Conference Program

(Note - subject to change)

Day 1

Monday, 19 October 2026

  • Arrive at the venue for registration and to meet your colleagues over a morning refreshment.

  • Official conference opening, featuring a Welcome to Country from Uncle Shannon Ruska

  • Brent Hill, Chief Marketing Officer for the 2032 Olympic & Paralympic Organising Committee

    Imagine your communications brief is: the entire world is watching. No pressure.

    That's the reality for Brent Hill, CMO of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic & Paralympic Games Organising Committee — and our keynote speaker at IABC APAC Fusion 2026.

    Brent will take us behind the scenes of one of the most complex, high-stakes communication challenges on the planet. How do you build a global brand with a decade-long runway and evolving stakeholder expectations? How do you manage reputation risk when there's nowhere to hide? And how do you keep thousands of partners, governments, sponsors, and communities aligned behind one story?

    These are not hypothetical questions. They are Brent's Monday morning.

    For anyone who works in marketing, communications, or reputation management — this is the session that reminds you why our profession matters.

  • David Imber GAICD, Principal, David Imber Advisory

    Effective crisis management is critical to protecting an organisation's reputation. In the era of social media and AI, the pressure to respond quickly and professionally has never been greater. Yet so much of what communications professionals are taught about crisis management leaves out the skills they actually need most.

    In this session, David Imber — crisis and issues management specialist, former Director of Public Affairs in the Victorian Government, and a familiar face to IABC audiences — goes beyond templates and checklists to share the hard-won, real-world skills that determine whether communicators truly lead in a crisis or simply survive it. Drawing on current research and personal experience from some of Australia's most complex issues, David unpacks the emotional as well as practical capabilities that make the difference when the stakes are highest.

    Because getting through a crisis successfully requires working in real time, in ambiguity — and sometimes pushing leaders to do the right thing, even when it's the scary thing.

    Learning Outcomes

    By attending this session, you will:

    1. Master the Emotional and Practical Skills of Crisis — Understand the full range of capabilities required to manage a crisis effectively, including emotional regulation, courage under pressure, and the ability to speak truth to power when it matters most.

    2. Navigate Competing Stakeholders and Non-Linear Recovery — Learn how to manage conflicting internal and external expectations, and how to guide organisations through the reality that crisis recovery is rarely quick, rarely linear, and often far longer than anyone wants to admit.

    3. Apply Real-World Lessons Immediately — Hear directly from David's experience in the room with leaders and founders, explore cross-cultural perspectives on crisis management, and leave with a practical handout of top crisis management tips you can put to work straight away.

  • Bosco Anthony, CEO, Global Rev Gen (GRG)

    Communications used to be crafted, approved, and distributed. Now, it is adaptive, responsive, and alive.

    In this keynote, Bosco Anthony — digital strategist, marketing futurist, and CEO of internationally recognised marketing collective GRG — explores how agentic AI, predictive communications, and robotics are fundamentally reshaping the role of the modern communicator. 

    Drawing on real-world deployments across education, tourism, and enterprise sectors, Bosco reveals how the shift from one-off campaigns to always-on, intelligent systems is creating a new mandate: communicators are no longer crafting narratives alone — they are designing influence ecosystems.

    The future of communications will not be written. It will be run.

    What you’ll learn:

    • From Campaigns to Systems — Understand how marketing and communications are shifting from linear funnels to always-on, adaptive systems powered by agentic AI and real-time feedback loops.

    • Designing Influence, Not Just Messaging — Learn how to build influence ecosystems that combine behavioural nudging, conversational AI, and predictive creative to shape decisions before intent is fully formed — while maintaining trust and brand integrity.

    • Leading in an AI-Driven World — Redefine the role of the modern communicator as a system architect, orchestrating human and machine intelligence to deliver relevance, scale, and impact.

Morning Plenary Sessions

Break-out Room 1 | Connaught Room

  • Wayne Aspland MAICD FCSCE & Zora Artis IABC Fellow, SCMP, ACC

    Most organisations say strategic alignment is a priority. The evidence says otherwise — and the gap between what leaders say and what organisations do remains stubbornly wide.

