Pakistan’s public relations, digital, event management and activations industries took a significant step towards greater collaboration and knowledge-sharing as the Pakistan Public Relations, Event Management, Digital and Activations Association (PREDA) hosted the inaugural PREDAXIS: Minus the Gatekeep conference in Karachi.
Held at the Mövenpick Hotel, Karachi, the one-day conference brought together leading business leaders, marketers, agency professionals, digital specialists, event experts, creators, academics and media practitioners to discuss the forces reshaping Pakistan’s communications, marketing and influence landscape.
The landmark event opened with a keynote address by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who spoke about the power of connection, influence and purpose-driven collaboration rooted in trust.
Obaid-Chinoy stressed that meaningful transformation often begins with individuals willing to challenge the status quo and imagine a different future.
“The greatest transformations I have witnessed have never begun with money, or technology, or power. They began with one person refusing to accept that the world had to remain exactly as it began,” she said.
She also highlighted the role of collective memory in shaping societies, adding that history is not only determined by the decisions of leaders but also by the memories ordinary people choose to carry.
The conference was positioned by PREDA’s executive committee as the beginning of a broader effort to bring together the industries influencing culture, commerce, public trust and communication in Pakistan.
“PREDAXIS was created to bring together the industries shaping influence, culture, commerce and public trust under one roof,” the PREDA executive committee said. “As Pakistan’s representative body for Public Relations, Event Management, Digital and Activations, PREDA exists to raise professional standards, foster collaboration and build a stronger, more future-ready ecosystem.”
The afternoon keynote was delivered by Imtisal Abbasi, Managing Partner at IAL Saatchi & Saatchi and founder of Digitz, who focused on leadership, creativity and the changing nature of value in the communications industry.
Among his key observations were that technology does not destroy value but relocates it, AI changes the questions businesses ask, and discernment is emerging as a new competitive advantage.
The conference featured seven panel discussions covering some of the most pressing challenges and opportunities facing the industry: The Agency Client Nexus; The Reputation Economy: How AI is Rewriting Visibility, Trust and Influence; Influencers, Creators & The New Attention Economy; Events: The Experience Economy; The Business of Being Human; The Pitch Room; and The Next Ecosystem.
A recurring theme across the sessions was the need to move away from transactional relationships and towards stronger partnerships built on trust, transparency, shared objectives and accountability.
During The Agency Client Nexus, Brand Consultant and Trainer Aly Mustansir highlighted the importance of agencies and brands developing a deeper understanding of each other’s business objectives.
Catwalk CEO Frieha Altaf raised concerns around the resources agencies invest in pitches, changes to briefs and the risk of creative ideas being replicated after presentations.
“ We don’t get paid for the pitch, so we put all resources into the planning phase ourselves,” Altaf said, highlighting the frustration that can emerge when briefs change or creative concepts subsequently appear elsewhere.
Sarah Sadiq, Director Marketing at FrieslandCampina, stressed that trust across the industry ecosystem needs to be driven transparently.
The growing influence of artificial intelligence was another major theme of the conference.
During The Reputation Economy, BBPR CEO Hasan Rizvi questioned how organisations should evaluate reputation in an environment where AI is fundamentally changing visibility, credibility and stakeholder engagement.
Fareshteh Aslam, CEO of Talking Point, emphasised the importance of human values in the use of AI, noting that users need to bring their own values into the way they interact with the technology.
The conversation around AI continued through The Next Ecosystem, where speakers examined both its potential to accelerate innovation and its possible impact on employment.
Dr. Adil Haider, Founder and CEO of Boston Health AI and Chief AI Officer at CIMED, argued that future competition would increasingly take place between ecosystems rather than individual companies.
“In the future, it will not be a company vs another company. It will be an ecosystem vs another ecosystem,” he said, while also warning that significant job losses could result from the continued expansion of AI.
The conference also turned its attention to the rapidly expanding creator economy.
During Influencers, Creators & The New Attention Economy, speakers examined changing audience behaviour, authentic storytelling and the evolving relationship between brands and creators.
