2026 Page Exchange

The competency profile of the CCO and their teams.

In today’s fractured global landscape, shaped by geopolitical tension, AI-driven disruption, and relentless pressure for efficiency and growth, the role of the Chief Communications Officer continues to evolve at pace. The question is no longer just what Corporate Affairs / Communications functions do, but who leaders, and their teams, need to be.

Drawing on insights from Korn Ferry’s Corporate Affairs Leadership Institute (CALI) and decades of Executive Search and Leadership Coaching experience, this session will explore how CCOs can act as a grounding force and steward of value and culture, while continuing to drive enterprise-wide impact.

Grounded in Korn Ferry’s leadership competency framework and informed by the collective experience of the CALI community, we will examine what differentiates leaders who consistently perform under pressure: the ability to balance realism with optimism, navigate ambiguity with confidence, and foster meaningful dialogue across organisational, cultural, and stakeholder divides. At its heart, this is a conversation about the human side of leadership; adaptability, resilience, self-awareness, and the capacity to continuously evolve in the face of disruption.

Through a focused perspective and candid, peer-driven dialogue in the spirit of the Page Society, this session will create space for reflection, challenge, and shared insight, helping leaders assess how they show up today, and what it will take to lead with clarity, credibility, and impact in an increasingly complex world.

An Enforcement Perspective and the (New) Communication Mandate

Europe may be one of the most sophisticated multipolar systems ever built, with dozens of countries structurally working together across institutions, markets, borders and societies.

Its greatest geopolitical asset is not scale alone, but trust.
Trust between nations, institutions, companies and citizens. Trust that enables coordination across complexity and allows Europe to function as a connected system rather than a collection of interests.

But trust is not static. It must be continuously nurtured, especially in a time shaped by geopolitical tension, AI-driven misinformation, deepfakes, cyber threats and growing societal fragmentation. When trust fails in Europe, it rarely breaks in one place - it fragments across systems, sectors and borders.

This session explores how trust is built, challenged and negotiated in Europe’s most critical moments, bridging perspectives from public sector operations and global public-private collaboration. Together, the discussion examines how stronger partnerships are formed, what role shared narratives and collective communication play in sustaining trust, and why communicators increasingly hold a critical mandate in shaping Europe’s future resilience and ability to act.

For the communications community, this raises fundamental questions:

What does the role of communicators need to become in an era where trust itself is strategic infrastructure? How do communication leaders help build alignment across public and private actors? And what capabilities, mindset and partnerships are now required to operate effectively in this new environment?

Artificial intelligence is not just changing the tools we use. It is fundamentally reshaping communication itself.

In this provocative and forward looking keynote, Nanne explores how AI is transforming the relationship between organizations, stakeholders and society. Moving far beyond productivity and automation, the session examines the rise of synthetic stakeholders, AI mediated communication, predictive communications, hybrid human machine teams and the growing tension between technological acceleration and human authenticity.

Combining real world examples, emerging technologies, research and cultural reflections, the keynote challenges leaders to rethink the future role of communications in a world where AI increasingly shapes information, trust, influence and decision making.

The session balances excitement with uncertainty and strategic insight with human reflection. It offers practical perspectives on how communications leaders and organizations can experiment, adapt and build the capabilities required for an AI driven future, while keeping humanity at the center.