The ANZ PR and Comms Leaders’ Gen AI Summit 2026 is the region’s most senior-level forum dedicated to how Generative AI and Agentic PR are reshaping communications, reputation management, storytelling, and stakeholder engagement.
As AI moves beyond tools into agent-driven workflows, communications teams are entering a new era — where intelligent systems can plan, monitor, generate, and optimise communications at scale. This two-day summit brings together ANZ and
global communications leaders, brand executives, agency heads, and AI specialists to explore what this transformation means in practice. Across keynote presentations, interactive panels, real-world case studies, and executive roundtables, the summit focuses on what works, what doesn’t, and
what remains fundamentally human in modern communications. Attendees will gain practical insights into building AI-enabled PR functions while safeguarding trust, ethics, brand integrity, and organisational culture
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SUPPORTING SPONSORDelegate Registration & Coffee
8:55 Opening remarks from the Chair
• How agent driven workflows are reshaping core PR functions
• Early wins and workable use cases
• What remains fundamentally human
LACHLAN ANDREWS
Head of Corporate & Internal Communications, Canva
• Designing a GEN AI and Agentic PR strategy
• Guardrails and training data that keep outputs on brand
• Practical starting points for lean teams
MATTHEW WU
Head of PR, AWS
• Production, monitoring and analysis tools gaining traction
• What is proving valuable versus what is noise
• Integrating new platforms without disrupting operations
SARAH LOUISE ROBINSON
Head of Communications, Tourism Fiji
LOUISE NEALON
Managing Director, PR with Purpose
10:50 Morning Coffee & Networking Break
• Global examples from leading markets
• Signals of a mature AI enabled communications function
• A clear view of where ANZ stands
BRENDA CHAN
PR Lead, Tourism New Zealand
Large Language Models and their answers are becoming a critical reputational blind spot, yet existing communication measurement methodologies still haven’t been able to quantify their impact.
Join Amrita Sidhu as she unveils the methodology and learnings from Medianet’s pioneering Australian market first research on Generative Citation Analysis; a new service concept designed to bring the rigour of media analysis to this "black box" and gain a foundational understanding of how to measure an organisation's footprint in this emerging and influential channel.
In partnership with some of Australia’s leading brands such as Westpac, Commonwealth Bank, RACV and Victorian Govt,, this research aims to unlock the opportunity to interpretand identify the sources, narratives and sentiment surfaced by GenAI.
Key session takeaways for attendees:
● A framework for the black box: Learn about Medianet’s evolving methodology for brand measurement and analysis in unpredictable LLM environments.
● Unpacking the influencers of LLM outputs: Discover how we analysed citations informing LLM responses to understand what kinds of content and information has the most influence over a brand’s LLM visibility.
● Take control of your LLM reputation: See how our award winning framework can help you unpack the levers that your brand reputation and prominence in LLM responses, and that of your competitors - in LLM responses - and that of competitors. Actionable takeaways for the GenAI future: Tips and tricks for Public Affairs and Communication professionals on navigating LLM measurement using Medianet’s methodology.
AMRITA SIDHU
Member Board of Directors, AMEC & MD Medianet
12:30 NETWORKING LUNCH
EMILY FINDLAY
PR Executive, SEPHORA
13:00 Lunch and Networking
• What audiences expect when AI is involved
• Moving beyond compliance to principled practice
• Lessons from brands who got it right and wrong
RITA ARRIGO
Strategic Engagement Manager, National AI Centre
• Campaigns and workflows that delivered measurable outcomes
• What teams learned when things did not go to plan
• How to scale without losing control
JAMES HUTCHINSON
CEO, Sling & Stone
15:00 Afternoon Tea
• Capabilities rising in importance
• Working confidently in hybrid AI and human environments
• How leaders can support rapid upskilling
RHIAN MASON
Managing Partner, M+C Saatchi
DANI REDMOND
Program Leader, Media and Communications, Blue Mountains City Council
PAUL CHEAL
Founding Partner, 3cPR
• The new mind set of 2026 comms innovators
• How best to upskill in relentless change
ALENA DARCY
PR and Media Director, The Iconic
The training and development requirements for teams
17:10 Closing Remarks from the chair
17:10- 18:10 1 Hour Networking Drinks
8:20 Delegate Registration & Coffee
8:55 Opening remarks from the Chair
• How AI is changing the rules of communications
• Mindset shifts leaders need to make
• Lessons from brands navigating ambiguity
• Case studies of AI-driven decision-making in PR
• Balancing speed, scale, and authenticity
• Early lessons and pitfalls
REBECCA O’HEARN
Social and PR Manager, Freedom Furniture
• Real-world Gen AI tools that transform PR workflows
• Integrating AI without disrupting culture
• Metrics and KPIs for AI-driven campaigns
ELIABETH ANDERSON-FUNNELL
Head of Communications, Australian Fashion Council
AURORA SASSONE
Former Head of Communications, Oracle
11:00 COFFEE BREAK & NETWORKING
• Using AI to enhance creativity without losing voice
• Strategies for AI-assisted narrative creation
• Examples of successful campaigns
DANIEL YOUNG
Managing Director, Ogilvy
LAURA STOLL
Head of Strategy at Ogilvy PR
The communications function has spent decades engineering credibility, consistency and
authority across fragmented channels. Now, in the Answer Economy, those same signals determine what AI surfaces, what customers trust, and ultimately what gets bought. Large language models don’t discover brands - they inherit and synthesise what the ecosystem already says. That ecosystem has been shaped, structured and sustained by PR. The issue is not capability. It’s ownership. Right now, visibility is being decided across earned, owned, paid, SEO, partnerships and product - but most organisations are still running those functions in isolation. The result: diluted authority, inconsistent narratives, and missed inclusion in the answers that matter. This session reframes PR not as a marketing tactic but as the system integrator of reputation - the function best positioned to align signals, eliminate silos, and control how brands are represented across
AI-driven environments
Celia Harding (Founder, LEOPRD Mumbrella PR Professional of the Year and B&T Women Leading Tech PR Winner 2026) will cover
• How AI models like ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemini actually determine which brands are surfaced, cited and recommended
• Why fragmented marketing structures are actively suppressing AI visibility
• The real interplay between earned, owned and paid in shaping machine-readable authority
• What it takes for PR to lead cross-functional alignment, not support it
• The immediate opportunity to define and own AI reputation (LEO/GEO/AEO) before it is absorbed elsewhere
CELIA HARDING
Founder, LEOPRD
12:40 Networking Lunch
• Using AI to detect trends, sentiment, and emerging narratives
• Turning insights into strategic communications
• Case studies of predictive PR
• AI as a reputation multiplier: how generative AI, algorithms and automation can amplify trust or accelerate reputational damage in seconds
• Managing AI-driven risk: misinformation, deepfakes, data bias and model hallucinations — what leaders must anticipate and control
• Governance, accountability and transparency: who owns AI decisions, how to explain them, and what regulators and stakeholders now expect
• Protecting brand trust in an AI world: practical strategies for monitoring, responding and recovering when AI impacts reputation
ASHA OBEROI
Managing Director and Head of Digital and Insights, FTI Consulting
15:10 Coffee Break & Networking
• How AI can help identify and respond to issues faster
• Balancing automated alerts with human judgment
• Preparing for AI-enabled crisis management
MANMINDER KAUR DHILLON
CEO, Supernewsroom.ai
• Predictions for 2026 and beyond
• Lessons from early AI adopters
• How to lead in an era of uncertainty and rapid change
GLORIA LEE
Head of Brand and AI< Quantium
17:00 Closing remarks from the Chair
17:10 End of conference