    For communication professionals, this is the moment the function has been building toward. No other function has the same cross-functional view across an entire organisation. No other function sees where message and reality diverge before the data does. No other function is better placed to spot misalignment forming before it shows up in results.

    And yet many communication professionals are still waiting to be invited to the conversations that matter.

    Drawing on a global research study of more than 50 CEOs, Chiefs of Staff, and senior leaders, Wayne Aspland and Zora Artis make an honest, evidence-based case for why communication professionals are uniquely positioned to enable strategic alignment — and what it actually takes to operate at that level. This session introduces the alignment spectrum, from order taker to alignment architect, and poses a direct challenge to everyone in the room: where do you sit, and what are you going to do about it?

    Provocative, research-grounded, and practical.

    What you’ll learn:

    • Understand Why Alignment Is Failing — Discover why strategic alignment is breaking down in most organisations, including two underlying paradoxes that explain why good intentions and hard work aren't enough — and why communication professionals are uniquely positioned to change that.

    • Recognise What High-Level Influence Looks Like — Learn what communication professionals operating at the highest levels of strategic influence do differently, and identify the specific behaviours and choices that move people up the alignment spectrum.

    • Assess and Advance Your Own Position — Honestly evaluate where you and your function currently sit on the alignment spectrum, and leave with concrete moves you can make in the next quarter to operate at a higher level of influence — regardless of title or organisational context.

  • Mel Loy SCMP, CEO & Principal Consultant, Cuttlefish | Emma Boddington-Stubbs, Director, The EBS Effect

    In a world being rapidly reshaped by AI, it's understandable that communication professionals are asking hard questions about the future of their roles. But while AI can draft an email or generate an intranet article, there's something far more valuable it cannot replicate: the human lens.

    As organisations navigate relentless change — with one-third of workers experiencing 15 or more major organisational changes in a single year, and change fatigue at a record high — human connection has never mattered more.

    In this session, Mel Loy and Emma Boddington-Stubbs draw on case studies, personal experience, and sharp practical tools to share five ways professional communicators can tap into the human side of communication to level up, stand out, and lead with genuine impact.Because no matter the tool, we're still talking to humans. And that's where communication succeeds or fails.

    What you’ll learn:

    • Identify and Articulate Your Irreplaceable Value — Understand and clearly communicate what you bring as a professional communicator in an AI era — beyond drafting, planning, and production.

    • Strengthen Connection, Trust and Impact — Build and apply human-centred communication practices that deepen trust and create meaningful impact with your audiences, even in times of uncertainty and change fatigue.

    • Position Yourself as a Strategic Advisor — Influence leaders to prioritise human-centred communication, elevating your role from execution to strategic counsel where it matters most.

  • Julissa Shrewsbury, Specialist in Board, Leadership & Team Branding

    As AI accelerates output and trust becomes increasingly fragile, communications professionals are under pressure to do more — faster — while proving their strategic value. But what if the answer isn't doing more? What if it's being clearer about what you're actually worth?

    In this interactive session, Julissa Shrewsbury — one of Australia's leading specialists in board, leadership, and team branding — introduces a different lens: Communications Leadership Value as the driver of immediate impact. Drawing on research into the top concerns of senior leaders in the age of AI, and advisory work with Communications and Corporate Affairs teams, Julissa challenges participants to answer a deceptively simple question: what value do you want the executive and board to associate with your team's judgement?

    This session presents leadership brand as a practical tool for clarifying, prioritising, and making visible the true value of the communications function — beyond activity and deliverables. Designed for immediate application in high-pressure environments.

    What you’ll learn:

    • A Sharper Lens on Your Value — A clear distinction between activity and contribution in your current role, and how to articulate the difference in terms that resonate with executives and boards.

    • A Practical Way to Reposition Your Work — A simple, immediately applicable shift to make your strategic value more visible — moving from being defined by output to being recognised for leadership, judgement, and stewardship.

