Check in from 09.30, collect your lanyard, programme and complimentary bag. Enjoy a coffee and a pastry with colleagues, friends, maybe do a little networking and make some new ones.
shots editors Danny Edwards and Jamie Madge are excited to welcome you and open the day’s proceedings.
Steve Davies, APA and Eliot Liss, IPA, on stage, together and unfiltered.
This session will feature an open-floor Q&A, giving you the chance to quiz two vital trade bodies on the issues shaping the future of commercial production.
This session promises to be a frank, funny and possibly fiery exchange about how the business of making ads is evolving.
From producers fighting for fair budgets, creative freedom and recognition of the craft, to agencies wrestling with tighter margins, tougher clients and the need to keep ideas moving fast.
With deep fakes plaguing the internet, staged social content going viral, and ridiculous political rhetoric’s being accepted, technology has placed an illusionary layer over reality, and when AI is replacing the mouths of millions, where are all the real voices?
This session will investigate why it’s so easy to dupe the general population, what factors drive what we do and don’t believe, and what the rise of fake content means for creativity.
And finally, for some, is a fake world more appealing than the real one?
Speakers
Amy Kean, Good Shout
Against a backdrop of global misery and challenges, the role of laughter has never been more crucial, and advertising never more in need of humour. Amid the gloom, audiences crave moments of relief, making it essential for brands to embrace wit and playfulness in their storytelling. Humour doesn’t just entertain, it connects, disarms and reminds people of their shared humanity.
In this session, VCCP’s CCO Jonny Parker, and creatives Simon Connor and Alice Goodrich, explore why comedy remains a powerful tool to cut through the noise, humanise brands and create connection. And, most importantly, they explain how we can infuse more comedy into our commercials.
In this session we hear from a panel of leading Heads of Production, discuss the state of the commercial production industry. They will share key challenges shaping the business, covering topics from production company access to evolving working practices, the pitch process and the impact on production workflows.
A significant portion of this session will be dedicated to a Q&A, giving the audience the opportunity to get those big questions answered.
Poppy Manning, Omnicom Production
Amy Cracknell, M&C Saatchi
Peter Montgomery, Droga5
Rich Adkins, W+K
Chair - Eliot Liss
AI’s first wave was all about discovery, now the real questions begin. Private Island's Chris Boyle returns to the stage to explore what happens when experimentation becomes expectation - and how creativity evolves when technology becomes part of the craft.
From visuals, scripts, product mockups, alternate endings and mood film soundtracks, to tools like Midjourney, Google Veo 3, Sora, and Eleven Labs the line between idea and execution is now a few prompts away.
Finally is the next chapter of AI is not so much about what it can do, but what we choose to do with it.
In 2025 DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) became the most divisive marketing TLA (three letter acronym) since CTR (click through rate).
It apparently caused plane crashes, forest fires and sparked a global battle of jeans advertising.
But what's really going on under the surface? In this session, CEO of The Unmistakables Asad Dhunna will unpack whether DEI is really dying, or whether it's transforming into something new in a fast-changing world.
In the session Dhunna will share insights and data on how people really feel, and what the cost of sitting on the fence could be in five years from now.