Three days of bold ideas, inspiring voices, and creative brilliance at Goafest 2026
Goafest 2026 concluded with inspiring conversations, engaging sessions, live entertainment, and celebrations of creative excellence. The third day featured prominent voices from advertising, entertainment, and media, while highlighting the importance of creativity, bold ideas, and cultural relevance in the communications industry.
The afternoon at Goafest 2026 began with Affle Presents Live Entertainment in association with Sakal Media Group, featuring a live performance by Neeti Mohan. The performance brought together delegates, industry leaders, and creators, adding to the vibrant atmosphere of the festival through music and entertainment.
Building on the momentum of the day, a session titled ‘Resetting for Growth: Why Bravery Is the Only Real Strategy’, powered by MakeMyTrip, featured Euge Publishing creative director & partner Eugene Cheong. During the session, he shared insights on the evolving creative landscape and spoke about the growing importance of courage, experimentation, and unconventional thinking for brands and agencies in a rapidly changing industry.
Another major highlight of the evening was ‘Age of Outrage’ – the AAAI Subhas Ghosal Memorial Lecture, powered by Eenadu. The lecture was delivered by Think9 Consumer Technologies founder and director Santosh Desai (author, columnist, social commentator). He further engaged in an interesting fireside chat with independent journalist and producer Anuraddha SenGupta.
Goafest 2026 also featured a keynote session by One Show chief awards officer Adam Izen, who shared insights on global creative benchmarks, changing industry standards, and the growing role of impactful storytelling and innovation in creating award-winning work across markets.
Adding a lighter yet insightful touch to the day’s agenda was ‘Yeh Dhurandhar Zindagi – Resetting to Stay Relevant’, presented by News18 in association with Amar Ujala. The session featured veteran actor Rakesh Bedi in conversation with CNN-News18 managing editor, special projects and senior anchor Anand Narasimhan.
The discussion reflected on longevity, reinvention, and staying culturally relevant across generations in the evolving entertainment industry.
In addition to the keynote sessions and panel discussions, day three of Goafest 2026 also featured ‘Resetting Bharat: Rewriting Growth Beyond Urban Playbooks’ by Dabur India vice president, media and marketing activations Rajiv Dubey. During the session, he spoke about how technology, regional culture, and hyper-personalisation are reshaping modern advertising and consumer behaviour.
Following this was another session titled ‘Rewiring the Mind: Why Fearless Creativity Wins’ by Enormous managing partner Ashish Khazanchi. During the session, he highlighted that breakthrough creativity is driven by conviction, risk-taking, and a deep understanding of consumers rather than safe and process-led advertising approaches.
The evening at Goafest then moved into one of the festival’s most anticipated highlights, the ‘ABBY Awards 2026’ powered by The One Club | The One Show celebration.
Snapchat Presents Abby One Show Awards powered by Z5 and Mediakart celebrated creative excellence across categories such as video craft, audio and radio, social content and influencer marketing, creative commerce, use of data, B2B, branded content and entertainment, brand experience and activation, outdoor, print, still digital, audio-visual TV, audio-visual, digital and OTT (below one min and above one min), and integrated campaigns.
The awards recognised innovative ideas, impactful storytelling, and outstanding creative work from across India’s advertising, media, and marketing industry.
The celebrations continued late into the night with Z presents gala dinner in association with Z5, followed by Mediakart presents after hours party powered by B4U featuring DJ Ganesh.
As the three-day festival concluded, Goafest 2026 once again reinforced its position as one of India’s leading platforms for creativity, collaboration, and industry conversations. Through insightful discussions, cultural commentary, award-winning campaigns, and live entertainment, the festival reflected the evolving and innovative spirit of the communications industry.