    • A Reset on Priorities — A clear understanding of leadership brand in a communications context, plus a practical prompt to identify what to stop, what to elevate, and where to focus for greater impact.

  • Subho Das, Communications Professional & Former Journalist | IABC India & IABC APAC Board Member

    The creator economy is a $480 billion industry — and it's looking for people exactly like you.

    Communication professionals already possess the single greatest competitive advantage in the creator economy: they know what to say, how to say it, and to whom. Storytelling, audience intelligence, brand voice, content strategy, persuasive writing — these aren't skills creators spend years learning. They're skills communicators use every day before lunch.

    In this session, former journalist and seasoned communications leader Subho Das makes the case that the transition from communicator to creator is not a career pivot — it is a natural, powerful evolution. Supercharged by AI tools that compress production timelines and eliminate technical barriers, the path from professional expertise to public audience has never been more accessible.

    Whether you want to build a YouTube channel, launch a podcast, grow a LinkedIn following, or simply stop being the best-kept secret in your industry — this is your starting point.

    What you’ll learn:

    1. Your Skills Are Already the Edge — Why communication professionals hold a structural competitive advantage in the creator economy, and how to activate those skills immediately as a creator — not just as a professional.

    2. How to Create Consistently Without Burning Out — A practical, AI-assisted workflow that allows full-time professionals to build a creator presence with as little as four focused hours per week, without sacrificing quality or career performance.

    3. A Roadmap from Zero to Monetisation — Using the PACE Framework (Position, Anchor, Compress, Expand) and the five-tier Monetisation Ladder, leave with a personalised plan to choose your niche, select your platform, build your audience, and generate a meaningful second income stream from your expertise or passion.

  • Anshuman Kumar, Chief Strategy Officer, SeedlingLabs | IABC Asia Pacific Board Secretary & Governance Director

    In an era where AI can generate infinite content, the true differentiator for the modern communicator is no longer the ability to produce — it's the ability to contextualise.

    In this session, Anshuman Kumar — Chief Strategy Officer at SeedlingLabs, former Director of Global Brand and Communications at Intuit, and Harvard Business Review case study subject — introduces Contextual Intelligence (CI) as the essential bridge between technical AI output and strategic human intent. 

    Drawing on his award-winning work scaling employee ambassadorship at Intuit to achieve the #1 "Best Company to Work For" ranking in India, Anshuman shows how communicators can move beyond the role of messenger to become strategic architects of organisational influence.

    Attendees will leave with the CI Compass — a practical framework for navigating organisational nuance, influencing C-suite decision-making, and leveraging AI as a powerful engine while keeping human judgement firmly in the driver's seat.

    Because in a world drowning in content, context is everything.

    From this session, you will learn:

    • The CI Compass Framework — How to move beyond content production by mastering the four critical layers of context — Product, Market, Leadership, and Employee Aspirations — to position yourself as an indispensable strategic business partner.

    • Scaling Authentic Storytelling — Proven techniques for building an Inside-Out brand, using the Intuit case study to show how employee ambassadors can be empowered at scale to drive trust and earn genuine organisational recognition.

    • AI as Engine, Human Intelligence as Steering Wheel — How to lead the AI evolution by using technology for scale while leveraging Contextual Intelligence to ensure messages remain ethical, nuanced, and strategically aligned.

  • Syed Mohammed Idid, General Manager Strategic Communications & Stakeholder Engagement, West Coast Expressway | IABC Asia Pacific Senior Communicator of the Year 2025

    Artificial intelligence is making communication faster, easier, and more scalable. But as AI becomes increasingly capable of producing fluent and convincing content, a more fundamental question emerges: can we still tell what is true, credible, and genuinely human?

    In this session, Syed Mohammed Idid — award-winning strategic communications leader, Deputy Chairman of the Public Relations PRactitioners Society of Malaysia, and IABC Asia Pacific Senior Communicator of the Year 2025 — makes the case that the next competitive advantage in communication may not be better technology, but better human judgement.

