Jay Chiat Awards Ceremony and Reception
Monday, October 6, 2025
Join us for our Jay Chiat Awards (JCA) ceremony in New York City. We will be honoring this year's winners,their extraordinary strategic work and breakthrough thinking. The JCA ceremony kicks off StratFest 2025, the premier conference for strategists taking place on October 7.
Time
5:30 - 9:00 PM
Registration
5:30 - 6:15 PM
Cocktails
6:15 - 8:00 PM
Ceremony
8:00 - 9:00 PM
After Party
StratFest
Tuesday, October 7, 2025
Adapt or Die is more than a conference. It’s a field guide for survival, packed with tools, tactics and tough love for strategists who want to thrive, not just survive through chaotic times. Come ready to explore bold, thought-provoking, forward-thinking strategies in marketing, media and advertising. Hear from strategy and brand leaders and the strategic planners behind some of the Jay Chiat Award-winning case studies and learn how to adapt faster than the forces reshaping our industry.
Time
8:00 AM
Registration and Check-In
* Breakfast will be served.
9:00 - 9:10 AM
Opening Remarks
- Juan C. Suarez, EVP Member Engagement & Development, 4As
- Elizabeth Paul, Chief Brand Officer, The Martin Agency & StratFest Co-Chair
- Tomas Gonsorcik, Global Chief Strategy Officer, DDB Worldwide & StratFest Co-Chair
9:10 - 9:30 AM
Opening Keynote - Adapt or Die: Transformative Insights from a 26-Year Tech Career Journey
In this illuminating keynote, Jeremi Gorman details her 26-year career navigating the online and digital media revolution since 1999. She entered the space as it was first transitioning into a commercial business, predating Google and Facebook. Having worked at Monster.com, Variety Magazine, Yahoo!, Amazon, Snapchat and Netflix prior to her current role at Fanatics, Jeremi offers a unique perspective on innovation, disruption and remaining relevant. She will share lessons learned from both thriving and declining companies and insights on career evolution, risk-taking and staying ahead of trends while staying focused on ensuring customer needs.
Speaker:
- Jeremi Gorman, Chief Revenue Officer, Fanatics
9:35 - 9:55 AM
Keynote - From Pioneer to Provocateur: Building Grubhub's Brand Transformation
After 20 years of connecting diners with their favorite local restaurants, Grubhub is writing its next chapter. Recently acquired by Wonder, America's original food delivery pioneer is repositioning itself to reclaim market leadership in an increasingly crowded space. This session will reveal a sneak peek at some of the strategic thinking behind its brand transformation — from its refreshed visual identity to a breakthrough campaign designed to deepen engagement and strengthen market share. Discover how Grubhub is leveraging 400,000 merchants in more than 4,000 U.S. cities to establish itself as the true hero of the food delivery marketplace.
Speakers:
- Marnie Kain, Vice President, Head of Brand Marketing, Grubhub
- Deacon Webster, CCO & Co-Founder, Walrus
9:55 - 10:15 AM
AI - The Next Great Shift
The lightning-fast rate of AI development (and adoption) is sparking a profound, transformative shift that leaders cannot ignore. Join us to explore how this revolution is fundamentally changing the ecosystem, creating new possibilities for consumers and communities and driving unprecedented growth for companies. This session will spark curiosity and encourage the evolution of your strategic vision to meet this pivotal moment.
Speaker:
- Cori Moreno, AI Business Strategist, Google
10:15 - 10:30 AM
Jay Chiat Award-Winning Case Study
10:30 - 10:55 AM
Don't Die Adapting
The industry needs to adapt in many ways but the fundamentals of how advertising and marketing work remain the same. Technology presents countless opportunities to evolve our tactics. It can also seduce us into altering our fundamental strategies—often to the detriment of effectiveness. In this talk, James Hurman will explore what’s changing and what’s not through the lens of marketing science and effectiveness research, and what it means for strategists.
Speaker:
- James Hurman, Co-founder, Tracksuit and Program Director, Master of Advertising Effectiveness
10:55 - 11:25 AM
Interactive Breakout Discussion
11:25 - 11:45 AM
Break
11:45 AM - 12:30 PM
Workshops
- Full-Stack Strategy: Play Outside Your Playground featuring Christopher Owens (TRG)
- The Strategist's AI Playbook featuring Elijah Kleinsmith (Signal Theory Inc.)
- WARC Future of Strategy Report featuring Ann Marie Kerwin (WARC)
- Signals, Not Schedules: Leveraging TikTok for Real-Time Relevance featuring Christina Cowan (TikTok)
- The Evolving Agency: Growth in the Age of AI featuring Miranda Toal (ActiveCampaign)
12:30 - 1:15 PM
Lunch
1:15 - 2:00 PM
Workshops
- Adapt and Thrive: Connecting Strategy to Measurement to Consistently Prove Value featuring Ashley Craig, Rich Hill, Michael Meyers and Sarah Symns (Tunnl)
- Brace for Impact: Driving Growth with AI in a Turbulent Market featuring David Huffman, Jonathan Ricard and Johanna Ure (Resonate)
- Build a Persona Factory with AI: A Hands-On Workshop for Strategists featuring Emilie Hitch (broadhead.)
