Last week’s AI Shaping Discovery event, delivered exactly what Philadelphia’s marketing community needs more of: a timely, expert-led, in-person conversation on one of the most urgent issues facing brands today.
Held at the Pyramid Club, the event brought together a highly engaged audience of marketers, communicators, and digital professionals looking for clear guidance on how AI is reshaping search, discovery, brand visibility, and customer decision-making. Not even a mid-session fire drill derailed attendance to the very end. Value was clearly delivered.
The event was organized and made possible by the Philadelphia Advertising Club. PAC handled the promotion and attendees, secured a great venue, made sure the audio could be clearly heard, kept the coffee flowing, and gave the morning the kind of professional polish that helped legitimize the offering.
Three Agencies, One Educational Goal
The event stood out because it brought together three agencies with one shared mission: Education. Not a sales pitch. Arc Intermedia, iPullRank, and Red Thread PR each contributed a distinct perspective on how AI is changing the way brands are found, understood, trusted, and selected.
The program was shaped and moderated by David Sonn, president of Arc Intermedia, who pitched the topic and concept to the Philadelphia Advertising Club, secured the panelists, helped with promotion, coordinated content planning, developed the question flow, timed the session, and ensured the format allowed for group discussion, direct panelist questions, rapid-fire insights, and audience Q&A.
The Right Experts
A strong event needs real experts. This panel clearly had them.
Mike King, founder and CEO of performance agency iPullRank, brought the kind of technical authority this topic demanded. A nationally recognized speaker and the organizer of the annual SEO Week conference in New York City, Mike traveled from Brooklyn to give Philadelphia marketers a deeper look at where search is heading. He pushed the conversation beyond traditional SEO and into the mechanics of AI visibility, including Relevancy Engineering, Machine Media, and Model Collapse. He explained how machines interpret relevance, retrieve information, and decide what deserves to be surfaced.
Laura Emanuel, Managing Director at Red Thread PR, brought the earned media and reputation perspective that made the conversation more complete. With more than 20 years of PR expertise, including agency operations and earned media campaigns for Fortune 1000 companies, Laura helped connect AI visibility to trust, credibility, authority, and third-party validation. Her message was essential: AI discovery is not shaped only by what brands say about themselves. It is also shaped by what credible sources say about them, how recently those signals appear, and whether they help AI systems understand why a brand should be included in the answer.
Patrick Coyne, Director of Organic Visibility at Arc Intermedia, brought the strategy and practical application. With nearly 20 years of digital marketing experience and leadership across national accounts including Nikon Camera, Sharp Electronics, and Ameriprise Financial, Pat helped translate the bigger AI search shift into what marketers should be doing now. His discussion of query fan-out, where Google’s AI Mode may run multiple background searches a user never typed, showed why keyword research, content planning, and measurement all need to evolve. Pat gave the audience a clear view of how brands can move from reacting to AI search changes to planning for them.
Together, the panel gave the room a fuller picture: technical application, PR, content, reputation, authority, and measurement are no longer separate conversations. AI is pulling them into the same arena.
What Was Discussed
The discussion covered a lot, but a few themes stood out:
- Ranking number one is not what it used to be.
- Brands need to think in questions and follow on questions, not just keywords.
- Earned media is a critical AI visibility signal.
- Measurement needs to change.
If AI answers before the click, marketers need to look beyond organic traffic and start thinking about visibility, citations, share of answer, accuracy, and brand presence inside AI-generated responses.
Thank Yous
David Sonn expressed, “I’m especially grateful to the Philadelphia Advertising Club for trusting me with this event and giving me the latitude to shape it in a way I thought would be most valuable for the audience. Thank you to Scrunch, an AI reporting platform company, for sponsoring the event. Your support helped bring this timely conversation to the Philadelphia marketing and communications community. And thank you to Mike King, Laura Emanuel, and Patrick Coyne for bringing real expertise, clear thinking, and practical advice to the panel.”
Why the Event Mattered
AI has already changed how customers research options, compare companies, evaluate credibility, and decide whom to trust. That urgency was reflected in the room. Attendees were engaged, asked thoughtful questions, and stayed locked into the conversation.
The event also reinforced the value of in-person learning. Articles, webinars, and AI-generated summaries all have a role, but they cannot fully replace being in a room with peers who are wrestling with the same challenges. In-person events, such as this one, reveal what people are really asking, what they are worried about, and where the industry conversation is heading next.
For organizations interested in bringing expert speakers to a marketing, communications, or industry event, please contact Arc Intermedia.