    Drawing on more than three decades of experience advising governments, regulators, and critical infrastructure organisations on trust, crisis leadership, and stakeholder engagement, Syed reframes the AI conversation away from hero versus villain. Instead, he explores what humans must continue to bring to the table — the ability to read the room, understand context, recognise emotional nuance, make ethical decisions, and take responsibility for what we put into the world. Rather than positioning AI as a threat to be feared or a solution to be celebrated, this session is a clear-eyed examination of what genuine credibility looks like in an age of synthetic fluency.

    Learning Outcomes

    By attending this session, you will learn:

    • Fluency Is Not Credibility — Understand how to distinguish AI-generated fluency from genuine trustworthiness, and why being fast, polished, or confident does not automatically make communication credible or ethical.

    • The HIT Test: A Practical Human-Centred Framework — Apply a practical framework for using AI responsibly in communication, grounded in three principles: Honesty, Integrity, and Trust.

    • Why Human Judgement Is Becoming More Valuable, Not Less — Understand why emotional intelligence, contextual awareness, and accountability will become increasingly prized as AI becomes more deeply embedded in communication and organisational decision-making.

Break-out Room 2 | Norfolk Room

  • Join us in recognising and celebrating IABC Asia-Pacific’s Communicator of the Year award winners!

  • Dr. Donald Patrick Lim

    In today's hyper-visible world, leadership is constantly tested — by audiences, employees, algorithms, and public scrutiny. Communications is no longer just about messaging; it's about helping leaders and institutions survive visibility.

    Drawing on real-world experience across media, digital transformation, corporate leadership, and public service, Dr. Donald Patrick Lim presents a powerful framework: The 7 Laws of Leading in Public. Through compelling stories and practical insights, he explores how trust, tone, presence, consistency, and credibility define communication leadership in the digital age.

    This session challenges professional communicators and reputation leaders to rethink their role — not merely as storytellers, but as custodians of legitimacy, trust, and institutional resilience in a world where every action is public and every message is permanent.

  • Dr Samantha Rush, Decision-Making Expert, Keynote Speaker & Facilitator

    Facts and evidence matter. But they are rarely enough on their own to spark action or change a decision.

    In this practical, hands-on session, Dr Samantha Rush — decision-making expert, PhD researcher, and author of the forthcoming Decision Confidence in Leadership: A Guide to Taming the Decision Monsters — explores how emotion affects what stakeholders notice, how they interpret information, and whether they act on it. Drawing on research across psychology, strategy, governance, and organisational leadership, Samantha shows how communicators can make deliberate, ethical choices about how they want their audiences to feel — and use that understanding to make important messages genuinely more impactful.

    Expect to experiment, reflect, and leave with practical tools you can put to work immediately. Samantha is known for making complex ideas practical, memorable, and a little bit fun — and this session is no exception.

    Because the most important message in the world won't move anyone if it doesn't first move them emotionally.

    Learning Outcomes

    By attending this session, you will learn how to:

    1. Recognise How Emotions Shape Decision-Making — Understand how emotions influence what stakeholders notice, how they interpret information, and whether they take action — and why facts alone rarely close that gap.

    2. Frame Information for Greater Impact — Experiment with different ways of framing the same information to elicit different emotional responses, and develop a more intentional approach to how you present evidence and ideas.

    3. Use Emotion Ethically and Deliberately — Make conscious, ethical choices about how you want stakeholders to feel, and apply emotional intelligence to support genuine understanding and action rather than manipulation.

  • Amrita Sidhu, Managing Director, Medianet & Medianet Insights | Global Board Director, AMEC

    When a customer or stakeholder asks ChatGPT who leads in your category, the answer isn't drawn from your latest campaign. It's shaped by a synthetic reputation you may not even know exists.

    In this session, Amrita Sidhu — Managing Director of Medianet, Global Board Director of AMEC, and one of the most connected leaders in the Asia-Pacific media intelligence landscape — lifts the lid on one of the most consequential and least understood shifts in communications today. Drawing on Medianet's Opening the Black Box research — a groundbreaking Australian study into how large language models represent organisations — and Medianet's long-running Australian Media Landscape Report, Amrita explores how AI sources frame and remember organisational reputation, and why that matters for every communications professional working to stay relevant and prove their value internally.

