Past speakers

SOS26 speakers.

State of Social '26 focused on the parts of marketing that can't be optimised away. Australian and international speakers shared practical thinking across digital marketing, strategy, creativity and culture, built around one question: what's left when everything else has been automated.

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At a glance

ThemeFRICTION
EditionNinth
Speakers39

The theme

Ninth year in, this event pushed back against the industry's rush to smooth, streamline and hand off to AI. As more of the workflow got optimised, FRICTION asked what actually breaks when the human part goes with it, and where judgement, taste and instinct still beat efficiency.

Speakers explored the moments that resist automation: the messy first draft, the awkward client conversation, the campaign that only worked because someone pushed back. The takeaway was clear. You can systemise the process. You can't systemise the human. That's the friction worth keeping.

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