Generate Summit unveils 2026 B2B marketer keynotes

Generate Summit has announced the first wave of keynote speakers for its 2026 one-day conference for in-house B2B marketers in Australia and New Zealand.

The event will be held in Sydney and is expected to draw more than 250 attendees. Organisers describe it as a practitioner-led programme run by volunteers from the Generate Community, rather than a commercial events business.

The keynote line-up includes Natalie Fagg, Executive General Manager of Customer at the Sydney Swans. She will speak on brand evolution and the club's expansion into the AFLW competition.

Christopher Doyle, Creative Director at Christopher Doyle & Co, will deliver a keynote titled 'Authenticity in the artificial age'.

Kate Dinon, Partner at Character + Distinction, will address the challenge of building brands while marketing teams are under pressure to deliver more with limited resources.

Community-led format

Now in its third year, Generate Summit sits within the Generate Community, which has more than 1,300 members across Australia and New Zealand. The community is for in-house B2B marketers and uses entry requirements and vetting. Agency staff and sales roles are excluded, and a no-selling rule applies.

The summit is positioned as a by-marketers-for-marketers event, with sessions led by practitioners and a focus on practical work rather than high-level brand talks.

"There's very few forums where B2B marketers get together. Most conferences are B2C, or very high level with CMOs talking about brand vision - that's not what this is. Generate is all about rolling your sleeves up and getting the work done, it's why whole marketing teams come together rather than sending just one person," said Axel Sukianto, panel moderator and founder of Generate.

Agenda topics

Beyond the keynotes, the agenda includes sessions on account-based marketing and search changes, including SEO, AEO, and LLMs. These sessions will examine the impact on lead volumes, web traffic, and execution speed for marketing teams.

A panel is also planned on marketing to traditional, slower-moving industries, with speakers from legal technology businesses. The session list includes Smokeball and LawVu.

Cross-border collaboration is another agenda topic, with contributors expected from Notion and Twilio. The programme also includes a session on B2B newsletters with international speaker Banks Benitez from Future Forest Studio.

Another theme is operational collaboration between marketing teams and operations functions, with speakers from Shippit and CogniOps. The agenda also includes technology-focused sessions featuring LinkedIn and CAASie.

Networking elements

The day will combine speaking sessions with roundtables and networking. A signature interactive session, the Great Debate, will not run in its usual format this year and will be replaced by a competitive game styled after 'The Price is Right'.

The Generate Community operates year-round via Slack, with quarterly meet-ups in Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne, and ad hoc gatherings in Adelaide, Perth, and Auckland.

Organisers say the event's value lies in peer exchange and a broad mix of practical sessions across marketing disciplines.

"Everyone in your team will get a session they can take something away from, whether that's field marketing, performance marketing, lead generation, SEO, or any other type of marketing," said Kayla Medica, panel moderator and Head of Programming at Generate.