New Content, New Conversations, New Connections…
The Power of Victoria’s Martech Community.

The inaugural Marketing Tech Retreat has successfully concluded, bringing together Victoria’s top MarTech leaders for an inspiring and insightful event. The response was overwhelmingly positive, and Ashton Media is so grateful to all our attendees, speakers, and sponsors who made it possible to bring the Marketing Tech magic to the magnificent Mornington Peninsua!

We can’t wait to do it all again – mark your calendars for the next Marketing Tech Retreat, taking place on 13th and 14th November 2025 at the RACV Cape Schanck Resort. Stay tuned for updates, and don’t miss your chance to be part of this premier gathering of marketing technology professionals.

If you’re based in NSW, check out our Marketing Tech Symposium which takes place in September in the beautiful Hunter Valley.

Key themes from 2024 included:

Driving Stack Value: The absolute keystone theme of the event. What form does your stack take? The Frankenstack or the Monostack? Complex and simple stacks don’t make it easy to add new technologies. Driving composability is the norm, we all strive towards it. We’ll be ensuring that you walk away with implementation strategies to ensure optimally operationalised tech stacks.

AI: Let’s be clear right up front, we are very firmly against any top-level abstract, ‘futurology’ style AI sessions. We’re here to provide case studies on how you can leverage technology in practical ways. The two primary ways that we’ll focus on will be Machine Learning and Automation, and the second being the possibilities of GenAI in the world of content creation.

Leveraging First-Party Data: First-party data isn’t meeting marketers’ goals. The infrastructure to collect it isn’t always in place and collecting real-time data is critical. One of the most important areas of discussion is going to be how we look to leverage what we’ve got, safely and cleanly, for better and more creative personalisation.

Privacy Law Changes: The Australian government has carried out a review into the existing Privacy Act and is holding further consultations. Proposed reforms “are aimed at strengthening the protection of personal information and the control individuals have over their information”. We’ll know an awful lot more about the proposed changes by November and showcasing how brands are operating best-practice in the new privacy world.

The Ferrari Conundrum (Talent & Tech): In the rush to digitalisation, organisations often face the Ferrari Conundrum: possessing advanced technological capabilities without fully leveraging them due to talent limitations. How you find, nurture, and develop talent to work with your tech is at the forefront of our topics.

Creativity & Brand Building: We’re going to make sure all of you digital marketing and MarTech leaders are ensuring your efforts build your brand and don’t loose sight that the marketing is for customer.