    As a board member of AMEC, the global body for communication measurement, Amrita also brings an international lens grounded in the newly launched AMEC GEO Principles — the first global framework for measuring how organisations appear in AI-led discovery.

    Your reputation is being shaped in places you're not looking. This session changes that.

    Learning Outcomes

    By attending this session, you will learn:

    1. How AI Shapes Organisational Reputation — Understand how AI-generated answers are forming perceptions of your organisation, why the picture can look nothing like your media coverage, and what that means for how you manage reputation going forward.

    2. What Large Language Models Actually Prioritise — Learn how LLMs handle organisational reputation, how AI citations differ in impact from traditional media coverage, and what that means for the content communications teams should now be prioritising.

    3. A Practical Introduction to AMEC GEO — Walk away with a grounded introduction to the AMEC GEO Principles — the first global framework for measuring AI visibility with rigour — plus insight from Australian newsrooms on how journalists are experiencing AI's impact on media relationships.

  • It’s time to get up, stretch the legs, grab a cuppa, and set yourself up for the last session of day 1!

  • In this session, you’ll have a chance to connect with other delegates in round-table discussions.

    Pick a topic from the list and head to that table. After 15 minutes, you’ll move to the next table of your choice.

  • Mitchell Welch, Head of Strategic Communications, Melbourne Park

    What does it take to build a brand from scratch for a major public asset — where scrutiny is high, stakeholders are many, and outcomes are business-critical?

    Melbourne Park is one of Victoria's most valuable public assets: a world-class destination comprising six iconic venues and delivering a year-round program of sport, music, and entertainment at scale, including the Australian Open. In March 2025, it launched its masterbrand — moving from a disparate collection of venue identities to a single, cohesive destination brand, spanning deep research, naming, positioning, visual identity, and platform development.

    In this session, Mitchell Welch will unpack how that transformation was led through a strategic communications lens — balancing creative ambition with the governance, rigour, and accountability required in a high-profile public environment. For any organisation operating in a complex or sensitive setting, this is a practical, real-world model for delivering brand transformation that is both creatively compelling and institutionally robust.

    Because brand development isn't primarily a creative exercise. In complex organisations, it's a strategic communications challenge first.

    What you’ll learn:

    • Govern Complexity Without Killing Creativity — How to structure and govern a complex brand development program in a high-scrutiny, multi-stakeholder environment — establishing clear frameworks that enable creative collaboration while maintaining strategic clarity and control.

    • Communications as an Enabler, Not a Constraint — How a robust strategic communications approach can actively enable productive agency relationships and creative outcomes, rather than limiting them.

    • Align Narrative, Stakeholders and Delivery — Practical ways to bring together reputation management, stakeholder expectations, and program delivery to successfully launch a masterbrand that lands — and endures.

  • Shane Hatton, Author, Speaker and Team Culture Expert

    Drawing from research with over 1,000 people leaders, this session uncovers the underestimated power of language in shaping a culture by choice. It moves beyond theory and offers a pragmatic approach to cultural design. Audiences explore team memes and mantras: how words, phrases and stories influence and permeate an organisation’s culture at every level. Interactive, research-backed and told through stories, with takeaways people can use the same week.

    From this session, you will get:

    • A clear understanding of what organisational culture is and why it matters

    • The critical role of language in shaping and defining culture

    • How to use team memes and mantras to reinforce and spread the culture you want

    • Practical strategies for using communication as a tool for cultural change

  • We’ll wrap up the first day before heading to networking drinks at the nearby W Hotel.

  • We’ve got something special planned for networking drinks!

    You’ll be heading to the W Hotel, a short walk from our conference venue. The Wet Deck at the iconic hotel overlooks the Brisbane River, toward the world-class Southbank Parklands.

