Seth Matlins
Seth Matlins
Host of "Create or Destroy: Reimagining Marketing"
Host of Create or Destroy: Reimagining Marketing Seth Matlins is broadly recognized as one of marketing’s top thought-leaders. Seth’s career has spanned client and agency side roles—including CAA, Endeavor, Live Nation, and Forbes—offering him unrivaled insight into the challenges facing the biggest brands, companies, and the people who lead them, globally.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Morning Keynote: Great Work Doesn’t Wait for Permission
9:30 AM - 11:00 AM

Behind every campaign you've ever admired is a person who decided to build it before anyone told them how. Astha Malik, Chief Business Officer at Braze, closes Forge 2026 by making the case for the marketer over the machine and why the people in this room decide what customer engagement becomes next. There's no playbook for this moment, because it’s yours to write.

Seth Matlins will then join to lead a CMO panel exploring the shifts shaping the industry today, from AI and technology to the changing customer expectations, brand, and growth.

Finally, Astha will bring the “Made for This” theme full circle with a headliner panel exploring how the challenges marketers have solved, the campaigns they’ve launched, and the technologies they’ve embraced have prepared them to lead what comes next.

Monday, September 28, 2026
Leading With and Beyond Marketing
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Marketing leaders are commercial leaders, even if not all are seen this way, and even if not all see it this way themselves. 
 
When what a company charges, ships, promises, and delivers is what the market reads as marketing, the job has always been bigger than the function . In this masterclass, Seth Matlins shows senior marketers how to expand their leadership beyond the marketing function and operate as true enterprise leaders.