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
DANIELLE SHAW
Brand, Communications and Marketing Manager, Clifford Chance
MERCEDES CARRIN
Head of Marketing, Medianet
LOUISE NEALON
Managing Director, PR with Purpose
11.00 – 11:20 Networking Break
Explore the evolutionary journey through PR and Communications and the key lessons learnt in igniting GEN AI for efficient comms
AURORA SASSONE
Head of Communications APAC, Intuit
• The evolution of creative strategy
• How best to drive creativity across PR teams
• Embracing the right tools for creative comms
REBECCA O’HEARN
Social and PR Manager, Freedom Furniture
• -Securing board level engagement for new PR strategies
• -Understanding the mind set of the board and how best to communicate new initiatives
LORI SUSKO
Co founder, We Scout + Co Founder and Chief of Operations, Rumblings
ANNABELLE JONES
Co founder, We Scout + Co Founder and Chief Brand Officer, Rumblings
12:55 LUNCH AND NETWORKING
Agentic AI is reshaping how communications work gets done — moving beyond simple prompts and co-pilots toward systems that can plan, act, and complete tasks autonomously across entire workflows. For PR and communications teams, this shift represents both the biggest opportunity and the most consequential risk of the decade.
In this session, Rita Arrigo draws on Alchemy Impact's hands-on experience designing and deploying agentic AI solutions for complex, high-stakes environments. Through a live demonstration, Rita will show what genuinely effective agentic AI implementation looks like in practice — not a proof of concept, but real systems delivering real outcomes for real organisations.
• What separates agentic AI from the tools most communications teams are already using
• How Alchemy Impact designs agentic workflows that deliver measurable impact without sacrificing oversight
• Live demo: see an agentic AI system in action and what it means for communications workflows
• The governance and transparency foundations that make agentic AI safe to scale
• What communications leaders can take away and apply immediately
RITA ARRIGO
AI Strategy and Growth Lead, Alchemy Impact
• What audiences expect when AI is involved
• Moving beyond compliance to principled practice
• Lessons from brands who got it right and wrong
JOHN FONG
Managing Director, Woodwing
15.00 AFTERNOON TEA
• 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
• Establishing the next generation of global research around the evolution of GEN AI
• Assessing UK research results around teams and successful GEN AI initiatives
PAUL X MCCARTHY
CEO, League of Scholars
• How to drive internal communication efficiencies through GEN AI tools
• Leading into the unknown and best practice training
• Team learnings around integration and skills
ALENA DARCY
Head of Comms, The Iconic
17:00 DAY ONE WRAP UP
I HOUR NETWORKING DRINKS
8:20 DELEGATE REGISTRATION & COFFEE
Opening remarks from the Chair
DR KAREN SUTHERLAND
Co-Director, Queensland AI Hub
• 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
• An assessment of national excellence
• The critical next steps to lead in communications management
• Comms 2030! Where is this all heading
DR KAREN SUTHERLAND
Co-Director, Queensland AI Hub
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
11:20 COFFEE BREAK & NETWORKING
• Understanding how crisis communications has shifted in the last six month
• How to anticipate the next wave of crisis management capability
• Lessons from the front line across the public sector
PHILLIP LONGLEY
Director of Government Relations, Workers Insurance Association
• 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 Mumbrella PR Professional of the Year and B&T Women Leading Tech PR Winner 2026)
12.45 Networking Lunch
TOM CRAWFORD
Co-Founder, Chief AI Officer, Rumblings + Former Head of Advanced Analytics and Data Science at Woolworths Group
JENNY RINDLAND
Founder G+S Communications + Chief Product & Impact Officer, Rumblings
• A journey through next gen comms strategy in fashion
• Devising new and policy led initiatives
• Unlocking new pathways to AI adoption
ELIABETH ANDERSON-FUNNELL
Director, Australian Fashion Council
HOST:
DR KAREN SUTHERLAND
Co-Director, Queensland AI Hub
• Using AI to detect trends, sentiment, and emerging narratives
• Turning insights into strategic communications
• Case studies of predictive PR
SARAH MAY
Fractional Web3 and AI Social and PR Specialist - UK
• Building AI literacy across PR teams
• Encouraging experimentation and innovation
• Leadership strategies for hybrid human-AI workflows
ALENA DARCY
Head of Comms, The Iconic
ELIZABETH ANDERSON-FUNNELL
Director, Australian Fashion Council
TOM CRAWFORD
Co-Founder, Chief AI Officer, Rumblings + Former Head of Advanced Analytics and Data Science at Woolworths Group
• 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
16:25 Closing remarks from the Chair
16:30 End of conference