- The Data-Backed Case for Creativity in a Performance-Obsessed World featuring Andrew Tindall (System1)
- Virtual Workshop: The Science That Sells Great Work featuring Ethan Decker (Applied Brand Science)
2:00 - 2:20 PM
Break
2:20 - 2:45 PM
Built to Last: A Framework for Strategy Careers That Survive in the Age of Volatility
The next era of strategy demands more than resilience—it requires a radical redefinition of how we grow talent, structure teams and build careers. In his provocative session, Tomas Gonsorcik introduces a comprehensive framework to help leaders and strategists navigate industry volatility and emerge stronger. Grounded in the findings of the 2025 WARC Future of Strategy survey, Tomas will explore why traditional approaches to training have failed, how new skillsets—blending emotional creativity with technological fluency—can be developed at scale and what it takes to build a fulfilling, future-fit career in one of the world’s most dynamic industries.
Speaker:
- Tomas Gonsorcik, Global Chief Strategy Officer, DDB Worldwide & Co-Chair, 4As Strategy Committee
2:45 - 3:10 PM
Strategy at the Speed of Life: Proactive Planning for the Unforeseen
God-is Rivera, Chief Strategy Officer at Burrell Communications, will lead a session exploring how strategy leaders can empower their partners to develop holistic strategic response approaches. The discussion will emphasize moving beyond outdated planning methods to cultivate proactive, comprehensive and cross-functional strategies, acknowledging that the heart of what strategists do is to plan for and solve problems and uncover opportunities. This innovative framework is designed to enable organizations to confidently and clearly navigate the rapidly evolving global landscape and prepare for the unforeseen. The session walks you through the fundamentals of preparing for and responding effectively to real-time cultural shifts and consumer sentiment, much like how a pilot adheres to a meticulous checklist during an emergency.
Speaker:
- God-is Rivera, Chief Strategy Officer, Burrell Communications
3:10 - 3:30 PM
Firseside Chat
The New Playbook: Agencies as Operating Systems
As the marketing landscape continues to shift, agencies need to act as an operating system, fusing data, creativity and technology to drive always-on brand relevance. Humans are the intelligence layer of that operating system. To succeed in this new world, we also need to elevate perceptions of the role agencies can play in driving commerce, economic growth and culture. And agencies must retool in order to deliver breakthrough insights when it matters most. In this fireside chat, two leaders will challenge the audience to think about the ways agencies can generate business advantage through their unique powers, with attention to the disruptive and creative force represented by AI.
Speakers:
- Joe Maglio, CEO, Cheil Agency Network
- Justin Thomas-Copeland, CEO, 4As
3:30 - 3:45 PM
Break
3:45 - 4:15 PM
A Plea for Less
Early in one's career, a sharp strategist can easily get stuck in the appendix of the brief — relegated to “deep dives” and “cultural nuggets”. In her perspective-shifting talk, Hannah Schweitzer notes that in a world obsessed with "more"—more trends, more stats, more features—AI will always win. True strategic brilliance lies in subtraction with dumb, simple clarity. The survival tactic? Do less; it's the one thing AI can't fathom.
Speaker:
- Hannah Schweitzer, Associate Strategy Director, TBWA\Chiat\Day
Jay Chiat Awards Emerging Strategist 2024
4:15 - 4:35 PM
Beyond the Generational Divide: The New Rules for Consumer Engagement
Generational stereotypes make great headlines, but they can be imprecise and outdated, ignoring cultural context and individual experiences. It’s time for a reset. In this session, Amazon Ads will share new global research that highlights the limitations of traditional generational marketing approaches and challenges marketers to focus on the behaviors, communities and values that actually unite us. Learn how interest-based marketing can help build stronger, more authentic and more effective connections with your customers.
Speaker:
- Lauren Ingerman, Senior Consumer Insights Manager, Amazon Ads
4:35 - 4:50 PM
Jay Chiat Award-Winning Case Study
4:50 - 5:15 PM
Never Alone: How Challenger Brands and Their Agencies Thrive Together
Strategists' enduring ability to create simplicity out of chaos is highly valued in the challenger brand space. Kamal Bhandal, SVP, Global Invisalign Brand and Americas Marketing, knows that all too well, as she works with her agencies to create a brand ecosystem that builds confidence amongst adults, teens and parents for the Invisalign brand’s unique offerings. Embracing hybrid teams where brand and agency can co-create and operate as one has been a key driver of Invisalign's marketing success. Kamal's presentation will be reinforced by a closing conversation with Elizabeth Paul, Chief Brand Officer of The Martin Agency and StratFest Co-Chair.
Speakers:
- Kamal Bhandal, SVP, Global Invisalign Brand and Americas Marketing, Align Technology
- Elizabeth Paul, Chief Brand Officer, The Martin Agency & StratFest Co-Chair
5:15 - 5:20 PM
Closing Remarks
5:15 - 6:00 PM
Networking Reception
