Affinity Launches 'Affinity Conversations': A forum for honest, intellectual dialogue

The maiden event brought forth powerful leadership stories anchored in self-belief, ownership, and the courage to claim space. Their advice to future women leaders was simple: ask for it.

Not every Women’s Day gathering is designed to challenge the room. Some celebrate. Some acknowledge. Few interrogate.

Affinity Conversations: Women’s Day Edition 2026, held in Mumbai on February 23, positioned itself as the latter. Envisioned as a forum to drive intellectual, honest and meaningful dialogue across media, marketing, technology and PR, the Women’s Day edition marked the beginning of a larger ambition. The idea was not to host a commemorative event, but to create a space where conversations that matter could unfold with honesty.

Co-founder and CEO, Lavin Punjabi opened the evening by setting the tone. When women are given the room, he noted, they do not merely participate. They raise the bar for everyone. The objective of the evening was to bring to the forefront conversations relevant to women in media, tech and communications and to examine what growth, ambition and accountability look like today.

The event saw participation from industry professionals including Akanksha Khushalani, AVP – Digital Marketing, Branding & Communication at DBS Tech India; Payal Parekh, AVP – Product and Marketing at ThinkAbout Digital Solutions; and Puja Sinha, AVP – Marketing at Tata Capital Limited.

Across three panels, one message remained consistent. Progress begins with ownership.

Power, poise & plot twists: Leadership without apology

Moderated by Neha Saxena, VP Marketing at Affinity Global Inc., the first session brought together Monaz Todywalla, CEO, PHD India; Richa Singh, Managing Director, Natural Diamond Council; and Priya Rege Jaggi, Associate Director Marketing, McDonald’s.

The discussion moved beyond celebratory narratives of leadership and focused instead on lived realities. One of the central ideas that emerged was that productivity, not hours spent at a desk, should be the true measure of performance. Presenteeism, the panelists observed, often disadvantages women who navigate layered personal and professional responsibilities.

The conversation also addressed the deeper conditioning many women face. From gender imbalances in decision-making spaces to internalised self-doubt shaped by social expectations, the barriers are not always visible but they are persistent.

A strong theme emerged around being unapologetic. Ambition does not require softening. Asking for what one deserves is not entitlement. It is a necessary step toward growth. 

Many women are conditioned to wait to be noticed, to be nominated, to be validated. But careers, they emphasised, rarely move forward on assumption. They move forward on articulation.

If you want the role, ask for it.

If you believe you are ready for a promotion, put your hand up.

If you need support, say so.

The act of asking is not aggression. It is ambition. It signals readiness and self-awareness. 

Leaders in the room acknowledged that some of their biggest career leaps came not from being discovered but from stepping forward, accepting rejection and asking for it yet again as you gain more skills.

The message to future women in the industry was direct: no one can advocate for you better than you can. Waiting can feel safe, but it rarely accelerates growth. Ownership does. The leaders reminded the audience to be unapologetic in beating your own drum. 

In that sense, leadership is less about titles and more about mindset. Self-belief, reinforced by supportive ecosystems, creates momentum. And momentum begins with voice. 

The panelists spoke about moments when they had to advocate for themselves, seek opportunities directly and ask for support when needed. Those inflection points, they suggested, were often the catalysts for career acceleration.

The takeaway was clear. A leadership mindset begins with self-belief and the courage to claim space.

Consumer journey got a brain: Meeting the informed customer

The second session, ‘Consumer Journey Got a Brain: Meeting the informed customer’, moderated by Sonica Sharma, Sr Director Advertiser Sales at Affinity Global Inc., turned outward to the marketplace.

Kanchan Kumari, Senior Digital Marketing Manager, Galderma; Bhairavi Rangarajan, Marketing and Omnichannel Transformation Leader, Kohler; and Arti Saxena, Director and Head of Marketing India, World Gold Council, explored how the customer journey has transformed in an AI-enabled, platform-driven ecosystem.

The premise was that the consumer journey today is no longer linear or passive; but intelligent, informed and constantly evolving. Consumers now enter brand ecosystems having already conducted research, compared alternatives and absorbed peer reviews. Decision-making unfolds across multiple platforms, often simultaneously, collapsing the traditional awareness-to-consideration funnel into a far more fluid journey shaped by content, commerce and community.

The panel emphasised that responding to this evolution requires more than omnichannel presence. This demands integration across teams, sharper data interpretation and, critically, a human lens that ensures technology enhances rather than replaces empathy. Artificial intelligence and advanced analytics may provide precision, but without contextual understanding and emotional intelligence, precision alone cannot drive resonance.

If the consumer journey has acquired a brain, as the session title suggested, then brands must match it with intelligence, agility and coherence. Intelligence, however, was defined not merely as technological sophistication but as the ability to listen, interpret and respond with relevance.

Gen Z girls are smarter: Rewriting the rules of engagement

The final session, moderated by Shalet Roy, Sr Director Advertiser Sales at Affinity Global Inc., leaned into a bold assertion. Gen Z girls are smarter. The statement was not positioned as provocation for applause, but as an invitation to rethink assumptions.

Joining her were Payel Ghose, Senior Media Manager at Sun Pharma, and influencer Urooj Ashfaq. Together, they unpacked what “smarter” means in practice.

This generation, the panel noted, has a heightened radar for authenticity. They assess intent quickly. They distinguish between performance and purpose. If messaging feels forced or opportunistic, they disengage just as quickly. What may appear as short attention spans is often selective attention. Relevance earns time. Credibility earns loyalty.

Another insight that surfaced was intentionality. Whether it is content consumption, spending behaviour or career choices, Gen Z girls tend to approach decisions with a strategic lens. Exploration is not aimless. It is informed. Experimentation becomes a way to build clarity and long term stability.

Confidence was also reframed. It is not an inherent trait but something cultivated through access, exposure and affirmation. Talent, the panel acknowledged, is universal. Opportunity is not. For this generation to continue reshaping culture and commerce, ecosystems must enable visibility and voice.

In many ways, the discussion echoed the evening’s earlier themes. Growth requires articulation. Space must be claimed. And accountability now flows both ways. Gen Z girls are not waiting to inherit systems. They are actively reshaping them.

Building a forum, not a format

What set Affinity Conversations apart was its strategic positioning. It was conceived not as a calendar-led initiative, but as a sustained forum for dialogue that challenges industry thinking and drives meaningful action.

Spanning themes of leadership evolution, consumer intelligence, and generational shifts, the throughline was clear: growth demands voice. Voice demands space. And space must be deliberately designed.

By bringing together some of the most influential leaders across brands, media, and PR, Affinity is staking its claim as a convener of industry-shaping dialogue within the adtech ecosystem. The platform signals an ambition beyond participation to lead, to influence, and to architect conversations that move the market forward.

If the inaugural edition is any indication, Affinity Conversations is laying the foundation for a forum where ambition is owned, intellectual rigor is valued, and the next generation is not observed from afar but brought directly into the conversation.