    How to get a ticket

    During registration, you would have been invited to select to attend our networking drinks on the evening of Day 1. If you didn’t select this option but still want to come along, please email us as soon as possible at iabcapacfusion@gmail.com

Afternoon Plenary Sessions

Day 2

Tuesday, 20 October 2026

Morning Plenary Sessions

  • Make your way to the venue and re-connect with your colleagues over a coffee.

  • A quick recap of day 1, and what to expect from day 2.

  • Dr Jen Frahm

    Communication has always supported change. Now it must lead it.

    As organisations navigate increasing complexity, competing narratives, and declining trust, traditional communication approaches are no longer enough. This session draws on research, foresight methods, and insights from a global Delphi study to explore how the role of communication is evolving—and what that means for practitioners today.

    Participants will be introduced to emerging signals shaping the future of communication, from AI-enabled content ecosystems to shifting trust dynamics and the rise of employee-generated influence. The session will move beyond trends to practical application, helping communicators understand how to reposition themselves from message delivery to strategic influence.

    Grounded in a simple but powerful model of monologic, dialogic, and sensemaking communication, this session offers a way to navigate both present complexity and future uncertainty with greater clarity and confidence.

    This is not about predicting the future. It is about being ready to lead within it.

    From this session, you will learn:

    • How the role of communication is shifting from delivery to influence in complex, high-change environments

    • How to identify and interpret signals shaping the future of communication and change

    • How to apply a practical communication model (inform, engage, and enable sensemaking) to lead more effectively in uncertainty

  • Petra Zink, Founder, impaCCCt

    There’s no shortage of expertise in organisations today. The challenge isn’t what people know - it’s whose voice is trusted enough to shape decisions, influence direction, and guide what happens next.

    This session explores the shift from expertise to trusted authority - where communication becomes a driver of influence, not just alignment.

    As organisations navigate increasing complexity, trust is emerging as a critical factor in how effectively they operate. It impacts how quickly decisions are made, how well teams align, and how confidently leaders move forward. Building on the principles behind Trusted Authority™ and ROI on Trust, this session examines how trust is created through consistent, credible communication - and how its impact can be understood in tangible, business-relevant ways.


    From this session, you will learn:

    Attendees will gain practical insight into:

    • What differentiates expertise from trusted authority in real organisational settings

    • How communication shapes credibility and influences decision-making

    • Where trust is built - or lost - across everyday interactions

    • How to better articulate the value of trust in terms leaders recognise and prioritise

  • Barbara Pesel, Chair IABC APAC Region, & Managing Director, Pesel & Carr

    Felicity Cull, Head of Digital Content, Pesel & Carr, & Co-Founder, FeBa

    Dr Susan Grantham, Senior Lecturer, Communication, Griffith University

    Ben Smee, Queensland State Correspondent, The Guardian Australia

    The first 24 hours of a crisis are where reputations are set, often before all the facts are even clear. The instinct is to move fast, to say something quickly and fill the void. But speed without structure is where organisations come unstuck.

    This session looks at what actually needs to happen in that window. Not just responding, but pausing long enough to get the message right, align internally, and put a plan in place that can hold up under pressure. It's about building a response that is deliberate, consistent and grounded, rather than reactive.

    We'll draw on perspectives from across the field: strategic communications, media, social media and academia. That means a practical look at how to set the direction and protect the organisation, what journalists are looking for and how early decisions shape coverage, how issues take hold and escalate in real time, and what the research tells us about what actually works.

    Together, it's a grounded, multi-perspective panel that will look at how to handle the moment that matters most.

    From this session, you will learn:

    • A clearer framework for the first 24 hours -- what needs to happen, in what order, and why slowing down to get it right matters more than moving fast.

    • Practical insight into how media and social media shape a crisis -- what journalists are looking for in early coverage, and how issues escalate (or don't) depending on how they're handled online.

    • Greater confidence going into their next crisis -- whether that's knowing what questions to ask, where the pressure points are, or how to build a response that holds up under scrutiny.

  • Take a quick break to grab a refreshment and get ready for session 2!

