2026 Themes: The Future of Media Manchester 2026

On 17 September, The Future of Media Manchester will bring together planners, buyers, strategists and leaders living through the monumental shifts we are seeing today in the media industry, to have candid conversations about what all this change means for you.

Across a 500-seat main stage, a lively 100-seat fringe (get there early — it fills fast) and intimate masterclass sessions, four themes frame a full day of honest conversation.

Whether it’s how media habits are shifting, what the creator economy can deliver, how to prove media’s ability to drive business outcomes, or what AI is changing about how media is planned, we are taking The Future of Media Manchester’s agenda to the next level.

As you’ve come to expect from us, the talks will be rigorous and evidence led. We’ll have panels that disagree. Speakers who've actually done the work. And a room full of people who come to the Future of Media get involved in discussion and debate.

Spend any time with data on how people consume media and you quickly run into a problem: a lot of it doesn’t quite add up. The platforms report one thing, the research says another, and the audiences that brands are chasing are hard to pin down. Meanwhile the tools for understanding them keep getting better - or at least more confident-sounding. Whether they’re accurate is a different question.

What does the research show about how Gen Z and Gen Alpha consume media, and how much of the received wisdom holds up under scrutiny?

The u16 social media ban: will it lead to a genuine shift in behaviour (other than the increased use of VPNs)?

Fandoms, micro-communities, platform-native formats: what does the evidence say about how brands build presence in them?

AI and zero-click search are changing the shape of the consumer journey. What do we know about where that’s heading?

Are brands systematically over-investing in younger audiences at the expense of the people with the money to spend — and is there data to show it?

Are media constraints killing creative ambition before the brief even gets written?

The creator economy has moved from experiment to established channel quickly, and the problems that come with maturity are starting to show up. Inconsistent measurement. Uneven quality. A tendency to treat very different kinds of creators as if they were essentially interchangeable. It’s worth being honest about where things stand…

Are we evaluating creator partnerships with the same rigour as any other channel — or just with more enthusiasm?

What makes a creator brief genuinely inspiring — and how often does the media plan allow for it?

The best creator work tends to come from giving up control. How comfortable are brands with that?

Where does creative risk-taking in creator partnerships actually come from — the brand, the agency, or the creator?

A gaming creator, a science communicator and a lifestyle influencer serve very different functions. How should that shape how we plan and buy?

Media companies are getting into creator partnerships too. What does that change for brands?

Brand safety in a creator-first world: what does the evidence say about where the real risks lie?

There is a gap between what media planners know about effectiveness and what they can demonstrate to the people who control the budget. This is not a new problem. What is new is the pressure: more channels, more data, more tools, and - paradoxically - more difficulty making a clear argument. This theme is about proving what good looks like, and what it takes to make the evidence land with those that own the budget line.

What do CFOs and CMOs really want when you walk in with a media plan — and is that the right thing to be optimising for?

Attribution, incrementality, earned media: where has the measurement science got to in 2026?

How can you make a strong case for long-term brand building when conversations default to short-term performance?

As AI reshapes client teams alongside agency ones, where does the value of a good partner lie?

What separates an argument that lands from one that doesn’t?

Creative quality is one of the strongest multipliers on media investment. How is the industry measuring it and how to avoid costs for great creative getting cut?

Agencies are doing things with AI that weren’t possible two years ago. Some of it is faster reporting and better briefing. Some of it is more fundamental — planning tools that used to require teams, now running on a model. What’s actually changing about the work, and what does that mean for how agencies are structured and how they operate with clients, is still being written. This theme wants the best examples of both.

Agencies are reorganising around AI. What can AI planning tools actually do — and is it producing better work?

Creativity, relationships, strategic judgment: what does the evidence say about where the human edge actually lies?

Vodcasts, gaming, DOOH, addressable TV, social video: where is the channel mix heading and who has the data to show it?

How do you develop the next generation of planners when the craft is changing faster than the training?

If AI removes the operational load, does it create space for more creative planning — or just more reporting? Does AI change who writes the brief?

Could AI finally close the gap between creative ambition and media reality — or will it just automate the existing disconnect?