April 16-17, 2026

Steve Loftis

Director of Interactive at ICG•ADV

From Keywords to Questions: How search really works, how it's changing, and how we can adapt

Day

Thursday

Time

2:04 pm

Room

Room #2

About the Talk
“Search has changed—again. We’ll unpack how Google and other AI-driven systems decide what to surface, and why the old “checklist” approach to SEO isn’t enough anymore. You’ll see how the fundamentals—keywords, structure, and authority—still matter, but only when paired with clarity, usefulness, and content built for real people. This session connects the dots between creativity and search strategy, showing how small shifts in how we write and structure content can have a big impact on visibility. Expect plain-English explanations, real examples, and a few surprises along the way. Whether you’re a creative, strategist, or account lead, you’ll leave knowing how to make your content easier to find, more genuinely helpful, and designed for both humans and machines.”
About the Speaker

Steve Loftis is Director of Interactive at ICG•ADV, where he spends his days connecting the dots between people, ideas, and whatever new thing just dropped on the internet.

He’s been building things online since his first Geocities website on Windows 98, which probably explains his comfort living somewhere between strategy and experimentation. Curiosity made him a jack of all trades; the pace of a changing world keeps him there.

Steve’s driven by the idea of making things simpler, more useful, more human.

When the screens power down, he swaps pixels for printmaking, carving linoleum blocks by hand. It’s his reminder that real creativity doesn’t come from perfection; it comes from play. He likes to say his best ideas are his dumbest, and it’s what keeps the work alive, human, and full of surprise.

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