 – 22:00
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Hope Hydration
Dinner
Future Club Dinner (invite only)
An evening for the people building what’s next. Dinner, drinks, and the kind of conversations you don’t have on stage.
Time and Location
09:00 – 10:00
DEPT® Secret Garden
Breakfast
Cannes press breakfast (invite only)
Off the record, over coffee, before the day takes over. A small group of journalists in conversation with DEPT® leadership
Time and Location
09:30
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
The Webby Awards
Session
Running Club
The best conversations at Cannes happen when you’re not sitting down. An early morning run with some of the most interesting people on the Croisette.
Time and Location
10:15 – 10:30
DEPT® Secret Garden
Session
Creator Coffee & Connect (invite only)
Strawberry matcha or an iced latte. Catch your breath, meet the room, and ease into the morning before the sessions begin.
Time and Location
10:30 – 11:15
Speakers
Matt Watson, CCO PepsiCo
Host: The Webby Awards
Session
What broke the Internet?
AI made content cheap. That didn’t make attention more valuable, it made distinctiveness more valuable. A practical teardown of viral hits and public misses with creators and founders. What actually travels. What sticks. And when a million views is growth versus an expensive distraction.
Time and Location
11:30 – 13:00
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Mark Ritson
Lunch
The Marketing Academy – Alumni Lunch (invite only)
An intimate session with one of the sharpest minds in marketing, followed by lunch. The kind of afternoon that changes how you think for a while.
Time and Location
14:00 – 14:45
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Erin Chin, CMO, Logitech for Creators
Host: TikTok
Session
You can’t brief your way into culture
On TikTok, brands aren’t the main character. They’re a guest; fun to have around, or easy to ignore. Creators set the pace, communities decide what sticks. Together with TikTok, we move past the brand-first mindset: how partnerships evolve from one-off campaigns into ongoing roles in culture, and why some collaborations take off while others barely leave the For You page.
Time and Location
15:00 – 15:45
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Keynote
Indvstry Clvb panel
More info soon
Time and Location
16:00 – 16:30
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Laurie Keith SVP, Emerging Media, the Ad Council | Jennifer Kattula General Manager and Chief Marketing Officer, Microsoft Advertising
Host: Adcouncil
Moderator: TBD DigiDay
Reporter
Keynote
How AI is helping people keep their loved ones safe from gun violence
Gun injuries have been the leading cause of death among children and teens in the US for four consecutive years. Agree to Agree built an AI chatbot that helps people start those conversations, from common ground, with clarity and care. Join Microsoft, Ad Council, RSM, and DEPT® for the launch, and a new standard for what creative effectiveness can actually look like.
Time and Location
16:30 – 17:30
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Host: Adcouncil
Session
Drinks at the bistro
Time and Location
19:00 – 22:00
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Hope Hydration
Dinner
Future Club Dinner x WFA (invite only)
Dinner with WFA’s global network and DEPT® leadership.
Time and Location
08:30 – 10:00
DEPT® Secret Garden
Session
Future of Marketing Initiative — Oxford University (invite only)
A closed-door roundtable for future marketing leaders, in partnership with the University of Oxford.
Time and Location
10:30 – 11:15
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Raji Behal, Klarna | Duncan Chater, Global Chief Revenue Officer, Bloomberg Media
Session
You bought the AI. Where’s the growth?
AI budgets are up. The stack is bigger than ever. And yet growth isn’t moving at the same pace. It’s not a technology problem — it’s a connection problem. Industry leaders share what they’re actually changing: what they’re cutting, where they’re doubling down, and how they’re simplifying their setup to focus on what delivers real results.
Time and Location
12:00 – 13:00
DEPT® Secret Garden
Lunch
Lunch with EPICA (invite only)
Time and Location
13:00 – 14:00
DEPT® Secret Garden
Session
EPICA x Adforum – Cocktail hour (invite only)
Time and Location
14:00 – 14:45
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Nili Klenoff, EVP Commerce Media & Innovation, Mastercard | Adrian Fung, CMO, eBay | Tyrona Heath, Global Director, Thought Leadership GTM at LinkedIn | Scott Zalaznik, CEO BLACKROLL®
Session
The human multiplier: why leadership is the real AI advantage
AI has scaled output. That’s no longer the advantage. The industry leaders winning now are being judged on direction — where to focus, what to prioritise, what not to do. Because when everything can be produced, the real risk isn’t falling behind. It’s becoming average at scale. This session is about the leaders building the systems that prevent exactly that.
Time and Location
15:00 – 16:00
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Host: Adformatie
Session
Marketing for machines: how B2A is rewriting the CMO playbook
A Dutch-language session for senior marketers. How agent-driven journeys are shifting search, loyalty, and performance, and what it means when you’re no longer just selling to people, but to their digital assistants.
