Helen Jones joined Asahi last year as Creative Director to head up their in-house team. One year on, Helen will open up the 2026 In-Housing Summit by reflecting on challenges and learnings from the past year. Helen will share her experience building in-house across 5 different countries, navigating cultural differences, agency relationships and finding the best way to demonstrate in-house value to different levels of the Asahi organisation. 

Learn how to continue to invest in, centre and harness creativity from in-house teams. 

• Hear how in-house leaders are centering creativity, and how they have alleviated threats to creativity 
• Understand how to support creative talent, and what to look for when hiring. And how we can repurpose creative talent and create opportunity in-house.  
• Learn what creatively works best when interacting with audiences, especially with changing trends affecting creative processes. 
• How to demonstrate the creative value of working in-house, and change perceptions around creativity agency vs in-house

Two inspiring in-house leaders will discuss leadership - how to overcome challenges and navigate the unpredictability to lead with confidence and empower in-house teams

• Learn strategies for empowering in-house teams: how to make team members feel valued and supported 
• Understand what leadership works best for in-house creatives
• When we can involve the team in operational and strategic ideas around building in-house

The multi-plug to in-house success - operations. This section will focus on in-house agency operations, diving into different areas from briefing processes, to outsourcing, to AI. 

Learn which in-house processes work best for matching quality and quantity to output, and how to optimise existing operational processes.

Understanding the increased demands for output, and how best to use your teams to meet these

Briefing processes - understand what a good brief looks like, and how can we optimise the briefing process

Operational scaling - learn how different in-house teams have approached scaling. Including what works best for smaller in-house teams 

In-house account management - understanding what this could look like, and if it might be a suitable investment 

This session will dive into a variety of operational aspects and enable attendees to discuss amongst each other on a series of problems and issues. 

Attendees will discuss how to approach various scenarios on separate round tables, each led by a host. Following these discussions, the leader will bring everyone together from all the roundtables to gather feedback on these scenarios. Notes will be shared with all attendees following the session.  

Scenario 1: 10 min panel discussion + 10 min audience discussion

Scenario 2: 10 min panel discussion + 10 min audience discussion

This session will outline the journey of a partnership between an in-house leader and their external agency, and how to maintain a thriving relationship.

Two snapshot case studies of approaches to AI in-house. 

Hear from in-house leaders who have navigated the in-house/brand relationship

Understand brand expectations, and how best to demonstrate the quality and value of in-house work - what KPIs / measurements of creative quality work well

Learn how to advocate for your in-house agency needs - what communication works best, how to build business cases and get the best out of being close to the brand

The 2026 In-House Summit has covered many challenges around working in-house, however it is important that we don’t forget the immense benefits of being in brand. Closing out the 2026 summit, this panel will go beyond looking at the obvious perks of in-house, and provide attendees with ideas of how best to leverage being close to the brand. 

• Learn from in-house leaders on how they’ve got the best out of being in brand - what benefits being close to the brand have surprised them, and how being in-house has overcome challenges that exist working within an external agency
• Getting the best out of being in brand for in-house employees - learn how talent can be repurposed to other parts of the brand, and how we can imagine future roles for current in-house employees, especially as AI moves further up the value chain
• Hear predictions on how the in-house: brand relationship will develop, and what benefits we can expect from being in-house in the future?