IAB Australia Discovery: AI & Search Summit Sydney 2026

IAB Australia’s inaugural Discovery: AI & Search Summit took place in Sydney in July 2026, bringing the industry together to unpack how artificial intelligence and search are reshaping consumer discovery, brand visibility and measurement. Proudly sponsored by Microsoft Advertising and Strike Social, and curated by IAB Australia’s Future of Search and AI Working Groups, the summit drew perspectives from agencies, brands, platforms and publishers.

Greg Cattelain of Spark Foundry set the scene on how discovery behaviour is shifting, followed by a keynote from Kantar’s Karin Du Chenne on what brand discovery looks like in an AI-powered environment. Gai Le Roy then sat down with Google’s Adrian Vallelonga and Microsoft’s Renee Stopps for a candid look at the search horizon and what comes next for the platforms.

IAB Australia’s Jonas Jaanimagi took attendees through the crawler conundrum and how publishers can make sense of the bots, before a practical tourism case study from Spark Foundry and Voyages Tourism Australia on staying visible to the world.

Three panels closed out the morning: agencies and brands on new approaches to driving and measuring results, a community-to-commerce discussion with Reddit, LinkedIn and Carsales, and a publisher session on attracting and retaining audiences as instant answers reshape referral traffic.

2026 Program

Session	Speakers
Registration & Networking
Setting the Scene	Greg Cattelain, National Head of Biddable Media, Spark Foundry
Keynote: Brand Discovery	Karin Du Chenne, Executive Group Director, Kantar
The Search Horizon: Microsoft and Google on What’s Next	Adrian Vallelonga, Head of Performance Solutions & Retail Media, Google Renee Stopps, Regional Sales Director, Partner Sales APAC, Microsoft Interviewer: Gai Le Roy, CEO, IAB Australia
The Crawler Conundrum: Making Sense of the Bots	Jonas Jaanimagi, Technology Lead, IAB Australia
Visible to the World: A Tourism Case Study	Greg Cattelain, National Head of Biddable Media, Spark Foundry Natalie Conyer, Senior Digital Marketing Lead, Voyages Tourism Australia
Agencies & Brands: New Approaches for Driving and Measuring Results	Dan Aguirre-Davies, Head of Search, WPP Media Clare Farrugia, Head of Performance, Hatched Jarrod Allen, Associate Director Strategic Media Solutions, Monks Chloe Legrand, Digital Marketing Lead, Suncorp Moderator: Mark Titley, Senior Commercial Data Strategist, Paramount ANZ
Community to Commerce: Setting Up for Success	Tom Tilney, Senior Agency Development Lead, Reddit Louise Wilson, Director Marketing Solutions, LinkedIn Matt Doherty, GM of Data, Carsales Moderator: Frederic Chanut, Executive Chairman, In Marketing We Trust
Publishers: Attracting & Retaining Audiences	Nick Splitter, General Manager, Zero Digital Sports Scott Purcell, Co-Founder, Man of Many Zoe Featherstone, Head of Product, Strategic Projects & Platform Partnerships, The Guardian Clare Morton, Head of Commercial Product & Strategy, Are Media Moderator: Chris Freel, Chief Revenue Officer, MiQ
Closing

Video Presentations from the Day

Watch recordings from the Discovery: AI & Search Summit 2026 on the IAB Australia YouTube channel.

Photo Gallery

View photos from the day in our full gallery.

Resources from the Day

Presentations, handouts and further reading from the Discovery: AI & Search Summit 2026 are available below.

Presentations & Handouts

IAB Resources

Microsoft Advertising Resources

Google Resources

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