
Resonance.
Going beyond relevance. Creating lasting impact, not fleeting clicks. Establishing human connection, not just algorithmic precision.
The annual conference for the Tech Marketers of Aotearoa.
#TMG25 - August 28th - Maritime Room, Auckland
Resonance.
10am - 5pm - Maritime Room - $195pp (plus GST & fees)
In a time when artificial intelligence can generate content, optimise campaigns, and predict behaviour faster than ever, the role of the marketer is shifting, but it’s far from disappearing.
Now more than ever, what we create must resonate: with our audiences, with our values, and with the world around us.
"Resonance" is about going beyond relevance. Creating lasting impact, not fleeting clicks. Establishing human connection, not just algorithmic precision.
At this year’s conference, we’ll explore:
How marketers can create connection and emotional resonance in an AI-shaped world.
What human creativity still does best, and how to amplify it with intelligent tools.
The data, technologies, and signals that help us stay attuned to what really matters.
Timeless marketing truths that still hold power in a tech-driven future.
#TMG25 Programme
Details subject to change
Sessions are proudly supported by these partners.
Pre-conference Masterclass
8am - 9.30am
Morning Session
9.30am - Registration & Morning Tea
10am - Welcome from TMG Chairperson
Tyrona Heath - Director, The B2B Institute
Beyond Borders Panel – Marketing NZ Tech on the global stage
Insights Exchange - Maximise your resonance with data-driven market insights
Autohive - AI & Automation – The New Frontier in Tech Marketing
Afternoon Session
Dr Sommer Kapitan - AI as your operant ally
Frazer Scott - Influencing without Authority
Atlas Digital - Growth Marketing – Scaling up without burning out
Personalisation in an increasingly impersonal landscape
Previously Unavailable - How brand marketing creates resonance to add commercial value.
Fight Club: The great AI debate
Tech Marketing Awards
Open Bar
Awards Ceremony
6pm - Event concludes
Beyond Borders Panel with NZTE.
SESSION OUTLINE
A showcase of NZ tech companies that are finding success in global markets, and what resources you can tap to accelerate your own growth internationally.
This practical session will help you understand the role NZTE can play in your own success through Co-Investment & Grants, Global Network & Introductions and International Market Intelligence.
FIGHT CLUB!
The great AI debate - Is AI Your New Best Friend or the End of Human Resonance?
The first Rule of AI Fight Club? Talk about AI. And that’s exactly what we’re doing.
In this high-energy, gloves-off debate, we’re throwing down one of the most controversial questions facing tech marketers today: Is AI your brilliant new best friend - or the end of your ability to truly resonate with other humans?
Two fierce teams enter the ring:
🧠 Team Best Friend says AI is the ultimate creative wingman - elevating ideas, scaling output, and making space for deeper human brilliance.
💣 Team End of Resonance says beware the machine - we’re losing nuance, empathy, and the soul of human connection in the name of efficiency.
This isn’t just a discussion. It’s a no-holds-barred battle of ideas where egos may bruise, minds will stretch, and no buzzword is safe.
Whether you're AI-curious or AI-cautious, you'll leave this showdown with your thinking challenged and your perspective upgraded.
🧨 Choose your side - or just come for the fireworks.
AI for Marketers Masterclass.
8am - 9:30am - Maritime Room - $95pp (plus GST and fees)
Join Justin Flitter, founder of NewZealand.AI and tech marketer for a practical deep-dive into the tools, techniques and best practices marketers need to thrive in the AI era.
Competition is fierce. Your value proposition must stack up to company goals and customer demands.
Marketers who aren’t leveraging artificial intelligence will be undesirable to leaders focused on growth. Let’s unlock your potential.
At this year’s masterclass, we’ll explore:
The capability of AI today - where and how marketers can generate ROI
The tools and techniques to automate and scale in-house
Live demos of prompt workflows
Your role as an ambassador for AI driving organisational change
Open discussion - adoption challenges, use cases, shared experiences
How can tech marketers win audience attention?
A future-focused look at the ways brands are pushing the boundaries of conventional wisdom to find resonance and real competitive advantage in being contrarian and right.
Backed by the latest B2B Institute data and research, Ty will explore how tech marketers can engage their market and win audience attention.
Tyrona Heath is Director, Market Engagement at The B2B Institute, a think tank funded by LinkedIn studying the future of B2B marketing and decision making. With research, Ty engages and educates the industry in partnership with the leading marketing effectiveness thinkers to help better define the category, and drive growth.
Ty is passionate about connecting people with information needed to make intelligent decisions, sharing research to help marketers be more productive and successful with a bit of humor.
Today, Ty serves on the Digital Marketing Institute’s Global Advisory Council, on the Board of Directors for the American Advertising Federation and as an Adobe Insider with top executives, experts, and pioneers in technology. Ty is a frequent industry and academic speaker on the marketing circuit, and has delivered marketing education to thousands.
The evolution of research into data-driven insights
Learn how Xero is maximising resonance in new markets through data-driven market insights, and take a sneak peek at advancements in modern market research covering AI vaults that help zero in on customer needs and digital twins that create real-time buyer personas.
Nichola Quail, a Global Insights Strategist, Research Specialist, and Demography Expert, is the Founder and CEO of Insights Exchange, a platform that connects businesses with a global network of on-demand research specialists.
With over two decades of experience, she delivers game-changing data and insights to leading brands including Xero, Dentsu, The Trade Desk, Life360, and Panasonic.
