As the importance of voice moves rapidly up the marketing agenda, brands are working quickly to find their voice. How do they sound and how do they ensure that in a voice-controlled future they aren’t mute? But with such a focus on consistency of brand sound, what is the un-tapped opportunity for brands to tailor their voice to speak to different audiences? Neuroscientist Dr Sophie Scott and impressionist Duncan Wisbey join the IAB on stage for an interactive exploration of how brands can...

Both education and industry know there is a problem with diversity and inclusivity. It's still the same sorts of faces that rise to the top in industry and shine in education. While both businesses and colleges can point to examples of people from diverse backgrounds in their staff/student bodies, they are more exception than rule. This lesson brings representatives of industry and academia together with students to discuss ways of working in partnership to create a truly diverse industry.

Tired of hearing the same sugar-coated advice? These leading women will give it to you straight, sharing moments of failure, frustration, and the satisfaction of breaking through. Hear their hard-hitting advice and the things they learned along the way they wish they knew all along.

In the UK, 12 men take their own lives each day, and suicide is the biggest killer of men under 45. Statistics link rising men’s mental health issues to an oppressive gender stereotype reinforced through social media. Many young men think that expressing emotions is considered "girls' talk"; they feel that they have to "be a man", and that they can’t express what’s really going on. What if we could use advertising to help men break free from the oppressive stereotypes compounded by social...

We live in the Age of Distraction - a time when the average human attention span online is now down to just eight seconds, the lowest it’s ever been. Brands need all the help they can get to be heard above the din of an increasingly noisy internet. In an interactive lesson presented by Realeyes’ CEO and co-founder Mihkel Jäätma, you will learn how Emotion AI can help brands inform their content strategy, minimise risk and optimise their ad content.

Our session will cover what the UK really looks like now and how it’s changing, showing first-hand the impact that inauthentic advertising will have on your brand. It will offer the opportunity to learn from brands that are leading the way in diverse advertising and understand how to make your brand relevant to the whole of the UK, and not just the shrinking majority.

In today’s geo-political landscape, brand and agency leaders must find their purpose in order to inspire their workforce and collectively work toward something bigger than consumerism. In this session, hear from industry veterans with real social impact experience to learn how you can use your powers for good and strengthen your brand.

With Apple trying to take control of the publishing industry and with Google and Facebook taking the lion’s share of global digital ad spend, media brands are increasingly turning to sponsorship and membership models to secure their future success. In this session, Jonny Kaldor at Pugpig will share stories of three publishers who, rather than chasing scale, are focusing on building high value relationships with their partners and readers.

At Aardman’s heart sits our purpose of - and craft in - storytelling. As the platforms on which we tell these stories change, and the relationship between audience and director shifts so do the techniques used to tell successful and emotionally rich stories. This talk will take a candid look at some recent interactive adventures Aardman have been on - such as their award-winning VR projects or their recent console game 11-11: Memories retold – considering how they attempted to use story to...

Guy Parker, CEO at the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) takes a closer look at the direction of advertising in the UK; how methods are evolving, and how the UK’s advertising regulator has itself made changes to keep pace with this change. Guy will explain the ASA’s key priorities, the growing importance of online ad regulation and a look at what is in the pipeline for the UK’s regulator in the not so distant future – could AI really help to keep more ads responsible?

The IPA's figures show change in diversity is glacial. Why do we lose our best female talent just as they're stepping up to leadership roles? And what can we do to change this? We debate the impact of a lack of flexible working on women's careers, the perception of 'returners' ('you are only as good as your last job'), bias and what we can do to change this. We look at why brands like Diageo care about the make up of their creative teams and why this step-change must fast-track the industry's...

Neurodiversity isn’t a new concept but research and best practice in the public domain remains limited. The lesson will discuss measures businesses can implement to be better placed to attract neurodiverse talent.