Inside THE GRAIN’s first live event
A sold out room with honest dialogue and the momentum it sparked
It’s been two days since I launched THE GRAIN’s first live event, ADVERTISING vs. AI: How To Be Authentic Now, and I’m still buzzing. The event sold out, had a long waitlist, and after weeks of logistics and production mode, I suddenly had to shift into moderator mode for a panel of industry heavyweights: Mo Bofill, Dré Labre, Ian Mackenzie, Iran Reys, and Hiep Vu.
Standing on stage, mic in hand, staring into the spotlight, I realized this wasn’t the night to warm the room with a joke. The energy felt too urgent, too intentional. Agencies, brands, creatives, strategists, technologists, everyone had shown up because the conversation is no longer optional. AI isn’t an abstract talking point anymore; it sits in our meetings, our briefs, our anxieties, and our ambitions.
So I skipped the small talk and went straight in. I told the room what I genuinely felt: that even though we come from competing agencies and roles, we’re an extended creative family facing the same seismic shift. AI can empower us or exploit us, but only if we talk about it honestly. That’s what THE GRAIN exists for: to explore the pleasure and the peril of AI and the future of creativity, so we can look directly at what we fear and move through it with more clarity and control.
The discussion that followed was electric. The panel didn’t agree on everything and that was the point. They challenged each other, built on each other, and showed what respectful disagreement actually looks like in a moment of massive change. The audience Q+A was equally sharp; I’ll be sharing some of those insights here on Substack in the coming weeks.
But for now, I just feel proud. Proud of the room we created, proud of the curiosity in the questions, and proud that THE GRAIN is becoming a place where creatives can talk honestly about the future.
And as I walked out of Westside Studio that night, I felt real momentum. We didn’t leave with definitive answers, just better, sharper questions that left people wanting more.
That’s the point. This is only the beginning, a movement taking shape. THE GRAIN is building a community, honest, curious, necessary, at a moment when creatives need it most. Much more ahead.
Listen to THE GRAIN Podcast episodes with panelists Ian Mackenzie, and Dré Labre here:
Subscribe to THE GRAIN on Substack along with wherever else you get your podcasts, and follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok.
For more on the pleasure and peril of AI and the future of creativity, subscribe to THE GRAIN wherever you get your podcasts, and follow me for more on LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok. Questions or comments? ronit@thegrain.ai.