top of page

HR, People & Talent Festival Agenda

Day One  |  Tuesday, 17 October 

Filter Sessions by Event:

Exhibition Hall

7:50-8:30

Registration & Morning Refreshments

8:30-8:50

Welcome to Country

Aunty Janet Galpin, Boon Wurrung Elder

Learning & Development

8:50-9:00

Chairperson’s Opening Address

Ellie Whitton, Head of People & Culture, NEXTDC

Employee Experience & Engagement

8:50-9:00

Chairperson’s Opening Address

Amy Singe, General Manager People Performance, Culture & Safety, Yarra Valley Water

Employee Experience & Engagement

9:00-9:30

Q&A: Assessing the future of employee experience

  • Navigating a distributed workforce and the evolving landscape of work 

  • Learn how to build an employee-centric culture in your organisation

  • Understand the current trends and predictions for employee experience and engagement

(Moderator) Amy Singe, General Manager People Performance, Culture & Safety, Yarra Valley Water

Michael Kim, Head of HR JAPAC & SAMEA, Spotify

Learning & Development

9:00-9:30

Keynote: The Future of Work - Getting the Culture Right

  • The future of work is not just about remote teams, automation, or new tech—it's about culture. As we move into an increasingly complex and fast-paced business landscape, getting the culture right has never been more critical. In this keynote, international speaker, Steve Simpson will cut through the jargon to introduce you to his game-changing concept of UGRs (Unwritten Ground Rules). Forget what's written in company manuals or displayed in mission statements. UGRs are the hidden drivers; the real-life pulse of your workplace culture. They define how work actually gets done and how people truly interact. Discover practical strategies to decode, leverage, and, if necessary, reset your organisation's UGRs to align with future success.

Steve Simpson, Director, Keystone Management Services

Employee Experience & Engagement

9:30-10:00

Karlee Scott-Murphy, a Microsoft expert, will explain what Generative AI is and how it will impact HR in terms of culture, operations, and employees

  • With the number of conversations about “AI” increasing significantly, there are a lot of questions in the HR community about why people teams should be paying attention. Karlee Scott-Murphy, Global Employee Experience Specialist at Microsoft, will join us to provide a level 101 on what is Generative AI and why it is different. She will also share some of her insights on what HR leaders need to do to prepare for the changes ahead to our cultures, how we operate as employees and as organisations.

Karlee Scott-Murphy, Global Black Belt – Employee Experience, Modern Work, Microsoft

Learning & Development

9:40-10:30

Panel Discussion: Leveraging HR technology to develop and generate personalised, fit-for-purpose learning development solutions 

  • Effectively harnessing data to produce valuable insights around skill gaps within the organisation 

  • Using workforce analytics to identify skill trends across the organisation which lead to more informed decisions around L&D

  • How AI can be used to personalise learning experience

  • Adapting L&D strategies to Future of Work trends through leveraging large data and engaging in trend analysis

Moderator: Adam McKinnon, People Data and Analytics Leader, Reece Group

Liam Yao, L&D consultant, Uniting

Lynita Halaska, Capability Lead, Lion

Paul Scott, General Manager, LMS365 Australia and New Zealand

Employee Experience & Engagement

10:00-10:40

Fireside Chat: Taking a holistic approach to your employee experience strategy

  • Managing wellbeing and work-life balance of employees to improve engagement levels

  • Driving positive employee experiences through an inclusive culture

(Moderator) Megan Turner, Head of People and Capability, Windermere Child and Family Services

Beata Pereh, Chief People and Culture Officer, DPV Health

Sharon Gray, Head of People and Culture, OzHarvest

Learning & Development

10:30-11:00

Speed Networking

Employee Experience & Engagement

10:40-11:10

Speed Networking

Exhibition Hall

11:10-11:40

Morning Tea

Learning & Development

11:30-12:00

Overcoming scrap learning by implementing strategic metrics in L&D programs

  • Understand the role of strategic metrics to build highly impactful and engaging learning programs

  • Utilise strategic metrics to build transparency and accountability for business outcomes with stakeholders

  • Demonstrate L&D’s impact on business goals 

  • Generate strategic metrics to use in your organisation

Marie Daniels, APAC Associate Director for Learning and Development, Alcon

Employee Experience & Engagement

11:40-12:20

Fireside Chat: Leveraging HR technology to engage hybrid and remote teams

  • Hear what strategies leading organizations have implemented to engage employees virtually

  • Building meaningful connections online amongst employees to drive engagement and employee satisfaction

  • Advocating new technologies to assist employees with managing workloads

  • Utilising technology to measure and enhance EX and engagement

Mandy Sisson, Head of Employee Experience and Learning, Estia Health (Moderator)

Taryn Evans, Head of People Experience, Melbourne & Olympic Parks Trust

Chris Best, Head of People and Culture, THE ICONIC

Learning & Development

12:00-1:20

Interactive Breakout Discussions

Delegates will participate in both sessions. Each session will run for 30 minutes.