Time and Location
16:15 – 16:35
DEPT® Secret Garden
Session
Fireside chat by afriCANNES
Time and Location
16:35 – 18:00
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Kojo Marfo, Founder My Runway Group | Kofi Turkson, COO My Runway Group
Party
afriCANNES x DEPT® — Closing cocktail party
Three days of Growth, Invented, ending the way it should. Drinks, the whole garden community, and the conversations you’ll still be having next week.
MEET THE SPEAKERS
MEET THE TEAM
PIONEERING CASES
Join DEPT® at Cannes Lions 2026 – Secret Garden
Just off the Croisette, away from the noise, a space designed to slow things down.
A return to the trees, where the focus shifts back to the craft and the conversations behind it.
The Secret Garden is back this year.
Last year, in the middle of everything Cannes tends to be, the Garden became one of those places people kept finding their way back to.
Just off the Croisette, under the trees, it had a different kind of energy. There was shade, a bit of a breeze, friendly faces, and the sense that you could sit down for a moment without immediately checking the time. People dropped in between meetings and, more often than not, stayed longer than planned.
Across the day, it was filled with senior leaders from brands, tech, and the creator world. Conversations moved easily between AI, innovation, and what’s actually changing in the work. Smart, open, and refreshingly unforced.
So this year, we’re keeping it much the same, just a little more considered. Still invite-only. Still intentionally limited. The same setting, with a bit more space to settle in and the same kind of people you’d hope to run into. A place to step out of the noise, find some shade, and get into conversations that are actually worth your time.
It’s only fitting that you’re there too.
What to expect in the Secret Garden
- Real conversations from industry and brand leaders. No panels for the sake of panels. Just honest takes on turning AI into real growth, redefining how teams work, and the next generation of creative thinking.
- Work you can step into. Interactive and immersive tech experiences that bring ideas to life and show how it’s actually being done.
- A space that works. Built for real meetings, real connections, and time well spent away from the noise. Grab a coffee, wander through the garden, step into the studio, or find a quiet corner to keep a conversation going.
- Something to take with you. A special gift from the curated selection of goodies at the DEPT® Souvenir shop.
GROW BUSINESSES IN AI
How to win discoverability and conversion when algorithms (and agents) decide. A how-to guide to leverage discoverability, differentiation and growth for brands in a world where AI decides what customers see, buy and do, from commerce to GEO and Social.
FUTURE OF WORK / Deptify®
What AI-native teams actually look like. Live demos. Real operating models. In-depth conversations about how AI is changing the way we work and how empathy will become as business-critical as automation. Officially launch Deptify® with live demos for clients.
NEXT GEN CREATIVE
How brands ship culture at speed and keep craft intact when AI enters the workflow. From the new rules of the influencer and brand operating system to the eternal conversation of the role of AI in creativity, we’ll dive deep into the craft element to celebrate examples of how brands and creators are driving the next era of creativity.
It’s happening again
The Garden’s coming back, and so are the conversations you didn’t plan but were glad you had. We’ll share the rest soon.
THE Program
Time and Location
08:30 – 10:15
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Moderator: Robert Dreblow, WFA
Session
Breakfast panel by WFA (invite only)
Where the real conversations happen before the day begins.
Time and Location
10:30 – 11:15
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Terri Wang, Growth Leader, OpenAI |
Grace Kao, CMO, Snap | Antonia Wade, CMO, PwC
Host: Fortune
Session
Lessons from the most innovative CMOs: rethinking growth in a B2A world
The customer journey is being filtered, shaped, and decided by AI before a human gets involved. Business-to-Agent isn’t a tactic; it’s the new reality. Together with Fortune, the CMOs who saw this coming first share where the shift is already showing up in revenue, retention, and CAC, and what growth looks like when agents are in the room.
Time and Location
12:00 – 13:45
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Moderators: WFA, Revolt, Kantar, Oxford Said Business School
Lunch
Roundtable lunch – WFA’s value of sustainable marketing (invite only)
A Chatham House-rule lunch where the most valuable thing in the room is the lived experience of the people in it. Senior marketers from WFA, DEPT® and Oxford’s Said Business School in candid conversation about what sustainable marketing is actually worth.
Time and Location
14:00 – 14:45
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Sona Iliffe-Moon, CCO, Yahoo | Jessica Qaasim, Head of Industry, Google | Emily O’Hara, VP Global Brand & Media, eBay | Ashley Penn, Senior Director, Marketing, Adobe
Session
The new rules of scaling brands with AI
Scaling used to mean consistency. Now it means consistency at speed. AI makes output easier, but it also exposes everything that doesn’t hold up. The brands getting this right aren’t just adding AI to the mix, they’re rethinking how communication flows across teams, markets, and channels. Find out how they’re keeping quality high while everything accelerates.
Time and Location
19:00 – 22:00
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Hope Hydration
Dinner
Future Club Dinner (invite only)
An evening for the people building what’s next. Dinner, drinks, and the kind of conversations you don’t have on stage.
