Branding Strategy Insider helps marketing-oriented leaders and professionals build stronger brands and make better brand decisions. Over the years, BSI readers have brought us questions about positioning, differentiation, customer relevance, brand leadership, growth, and the changing role of marketing.
Today’s question comes from Jennifer, a VP of Marketing in New York, New York, who is thinking about the future of brand management, the impact of AI, and which marketing conferences are truly worth her time.
“I’ve been researching brand management and marketing conferences for 2026, especially those addressing the impact of AI on marketing leadership. I have a few questions about your upcoming Un-Conference in San Francisco. First, in the competitive-learning format you mention, what if one of my competitors is there? Will they find out the issues my brand is facing? Second, with so many AI and marketing events now available, why should I attend The Un-Conference versus a more traditional conference?”
Jennifer, thank you for your interest in The Un-Conference: The Human Advantage In An AI World, taking place September 23–25, 2026 in San Francisco. Let me begin by sharing the heart and soul of this unique event for those who may be learning about it for the first time.
AI can create content. It can analyze markets. It can generate ideas, optimize campaigns, personalize experiences, and increasingly act on behalf of customers. But it cannot decide what a brand should stand for. It cannot replace human judgment, courage, taste, empathy, meaning, or leadership.
That is why our 7th Un-Conference is focused on The Human Advantage In An AI World.
Our format is based on competitive learning, a concept we created to gamify and energize the learning experience. At the center of the experience is Brandingo: The Brand Management Safari, our team-based game that turns brand leadership challenges into a lively, strategic competition. A small group of senior marketers competes and learns in teams as they work through real-world brand, marketing, growth, customer, and organizational challenges leaders are facing now.
This is not a conventional marketing conference, and it will not feel like one. You will not spend two days sitting in a ballroom, listening to scripted panels, watching sponsor presentations, or collecting ideas you may never use.
The Un-Conference is built differently. It is active, intimate, competitive, highly participatory, and fun. You will be in the work, not watching from the sidelines — solving real brand and marketing challenges with other senior leaders who understand the pressure, complexity, and stakes of the moment.
It’s unlike any other conference you’ve attended before:
- Everyone in the room brings expertise and benefits from the collective intelligence.
- Our competitive-learning format is energized, memorable, and highly practical.
- The walls are down: no podiums, no stages, no hierarchy.
- The focus is on learning outcomes, not ticket sales.
- Small is powerful. This is an intentionally intimate brand leadership experience.
- This is marketing’s only issues-based, problem-solving event.
As in your marketplace, some will win, some will lose, all will learn.
No Attendees. Only Participants.
The best pathway for learning is through participation, not observation. The Un-Conference will challenge your thinking about brands, brand management, marketing leadership, AI, differentiation, customer trust, and the human decisions that create value.
To do that, we will place you on a team and give you opportunities to compete, lead, question, build, and learn alongside other senior marketers and brand owners. The challenges you tackle are based on and influenced by the actual issues participants are facing inside their organizations.
And to answer your first question directly: no, your competitors will not be given access to your confidential brand issues. During the registration process, we learn more about the real challenges participants are facing and then use those challenges to shape the competitive-learning experience. The issues are real, but the brand or organization behind each issue is kept confidential.
This allows participants to work on actual brand, marketing, growth, customer, and organizational challenges without exposing proprietary information. The value comes from taking on the pressures serious marketers are facing now — from AI disruption and increasing sameness to customer trust, internal alignment, and the need to prove marketing’s contribution to business performance.
This September 23–25, 2026, in the City by the Bay, we will focus on pressing issues including:
- The human advantage in an AI-powered marketing world
- What AI can and cannot do for brand strategy
- How brands stay differentiated when tools make everyone faster
- The future of customer trust, relevance, and emotional connection
- Human judgment, creativity, and leadership in brand building
- How marketing leaders can create value beyond automation
- The new role of brand in growth, resilience, and competitive advantage
- How to lead teams, agencies, and organizations through AI-driven change
- How to keep meaning, strategy, and humanity at the center of modern marketing
It all takes place in San Francisco, September 23–25, 2026 — a fitting location for a conversation about technology, humanity, creativity, and the future of brand leadership.
Our schedule:
Wednesday, September 23 – Kickoff gathering and opening experience
Thursday, September 24 – Day 1: Competitive-learning challenges, team problem-solving, expert provocations, and evening team experience
Friday, September 25 – Day 2: Competitive-learning challenges, presentations, synthesis, takeaways, and closing session
Who Should Participate?
We have reserved this experience for senior B2C and B2B marketers who see professional growth as a mandate for success and who want a learning experience superior to last century’s marketing conference format.
This includes:
- Marketing-oriented business leaders
- CMOs, VPs of Marketing, brand leaders, product leaders, and growth leaders
- Brand managers, product managers, directors, strategists, and innovation leaders
- Advertising, digital, research, and consulting professionals
- Marketers facing complex brand strategy issues
- Marketers seeking a competitive advantage in the age of AI
- Professionals responsible for brand building, brand management, culture, customer experience, and growth
- Leaders who prefer participation over observation
- Brand owners seeking practical ways to turn brand strategy into business advantage.
Every year, a wide range of brands and organizations join us. Past participants have included AAA, Bayer, Bloomberg, Humana, Land O’ Lakes, Liberty Mutual, Pilot Flying J, RJ Reynolds, TD Ameritrade, GlaxoSmithKline, Wounded Warrior Project, Monsanto, Ogilvy, Kawasaki, GE, and many more.
Jennifer, why should you attend ours rather than other conferences?
The answer is simple: most conferences tell you what other people think. The Un-Conference helps you think better, decide better, and lead better.
In an AI world, that matters more than ever.
The marketers who will create the most value in the years ahead will not be the ones who use AI to do more. They will be the ones who know what should be done, why it matters, how it creates value, and what must remain deeply human.
That is the work of The Un-Conference.
Only a limited number of marketers can participate. To secure a spot for you or your group at The Un-Conference: The Human Advantage In An AI World, please email us directly.
I do hope you can join us in San Francisco.
Sincerely,
Derrick Daye
For The Un-Conference, Branding Strategy Insider, and The Blake Project
The Un-Conference is brought to you by The Blake Project, a brand consultancy focused on business performance; Branding Strategy Insider, a global resource helping brands become more competitive and valuable; and Bayhaus Creative, helping AI companies tell human stories through original video and brand content.
To learn more or inquire about participation, contact us.
Registration details coming soon.
