When you prepare a keynote, you’re forced to make choices.

• What really matters?
• What’s noise?
• What can you confidently stand behind in front of a room full of experienced people?

Last week, I had the chance to do exactly that while traveling for an afterwork event in Barcelona, a city I’ll never complain about visiting. Work trip, good conversations, a different setting… not the worst combination at all.

What made it even better was that the keynote took place in the evening.
Which meant: hybrid working at its best. I could work a full day remotely from Barcelona and then head to the event later on.

Thanks to OneCoWork, I found a great spot to work from during the day. Highly recommended if you ever need a productive base in this beautiful city.

And yes, I also managed to squeeze in a bit of sightseeing in between. Purely for cultural reasons, of course. 😉

The session itself was made possible by CNQR, and it gave me a great opportunity to step out of my usual routines and reflect more deliberately.

What follows is not a trend report.
It’s a little look behind the scenes at how I prepare for such a talk and why the way these topics emerged matters more than the list itself.

I don’t start with trends. I start with work.

When I prepare a keynote, I don’t begin with slides or hype cycles.

I start with questions like:

• What keeps coming up in projects?
• Where do teams struggle to make decisions?
• Which topics suddenly feel “urgent”, even if they weren’t planned?
• What kind of cold call emails C-level starts forwarding? 😉

If I don’t see a topic in my day-to-day work, it doesn’t make it onto the stage.

That’s why these 10 topics are not predictions.

They’re patterns I’ve observed repeatedly across different organizations, industries, and maturity levels.

Being honest about expertise (and why that matters)

One important thing I’m always very open about:

I’m not the deepest expert in every single one of these fields.
And I don’t think that’s a weakness.

My role is usually not to execute every detail myself, but to:

• Understand why a topic matters
• See the business impact
• Know when it becomes relevant
• and, very importantly, know who can execute it properly

This is where my network becomes a real asset.

I can rely on people I trust. Specialists, practitioners, builders, who go deep where depth is needed. That allows me to stay focused on translation, alignment, and decision-making rather than pretending to know everything.

At the same time, I do hold myself to a clear standard.
I don’t want to be the kind of consultant who only scratches the surface of every topic.

My ambition is to understand these areas well enough to discuss them in depth, challenge assumptions, and assess their real impact on business decisions. That means investing time, staying curious, and continuously learning & networking, even in areas where others might go deeper technically.

And where I feel that my own expertise reaches its limits, I prefer to be explicit about it.

Transparency beats pretending.

In my experience, that honesty creates better collaboration, clearer expectations, and ultimately better outcomes.

The 10 marketing topics (short and to the point)

Here’s the condensed version of what I shared on stage intentionally brief and impact-focused:

1. Volatility as the new baseline

Planning under stable assumptions becomes the exception. Marketing teams increasingly optimize for flexibility, optionality, and fast adjustment rather than long-term certainty.

2. Measurement remains fragmented

The challenge is no longer missing data, but conflicting signals (cookies, IDs, etc.). Teams need to make decisions with imperfect inputs and align measurement with business questions, not dashboards.

3. Consent as a strategic signal

As tracking erodes, explicit consent becomes more valuable. It signals trust, relevance, intent and shifts focus from scale to quality of relationships.

4. Clean rooms as infrastructure

Less glamorous than tools or platforms, but essential. Clean rooms enable collaboration across data silos while respecting privacy and governance constraints.

5. Messaging as the storefront

In complex journeys, messaging often decides before channels do. Clear narratives help users understand value quickly, especially when attention is fragmented.

6. Search becomes an answer layer

With AI-driven interfaces, search increasingly provides answers, not links. Visibility depends more on authority, structure, and clarity than pure traffic optimization.

7. AI agents enter the decision chain

Agents already compare, summarize, and pre-filter options. Marketing will need to consider how information is consumed by machines, not just humans.

8. Creators move closer to revenue

The role of creators shifts from reach to trust. They become contextual explainers and authentic bridges between brands and audiences.

9. Brand built like performance

Brand work becomes more iterative and measurable. Hypotheses, testing, and feedback loops replace long-term bets without validation.

10. Culture as last unfair advantage

With tools widely accessible, execution quality differentiates teams. Decision clarity, trust, and speed increasingly determine marketing effectiveness.

None of these topics are revolutionary on their own.
What’s new is how simultaneously they affect organizations.

Why speaking about this matters to me

Preparing for this keynote reminded me why I enjoy these moments so much.

They force me to step back, connect dots, and articulate things that are often felt but not named inside organizations.

And they confirm something I see again and again:
Trends only matter when they translate into decisions.

Everything else is just noise.

A final thought

I don’t expect organizations to “master” all of these topics in 2026.

But I do believe that the ability to recognize patterns early, discuss them openly, and bring the right people to the table will make a real difference – as usual.

That’s what I try to do in my work.

On stage, in projects, and in conversations.

If you’re curious how I support organizations in turning such patterns into concrete decisions and operating models, you can find more about my work here: Linelia’s services.

And as always, I’m happy to continue the conversation, wherever it happens next.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST: If you should be looking for a great speaker coach, check out Janik Adorf. I once again realized in Barcelona that I should soon book a session with him.

The new year always brings a certain positive energy. Budgets reopen, priorities get sharper, and suddenly “later” from last year becomes “now.”

I know this dynamic well from both angles. In my SaaS time at VRdirect, Q4 was often about making deals happen. At EnBW and L’Oréal, it was also the phase where remaining budgets were consciously invested in new initiatives or innovation.

As a founder, this perspective shifts again.

Today, I focus on positioning early in the year. Meet & catch-up with people and have conversations while options are just opening up.

