DEPT® is heading to Shoptalk Fall
Meet the DEPT® team to talk about what’s next in commerce—from AI-powered experiences and personalization to modern commerce platforms, media, and customer growth strategies.
What to expect at the event
Retail is moving faster than ever. AI is reshaping customer expectations, commerce journeys are getting more complex, and brands are under pressure to do more with less.
That’s why we’re heading to Shoptalk Fall.
The DEPT® team will be on-site, sharing how leading brands are using AI, data, creativity, and technology to accelerate growth and deliver better customer experiences.
Whether you’re tackling platform transformation, customer acquisition, retention, or operational efficiency, we’d love to compare notes and explore what’s possible together.
If you’re looking to move faster, innovate smarter, and unlock new growth opportunities, let’s talk.
Welcome to Nashville Concert: An exclusive evening with DEPT®, Contentful & Vercel
After a day at Shoptalk, join us for a memorable Nashville experience.
On Monday, September 28, we’re hosting a select group of senior leaders from technology, ecommerce, digital, and marketing for an evening of great conversation, premium hospitality, and live entertainment.
Enjoy drinks, appetizers, and networking with industry peers before watching Kacey Musgraves from a private suite at Bridgestone Arena.
Space is limited. Request your spot when you register, and we’ll be in touch with more details.
Meet our team
How AI is empowering people to prevent gun injuries and deaths
Registrations for our sessions are now closed. You’re welcome to join the waiting list for the DEPT® Secret Garden on this page, giving you access throughout the week, and we’ll be in touch if a spot becomes available.
Want the full DEPT® Secret Garden experience?
Join the waiting list above for a chance to experience our Secret Garden, our private, invite-only oasis to unwind. A week of full access, space is strictly limited.
The most important work today doesn’t just move people, it helps them act.
That’s what makes “Agree to Agree,” the Ad Council’s campaign to start important conversations about youth firearm injury prevention, different.
In the U.S., gun injuries have been the leading cause of death among children and teens for four consecutive years. This 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 buzzwords. They need support starting conversations from a place of common ground that can help keep their families and loved ones safe.
“Agree to Agree” built an AI-powered chatbot to do exactly that. On AgreeToAgree.org, this conversational AI tool 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, and DEPT® for a session on the launch of this 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 to act. 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 the Ad Council, 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
Registrations for our sessions are now closed. You’re welcome to join the waiting list for the DEPT® Secret Garden on this page, giving you access throughout the week, and we’ll be in touch if a spot becomes available.
Want the full DEPT® Secret Garden experience?
Join the waiting list above for a chance to experience our Secret Garden, our private, invite-only oasis to unwind. A week of full access, space is strictly limited.
Everyone’s experimenting with AI but far fewer are scaling it.
Everyone’s experimenting with AI but far fewer are scaling it. 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.
WFA members are invited to start their Tuesday with us at the DEPT® Secret Garden in an intimate morning of conversation, candour, and connection. 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.
When Sustainability Means Business
Registrations for our sessions are now closed. You’re welcome to join the waiting list for the DEPT® Secret Garden on this page, giving you access throughout the week, and we’ll be in touch if a spot becomes available.
Want the full DEPT® Secret Garden experience?
Join the waiting list above for a chance to experience our Secret Garden, our private, invite-only oasis to unwind. A week of full access, space is strictly limited.
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 will share personal perspectives on the topic of Sustainable Marketing 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 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 other senior marketing and sustainability leaders, 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.
This event is conducted in compliance with the WFA Competition policy and any applicable competition laws. Participants are reminded that discussions must not extend to competitively sensitive topics, including pricing, market allocation, supplier terms, or commercial strategies. WFA reserves the right to intervene in any session or discussion that raises competition law concerns.”
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 DEPT® and The World Federation of Advertisers 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 in collaboration with The World Federation of Advertisers, 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.
Bold ideas & unexpected moments
Download the full DEPT® Secret Garden program to help you plan your time in Cannes.
THE Program
Time and Location
08:30 – 10:15
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Lauren Walker, VP Digital Transformation at Mars | Claudia Calori, VP Head of Global Marketing Personal Health at Philips | Meredith Herman, Global Head of Acceleration at Kenvue
Moderator: Robert Dreblow, WFA
Session
Breakfast panel by WFA – Beyond Artificial: The Real Work of Scaling AI
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. 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.
