Jun Tae Kai Delane and four speakers predict 2026 will pivot hard toward community and in-person events as people tire of digital life. Expect a "purist" movement favoring human-made content and personal brands built on trust over polished corporate messaging.
As I think about 2026 and the marketing trends that are going to be most impactful, the word community keeps coming up for me.
One trend that I'm really excited about is in person events. I think we're all very starved for connection right now, especially the digital fatigue that we're all feeling. We want to feel something. I
think that we're at a reset where again, community is the best thing that we could do to sort of offset this erosion of trust that people are experiencing.
Whether it is employee generated content, whether it is participating in influencer campaigns in a given community, whether it's a greater focus on social first content. I think that being part of a community is how you're going to get your message out to market in more creative, faster ways.
I do believe that at some point there will be a purist movement where there'll be a premium for people who actually want to see actual human made content, and even in the events industry as well, because people actually want to connect with other people
in real life. Build your personal brand and a community focused on trust. Your audiences won't just be choosing content, they'll be choosing humans they believe in.
And so I do think that as a marketing ecosystem, we're going to lean more into community.
And so it's no longer about what you can do as a brand from your own channel. It's really about the broader community you exist in and how you amplify the rest of those people to tell your story.