Timing creates clarity

At the beginning of the year, many enterprises start to look ahead and operationalize previously planned budgets. Not always with concrete mandates, but with questions like:

Which topics deserve early attention?

Closely followed by more practical considerations:

• Do we have the right resources in place?
• Is now the right moment to start with project XYZ?
• What would help us move faster or more confidently?

These conversations tend to happen when there is still room to think, shape, and choose.

Starting dialogue early isn’t about acceleration.
It’s about alignment.

What changes when you run your own business

In corporate environments, structure absorbs a lot of uncertainty.

Transitions follow processes. Planning cycles provide orientation.

Looks like founder life works differently.

You actively need to create options through awareness, relationships, and timing.

And you learn that looking ahead is less about predicting outcomes and more about staying ready for them.

Over time, this should become a source of stability rather than stress.

Conversations come before projects

One thing that has stayed constant throughout my career is this:

Meaningful projects start with trust.

That’s why my focus right now is on staying connected, exchanging perspectives, and listening carefully to what others are planning.

Sometimes these conversations turn into something concrete months later.
Sometimes they don’t.

Both outcomes are valuable.

Because every exchange builds shared context — and context is what makes good collaboration possible when timing aligns.

Micro-Practice:
Once a month, I take 20 minutes to review:
– Who did I speak with recently?
– What topics came up repeatedly?
– Where might timing become relevant later in the year?

No actions attached.
Just awareness.

It’s a simple way to stay oriented without turning everything into a task list.

Looking ahead with intention

Approaching things this way allows me to stay fully present in my current work while calmly shaping what comes next.

Early conversations create choice.
Choice creates calm.
And calm creates better work.

So yes, I’m intentionally starting these conversations now openly, thoughtfully, and with a positive outlook on what the year can bring.

If you’re already thinking about support later this year, I’m always happy to exchange thoughts.

If you’re curious how I support organizations and leaders in their own transformation journeys, you can find more about my work here: Linelia’s services.

And of course, feel free to reach out via my contact page or connect with me directly on LinkedIn.

Now that the new year has started, I’ve found myself thinking about 2026 in a slightly different way.

Not in the sense of detailed plans or neatly defined milestones.

More in terms of how I want to move forward, what I want to protect, and what I want to stay open to.

Somewhere along the way, one thought became pretty clear to me:

I don’t plan 2026 with rigid resolutions.

I plan it with boundaries and direction.

Not less ambition.
Not less drive.
Just more intention.

That’s not because I’ve stopped caring about progress.

Quite the opposite. The last year reminded me how quickly plans can change and how valuable flexibility really is.

This way of thinking also builds directly on reflections I shared toward the end of last year:

about visibility, proactivity, and staying grounded while moving forward.

Why I’m skipping classic resolutions this time…

…mostly because 2025 didn’t follow a clean script at all.

Things ended and started faster than expected.

Some decisions were well prepared, others emerged through conversations and timing.

Learning often happened while already moving.

What I’ve taken from that experience is not that planning is useless but that…

…overplanning can easily create pressure without adding clarity.

Rigid resolutions assume a stable environment.
Founder life (and honestly, most modern work) rarely offers that.

So instead of fixing outcomes too early, I’m focusing more on setting direction and defining boundaries..

What I mean by boundaries and direction

Boundaries help me decide what not to optimize for.

Direction helps me decide where to invest energy when options appear.

Together, they create a framework that’s flexible enough to adapt without feeling random.

For me, this approach feels calmer, more realistic, and more sustainable than a long list of must-haves for the year ahead.

Five principles I’m carrying into 2026

I do have goals for 2026.

I just try to define them as guiding principles rather than fixed targets. Here’s what that looks like for me right now:

1. Adding a product alongside consulting

I want to explore how my consulting work could be complemented by a more reusable, productized offering.

The exact shape isn’t fixed yet, but the intention is clear: leverage, scalability, and impact beyond one-to-one projects.

2. Keeping Linelia healthy and growing deliberately

Growth matters. But not at any cost.

My focus is on sustainability, fit, trust, and energy, letting growth follow quality work instead of chasing volume.

3. Staying visible without losing authenticity

Writing, sharing, and connecting will remain part of my rhythm.

Not as constant self-promotion, but as a way to reflect, exchange perspectives, and stay present.

4. Staying open to opportunities that emerge from my network

Some of the most interesting ideas don’t come from plans, but from conversations.

I want to stay curious and receptive when new opportunities or business ideas surface without forcing anything.

5. Keeping space for life outside work

Sports, hobbies, family, recovery.

Not as a reward after productivity, but as part of what makes good work possible in the first place.

None of these are rigid promises.

They’re more like a compass.

And as you might already know me…of course the will have KPIs at the one or other point.

Micro-Practice:
Instead of writing a long list of resolutions, try this…

Write down:
Three directions you want to lean into as well as three boundaries you don’t want to cross in 2026

If a decision supports both, it’s probably a good one.

Direction over control (with momentum)

Planning 2026 this way doesn’t mean lowering ambition. Quite the opposite.

For me, 2026 will also be a year of focus, momentum, and pushing hard, just with clearer boundaries and intention than in 2025.

What I like about this approach is that it leaves room.

• Room to adjust.
• Room to say no.
• Room to notice when something feels off or surprisingly right.
• Direction over control.
• Momentum without burnout.

That’s how I want to move through 2026.

I’m curious:

Are you entering 2026 with fixed goals or with boundaries and direction?

And as always, conversations come first. If you’re curious how I support organizations and leaders in their own transformation journeys, you can find more about my work here: Linelia’s services.

And of course, I’m always happy to stay in touch this year.

If you’d like to exchange ideas, reflect together, or explore potential collaboration, feel free to reach out via my contact page or connect with me directly on LinkedIn.