Time and Location
10:30 – 11:15
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Elke Karskens, Head of International Marketing, OpenAI | Grace Kao, CMO, Snap | Antonia Wade, CMO, PwC | Bridget Evans, Global Head of Business Marketing at Spotify
Moderator: Kamal Ahmed, Executive Editorial Director, 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
15:00 – 15:45
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Sara Holt, CMO, Center Parcs | Kate Bird, Senior Director EMEA, APAC and Global Brand Marketing, Snap Inc |
Sarah Leinberger, CMO, Yoobi | Irina Rodina, Former SVP Marketing Bacardi, CMO Kraft
Moderator: Emma Harris, CEO Glow London
Session
#slowthefuckdown: Leading Through the Madness
The world has never moved faster. AI, economic pressure, endless change, relentless expectations. Everyone is being asked to do more, move quicker and somehow keep it all together.
But what is all this madness doing to us?
In this raw and honest conversation, some of the industry’s most respected leaders share what it’s really like behind the job titles. The pressure, the mistakes, the wake-up calls and the lessons they’ve learnt about leading themselves and others through increasingly complex times. Less leadership theory. More real talk. Because whilst everyone else is focused on speeding up, perhaps the real challenge is learning how to slow the fuck down.
Time and Location
16:00 – 16:45
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
George Howes, Head of Grow at Canva | Indy Khabra, Co-Founder & Co-CEO at Livewire | Isabel Perry, Global EVP of Strategy at DEPT®
Session
The Closed Shop Just Got a Front Door
Gaming has long been media’s closed shop: bespoke deals, manual buying, and no unified workflow connecting creative, activation, and measurement.
At DEPT®’s Secret Garden, Livewire Co-Founder and Co-CEO Indy Khabra, George Howes, Head of Growth at Canva, and Isabel Perry, Chief Strategy Officer at DEPT®, unveil the first gaming integration in Canva Marketplace. They’ll show how Canva’s 265 million creators can now reach more than 3 billion gamers worldwide, and explain why the AI orchestration layer for gaming was always going to be built by a team deeply embedded in gaming culture.
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
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Matt Watson, CCO PepsiCo | Nic Brandenberger, CMO, Mammut | Kira Karlstrom, Co-Founder, Triple Threat, Formerly, Head of Global Entertainment Marketing, Twitch | Tiff Baira, Creator, Host of NYC Street Hearts
Moderator: Jesse Feister, Executive Director, Webby Media Group
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 G | Dawn Yang, Global Head of Entertainment Partnerships, TikTok | Morgan James, creator
Moderator: Salomé Rijnders, Business Lead Influencer Marketing, DEPT®
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
Laura Ness Owens, VP of Marketing, Doosan Bobcat | LaToya Shambo, Founder & CEO, Black Girl Digital | Dr. Joel Bervel, Medical Mythbuster & Creator | Derrick Downey Jr., Content Creator & Media Personality | Bonang Matheba, TV presenter & Media personality
Moderator: Ama Hill, Founder, keynote speaker & creator
Session
The algorithm doesn’t know your culture: building trust in the age of AI hosted by Indvstry Clvb
A deep dive into the tension between algorithmic efficiency and human authenticity. We’ll explore how global brands and creators build community trust and brand equity that data alone can’t replicate.