Breakout A: Driving engagement through virtual learning platforms for the hybrid workforce


Compliance Training Really Matters – Here’s Why.

Non-compliance cost the four big banks in Australia over $1.5bn in FY19. This reflects the impact of not having advisers properly trained and certified. Every organisation needs to ensure their employees know what is expected of them regarding standards and certifications. We’ll explore compliance risks and issues and identify some takeaways to ensure your organisation can manage compliance effectively.


Paul Scott, General Manager, LMS365 Australia and New Zealand


Breakout B: Integrating a LMS to evaluate the effectiveness of L&D programs


Chris Dwyer, Learning Systems Manager, Specsavers Australia & New Zealand

Employee Experience & Engagement

12:20-12:40

Presentation: Tackling the employee-company disconnect

The world has changed. Why hasn’t the way we work together changed too?

Our inability to interact as we once did has left us feeling disconnected, disadvantaged and despondent. Team Interaction Optimisation (TIO), empowers everyone to understand themselves and each other, builds trust, helps forge connections and drive diversity. By enhancing how we work together, we can progress within successful organisations and achieve better outcomes.

Luke McKeever, Chief Executive Officer, Thomas International

Employee Experience & Engagement

12:40-1:00

Case Study: Creating change leadership through business transformation

  • Hear how Egis is successfully integrating several acquired companies in Australia and New Zealand through implementing system led change and change management practices. 

  • Discover the employee experience challenges throughout the journey and the role of data and systems in accelerating the transformation

Lisa Taylor-Mesiti, People & Engagement, Director, Egis

Exhibition Hall

1:10-2:10

Networking Lunch (Employee Experience & Engagement Summit)

Exhibition Hall

1:20-2:20

Networking Lunch (Learning & Development Summit)

Employee Experience & Engagement

2:10-2:20

Trivia

Learning & Development

2:20-2:30

Trivia

Employee Experience & Engagement

2:20-3:10

Interactive Breakout Discussions

Breakout A: The new wave of AI represents a whole new way of working: How is your organisation preparing to embrace this?


Karlee Scott-Murphy, Global Black Belt – Employee Experience, Modern Work, Microsoft


Breakout B: Personalising EX through data analytics and HR technology


Chris Best, Head of People and Culture, THE ICONIC

Learning & Development

2:30-3:00

Case Study: Investing in the next generation of leaders

  • Implementing a leadership development approach to enable a future-ready workforce 

  • Accelerating and scaling the development of priority leadership skills 

  • Shifting the management mindset to a more leader-led coaching style

Jami-lee Apelila, Learning Business Partner, Global Operations Leadership Development, Amazon

Learning & Development

3:00-3:50

Keynote Panel: How can L&D teams adapt to the new leadership climate?

  • Implementing best practices and new approaches to leadership

  • Strategise how to overcome challenges including limited resources, and resistance to change

  • Learn how to measure and track the effectiveness of leadership development initiatives

  • The role of emerging technologies in shaping the future of leadership development

Moderator: Simone Blumberg, Chief People Officer, Vision Australia

Jane Hollman, Chief People and Culture Officer, Australian Red Cross

Natasha Teychenne, Head of People and Culture, Property Council of Australia

Exhibition Hall

3:40-4:00

Afternoon Tea (Employee Experience & Engagement Summit)

Exhibition Hall

3:50-4:20

Afternoon Tea

Employee Experience & Engagement

4:00-4:40

Interactive Mini Workshop: Evolving an Organisation’s Culture and Employee Experience

  • Strategies to driving a culture shift in your organisation for next 3-5 years

  • What are the impacts of a culture shift on the employee experience?

  • Considerations for changing the culture to evolve employee’s experiences

Eva Pool, Head of People Experience, Country Road Group

Learning & Development

4:20-5:00

Interactive Mini Workshop: The Role of AI in Modern Learning

  • Become an AI-enabled learning professional, who is curious and ready for a rapidly evolving AI future

  • Understand use cases for AI in workplace learning, from learning design, to personalization, assessment, content curation and performance analytics

  • Delve into the role of AI for behind-the-scenes learning processes, including enrolment optimization, at risk identification and intervention

  • Discover AI tools and platforms to consider and workshop use cases specific to your organisational needs

Dr Nora Koslowski, Chief Learning Innovation Officer, Melbourne Business School

Employee Experience & Engagement

4:40-4:50

Reflection and Key Takeaways

Employee Experience & Engagement

4:50-5:00

Chairperson’s Closing Address

Learning & Development

5:00-5:10

Chairperson’s Closing Address

Ellie Whitton, Head of People & Culture, NEXTDC

Exhibition Hall

5:10

Networking Drinks

bottom of page