Saxton Global was proud to be part of Convening APAC 2026, PCMA's flagship Asia Pacific conference held 12–14 April at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. Under the theme SIGNAL: Mastering Change, the event brought together the region's most forward-thinking leaders in business events, brand experience, and beyond to explore one of the most urgent questions facing organisations right now: in a world of relentless noise and accelerating change, how do you know which signals actually matter?
Saxton Global CEO Anne Jamieson and Sales Consultant Michelle Lee Brown were on the ground in Singapore across the three days, connecting with event organisers, industry partners, and Talent from across the Asia Pacific region. Four Saxton Exclusive Speakers took to the Convening APAC stage: Pauline Nguyen, Mark Adams, Dr Sandra Peter, Dr Kai Riemer, and Natalie Dau. Each brought a perspective that was sharp, timely, and impossible to ignore.
Highlights from the Saxton Line-up
Pauline Nguyen — Signals of Leadership
Pauline Nguyen opened the conference with a keynote that set the standard for everything that followed. Her session, Signals of Leadership, asked the room a confronting question: before you can read the signals around you, can you read the ones within you?
A bestselling author, award-winning entrepreneur, and owner of Red Lantern, the world's most awarded Vietnamese restaurant, Pauline has built a body of work rooted in a truth she has lived rather than theorised. She escaped Vietnam on a boat as a child, survived a Thai refugee camp, and overcame years of profound adversity before becoming one of Australia's most recognised business leaders. What she brings to a conference stage is not a polished version of that story. It is the full, unfiltered weight of it, turned into something practical and transferable.
For a room of senior event professionals navigating relentless pressure and expectation, her message on Conscious Leadership landed with precision. When inner clarity is treated as a professional discipline, not a personal luxury, the quality of every decision, every team, and every event you create changes. Audiences across APAC consistently describe her as one of the most affecting Speakers they have ever seen. Convening APAC 2026 was no exception.
Mark Adams — From Signal to Shift
If Pauline asked the room to look inward, Mark Adams asked them to look around, fast, and with far more discernment than most organisations currently apply to AI.
Known internationally as "Hollywood's AI Insider," Mark sits at the intersection of Silicon Valley, the Fortune 500, and the entertainment industry's most elite circles. He has guided over 150 global icons through AI adoption, from Barack Obama to Buckingham Palace, and co-founded VICE Media, scaling it from a counterculture print magazine into the world's largest youth media company. He has been rated the number-one Speaker at more than 500 events worldwide and named Speaker of the Year twice in global polls.
His Convening APAC session, From Signal to Shift, was exactly what the theme demanded. Mark's particular skill is taking AI out of the abstract and placing it inside real decisions, real organisations, and real moments in cultural history. He showed the room not just what AI is doing, but what it requires of leaders who want to use it well. For APAC organisations at very different stages of AI readiness, from Singapore's mature tech ecosystem to markets still building the foundations, his framework for cutting through hype and moving to meaningful adoption gave the audience something concrete to leave with.
His forthcoming book, Enter the Cult of Extreme Innovation, to be published by Penguin in 2026, will extend many of the ideas he introduced on stage.
Dr Sandra Peter and Dr Kai Riemer — Decoding the Decade of Disorientation
Day two opened with the pair that, arguably, best embodies the conference theme in the work they do every single day.
Co-Directors of Sydney Executive Plus and professors at the University of Sydney Business School, Dr Sandra Peter and Dr Kai Riemer have spent years researching what it actually takes to lead through a world that is shifting faster than most organisations can adapt to. Their session, Decoding the Decade of Disorientation: Future Shifts, Clashes, Skills and... Blobs?, drew on the Skills Horizon, their annual global initiative developed in conversation with over 150 executives, heads of government, and industry leaders across more than twenty sectors.
What sets Sandra and Kai apart is the combination of rigour and accessibility. Their research is robust and their thinking is genuinely original. Their delivery is warm, quick, and often funny. They have a gift for making the complex feel not only comprehensible but urgent. For business events professionals sitting in that room, their session reframed the question of what a great conference is for: not just a moment of inspiration, but a moment of genuine capability building.
The Decade of Disorientation is not a metaphor. It is a framework. And for organisations across APAC planning their leadership development and event programming for the years ahead, Sandra and Kai's work is among the most practical resources available.
Natalie Dau — The Human Signal: Mastering Resilience and Connection in a Noisy World
Natalie Dau closed the conference. It was the right call.
A Guinness World Record holder, filmmaker, and endurance athlete who has called Singapore home for over two decades, Natalie's closing keynote, The Human Signal: Mastering Resilience and Connection in a Noisy World, distilled everything the conference had been building toward: the question of what remains irreducibly human when everything else accelerates.
She has completed two record-breaking 1,000km solo runs, across Thailand to Singapore in 2024 and across the Philippines in 2025, running the equivalent of two marathons a day for twelve consecutive days each time. She has won every ultramarathon she has entered, thirteen in total. Her documentary, Project 1000 Believe, has won twelve international film festival awards and is currently screening on Singapore Airlines flights. She is, by any measure, one of the most compelling physical performers of her generation. What makes her exceptional on stage is that she translates what those feats demand of the mind into something that every person in the room, regardless of whether they have ever laced up a running shoe, can immediately apply.
For an audience of event professionals thinking about how to hold human connection at the centre of increasingly technology-mediated experiences, Natalie's session was both a reminder and a challenge. The signal she transmitted was clear: resilience is not a soft skill. It is the most commercially relevant one you can build in your people.
What Convening APAC 2026 Reinforced
Across three days and four Keynotes, several threads ran consistently through the Saxton Speakers' sessions.
The first was that clarity is a competitive advantage. Whether Pauline was describing inner leadership, Mark was cutting through AI noise, Sandra and Kai were mapping the shifts ahead, or Natalie was describing what kept her moving at kilometre 800, the message was the same: those who can read the right signals and act on them with conviction will lead. Those who cannot will follow.
The second was that the human connection is not in tension with technological progress. It is the condition for it. The APAC business events community is one of the most sophisticated in the world at designing experiences that create genuine connection. Convening APAC 2026 reinforced why that work matters, and why the Speakers entrusted to lead those conversations must be chosen with care.
The third was that Asia Pacific is not a peripheral market for these ideas. It is where many of them are being tested and proven first. Singapore's position as a hub for innovation, cross-cultural leadership, and business events makes it an ideal setting for exactly this kind of dialogue, and it is why Saxton Global's presence in the region continues to grow.
Bringing This Talent to Your Next Event
All four acts featured at Convening APAC 2026 are available for conferences, leadership summits, and corporate events across the Asia Pacific region. Each is represented exclusively through Saxton Global.
If you are planning an event and want to explore how Pauline Nguyen, Mark Adams, Dr Sandra Peter & Dr Kai Riemer, or Natalie Dau could add impact to your programme, contact our team today.