Time and Location
16:00 – 16:30
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Laurie Keith SVP, Emerging Media & Technology, the Ad Council | Jennifer Kattula General Manager and Chief Marketing Officer, Microsoft Advertising | Carryn Quibell, CEO of the Americas, DEPT®
Host: Adcouncil & Microsoft
Session
How AI is Empowering People to Prevent Gun Injuries and Deaths
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 & Microsoft
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 Head of Western and Southern Europe, UK & Ireland at Klarna | Duncan Chater, Global Chief Revenue Officer, Bloomberg Media | Suzana Apelbaum, Global AI Marketing Transformation Lead at Google Media Lab | Sally Barton, Director, Marketing Growth Strategy at Mondelēz
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
Dave Frauenfelder, VP Brand, MarCom & Sponsorships at KPN | Rutger Tuit, Head of YouTube (BeneLux) | Ana Henriques, Head of Brand Tui (BeneLux) | Brenda Smith, Director Marketing & Customer Experience, A.S. Watson
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
Speakers
Kojo Marfo, Founder My Runway Group | Kofi Turkson, COO My Runway Group | Bernard Kafui Sokpe, Co-founder & CEO, Jambo Spaces | Addy Awofisayo, Head of Music for Sub-Saharan Africa at Youtube | Chika Uwazie, Media founder & author | Ben Williams, Global Chief Creative Officer at DEPT®
Session
The distinctiveness gap | Fireside chat by afriCANNES (Private)
Marketing is converging. African creative output is breaking through. The bridge between them barely exists.
Time and Location
16:35 – 18:00
DEPT® Secret Garden
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 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…
DEPT® Future Club – Secret Garden Dinner
We’re overjoyed and overwhelmed at the interest in our future club dinner & secret garden, but that sadly means we are now at capacity. We welcome you to join the waiting list for the DEPT® Secret Garden during the week and we’ll be in touch if we can squeeze you in.
Explore the Secret Garden here – An, invite-only oasis to unwind. A week of full access, space is strictly limited.
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…
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 in collaboration with The Marketing Society, 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.
Bold ideas & unexpected moments
Download the full DEPT® Secret Garden program to help you plan your time in Cannes.
THE Program
Time and Location
08:30 – 10:15
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Lauren Walker, VP Digital Transformation at Mars | Claudia Calori, VP Head of Global Marketing Personal Health at Philips | Meredith Herman, Global Head of Acceleration at Kenvue
Moderator: Robert Dreblow, WFA
Session
Breakfast panel by WFA – Beyond Artificial: The Real Work of Scaling AI
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. 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.
Time and Location
10:30 – 11:15
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Elke Karskens, Head of International Marketing, OpenAI | Grace Kao, CMO, Snap | Antonia Wade, CMO, PwC | Bridget Evans, Global Head of Business Marketing at Spotify
Moderator: Kamal Ahmed, Executive Editorial Director, 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
15:00 – 15:45
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Sara Holt, CMO, Center Parcs | Kate Bird, Senior Director EMEA, APAC and Global Brand Marketing, Snap Inc |
Sarah Leinberger, CMO, Yoobi | Irina Rodina, Former SVP Marketing Bacardi, CMO Kraft
Moderator: Emma Harris, CEO Glow London
Session
#slowthefuckdown: Leading Through the Madness
The world has never moved faster. AI, economic pressure, endless change, relentless expectations. Everyone is being asked to do more, move quicker and somehow keep it all together.
But what is all this madness doing to us?
In this raw and honest conversation, some of the industry’s most respected leaders share what it’s really like behind the job titles. The pressure, the mistakes, the wake-up calls and the lessons they’ve learnt about leading themselves and others through increasingly complex times. Less leadership theory. More real talk. Because whilst everyone else is focused on speeding up, perhaps the real challenge is learning how to slow the fuck down.
Time and Location
16:00 – 16:45
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
George Howes, Head of Grow at Canva | Indy Khabra, Co-Founder & Co-CEO at Livewire | Isabel Perry, Global EVP of Strategy at DEPT®
Session
The Closed Shop Just Got a Front Door
Gaming has long been media’s closed shop: bespoke deals, manual buying, and no unified workflow connecting creative, activation, and measurement.
At DEPT®’s Secret Garden, Livewire Co-Founder and Co-CEO Indy Khabra, George Howes, Head of Growth at Canva, and Isabel Perry, Chief Strategy Officer at DEPT®, unveil the first gaming integration in Canva Marketplace. They’ll show how Canva’s 265 million creators can now reach more than 3 billion gamers worldwide, and explain why the AI orchestration layer for gaming was always going to be built by a team deeply embedded in gaming culture.
