Shift Happened: An Overview Of The 2026 Nedbank IMC

This year’s Nedbank IMC was held on 17 September 2026 at the Mosaïek Teatro in Johannesburg, bringing people from across the world to Africa’s Biggest Marketing Conference, under the 2026 theme Shift Happens™. Some 4000 attendees from over 20 countries joined the conference, with more than 2200 in one room.

The event was opened by Dale Hefer, CEO of the Nedbank IMC, with a musical welcome by Dr Gcina Mhlope, South African storyteller, writer, playwright, and actress, while master of ceremonies Donavon Goliath introduced each of the many speakers. An audio version in podcast format from each presentation is available here.

Kabelo Makwane, Google South Africa country director explored how organisations can turn AI from excitement into business value during his presentation entitled Making AI Useful: From Organisational Mindset to Business Value.

Fran Luckin and Roanna Williams, Co-Chief Creative Officers at Boundless challenged marketers to embrace the strange, trust their audiences and create work that makes people feel something, during their presentation entitled The Creative Shift: Why Brave Works Wins. To illustrate, the two presenters were dressed up as a shark and a gorilla, a reference to classic horror films Jaws and King Kong.

Suhayl Limbada, Chief Marketing Officer for KFC India and partner markets, ran his presentation under the title Stop Making Global Work. A Practical Guide to Building Ideas in Local Culture. He challenged marketers to move from assumptions to curiosity, find the local in the universal and stop ‘cleaning’ the culture out of creative work. During his presentation he played a series of KFC adverts he has worked on throughout his career to drive his point.

Gugu Mthembu, chief marketing officer at Telkom, sat down with Marko Stavrou, founder at Genlink (representing Gen Z) and ten-year old Gen Alpha influencer Desmond Koolen for a Q&A session, to gain insight from each respective generational representative. The presentation was entitled The Next Shift: A Gen Z – Gen Alpha Conversation.

Rea Leopeng, wellness expert and yoga teacher inspired all those present to stand up and follow her instructions to stretch during a five minute break. 5 Minute Shift: Move. Reset. Stretch was the title of her presentation.

Sheldon Tatchell, CEO and Founder of Legends Corporation, shared his journey from dreaming of becoming a barber with one pair of clippers and a chair to building Legends, while highlighting the role business can play in communities, during his presentation entitled Business of Impact.

Jarred Cinman, chief executive officer at VML questioned what AI agents could mean for advertising during his 2026: The Year AI Changed Everything in Advertising? presentation. The conversation went beyond the hype and focused on how humans and technology can work together.

Pastor and endurance athlete Kabelo Mabalane brought the speaker programme to a close with a powerful reminder to pause, look inward and understand that taking care of yourself is not a reward, but a prerequisite.

The event was concluded by Siya Metane, widely known as Slikour, and group CEO and founder of SlikourOnLife, who spent the day capturing voices, ideas and energy from the conference and turning them into an original track in real time.

During the event, a booth was set up outside the venue by Darren Morris and the Lucky Hustle team, who asked marketers to confess the things they probably wouldn’t put on LinkedIn. Want to know more? See the video here.

Industry leaders who presented at the conference also included:

– Conn Bertish, Founder of The Creative Group: Happy Purposeful Businesses Are Harder to Kill.
– Tarryn Knight, Head of Marketing, Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa: The Bakkie That Built the Nation: Shifting Gears, Shifting Times.
– Thebe Ikalafeng, Founder and Chairman, Brand Africa and Chancellor, Sol Plaatje University, South Africa: The CMO Shift.
– Dawn Rowlands, CEO, dentsu Africa: Africa is the Shift.
– Tiffany Markman, Founder of Tiffany Markman Writing and Training: Specifically Odd: Write Human. But Weird.
– Marc de Swain Arons, Founder of Institute for Real Growth (USA): Marketing2030: Making Impact in a New Era.
– Opeyemi Lawal, Chief Marketing Officer, NBA Africa and BAL (Basketball Africa League), and Khensani Nobanda Group Chief Marketing Officer, Nedbank Group Limited: Thebe Ikalafeng in Conversation with Africa’s Leading CMOs.
– Tahaab Rais, Chief Strategy Officer of Publicis Group: The Real Shift Isn’t Technological. It’s Psychological.
– Milan Naran, Strategic Account Executive at Google: Turning Content into Insight in Real Time.

NEDBANK IMC CONFERENCE
www.imcconference.com