Rizwan Ahmed, Founder and Chief Storyteller at Viral Edge, called for greater government recognition and transparency around Pakistan’s growing creators’ industry.
The Events: The Experience Economy panel explored the increasing importance of immersive experiences in building audience engagement, brand affinity and lasting connections. Amina Rashid Khan, partner at RAKA Events, pointed to AI as an increasingly useful tool for developing ideas and keeping audiences engaged.
The human element of communications was addressed during The Business of Being Human, moderated by Selina Rashid, CEO of Lotus PR & The Lotus Advisory.
The session examined empathy, authenticity and human-centred leadership at a time when technology is increasingly influencing how organisations plan, communicate, design experiences and engage audiences.
Qamar Abbas, Executive Director at the Pakistan Advertisers Society, said human emotions remain one of the strongest qualities separating people from machines, while acknowledging that society needs to become more empathetic.
“The biggest strength of being a human is our emotions, which make us extremely powerful. A machine cannot do that. But unfortunately, even us humans are not being as empathetic as we should be,” he said.
The relationship between brands and agencies came under further scrutiny during The Pitch Room, with speakers discussing the need for better briefs, transparency, collaboration, shared accountability and measurable business outcomes.
Saira Awan, President of the TCS Group of Companies, said agencies need to understand the broader priorities of a client rather than viewing every pitch purely as a competition for marketing spend.
Madiha Saeed, GM Foods Pakistan & Bangladesh at Unilever, stressed that a successful pitch begins with a clear brief, preferably communicated directly by the client.
Syed Usman Qaiser, CMO at J., meanwhile, emphasised that brands should recognise agencies as partners and remain mindful of the costs involved in developing campaigns and proposals.
Beyond the agency-client relationship and AI, discussions also explored the potential for greater collaboration between startups, businesses and government to strengthen Pakistan’s innovation ecosystem.
Jehan Ara, Founder and CEO of Katalyst Labs, pointed to the challenges faced by Pakistani startups in accessing funding and expanding internationally, while highlighting the depth of talent available in the country.
“Pakistan has incredible talent!” she said.
The conference brought together a wide-ranging group of industry leaders and practitioners, including Adil Ahmed, Dr. Adil Haider, Ali Habib, Afsheen Rizavi, Ali Rashid Khan, Aly Mustansir, Aman Hussain, Amina Rashid Khan, Aqsa Manzoor, Azam Jalal Khan, Fareshteh Aslam, Frieha Altaf, Hasan Rizvi, Jehan Ara, Madiha Saeed, Mehrunisa Azhar, Osamah Nasir, Qamar Abbas, Rizwan Ahmed, Sadaf Malik, Saira Awan Malik, Sarah Ahmed, Sarah Sadiq, Sarfraz Niazi, Selina Rashid, Shanaz Ramzi, Sherdil Khan, Shomaila Loan, Sidra Iqbal, Suleman Ansar Khan, Syed Usman Qaiser, Tehmina Khaled, Umair Kazi, Umer Ghumman, Usman Arshad Khan, Zeeshan Sikander, Zofeen T. Ebrahim and Zubair Mallick, among others.
For PREDA, the inaugural PREDAXIS conference represents an effort to establish a common platform for industries that increasingly overlap in the way they shape brands, public opinion, culture and consumer behaviour.
The conference was hosted by PREDA, with Pinnacle X serving as Organising Partner and the Pakistan Advertisers Society (PAS) as Exclusive Strategic Partner. Institute of Business Management (IoBM) and MiTE Institute served as Academic Partners, while Istehari was the Founding Partner.
PWL (Padel Walay Loug) served as Community Partner, TownEvents as Registration Partner, Pak Vision as Technical Support Partner, Pepsi as Beverages Partner and Tapal as Tea Partner.
With AI, the creator economy, changing client-agency dynamics and experience-led engagement rapidly transforming the communications sector, PREDAXIS provided an important platform for the industry to debate not only where it stands today, but also what kind of ecosystem it wants to build for Pakistan’s future.
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