Stabilise the Stack — Sydney Dinner 2026

Publishing Leadership Conversations · Hosting, CMS, Delivery in the Age of Stack Sprawl

Wednesday, 13 May 2026

Hosted By

We’re coming to Sydney

We’re hosting an invitation-only dinner in Sydney for publisher founders, CTOs, Heads of Product, and Heads of Platform — the people making the calls on hosting, CMS, and delivery decisions for Australia’s niche publisher tier.

The room brings together leaders from companies others operating at the same scale.

Twelve seats. Single thread. Off the record. The evening exists to surface what publishing leaders are actually doing to stabilise their stacks heading into 2026 — and what they’d consolidate, replace, or stop paying for if the runway opened up.

Why this dinner exists

Across SODP’s global network, the conversation through 2026 has shifted from growth to stabilisation. Fragmented stacks, rising hosting and licensing costs, and AI-driven shifts in referral and monetisation are pressing publisher tech and product leaders into harder decisions about what to consolidate, what to replace, and what to stop paying for.

Stabilise the Stack is a series of city-specific peer dinners where those leaders can have that conversation off the record — alongside trusted hosting and delivery partners. Sydney is the first stop.

We open the night with a 10-minute peer story from a Sydney founder or platform leader the room already respects. Co-hosts Kinsta and The Code Company each speak briefly to frame stability at the hosting and delivery layers. The rest of the night is the table.

Meet Marcel Semmler

Marcel Semmler is Global Chief Product Officer at Bauer Media Group, where he leads the company’s international product strategy across markets and brands. He shapes the future of digital media through scalable, user-focused, and AI-powered platforms, driving sustainable growth by embedding a product-led mindset across the organization. His mission is not only to innovate, but to transform how teams build, operate, and lead in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

With over 15 years of experience in product management, technology, and organizational development, Marcel believes that the most impactful products are rooted in a deep understanding of people, pain points, and business opportunity. He works across functions—from newsrooms and data teams to design sprints and product councils—building both digital and human operating systems that enable meaningful outcomes at scale.

Meet Dmitry Shishkin

Dmitry Shishkin is an independent media advisor working with senior leadership teams who want to build audience-centred organisations without compromising editorial ambition or commercial discipline.

At the BBC World Service, he transformed the audience research behind the user needs framework into a practical editorial model, leading its implementation, enforcement, and cultural adoption at scale. Under his leadership, the model became embedded in editorial decision-making and was later adopted widely across the global media industry.

Since 2020, Dmitry has advised international media organisations including Condé Nast, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Yahoo, Globo, and Ringier. He typically works with CEOs, editors-in-chief, product leaders, and boards during periods of strategic reset, growth pressure, organisational misalignment, or uncertainty around how editorial, product, data, and AI should align.

The Details

Date & Time

Wednesday, 13 May 2026 — 6:00pm

Location

Palazzo Salato Restaurant

201/203 Clarence St, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia

Capacity

12 seats hard cap — 8 publisher leaders (incl. one peer speaker), 2 Kinsta, 1 The Code Company, 1 State of Digital Publishing

Invite includes

Dinner, drinks, post-evening 1:1 conversations, and access to a per-guest written brief shared with co-hosts after the night.

Please note

High-trust, collaborative, and off-the-record. No recordings, no slides, no vendor pitches. Feedback captured anonymously. The room is designed to share what’s working and what isn’t — across stack layers, across business models.

Apply as a seat/invite

Agenda

6:00 PM

Arrival & Networking

Guests arrive for welcome drinks and informal introductions. This time sets the tone for open, collaborative discussion.

6:15 PM – 7:00 PM

Welcome & Introductions

Single prompt round-the-table: “What’s the one platform decision you’re trying to get right in the next twelve months?”

7:00 PM – 7:30 PM

Featured Speaker Session

10-min peer story from a Sydney founder/CTO, then 20-min exchange with the room

7:30 PM – 7:45 PM

Host Frame

Kinsta on stability at the hosting layer, The Code Company on stability at the delivery layer. No slides. ~7 minutes each.

7:45 PM – 8:45 PM

Guided Peer Discussion Over Dinner

Three prompts:

Where the stack is costing in ways you can’t see
What stability would change for your roadmap
What would have to be true to collapse parts of your stack into a tighter hosting + delivery partnership

8:45 PM – 9:10 PM