Time and Location
09:00 – 10:00
DEPT® Secret Garden
Breakfast
Cannes press breakfast (invite only)
Off the record, over coffee, before the day takes over. A small group of journalists in conversation with DEPT® leadership
Time and Location
09:30
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
The Webby Awards
Session
Running Club
The best conversations at Cannes happen when you’re not sitting down. An early morning run with some of the most interesting people on the Croisette.
Time and Location
10:15 – 10:30
DEPT® Secret Garden
Session
Creator Coffee & Connect (invite only)
Strawberry matcha or an iced latte. Catch your breath, meet the room, and ease into the morning before the sessions begin.
Time and Location
10:30 – 11:15
Speakers
Matt Watson, CCO PepsiCo
Host: The Webby Awards
Session
What broke the Internet?
AI made content cheap. That didn’t make attention more valuable, it made distinctiveness more valuable. A practical teardown of viral hits and public misses with creators and founders. What actually travels. What sticks. And when a million views is growth versus an expensive distraction.
Time and Location
11:30 – 13:00
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Mark Ritson
Lunch
The Marketing Academy – Alumni Lunch (invite only)
An intimate session with one of the sharpest minds in marketing, followed by lunch. The kind of afternoon that changes how you think for a while.
Time and Location
14:00 – 14:45
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Erin Chin, CMO, Logitech for Creators
Host: TikTok
Session
You can’t brief your way into culture
On TikTok, brands aren’t the main character. They’re a guest; fun to have around, or easy to ignore. Creators set the pace, communities decide what sticks. Together with TikTok, we move past the brand-first mindset: how partnerships evolve from one-off campaigns into ongoing roles in culture, and why some collaborations take off while others barely leave the For You page.
Time and Location
15:00 – 15:45
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Keynote
Indvstry Clvb panel
More info soon
Time and Location
16:00 – 16:30
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Laurie Keith SVP, Emerging Media, the Ad Council | Jennifer Kattula General Manager and Chief Marketing Officer, Microsoft Advertising
Host: Adcouncil
Moderator: TBD DigiDay
Reporter
Keynote
How AI is helping people keep their loved ones safe from gun violence
Gun injuries have been the leading cause of death among children and teens in the US for four consecutive years. Agree to Agree built an AI chatbot that helps people start those conversations, from common ground, with clarity and care. Join Microsoft, Ad Council, RSM, and DEPT® for the launch, and a new standard for what creative effectiveness can actually look like.
Time and Location
16:30 – 17:30
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Host: Adcouncil
Session
Drinks at the bistro
Time and Location
19:00 – 22:00
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Hope Hydration
Dinner
Future Club Dinner x WFA (invite only)
Dinner with WFA’s global network and DEPT® leadership.
Time and Location
08:30 – 10:00
DEPT® Secret Garden
Session
Future of Marketing Initiative — Oxford University (invite only)
A closed-door roundtable for future marketing leaders, in partnership with the University of Oxford.
Time and Location
10:30 – 11:15
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Raji Behal, Klarna | Duncan Chater, Global Chief Revenue Officer, Bloomberg Media
Session
You bought the AI. Where’s the growth?
AI budgets are up. The stack is bigger than ever. And yet growth isn’t moving at the same pace. It’s not a technology problem — it’s a connection problem. Industry leaders share what they’re actually changing: what they’re cutting, where they’re doubling down, and how they’re simplifying their setup to focus on what delivers real results.
Time and Location
12:00 – 13:00
DEPT® Secret Garden
Lunch
Lunch with EPICA (invite only)
Time and Location
13:00 – 14:00
DEPT® Secret Garden
Session
EPICA x Adforum – Cocktail hour (invite only)
Time and Location
14:00 – 14:45
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Nili Klenoff, EVP Commerce Media & Innovation, Mastercard | Adrian Fung, CMO, eBay | Tyrona Heath, Global Director, Thought Leadership GTM at LinkedIn | Scott Zalaznik, CEO BLACKROLL®
Session
The human multiplier: why leadership is the real AI advantage
AI has scaled output. That’s no longer the advantage. The industry leaders winning now are being judged on direction — where to focus, what to prioritise, what not to do. Because when everything can be produced, the real risk isn’t falling behind. It’s becoming average at scale. This session is about the leaders building the systems that prevent exactly that.
Time and Location
15:00 – 16:00
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Host: Adformatie
Session
Marketing for machines: how B2A is rewriting the CMO playbook
A Dutch-language session for senior marketers. How agent-driven journeys are shifting search, loyalty, and performance, and what it means when you’re no longer just selling to people, but to their digital assistants.
Time and Location
16:15 – 16:35
DEPT® Secret Garden
Session
Fireside chat by afriCANNES
Time and Location
16:35 – 18:00
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Kojo Marfo, Founder My Runway Group | Kofi Turkson, COO My Runway Group
Party
afriCANNES x DEPT® — Closing cocktail party
Three days of Growth, Invented, ending the way it should. Drinks, the whole garden community, and the conversations you’ll still be having next week.
MEET THE SPEAKERS
MEET THE TEAM
PIONEERING CASES