BIMA x DMA Financial Advice! | Regulated Brands & Promotion in the AI Age

(This event is open to members and non-members. Non-members will be charged an additional fee.)

BIMA and DMA are delighted to welcome you to our first panel event of 2026!

How can agencies and their financial services clients adapt in a rapidly changing AI landscape? AI is transforming how people search for information, build trust, and how narratives are formed. As social platforms are flooded with so-called independent “finfluencers” delivering unregulated financial advice at scale, who’s really in control now? The stakes have never been higher for financial brands seeking to capture trust in this brave new world of AI.

Join a panel discussion featuring agency, client, and legal perspectives for a practical discussion on how regulated industries can navigate marketing, positioning, and agency partnerships in the era of AI discovery.

Who should attend?

• Marketing leaders and strategists in regulated financial industries.
• Agency leaders, planners, and account teams.
• Brand, compliance, and digital teams navigating AI-led change.
• Anyone responsible for positioning, promotion, or governance in high-risk sectors.

Your speakers:

Alan Kittle, Fractional Creative Leader

Alan Kittle is a fractional creative leader who bridges gaps between creative and strategy departments; agency and client-side marketing projects; and consumers and brands. Alan has led creative departments for over 20 years, advocating for both big and bold conceptual thinking, and executional excellence. He’s worked in the US and UK for networked and independent groups and has amassed over 50 awards from international shows. His previous and present clients include JPMorgan, National Grid, Samsung, Google, Takeda, Stella Artois and Sony. More specifically within financial services, he’s worked on FinTech and DeFi; retail banking and insurance; pensions and life companies for consumer and business audiences.He is co-chair of BIMA Scotland Council and enjoys nothing more than gathering community members together to share ideas, stories and a beverage.

Andy Morton, Content, Digital PR, and Outreach Consultant, Equator

Andy Morton is the Content, Digital PR, and Outreach Consultant at Equator. Having started in SEO, he has over ten years’ experience in developing content marketing campaigns for clients in the financial services sector, continually evolving his role with the ever-shifting search landscape. Today, his role primarily focuses on content and off-site strategies aimed at building brand trust and authority for clients operating across a range of industries.

Jesal Shah, Martech Transformation and Digital Transformation leader

Jesal Shah is a seasoned Martech Transformation and Digital Transformation leader with extensive experience in Product Management, Performance Marketing and Digital Acquisition gained through designing, implementing and executing Martech strategies and roadmaps to deliver data driven and technology enabled transformation of Marketing strategies within large enterprises and high growth start-ups. With a focus on consent, customer experience and digital innovation, Jesal helps organisations transform and harness their data and Marketing Technology effectively while ensuring alignment with regulatory requirements and business outcomes. nA proven track record in Personalisation transformation, impacting Data, Orchestration, Activation, Decisioning, and Digital Privacy domains. He is experienced in agile methodologies and has led large, cross-functional teams as a Product Lead with experience of navigating shared accountability structures. Jesal is now focused on developing and executing a Marketing AI Strategy powered, by GenAI and Agents, to continue transformation of the Martech stack and put capabilities in the hands of Marketers to make marketing simpler, faster, and more effective.

Chris Elwell-Sutton, Legal500-recognised data protection lawyer

Chris Elwell-Sutton is a Legal500-recognised data protection lawyer with deep data and AI governance expertise. Chris advises banks, asset managers, fintechs and non-profits on data protection compliance and AI deployment. Chris has advised on some of the UK’s largest financial services data breaches and class actions. A regular conference speaker and Chapter Chair of Connect Communities by OneTrust, Chris supports multinational organisations in navigating evolving data protection and electronic marketing regulation. Before becoming a law firm partner, Chris served in senior international privacy roles at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Deloitte and Columbia Threadneedle Investments.

Join us after to network with other like-minded industry professionals. Expect real-world insight, open discussion, and practical takeaways — not theory, not hype, and definitely no financial advice!

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