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
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Matt Watson, CCO PepsiCo | Nic Brandenberger, CMO, Mammut | Kira Karlstrom, Co-Founder, Triple Threat, Formerly, Head of Global Entertainment Marketing, Twitch | Tiff Baira, Creator, Host of NYC Street Hearts
Moderator: Jesse Feister, Executive Director, Webby Media Group
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 G | Dawn Yang, Global Head of Entertainment Partnerships, TikTok | Morgan James, creator
Moderator: Salomé Rijnders, Business Lead Influencer Marketing, DEPT®
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
Laura Ness Owens, VP of Marketing, Doosan Bobcat | LaToya Shambo, Founder & CEO, Black Girl Digital | Dr. Joel Bervel, Medical Mythbuster & Creator | Derrick Downey Jr., Content Creator & Media Personality | Bonang Matheba, TV presenter & Media personality
Moderator: Ama Hill, Founder, keynote speaker & creator
Session
The algorithm doesn’t know your culture: building trust in the age of AI hosted by Indvstry Clvb
A deep dive into the tension between algorithmic efficiency and human authenticity. We’ll explore how global brands and creators build community trust and brand equity that data alone can’t replicate.
Time and Location
16:00 – 16:30
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Laurie Keith SVP, Emerging Media & Technology, the Ad Council | Jennifer Kattula General Manager and Chief Marketing Officer, Microsoft Advertising | Carryn Quibell, CEO of the Americas, DEPT®
Host: Adcouncil & Microsoft
Session
How AI is Empowering People to Prevent Gun Injuries and Deaths
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 & Microsoft
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 Head of Western and Southern Europe, UK & Ireland at Klarna | Duncan Chater, Global Chief Revenue Officer, Bloomberg Media | Suzana Apelbaum, Global AI Marketing Transformation Lead at Google Media Lab | Sally Barton, Director, Marketing Growth Strategy at Mondelēz
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
Dave Frauenfelder, VP Brand, MarCom & Sponsorships at KPN | Rutger Tuit, Head of YouTube (BeneLux) | Ana Henriques, Head of Brand Tui (BeneLux) | Brenda Smith, Director Marketing & Customer Experience, A.S. Watson
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
Speakers
Kojo Marfo, Founder My Runway Group | Kofi Turkson, COO My Runway Group | Bernard Kafui Sokpe, Co-founder & CEO, Jambo Spaces | Addy Awofisayo, Head of Music for Sub-Saharan Africa at Youtube | Chika Uwazie, Media founder & author | Ben Williams, Global Chief Creative Officer at DEPT®
Session
The distinctiveness gap | Fireside chat by afriCANNES (Private)
Marketing is converging. African creative output is breaking through. The bridge between them barely exists.
Time and Location
16:35 – 18:00
DEPT® Secret Garden
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 TEAM
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
The Secret Garden didn’t stay secret for long…we’re overjoyed and overwhelmed at the interest in our garden, but that sadly means we are now at capacity. We welcome you to register for the waiting list and we’ll be in touch if we can squeeze you in.
DEPT® Souvenir Shop
A free souvenir waiting for you, part of a curated collection of exclusive items. Available in limited quantities, while they last.
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.
Bold ideas & unexpected moments
Download the full DEPT® Secret Garden program to help you plan your time in Cannes.
THE Program
Time and Location
08:30 – 10:15
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Lauren Walker, VP Digital Transformation at Mars | Claudia Calori, VP Head of Global Marketing Personal Health at Philips | Meredith Herman, Global Head of Acceleration at Kenvue
Moderator: Robert Dreblow, WFA
Session
Breakfast panel by WFA – Beyond Artificial: The Real Work of Scaling AI
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. 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.
Time and Location
10:30 – 11:15
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Elke Karskens, Head of International Marketing, OpenAI | Grace Kao, CMO, Snap | Antonia Wade, CMO, PwC | Bridget Evans, Global Head of Business Marketing at Spotify
Moderator: Kamal Ahmed, Executive Editorial Director, 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
15:00 – 15:45
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Sara Holt, CMO, Center Parcs | Kate Bird, Senior Director EMEA, APAC and Global Brand Marketing, Snap Inc |
Sarah Leinberger, CMO, Yoobi | Irina Rodina, Former SVP Marketing Bacardi, CMO Kraft
Moderator: Emma Harris, CEO Glow London
Session
#slowthefuckdown: Leading Through the Madness
The world has never moved faster. AI, economic pressure, endless change, relentless expectations. Everyone is being asked to do more, move quicker and somehow keep it all together.
