Everyone has the same hacks and shortcuts now. The real edge is knowing when to take them—and when not to.

Marketing has a speed problem.

Reach! Frequency! Speed! Move someone toward purchase ASAP! Flood more channels! Prove results sooner! And now, with AI ready to handle the thinking, the writing, the deciding—slowness can feel less like a choice and more like a failure to keep up.

But faster is not always better. Sometimes it’s just… faster.

Sometimes faster is how the wrong idea gets approved, the shallow answer gets rewarded, the relationship gets shortchanged, or the judgment gets outsourced. The best marketing has never been about motion alone. It’s about building something people remember.

In this talk, Wall Street Journal bestselling author Ann Handley returns to the Digital Summit Philly stage to make the case for slowness not as retreat or recovery, but as a strategic advantage: the space where original ideas take shape, judgment sharpens, and work worth remembering becomes possible. And (spoiler!): it’s what makes your ideas hit harder.

You’ll learn a practical framework for knowing:

• When slower is smarter;
• How to recognize work that’s building depth rather than just activity; and
• Why some of marketing’s most important signals of value show up long before they appear in a traditional dashboard.

This is not a rejection of speed. It’s a rebellion against letting speed decide what matters.

Who’s IN!?