One thing that I feel very fortunate to have joined this year is the opportunity to join the event named ‘Corporate Communications and Brand Summit 2026.’ For me, this experience wasn’t just about opening my perspectives, but it also confirmed my passion and the future path I want to pursue, the Chief Communication Officer (CCO) pathway — a person who builds and protects a company’s reputation across stakeholders, including investors, press, government, public, communities, employees, and AI.
To be honest, I hesitated at first to join the event because there was less information about the event, for example, photos or audience reviews. So I felt a bit skeptical whether the event was real. lol
But I did so with confirmation from my U.S. friend that it looked legitimate, haha (Shout-out to my friend!)
The event focused on trends and challenges in the communications and brand field, including AI, crisis comm., new expectations in this role, and more. The speakers and attendees came from big companies, and they were the real decision-makers, such as Chief Communication Officer (CCO), Directors, and Managers, which I think is what made the event so unique and worth my time and money.
The event format was simple–just presentations on stage and a small workshop—but what made it special was the content. Not so often that I l get to learn about communications from a top-down perspectives covering direction, structure, and system. Most of the time in Thailand, we discussed content creators, influencers, marketing, and PR. Nothing to complain about the difference because it simply meets the needs of professionals there. However, for me, someone who is pursuing the CCO path (I say CCO just to make my vision clear, but honestly I care more about what I can deliver than the title itself), learning about something from the big picture just makes a lot of sense.
I have also heard that trends and practices in the U.S. are generally about 5 years ahead of those in my country. I don’t remember who said this, but I tend to agree. So I hope what I learned from this event will help me bring something back and apply it to my company and country.
Here is what I learned from the real practitioners.
- FORGET THE NORM
“Do you think social media will be dead soon?” This was the first question that kicked off the event. Interestingly, half of the people in the room believed it would be. To be honest, I had never thought about this before, but hearing it made me rethink the communication norms of today and start preparing for the new scenario that could happen soon. Perhaps the first lesson on the path to becoming a CCO is to forget the norm. - BRING CLARITY
Speed is now standard in communication practice, not a premium like before. It used to be the value-added of a comm. team in the fast-changing environment. But that is no longer the case in today’s landscape, where the real premium is clarity & empathy. This is because the pace of change is in intense that it creates massive noise. Therefore, comm. teams are required to identify real signal and BRING CLARITY to the firm. - BUILD RESILIENCE
Nowadays, building trust is just a baseline. What comes next is building resilience for the firm because agility is more important than predictability since anything can happen unexpectedly at any time. Because of this, comm. team must be able to manage ‘what the xx on earth!?.’ We should focus on building teamfor this, and not just follow the playbook, because the playbook never catches up with what is actually happening. - BE ACTIVE
If you’re not active enough, your brand will be hijacked by AI. How do you control the company’s narrative in the world where people search through AI platforms, and those platforms don’t pull the company’s narrative directly from company’s website. Most importantly, AI doesn’t ask your permission before publishing your content. - BE A BUSINESS PERSON WITH A COMMUNICATION MINDSET
Do not limit yourself to just being a communication person. We are business people with a communication mindset. What sets us apart from other business people is our understanding of people or the human touch. What we need to add is a broad knowledge of every part of the business, so we can understand a noisy world, reduce bias, and bring clarity to the table. We can no longer just be a megaphone.
I felt so overwhelmed after the 2-day event. It confirmed for me that what I believe is practical and real in this world though it needs to be developed for my specific context, it doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
Honestly, at first, I didn’t really know what kind of communication team and structure it should be in the future. I just knew the problems and gaps in communication right now, and how they could possibly grow bigger in the age of AI. When I did the research, I found the concept of CCO things, but I had never experienced it firsthand. However, it truly inspired me and brought me here to the U.S.
So grateful for whatever or whoever brought me here.
🙂
One thing that almost all speakers repeated was that ‘comm. team is a business partner. We support business, not just serve it.’
And lastly, someone wrapped up ‘no more fail fast and learn! now with AI, learn fast and succeed’
DANGGGGG!!!
like a kid. 