Meltwater Academy

Instructor

Cara Farin-Mercado is the Senior Solutions Consultant for Southeast Asia and India (SEAI) at Meltwater, where she has spent the past six years helping enterprise organisations unlock business value through AI, digital innovation, and data-driven decision-making. With over 12 years of experience in the social listening, media intelligence, and digital communications landscape, she has partnered with organisations in financial services, government, technology, consumer goods, telecommunications, and retail across the region. Cara specialises in AI, digital innovation, and communications technology. She regularly leads executive workshops and industry sessions on AI-powered communications, with a focus on Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), digital reputation, and the growing influence of large language models on brand discovery and visibility.

Instructor

Andrei Ona is the Team Lead on Meltwater's General Business Client Acquisition team in Southeast Asia. A Filipino based in Singapore, he works with brands across retail, finance, hospitality, F&B, government, and the non-profit sector — bringing his localized expertise and partnering with digital marketers, PR and communications leaders, social media teams, and consumer insights functions. His work centers on helping organizations translate media data, social data, and AI workflows into decisions that hold up in a room. He approaches his work through the lens of narrative and numbers: the story a brand tells about itself, and whether the data supports it.