The 2026 edition of humAIn, a conference focused on AI, technology, creativity and culture, has announced global independent creative innovation company R/GA as its content partner.
R/GA Global CEO Robin Forbes will speak on Tuesday 13 October alongside Marie Conley, R/GA’s Executive Strategy Director for APAC.
humAIn runs across 13 and 14 October at Stone & Chalk’s Tech Central Innovation Hub in Sydney. Day one is a single-stage conference capped at 250 delegates. Day two is a workshop program capped at 100. The event is in its fourth year and its first as a fully independent property, following three editions under Unmade and Mumbrella.
R/GA’s session, ‘Can Brands Think For Themselves?’, will explore what it takes to build a brand as a system that can think for itself, as Forbes and Conley draw on real client work to unpack what separates brands built to keep pace from those that fall behind.
R/GA became independent in March 2025 and has backed the practice with a $50m innovation fund.
“At humAIn we’ll be talking about what we call Intelligent Brand Systems – an operating model that unifies brand design, adaptive experiences and generative storytelling,” said Robin Forbes, Global CEO, R/GA.
“It’s what happens when brand strategy stops being a set of static guidelines and starts operating in real time; generating at scale without losing what makes a brand distinctive. We’ll walk through examples we’ve built for clients: how they were made, how they had to adapt, and what we’ve learned. humAIn has built a genuine reputation as one of the region’s leading independent AI conferences for the quality of the room: senior, hands-on, and there to work things out rather than be sold to. We’re excited to be part of this year’s programme.”
“There’s no shortage of people showing what AI can generate,” said Cat McGinn, founder of humAIn.
“What’s in short supply is anyone willing to show the working – what they decided, what didn’t hold up, and what it took to fix. That’s the session I wanted on this stage.”
“R/GA backed humAIn as an independent event early, which took some courage in year one,” McGinn said.
“We’re delighted to be working with partners with a point of view, and organisations that want to shape the conversation, and R/GA aligns with that perfectly.”
Speakers
Robin Forbes, Global CEO, R/GA, partners with senior clients on growth and change, and sets R/GA’s global business vision. He has been with R/GA since 2014, previously as Global Chief Client Officer, EVP Managing Director of the Brand Design and Consulting practice, and Managing Director of the US Region and of R/GA New York. Earlier work includes 13 years at Blast Radius, consulting at Arthur Andersen, and a World Bank initiative digitising schools in Chile.
Marie Conley, Executive Strategy Director, APAC, R/GA, sets the strategic direction that helps brands succeed in the age of AI, building new ways of working for R/GA and its clients. She joined from The Pharm, WPP’s multi-agency model for Walgreens Boots Alliance, and was previously Head of Strategy at TBWA London, where she helped embed the agency’s Disruption approach. She has won APG and Effie awards. She started as a graphic designer, and writes on the decline of the attention economy and what it opens up for smaller brands.
Tickets and program: humain.au
