Our inaugural conference

André Cardozo

Group Director, Technology, Work & Co.

Caitlin Kelly

Founder and co-CEO, EZ Newswire

Charlton Mcilwain

Vice Provost & Professor, New York University

Colin Nagy

Director, Global Brand Strategy, Instagram

Drew Neisser

Founder, Renegade & CMO Huddles

Elliott Walker

Creative Director and Co-founder, Otherward

Ivan Kayser

CEO, Redscout

Jaime Robinson

Co-Founder and CCO, JOAN

Keith Butters

Creative Engineering Director, WeTransfer

Mark D'Arcy

Founder, The Creative Legion

Meredith Broussard

Associate Professor, NYU

Michael Francello

Director of Innovation, Shutterstock

Mickey Friedman

CEO/ Co-Founder, Flair AI

Neel Shah

Founder and co-CEO, EZ Newswire

Noah Brier

BrXnd

Paul Aaron

CEO, Addition

Piers Fawkes

Founder, The Prompt

Reese Fuller

Lead Writer, Work & Co.

Rob May

CEO, BrandGuard

Sarah Bird

Responsible AI Lead, Azure AI, Microsoft

Shannon Sorensen

SVP, Business & Legal Affairs, National Music Publishers' Association

Shareen Pathak

Product, Shopping AI, Amazon

Ted Florea

Founder, Chief Strategy Officer, Ancient LLC

Tim Hucklesby

Creative Director and Co-founder, Otherward

Tim Hwang

Author, "Subprime Attention Crisis"

Toni Clayton-Hine

Chief Marketing Officer, EY

BrXnd Ad Turing Test

Mark D'Arcy (Founder, The Creative Legion), Tim Hwang (Author, "Subprime Attention Crisis"), Noah Brier (BrXnd), Ted Florea (Founder, Chief Strategy Officer, Ancient LLC), Keith Butters (Creative Engineering Director, WeTransfer)

As part of this inaugural BrXnd Conference, we will be running an “ad Turing test.” For the unfamiliar, the “Turing test” was a game proposed by famed computing pioneer Alan Turing as a way to test the intelligence of a machine. In his original thought experiment, he wondered whether you could build a computer that could fool a person into believing it was human. During this session we will talk about the test, show the results, hear from one of the AI teams on how they approached the problem, and speak to one of the jury members about their experience judging the first ad Turing test.

Hallucinations For Fun and Profit

Tim Hwang (Author, "Subprime Attention Crisis")

Large language models (LLMs) have a tenuous grasp on the truth. They tend to "hallucinate", providing confident answers to questions that have little bearing on reality. This has typically been considered a weakness of the technology, and something that poses a major problem to practical business use of LLMs. This session will argue the opposite: that hallucinations are not only the most powerful characteristic of this technology, but the characteristic most likely to radically reshape how marketing works. We'll talk about why that's the case, and demo some experiments that leverage hallucination as a feature—rather than a bug—of LLMs.

AI Product Photography

Mickey Friedman (CEO/ Co-Founder, Flair AI)

Flair is a composable design platform/widget that generates on-brand, highly personalized product photos at scale. It is the first AI design tool that empowers users to stage digital photoshoots and target them to individual customers.

Using AI to Build a Brand Identity

Elliott Walker (Creative Director and Co-founder, Otherward), Tim Hucklesby (Creative Director and Co-founder, Otherward)

When AI Met Creative

Shareen Pathak (Product, Shopping AI, Amazon), Jaime Robinson (Co-Founder and CCO, JOAN)

Generative AI is here to stay—and it can supercharge creative teams across marketing and media. In this conversation, we'll chat through how AI can be a powerful tool in a creative's toolkit, and how it affects idea generation, processes and productivity, and unlock "thinking time." We'll also chat about what creativity really means in the context of an AI world, and offer tactical ideas on how to infuse AI into the creative process.

Bringing Research to Life with AI

Ivan Kayser (CEO, Redscout)

Using AI to ask the research question you forgot to ask

Easy, Confident & Responsible: Shutterstock's Approach to Generative AI

Michael Francello (Director of Innovation, Shutterstock)

Michael Francello (Director of Innovation) will be walking through Shutterstock's ethical, artist-centric and brand safe approach to generative AI, which allows their partners to create not only at the speed of their imagination, but with confidence.

Your News Matters: Building the Next-Gen Newswire

Neel Shah (Founder and co-CEO, EZ Newswire), Caitlin Kelly (Founder and co-CEO, EZ Newswire)

Join the founders of EZ Newswire for a product demo to learn how we're modernizing the most fundamental of PR processes with technology and a fresh perspective.

Generative AI And Brand Safety: Problems and Possibilities

Rob May (CEO, BrandGuard)

An overview of the problems brands encounter when using generative AI, and emerging AI solutions to solve these problems.

Designing AI Systems & Experiences

Paul Aaron (CEO, Addition)

Generative AI has ushered in a new era of possibilities. To act on these possibilities, forward-thinking teams are designing AI systems that combine the power of generative models with data and data science to solve brand and business models.

AI is Shaking Up B2B Marketing

Drew Neisser (Founder, Renegade & CMO Huddles), Toni Clayton-Hine (Chief Marketing Officer, EY)

Generative AI is already reshaping how B2B CMOs approach content creation. We’ll explore what that looks like today and share anticipated changes that will shake up B2B marketing for good (and in some hands, for bad).

The When, What, Where, Why & How of AI Bias: A Conversation with Meredith Broussard

Charlton Mcilwain (Vice Provost & Professor, New York University), Meredith Broussard (Associate Professor, NYU)

It is well known that machine learning systems introduce and or/reproduce various types of biases associated with race, gender, ability, language and many other such human differences. This fireside chat style conversation with computer scientist and data journalist Meredith Broussard features tips and tools for identifying how and why biases get introduced in everything from large language models to various kinds of machine learning applications, and guidance for how to address and/or prevent common biases reflected in common or novel applications used by branding and marketing professionals.

Pragmatic Optimism: Building digital products in the age of AI

Reese Fuller (Lead Writer, Work & Co.), André Cardozo (Group Director, Technology, Work & Co.)

AI models have come to influence the very fundamentals of our craft: visual design, images, words, code. Where do you start, and how do you proceed responsibly, in creating experiences for clients, users, and society at large? Global technology and design company Work & Co presents its strategic approach to conceiving, testing, and deploying AI-driven tools through a holistic, craft-forward lens.

Opening: Building Intuition in AI

Noah Brier (BrXnd)

The last twelve months have seen the explosive growth of AI. And while it’s doubtful that anyone knows exactly how things are going to turn out, particularly in marketing, it is now clear this new technology will have a major impact across all parts of the brand-building process. Rather than trying to pinpoint the future, it might be better to just focus on building “finger feel”: a bottoms-up understanding of how AI works through tinkering.

AI Under the Hood

Sarah Bird (Responsible AI Lead, Azure AI, Microsoft), Piers Fawkes (Founder, The Prompt)

An AI-101 with Microsoft's leading evangelist Sarah Bird. In this session, we'll learn more on the fundamentals of how artificial intelligence works and how the creative community can leverage it to shape their work. This fireside conversation will be led by Piers Fawkes.

Copyright versus Generative Creativity

Shannon Sorensen (SVP, Business & Legal Affairs, National Music Publishers' Association), Colin Nagy (Director, Global Brand Strategy, Instagram)

A discussion on the changing world of intellectual property and what marketers and creatives need to know.