FEI Innovation Summit: Day 1Monday, 5 October 2026 - US/Mountain

What happens when consumer insights take center stage in a marketing strategy? Being consumer-first is often emphasized, but few actually practice it. The real work is carrying human understanding all the way through — from insight to brand idea to retail execution. That’s what fuels growth and progress.

In today's fragmented landscape, growth comes from making brand superiority tangible, turning human insight into clear, credible, and compelling brand stories that build awareness across every touchpoint, every time.

This keynote will share how this works in practice. From gathering consumer insights, to leveraging AI and data to accelerate learning, to designing communications that shorten the path from awareness to purchase, they'll show how brands can connect insight to execution at speed and scale, and why the brands that win put people at the center.

An inside look at how the Denver Broncos use insight‑driven marketing—from gameday and beyond—to build brand lore, deepen fan connection, and sustain one of the NFL’s most iconic franchises

Great ideas don’t fail because they’re bad—they fail because organizations struggle to carry them forward. This panel explores how innovation leaders move promising ideas from concept to commitment by navigating internal hurdles, securing support, and building momentum. Hear what it really takes to ensure the right ideas survive long enough to succeed.

This session argues that the real constraint on innovation isn't information, it's the categories companies use to organize it. Two of Dig's Future Strategy & Innovation leaders - Betsy Pendergast and Erin Mays - will walk through a proprietary approach — from broad contextual research into choice and demand modelling and then strategic translation — that helps insights and innovation leaders find disruptive growth beyond their category's conventional boundaries, using real examples of unexpected competition hiding in plain sight.

• Why "the category" is a company construct, not a consumer one — and what to measure instead
• A practical sequence for expanding the competitive frame
• Guardrails for evaluating consumer permission, brand stretch, and business feasibility before you invest

Many organizations invest heavily in breakthrough technologies, yet struggle to translate them into real‑world impact. This case study shares a practical, real‑world example of how emerging technologies are systematically evaluated and advanced by identifying killer questions, executing proof‑of‑concepts, and comparing competing solutions. Attendees will discuss a repeatable approach for de‑risking innovation and landing execution.

What happens when you redesign innovation around generative AI? At Newell Brands, it created a faster, more connected approach to idea development. Chris Gurr will share how InnoGEN, an award-winning internal approach, helped teams strengthen synthesis, expand creative exploration, and move from early signals to actionable concepts with greater speed and confidence. By accelerating learning, leveraging digital teams and winning leadership advocacy the approach helped teams rethink how insights, exploration, and concept development work together at the Front End of Innovation. This session will unpack the model, the adoption journey, and the practical ways FEI teams can apply these tools today to improve innovation quality, increase throughput, and unlock bigger ideas faster.

Most change efforts fail not because the idea is wrong, but because no one takes the time to understand the people being asked to change. In this interactive session, spoken word poet and innovation leader Andrew Embry blends poetry and change management to make empathy a practical, actionable tool — not a soft skill. Through creative exercises like perspective-taking and writing from someone else’s point of view, you’ll learn how to intentionally shape what people think, feel, and do. Expect an engaging, slightly uncomfortable experience that challenges corporate norms, invites authenticity, and equips you with a simple practice to apply before your next initiative: understand first, then design.

When it comes to making purchases, people don’t just think – they feel. Their emotions are at the heart of every decision, often guiding them to make purchases that align with their deeper needs and desires. But what triggers these emotions? Let’s dive into how delivering a holistic sensorial experience across brand, packaging, and product can trigger emotions that build loyalty and ignite growth. Get inspired to reimagine how your offering can consistently deliver an irresistible experience that gets people “hooked on a feeling.”

What parallels can be drawn between managing a street gang and managing an innovation team. Explore some of these commonalities from someone who lived them. Antonio Fernandez, aka “King Tone” the former leader of the largest Hispanic Street Gang in the US- explores underground leadership, creativity, innovation, and the art of hustle. What can innovation directors and entrepreneurs learn from drug dealers about overcoming bureaucracies and entrenched power systems? What can black market innovators teach entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs about pushing your idea forward. What commonalities do we see between driving change within a Fortune 500 company and hacking the culture of criminal organizations? What leadership lessons from the underground can we apply to formal institutions?