Executive Creative Summit 2026
Adapt Faster Than Disruption
The creative industry is not going through a phase. It is going through a reset.
AI, platforms, creators, and changing business models are reshaping how ideas are made, valued, and scaled. The question is no longer whether disruption is coming. It is whether leaders are adapting fast enough to stay relevant.
We don’t know what creativity becomes next, but waiting is the most dangerous option.
The Executive Creative Summit exists for agency leaders, founders, and senior executives who understand that leadership today means navigating uncertainty with clarity, conviction, and responsibility.
This is not a conference about tools, tactics, or trend-chasing. It is a closed-door forum for honest conversations about what leaders must let go of, what they must accelerate, and how they guide people through change without defensiveness.
Adaptation is no longer optional. It is a leadership duty.
At ECS, we focus on three realities shaping leadership right now:
Adaptation as a leadership duty
Leaders can no longer wait for clarity or consensus. Decisions must be made in motion, with incomplete information and real consequences for people and culture.
Learning as a competitive advantage
The speed at which leaders and teams learn now matters more than size, legacy, or scale. Those who learn faster stay relevant. Those who don’t fall behind quietly.
Relevance as a daily practice
Relevance is no longer earned once and protected. It must be practiced, questioned, and renewed every day through judgment, taste, and leadership.
You are not alone in this uncertainty. But you are responsible for how you lead through it.
Held during Creative Week in New York, the Executive Creative Summit is an invite-only gathering designed for leaders who want to confront reality, challenge assumptions, and leave better equipped to guide their organizations and people forward. This is where leaders come to think clearly, move decisively, and adapt faster than disruption.
Speakers
Schedule
9:00 am
Breakfast & Registration
10:00 am
Welcome Remarks
10:05 am
Growing With Your Gut
How to shape your career and life by embracing intuition as a strategy. In a world obsessed with AI, the ultimate competitive advantage is still human intuition. A conversation about why gut decisions, when sharpened by experience, are the fastest way to grow through uncertainty.
10:55 am
The machine decides who sees it. The human decides if they care.
Join Sofia Hernandez, former Global CMO of TikTok, as she explores the creative opportunity hiding inside one of the most disruptive moments in marketing history. From the rise of micro-communities to the return of serialized storytelling, Sofia unpacks what today’s consumers actually expect from brands and how creative leaders can build teams and strategies that meet them there.
11:45 am
Are You Stellar or Sewage? Eight Habits That Decide
These days, mediocrity isn’t just boring, it’s deadly. Eugene Cheong’s talk is a brutal, unsentimental, and ultimately hopeful diagnosis of what went wrong. The cure? Eight creative habits that will determine whether your agency survives the Great Flush.
12:25 pm
Lunch
1:15 pm
ROB REILLY IS SCREAMING CREATIVITY
It takes guts to make ideas that are loud in culture. Not AI guts. Human guts. Plus, a truckload of instinct, talent and tenacity. I have helped agencies make brands famous for a long time. Along the way, I have been taught by amazing people, collected lessons on what it takes to do this consistently and learned to lead without fear. I am excited to share and thank you all for joining my talk.
2:05 pm
S.U.R.F. A mostly forgettable POV on Decisions in Motion.
This narrative by ECD & Film Director Ben Nott distills tales from the creative deep and the high-velocity physics of big-wave surfing to refresh leadership models. Offering a technical and philosophical framework for navigating the big AI reset, it provides executive leaders with the mental tools to stop analyzing disruption and start making decisive, human-optimized decisions in motion, aiming for at least one valuable learning and a few laughs. Summary co-authored with AI.
2:55 pm
Can I Get A Beat?
How cultural zeitgeist and phenomena translates to music charts, music trends, and a discussion on where advertisers and brands can use that information to keep music at the forefront of strategy.
3:45 pm
On The Merits of Ice Cold Water.
Most of us wait for life (or the business) to throw the cold water on us before we start doing things differently. Fuck that shit. Let’s talk about why the most thrilling — and clarifying — thing you can do is grab the bucket yourself.
4:25 pm
Reflections & Reactions
4:30 pm
Cocktails and Conversation
Executive Creative Summit
SEE PHOTOS
Thursday, May 14 & Friday, May 15
8:30 am - 4:00 pm
Location
Location05
450 W. 31st St. 7th Floor
New York, NY 10001
Attendees
Sr. Director Brand, Content & Design, Ricoh
Executive Creative Director, R/GA
Partner, Chief Creative Officer, LG2
Managing Partner & CCO, ABCD & Company
Professor & Creative Director, University of Florida
Former CCO, DDB Asia & Ogilvy Asia Pacific,
Senior Director, Creative & Brand, Ro
Chief Creative Officer, 72andSunny
CEO, Circonflex
Partner, Vice President, ECD, LG2
CEO, Big Spaceship
Global AI & Immersive Design, Accenture
COO, The One Club for Creativity
Head of Production & Creative Ops, Robinhood
Founder, Dash Studio
Executive Creative Director, Amén McCann
Chief Creative Officer, Grizzly
Executive Creative Director, JOAN
VP, Sales and Customer Success, FLORA
Group Creative Director, Upwork
Global Executive · Advisor · Operator & Marketer,
Brand & Development Director, Sizzer
ECD, Burson/WPP
Executive Creative Director, Patrick Hoopes
Global Chief Creative Officer, Edelman
Partner and Chief Creative Officer, Goodby Silverstein & Partners
Co-Founder and CEO, Infinite Studios
Global Lead Creative, BCG BrightHouse
EVP, Executive Creative Director, RPA
CEO, Barking Owl
Owner & CCO, Pastilla Inc.
VP, Creative & Partner, Tux Creative
Executive Creative Director, R/GA
Moskovitz, Danny
Executive Director and Partner, Sonic Union
Creative Director, dentsu. Inc.,
VP Brand Creative, Sesame Workshop
Founder, Executive Creative Director, Worldwide Mind
Partner & CCO, Tulom
Design Director, Ro
Creative Chairman, Pereira O'Dell
Partner, Executive Creative Director, Sonic Union
CoFounder & Director, book180
CEO, Wrecking Ball
Executive Creative Director, Burson
Founder & Creative Chairman, GUT
Global Chief Creative Officer, WPP
Chief Creative Officer, IMPACT BBDO
Entrepreneur & Creative Leader,
Founder, Ace Workflow
Senior Creative Director, HumanGood
SVP, Creative Director, Macmillan Publishing
Creative Director, Le Pub
Global Director, Professional Development, The One Club for Creativity
Executive Creative Director, Skona
CEO, Grizzly
CEO, Big Spaceship
CEO, The One Club for Creativity
Director, Strategic Sales, FLORA
Group Creative Director, Weber Shandwick
Chief Creative Officer, Special US
Co-Founder, Meaningful
SVP, Operations, Wrecking Ball