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2026 Conference Agenda
7:00AM to 8:00AM
Day 2 Breakfast & Sponsor Expo
Begin the day with breakfast, while having an opportunity to network with your competitive marketing peers.
8:00AM to 8:05AM
General Session Day 2 Kickoff
Quick recap of Day 2 highlights & a glimpse of what's in store for Day 3 excitement!
Ben Scheerer
8:05AM to 8:55AM
Day 2 Keynote
The era of “best practices” is over. AI is rewriting the rules of marketing faster than most teams can adapt, and the real competition isn’t between brands, but between speeds of learning. In this keynote, Ritu Kapoor issues a challenge to every marketing leader: evolve or be outpaced by intelligence itself.
She’ll reveal how the smartest brands are turning AI into a growth engine, blending automation with intuition, and data with daring creativity. This is your roadmap to not just keep up with AI, but to use it to rewrite your category before someone else does.
Ritu Kapoor
CMO Observe.AI
8:55AM to 9:40AM
In this panel of industry sustainability experts, the value of sustainability as a competitive advantage will be broken down. We'll discuss how sustainability is more than a marketing trend; it's a rich vein of untapped data. This session shifts the focus from public relations to actionable intelligence, unpacking how to use firms' sustainability actions as a powerful source of strategic insight. We will explore advanced methodologies for collecting, analyzing, and synthesizing sustainability ratings and reports.
Attendees will learn how to:
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Identify vulnerabilities and opportunities within competitors' operations and public narratives.
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Benchmark competitor performance against key environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics.
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Plan for future market shifts and regulatory changes by monitoring sustainability trends.
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Inform M&A strategies and product development by uncovering hidden value and risk.
This session will provide a rigorous, data-driven approach to competitive intelligence, demonstrating how a sophisticated understanding of sustainability can be a source of advantage in the marketplace.
Ann Scheerer
PhD, MSLS, MPA
Oregon State University
9:40AM to 10:00AM
Break & Sponsor Expo
Grab a quick refreshment as well as have time to speak with the sponsors and network with your peers.
10:00AM to 10:45AM
Session 9: Turning Public Video into CI Gold: A Repeatable AI Workflow from Discovery to Deal Impact
Everyone talks about using AI for competitive intelligence. Few practitioners can show you exactly how they did it: a repeatable workflow with real data, real constraints, and an honest assessment of what worked.
This session breaks down the full workflow: source discovery, transcript extraction, structured prompting, cross-validation, and synthesis into positioning, objection handling, and sales-ready artifacts. You’ll leave understanding how to mine unconventional intelligence sources most teams overlook—YouTube channels, podcasts, conference talks, webinars. No vendor pitches. No fabricated ROI claims. Just the real process, actual examples from the report, and honest talk about what worked, what didn’t, and what any CI practitioner can replicate.
Key learning objectives:
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Identify high-value unconventional sources (videos/podcasts/webinars/etc)
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Extract structured CI from unstructured content using AI tools
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Design prompts to cross-validate across multiple sources
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Handle large-volume analysis within context limits through strategic session batching & synthesis
Zaven Gabriel
Locus Robotics
10:45AM to
11:30AM
Session 10: From Invisible to Influential: Building a Thought Leadership Platform That Opens Doors
You're great at what you do, but being great isn’t always enough to be seen. In this strategic session, Kelly Schuknecht breaks down how to transform your professional expertise into a compelling thought leadership platform. Whether you’re aiming for the C-suite, scaling your agency, or creating new revenue streams, you’ll learn how to position yourself as a go-to expert in your field and build the kind of visibility that leads to real opportunities.
Key learning objectives:
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Understand what thought leadership really means, align your content with your goals, and learn where to focus your time for impact.
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Explore simple ways to grow influence through speaking, podcasts, and social proof, and leave with a practical plan to build your platform.
Kelly Schuknecht
Two Mile High Marketing
Session 11: Threading the Needle: Weaving Human Intelligence into CI's Digital Future
11:30AM
to
12:15PM
As artificial intelligence revolutionizes competitive intelligence gathering and analysis, organizations face a critical challenge: translating sophisticated AI-generated insights into actionable intelligence that resonates across all organizational levels.
This presentation will demonstrate how successful CI practitioners are bridging the gap between powerful AI capabilities and human-centered decision making by embedding storytelling, context, and relationship-building into their intelligence delivery methods.
Our co-presenters will share proven use cases showing how they've transformed raw AI-powered competitive data into compelling narratives that drive executive strategy, empower sales teams with winning positioning, and equip customer success representatives with retention-focused insights.
We'll explore practical frameworks for maintaining the human element in an increasingly automated CI landscape, ensuring that while machines handle the heavy lifting of data processing, human creativity and emotional intelligence remain at the core of organizational impact.
Attendees will leave with actionable strategies for creating CI programs that leverage AI's analytical power while preserving the storytelling and relationship elements essential for driving organizational change.
Key learning objectives:
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Embed Storytelling & Context
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Connect AI Insights to Human Impact
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Drive Strategic & Tactical Change with Actionable Intelligence
Carolyn Klinger
Senior Director, Market Intelligence
Mackenzie Wilson
CEO of Spailey Solutions
12:15PM to 1:00PM
Lunch, Birds of a Feather, & Sponsor Expo
Enjoy lunch at a table with a subject matter expert & your peers while discussing a topics of interest. Spend time speaking with our sponsor to better understand how they can help your business
1:00PM to 1:45PM
Session 12: To Be Announced
To be Announced
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1:45PM to 2:30PM
Session 13: The AI-Augmented Strategist: Evolving Your CI and PMM Role for Speed and Scale
The role of Competitive Intelligence (CI) and Product Marketing is evolving rapidly. Now is not the time to fight this change, but to embrace the tools that can elevate our strategic impact. While Primary Intelligence—the gathering of proprietary insights through interviews and deep research—remains a deeply human endeavor, Artificial Intelligence offers a powerful engine to accelerate our output.
In this session, we will move beyond the hype to explore the practical intersection of human expertise and machine speed. We will discuss how to embrace AI as a force multiplier for analyzing interviews, synthesizing research, and uncovering trends without losing the nuance that only a human can provide.
We will walk through real-world examples using readily available tools, demonstrating exactly where to exploit AI for efficiency and, crucially, where to exercise caution regarding hallucinations and data privacy. Join us to learn how to evolve your workflow and deliver faster, deeper insights.
Key Takeaways
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The Human-AI Hybrid Workflow: Learn a clear framework for distinguishing which parts of the intelligence cycle are best suited for AI automation versus those that require human intuition and verification.
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Practical Tool Application: Walk away with concrete examples of how to use accessible AI tools to transcribe, summarize, and extract patterns from primary research and interviews in minutes rather than hours.
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Risk Mitigation & Quality Control: Gain strategies for identifying and mitigating AI "hallucinations" to ensure your deliverables remain accurate, credible, and trustworthy.
Ben Scheerer
Red Hat, Inc
3:00PM
Recap of the last 3 days - and closing remarks
Closing Remarks and Feedback Surveys
