Agenda

8:00am: Registration & Breakfast

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9:00am: Welcome address by Nadeem Quraishi, Publishing Director, Campaign Middle East

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9:05am: Chair’s opening remarks by Anup Oommen, Editor at Campaign Middle East

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9:15am: Panel 1:

When AI becomes the shopper: winning visibility in agentic commerce

Consumers are increasingly using AI assistants to search, compare and shortlist products, while retailers are launching their own shopping agents to guide purchase decisions.

This session will explore what happens when product discovery is mediated by machines rather than traditional browsing. It will cover structured product data, taxonomy, agent-readiness, sponsored recommendations, affiliate relationships with LLM platforms and how brands can ensure they remain visible and preferred in AI-led shopping journeys.

Speakers:
Katib Belkhodja, Marketing Director – Toyota & Lexus, Al-Futtaim Motors
Mohamed Mordi, Experience Enrichment & Retail Media Manager, Arla Foods
Yesu Yarlagadda, Head of Omnichannel Commerce, Lulu Retail
Zoya Shahid, Director of Customer Experience, Viola Communications

Moderator: Anup Oommen, Editor, Campaign Middle East

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9:45am: Keynote

Gearing up for agentic commerce

As shelves shrink and AI-assisted shopping continues to evolve in the region, this presentation will reveal how brand and agency marketers can maximise their commerce and retail media ROI. From consumer AI assistants to platform agents and brand agents, this presentation will explain how marketers can prioritise strategy across agentic commerce in 2026.

Speaker:
Haneen Aburrubb, Head of Commerce MENA, at WPP Media MENA

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10:00am: Panel 2

From fragmentation to orchestration: can brands buy retail media at scale?

In 2026, brands and agencies have been dealing with an increasingly fragmented market. With hundreds of retail media networks now competing for budget, fragmentation has become one of the category’s biggest growth barriers.

This panel will look at how orchestration layers, interoperability and common buying frameworks have begun to change the game. The discussion will focus on what brands actually need from retail media partners in 2026: simpler access, better transparency, unified reporting and the ability to move budgets fluidly across retailers and channels.

Speakers:
Charlotte Davis, Vice President – Retail Media
Chirag Galundia, Senior Director — Media Solutions, talabat
Mahmoud Maghraby, Media Director – Middle East, Africa, MARS
Mazen Mroueh, Head of Retail Media & Partnerships, Publicis Media

Moderator: Anup Oommen, Editor, Campaign Middle East

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10:30am: Panel 3:

From swipe to sale: The commerce-creator convergence

Commerce and influence have become inseparable forces in modern marketing. What once existed as two distinct disciplines (performance-driven retail media and personality-led influencer content) has evolved into a seamlessly integrated ecosystem where creators don’t just inspire purchases, they complete them.

This panel looks to explore how shoppable content, affiliate models, and platform commerce tools have fundamentally changed the influencer brief.

From measuring ROI beyond reach and engagement, to the evolving expectations brands place on creators, the conversation will unpack how the line between content and conversion has all but disappeared, and what that means for the future of campaign planning in the region.

Speakers:
Sofiane Haddadi, VP Marketing (Activations & Operations), ADNOC Distribution
Noor Abwah, Head of Marketing – GCC, TCL Electronics
Yogesh Shroff, E-commerce Director – Middle East and Africa, Beiersdorf Middle East
Dima Mousseli, Content Creator

Moderator: Ramy Mouganie, Client Leadership Director, Fusion5

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11:00am: Networking