But what is all this madness doing to us?
In this raw and honest conversation, some of the industry’s most respected leaders share what it’s really like behind the job titles. The pressure, the mistakes, the wake-up calls and the lessons they’ve learnt about leading themselves and others through increasingly complex times. Less leadership theory. More real talk. Because whilst everyone else is focused on speeding up, perhaps the real challenge is learning how to slow the fuck down.
Time and Location
16:00 – 16:45
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
George Howes, Head of Grow at Canva | Indy Khabra, Co-Founder & Co-CEO at Livewire | Isabel Perry, Global EVP of Strategy at DEPT®
Session
The Closed Shop Just Got a Front Door
Gaming has long been media’s closed shop: bespoke deals, manual buying, and no unified workflow connecting creative, activation, and measurement.
At DEPT®’s Secret Garden, Livewire Co-Founder and Co-CEO Indy Khabra, George Howes, Head of Growth at Canva, and Isabel Perry, Chief Strategy Officer at DEPT®, unveil the first gaming integration in Canva Marketplace. They’ll show how Canva’s 265 million creators can now reach more than 3 billion gamers worldwide, and explain why the AI orchestration layer for gaming was always going to be built by a team deeply embedded in gaming culture.
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
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Matt Watson, CCO PepsiCo | Nic Brandenberger, CMO, Mammut | Kira Karlstrom, Co-Founder, Triple Threat, Formerly, Head of Global Entertainment Marketing, Twitch | Tiff Baira, Creator, Host of NYC Street Hearts
Moderator: Jesse Feister, Executive Director, Webby Media Group
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 G | Dawn Yang, Global Head of Entertainment Partnerships, TikTok | Morgan James, creator
Moderator: Salomé Rijnders, Business Lead Influencer Marketing, DEPT®
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
Laura Ness Owens, VP of Marketing, Doosan Bobcat | LaToya Shambo, Founder & CEO, Black Girl Digital | Dr. Joel Bervel, Medical Mythbuster & Creator | Derrick Downey Jr., Content Creator & Media Personality | Bonang Matheba, TV presenter & Media personality
Moderator: Ama Hill, Founder, keynote speaker & creator
Session
The algorithm doesn’t know your culture: building trust in the age of AI hosted by Indvstry Clvb
A deep dive into the tension between algorithmic efficiency and human authenticity. We’ll explore how global brands and creators build community trust and brand equity that data alone can’t replicate.
Time and Location
16:00 – 16:30
DEPT® Secret Garden
Speakers
Laurie Keith SVP, Emerging Media & Technology, the Ad Council | Jennifer Kattula General Manager and Chief Marketing Officer, Microsoft Advertising | Carryn Quibell, CEO of the Americas, DEPT®
Host: Adcouncil & Microsoft
Session
How AI is Empowering People to Prevent Gun Injuries and Deaths
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 & Microsoft
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 Head of Western and Southern Europe, UK & Ireland at Klarna | Duncan Chater, Global Chief Revenue Officer, Bloomberg Media | Suzana Apelbaum, Global AI Marketing Transformation Lead at Google Media Lab | Sally Barton, Director, Marketing Growth Strategy at Mondelēz
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
Dave Frauenfelder, VP Brand, MarCom & Sponsorships at KPN | Rutger Tuit, Head of YouTube (BeneLux) | Ana Henriques, Head of Brand Tui (BeneLux) | Brenda Smith, Director Marketing & Customer Experience, A.S. Watson
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
Speakers
Kojo Marfo, Founder My Runway Group | Kofi Turkson, COO My Runway Group | Bernard Kafui Sokpe, Co-founder & CEO, Jambo Spaces | Addy Awofisayo, Head of Music for Sub-Saharan Africa at Youtube | Chika Uwazie, Media founder & author | Ben Williams, Global Chief Creative Officer at DEPT®
Session
The distinctiveness gap | Fireside chat by afriCANNES (Private)
Marketing is converging. African creative output is breaking through. The bridge between them barely exists.
Time and Location
16:35 – 18:00
DEPT® Secret Garden
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
