HotTopics Studio London, Abbey Road

Two friends and marketing leaders drop the keynote script and talk candidly, practitioner-to-practitioner, on a deliberately uncomfortable idea: (why) we need to stop celebrating green.

In most organisations, green dashboards signal success: they reassure leadership; they keep things smooth. But they can also hide the very problems that matter most. This conversation challenges that instinct. It explores why red, the uncomfortable, visible signal that something is not working, is where real progress begins..

Watch Rachel Fairley, Co-Author of Rebrand Right, in conversation with Scott Allen, GM, Global Marketing, Privacy and Agency Management Services at Microsoft, unpick the ultimate B2B marketing knot by asking questions such as: What does it actually look like to build a culture where red is not punished, but valued? and, What kind of leader allows teams to be rewarded for surfacing truth early rather than managing perception? It will prove to be a lesson in candor and courage.

AI is no longer a tool — it’s a contributor embedded into almost every function. As it creates, optimises and decides at scale, are CMOs actively defining where human judgement leads and machines support, or allowing that balance to emerge by default?

In partnership with Supermetrics

Marketing leaders have always had to earn their seat at the table. Today, that challenge has sharpened. As AI accelerates execution and lowers the cost of output, noise is abundant—unlike clarity, credibility, and commercial impact.

In this environment, influence is no longer won through volume or activity metrics. It is earned by owning the revenue story: aligning marketing, sales, and finance around a single view of performance, making disciplined investment decisions, and proving how demand translates into pipeline, efficiency, and growth.

So, what does it actually take to be heard now? This panel examines how CMOs are reframing demand generation as a system for efficient growth and how they build the data, narratives, and organisational alignment required to stand up to board-level scrutiny.

In partnership with Ziggy Agency

Join HotTopics editor Doug Drinkwater for an engaging fireside conversation with Shannon Duffy, Chief Marketing Officer at Okta, as they delve into her insights, experiences, and perspective on today’s rapidly evolving marketing and technology landscape.

Be a part of engaging, honest, and thought-provoking conversations with your peers, exploring the ideas and challenges shaping today’s HotTopics marketing community.

Topics to be discussed include:

• Meaningful metrics — do your KPIs need a refresh?

• Does ABM still have a place in your team?

• Trust at scale: the future of AI-powered marketing

• Brand vs Demand

• From Events to Revenue: Proving Field Marketing’s Impact in 2026

• Designing the human–machine marketing organisation

• From pipeline to proof: Rebuilding demand generation for efficient growth

It’s the question sitting behind many of the challenges marketing leaders face today. Confidence in attribution is wavering. Platform engagement is becoming unpredictable and the promise of purely data-driven strategies has often constrained creativity without delivering commensurate returns. And all of this is unfolding alongside AI disruption, persistent budget pressure, and the rise of the CRO.

It feels like the end of an era. But that may not be a bad thing. Organisations are now fully committed to technology as a competitive differentiator. AI is already augmenting the marketing function, and brand strategy is once again reaching board-level and CEO attention. In this environment, B2B marketers have a critical role to play.

So, is the B2B marketing playbook truly broken—or is it time for leaders to write a new rulebook for a fundamentally different industry?

We asked-you answered.

Join HotTopics editor Peter Stojanovic as we reveal the findings from B2B marketing leaders benchmark report -an exclusive first look at  how today’s most progressive marketing leaders are planning, investing, and driving growth. Built by and for the HotTopics community of B2B marketing leaders, this session goes beyond theory to reveal what’s actually working in practice. We’ll unpack the key findings, explore the shifts shaping modern marketing leadership, and give you a clear lens to benchmark your own strategy against the peers setting the pace

Step into the world famous Studio 2 for networking drinks. An iconic space to connect and unwind.