A 2025 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards winner for Innovative Achievement in Thought Leadership, Nichola has grown her company from a small start-up in 2020 to a global enterprise with 35+ researchers across Australia, Southeast Asia, North America, the UK, and Europe.
She is passionate about AI's influence on market research; and is on the board of QRCA and the SheisAI Advisory Board.
AI as your Operant Ally
Join Sommer for a deep dive look into how AI helps B2B tech marketers move beyond hygiene factors to real, measurable value.
Sommer's talk will develop stages of value co-creation to show how B2B tech marketers can ditch their anxiety over AI and start using it as a powerful relationship tool.
You’ll learn a simple framework for understanding digital maturity past and present, from traditional to transitioning and transformative tech. In this you'll see how AI fits as an operant resource (yes, that means it needs you to create value).
With analysis of how we use tech to identify, iterate, and realise value, this session is for marketers who know relationships still rule.
Dr Sommer Kapitan is an Associate Professor of Marketing at AUT. With expertise in behavioural science, persuasion and digital marketing, she brings an evidence-based lens to the evolving role of tech in B2B branding strategy.
As a marketing scholar, Sommer gets to ask how we can use the amoral tools of marketing to move people. What makes marketing effective? How can we better protect consumers against the onslaught of a new marketing message every 2.7 seconds? And… how can we use marketing to build social good?
As an engaged business academic, Sommer teaches students, trains student researchers, collects data and analyzes studies, publishes meaningful research, works with media to translate the science of what we do, and works with industry to maximise their power to move people.
Amplify your Search Radius: How to Harness AI for Organic Visibility
Organic search & AI expert, Alla Lvovich from Atlas Digital will share how marketers can level up their demand gen & AI-search capabilities.
Her talk will focus on the practicalities of getting your company featured on AI generated recommendations.
Specifically, she will cover:
How to gain more high-intent visits to your website
Where to make quick technical wins on optimising your site to get AI-recommended
Practical content recommendations to build your brand's reputation that enables LLMs to reference your company in complex, conversational queries by potential customers.
Alla Lvovich is a Senior SEO & AI Manager at Atlas Digital with 10 years of in-house and agency experience in digital marketing.
She specializes in SEO, SEM, social media, and data analytics, driving business growth through innovative, data-driven strategies.
Alla holds a Master's in Digital Marketing, focusing her research on AI's impact in the industry. This expertise has led to speaking engagements at international marketing conferences.
As a thought leader, Alla leads AI in marketing masterclasses at the Marketing Association of New Zealand and teaches AI applications in digital marketing at NZIE New Zealand Institute of Education.
Her unique blend of practical experience, academic research, and educational initiatives positions her at the forefront of AI and digital marketing integration.
Influence & Impact: The Modern Marketer’s Superpowers
The most effective marketers don’t just create campaigns - they influence outcomes. Yet in many tech organisations, marketers often find themselves without formal authority over the teams or stakeholders they rely on to succeed. So how do you create momentum, gain buy-in, and drive real business impact when you don’t hold the decision-making power?
In this session, seasoned tech leader Frazer Scott shares practical strategies for expanding your sphere of influence - not through hierarchy, but through building emotional intelligence, gaining strategic alignment, and embracing collaborative leadership.
Drawing on his real-world experience at Microsoft, Plan B and now Atturra, Frazer will explore:
The dynamics of influence without authority — and why it's essential in cross-functional environments
How marketers can become trusted advisors, not just service providers
The role of EQ in building credibility, empathy, and internal alliances
Selling up through the organisation - gaining executive buy-in and ensuring marketing has a firm seat at the table
Techniques for bringing others on the journey, even when your goals don’t directly align
Creating a culture of co-creation, where shared success becomes the default
Overcoming resistance and navigating internal politics with confidence and clarity
Whether you’re leading a rebrand, launching a campaign, or trying to embed customer-centricity across your organisation, this session will equip you with the tools to lead from any seat at the table - and influence beyond the boundaries of your role.
Future Demand: How to explain the value of brand marketing to non-marketers.
How does brand marketing add commercial value? It’s easy to see the effects of performance marketing and other short-term promotional activities. But demonstrating the financial impact of brand marketing has always been much more difficult.
In his latest book ‘Future Demand’, marketing effectiveness expert James Hurman presents a simple mental model for understanding the role of brand building – and communicating it to non-marketing stakeholders.
In this presentation James will explore what’s most effective when driving quick spikes in sales, and compare to what’s most effective in driving sustained long-term growth for brands.
James Hurman is a New Zealand-based entrepreneur, investor and advertising effectiveness expert. He’s the founding partner of Previously Unavailable, a creative company that partners with, creates and invests into high-growth startup companies.
James is a co-founder of several high-profile New Zealand startups including Tracksuit (brand health tracking SAAS) and AF Drinks (non-alcoholic RTD cocktails), both of whom are market leaders in New Zealand and growing in the US and other global markets.
James is one of the world’s better-known experts on marketing and advertising effectiveness. He grew up in the advertising industry as a strategic planner and during his career won over 50 advertising effectiveness awards and was named the world’s number one strategic planning director.
James is the programme director of the Master of Advertising Effectiveness, a global online professional development programme for marketing and advertising people whose alumni includes executives from Google, Amazon, Airbnb, Disney, McDonalds, New York Times, Salesforce and all of the major advertising agency networks.