26/08/2026
Some of our team attended the annual State of Social conference, the largest social media and digital advertising event in the southern hemisphere.
The theme given to all the guest speakers this year was Friction. Various presenters discussed the friction between targeted personalisation versus surveillance, creativity versus efficiency, and how friction is more important than speed in an F1 race car.
Of course AI was the biggest topic. It offers incredible advances in marketing opportunity, but also incredible risks for creativity, industry jobs, security, privacy and wellbeing.
Every presenter emphasised the importance of human creativity overlaying the use of AI, as people grow more and more suspicious and uneasy about the amount of "AI Slop" being served to them.
The afternoon's keynote speaker was Marc Fennell, the Walkley-winning journalist, podcaster and television host of programs such as "Stuff The British Stole" and Mastermind. He has just completed a series titled "Unreal: When AI Becomes Us", a BBC Studios collaboration exploring the human consequences of artificial intelligence. His stories were jaw-dropping.
Congratulations to Meg Coffey for putting together this amazing conference for the 9th year.
