ProcureCon Marketing 2026 » Wednesday November 11, 2026

Wednesday November 11, 2026

Built to Last: Resilient Teams, Responsible Growth, and the Road Ahead

8:30 am - 9:30 am Networking Breakfast

9:30 am - 9:35 am Welcome Remarks

Kelly DeLuca, Program Director, ProcureCon Marketing 

9:35 am - 9:55 am Keynote Presentation: The Human Side of AI: Resource Optimization in a Data-Driven World

The future of marketing procurement is both data-driven and deeply human. As AI unlocks new levels of resource optimization, leaders must rethink how decisions are made, how teams operate, and where human value adds the most impact. Learn how to strike the right balance between data and human insight in an increasingly automated world. 

    • Balance algorithmic recommendations with business context and intuition 
    • Communicate change clearly so teams understand how AI supports their work 
    • Build decision frameworks that blend data, ethics, and human accountability

    9:55 am - 10:20 am Keynote Case Study: Sponsorship Procurement: Structuring, Auditing, and Getting What You Paid For

    Sponsorship deals are some of the biggest areas of marketing spend and some of the hardest for procurement to scrutinize. The rights are complex, the deliverables are fuzzy, and the performance data almost always comes from the seller. This session explores how marketing procurement can build the frameworks, audit practices, and measurement approaches needed to finally answer the question every CFO is asking: did we actually get what we paid for? 

    10:20 am - 11:00 am Panel: The Future-Ready Marketing Procurement Team: Skills, Roles, and Capabilities for the AI Era

    AI is automating the transactional work that once defined marketing procurement — and in its place, a new set of capabilities is emerging as the price of admission. The procurement professionals who will thrive aren't just better negotiators; they are strategic advisors who can speak the language of marketing, interpret AI-generated insights, and translate commercial complexity into business value. This session brings together marketing procurement leaders to get honest about the skills gap, what they are doing to close it, and what the marketing procurement professional of the future actually looks like. 


      • Identify which procurement skills AI is replacing — and which it can't 
      • Assess whether your team's capabilities match where the function is heading 
      • Build marketing literacy and stakeholder influence into your team development strategy 

      11:00 am - 11:30 am Networking Break

      11:30 am - 12:00 pm Fireside Chat: From Spend Visibility: Telling The Story To The C-Suite

      Marketing organizations are awash with reports, but still struggle to answer a simple question: what's actually working? Marketing procurement is uniquely positioned to close that gap by bringing together spend, performance, and operational data into a coherent impact narrative that resonates with senior leadership. Learn how to reposition the function from "cost controller" to "impact translator," turning complex data into clear recommendations that drive smarter investment choices across brands and markets. 

      12:00 pm - 12:40 pm Fireside Chat: Guardrails for Growth: Partnering for Ethical, Effective Marketing

      High-growth marketing often pushes into new data, formats, and channels where the ethical lines are less clear. This fireside chat focuses on how marketing procurement can partner with marketing, legal, and compliance to set smart guardrails that protect consumers and the brand while still enabling innovation. 

      • Align with marketing, legal, and compliance on shared ethical principle 
      • Monitor partner practices and address issues before they become crises 
      • Support innovation by clarifying what "responsible experimentation" looks like 

      12:40 pm - 1:10 pm Workshop: Crowdsourced Discussion - Event Wrap Up

      As we close out ProcureCon Marketing, join fellow attendees and speakers for a lively, crowdsourced wrap-up session. This interactive discussion invites you to share your top takeaways, lessons learned, and new ideas from across the three days—connecting insights from every session, panel, and workshop. Leave energized, connected, and ready to champion marketing procurement's next wave of innovation and partnership. 

      1:10 pm - 1:30 pm Grab & Go Lunch

      1:30 pm - 1:30 pm Conference Concludes