Agenda

Two days. Nothing wasted.

Every session was curated for impact, built for immediate use, and packed with ideas attendees could take back to work the next day.

Alongside main-stage sessions, select talks and workshops were low-capacity and bookable in the event app on a first-come, first-served basis.

7:30 AM

2 hr

Registration & Networking

Check in, grab your badge, and connect with fellow attendees over artisan coffee before sessions begin.

9:30 AM

15 min

Welcome to Evolve

Tim Soulo, CMO of Ahrefs, officially opens Evolve and sets the tone for what’s ahead.

Tim Soulo, Chief Marketing Officer, Ahrefs

9:45 AM

30 min

How To Win In The New Search Era: Reddit, YouTube & Backlinks

How to build a repeatable, scalable content distribution engine that actually works in today’s landscape. This talk breaks down how to leverage both traditional and modern AI distribution tactics tools so your content consistently reaches the right people, in the right place, at the right time.

Ross Simmonds, Founder & CEO, Foundation Marketing, Distribution.ai

10:15 AM

30 min

Marketing ASAP: A Smarter Way to Work in an Instant-Results World

We optimize to be surfaced, cited, and found. But in the race for visibility, are we creating anything worth remembering?

In this sharp, practical keynote, WSJ bestselling author Ann Handley offers a way to decide what to accelerate, what deserves more of us, and where our humanity makes the difference between content that merely appears and work people trust, choose, and remember.

Ann Handley, Wall Street Journal Best-Selling Author, Speaker, Partner, MarketingProfs

10:45 AM

30 min

Tea Break & Networking

Pause to recharge with tea, coffee, and light refreshments. Use this time to connect with fellow marketers, meet speakers, explore sponsor booths, or continue conversations sparked on stage. Some of the best ideas happen between sessions. This is your space to reset, reflect, and build meaningful connections.

11:15 AM

30 min

How We Built 1,000 Agents by Making Failure Promotable

In 2024 Chili Piper created an internal Slack channel where anyone in the org could post tasks that drained them. After seeing all the submissions, the co-CEOs made a bold bet: experimentation to build agents would become part of promotion tracks. The attempt to build an agent (even if it failed) would count towards career growth... Alina will breakdown the playbook: incentive structures that reward experimentation, patterns seen from building hundreds of agents, and what she'd do differently if she started over.

Alina Vandenberghe, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Chili Piper

11:45 AM

30 min

Trailblazing the Untrackable: A Marketer's Field Guide to AI Visibility

Nobody handed the search community a map for AI visibility, so we're drawing it as we go. You'll walk away knowing where to find the questions your buyers actually ask, what to make of prompt volume, how to benchmark your AI visibility against competitors, and how to make sure your website is AI-ready.

Kamila Olexa, Product Marketer, Ahrefs

12:15 PM

30 min

The New Viral

The new viral: Most brands are still chasing mass virality when that's not the only (or most impactful) way that trends spread anymore. I break down the three types of viral I've identified and why the trust creators have with their audiences is the one thing AI can't manufacture.

Brianna Doe, Founder & CEO, Creator, Verbatim, Stop the Scroll

12:45 PM

1 hr 15 min

Networking Lunch

Take a break and refuel with a curated lunch alongside fellow marketers, founders, and operators. Use this time to deepen conversations from the morning sessions, meet new peers, or visit sponsor booths.

2:00 PM

30 min

Tim Grills the Sponsor

Tim Soulo brings sponsors on stage and asks the questions everyone is thinking. Expect candid answers, sharp follow-ups, and zero scripted dialogue. Think part spotlight, part roast.

Panel with

Chris Porteous,

Noah Greenberg,

Farzad Rashidi,

Dawood Bukhari.Moderator:

Tim Soulo.

2:30 PM

30 min

The 5% Of AEO & SEO: Research Backed High Impact Strategies

In this keynote, Ethan Smith (CEO at Graphite) shares new research on how search is evolving in the age of AI. Drawing on original studies and fresh data, he challenges common myths around SEO and AEO while unpacking the rapid shift toward AI-driven discovery. The session highlights emerging risks, structural changes in how models surface information, and why few brands currently capture meaningful AEO visibility. The talk closes with practical insights on how companies can adapt their growth strategies for AI search.

Ethan Smith, CEO, Graphite

3:00 PM

30 min

AI as a Force Multiplier for Your Marketing Team

Most marketers have barely scratched the surface when it comes to truly adopting AI in their workflows. In this talk I'll walk through the framework I used at Anthropic while building out the growth marketing function: automating the boring stuff, partnering with AI where it out-ranges you, doing work that was never above the ROI line before, and building tools nobody else will build for you.

Austin Lau, Growth Marketing, Anthropic

3:30 PM

30 min

Tea Break & Networking

4:00 PM

1 hr

Small Talks

Nine speakers. Five minutes each. One idea apiece on AEO and search. Andrew Shotland, Chris Long, Hadassah Pegado Dalisay, Rocio Osuna, Kenneth Lou, Urvashi Manral, Amanda Walls, Joe Chancellor and Caroline Gilbert — over half of whom pitched their way onto this stage. Raw, real, and relevant, closing out day one.

Michelle Lindner, Podcast Producer, EA to CMO, Community Manager, Ahrefs

5:00 PM

1 hr

Happy Hour & Networking

Join us for Happy Hour after Day 1. Grab a drink, connect with fellow attendees, and keep the conversations going. Whether you’re debating AEO, sharing growth experiments, or just meeting new faces, this is your chance to unwind in a more informal setting and build relationships beyond the sessions.