  • Stephen Harvey, Safety Culture Expert & Host, Brisbane Safety Differently Book Club

    Safety is a serious matter. But our communication doesn't always have to be.

    Drawing on nearly two decades in safety and lessons learned from performing stand-up comedy, Stephen Harvey makes a compelling — and frequently funny — case for why humour belongs in the safety communicator's toolkit. This session isn't about becoming a comedian. It's about borrowing techniques from comedy to help people actually listen, engage, and have better conversations about risk.

    In a profession where the stakes are high and the messages are critical, the instinct is often to communicate with maximum gravity. But serious topics delivered without connection, energy, or humanity tend to wash over people rather than land with them. Stephen shows how humour cuts through the noise, builds genuine connection, and makes safety messages more memorable — because if you're laughing, you're learning.

    Learning Outcomes

    By attending this session, you will learn:

    1. Why Humour Works — and When to Use It — Understand the science and psychology behind why humour improves engagement, memory, and connection, and how to apply it deliberately and appropriately in safety and risk communication contexts.

    2. Comedy Techniques for Communicators — Borrow specific tools from stand-up and performance to make your communication more human, more engaging, and more likely to stick — without needing to be funny for a living.

    3. Move from Compliance to Genuine Care — Discover how a shift in communication style can help move people from a sign-it-and-forget-it compliance mindset to one where safety genuinely makes sense to the people doing the work.

  • Shea Evans, A Glass of Water

    Most communication professionals are brought in after decisions are made — asked to package thinking they had no role in shaping. That's not a messaging problem. It's a conversation problem.

    The difference between being an order-taker and a strategic partner is facilitation: the ability to step into messy, ambiguous discussions and guide them toward clear decisions and action. And in a world where AI is rapidly absorbing the technical execution of communication, the ability to lead a room — to navigate tension, challenge thinking, and create clarity in real time — is becoming one of the most valuable and distinctly human capabilities a communicator can develop.

    This session is not about comms strategy or storytelling. It's about what to do when you're in the room. Shea Evans shares practical facilitation techniques — specific phrases, questions, and interventions — that you can use immediately to shift conversations, expose real trade-offs, and move groups out of circular discussion and into genuine commitment.

    If you want a more strategic seat at the table, stop focusing on the end message and start shaping the conversation.

    What you’ll learn:

    1. Turn Vague Discussions into Clear Decisions — Cut through ambiguity and confidently define what's actually being decided in any conversation, before the discussion drifts or stalls.

    2. Expose Trade-offs and Challenge Soft Alignment — Use targeted questions to surface competing priorities and move groups beyond polite agreement into the real decisions that actually drive change.

    3. Drive Conversations to Action, Not Just Agreement — Close discussions with clear next steps, defined ownership, and forward momentum — so something actually changes after the meeting ends.

  • Jamie van Leeuwen, Founder, Absolutely AI

    Generative AI is rapidly changing what organisations can create, how quickly they can create it, and what is possible within traditional production budgets. But this session is not about individual tools. It is about the bigger shift taking place — from the barriers that have traditionally limited ambitious visual storytelling to a world where communicators can bring increasingly sophisticated ideas to life at unprecedented speed and scale.

    Jamie van Leeuwen, founder of award-winning AI creative studio Absolutely AI, takes us behind the scenes of the emerging world of AI branded content, using real-world examples to explore how organisations are already combining creativity, communications, and new technology. The session also examines where human creativity, strategy, and judgement remain critical as AI becomes an increasingly powerful part of the communications toolkit.

    Learning Outcomes

    By attending this session, you will:

    1. Understand What AI Creative Can Realistically Achieve Today — Gain a clear, grounded view of where AI-generated content fits within brand and organisational communications right now — and where it does not.

    2. See How AI Is Changing the Economics of Content — Understand how AI is reshaping the speed and cost of content creation, opening up ideas that may previously have been too expensive or difficult to produce.

    3. Know Where Human Judgement Still Matters Most — Learn where creativity, strategy, ethics, and brand integrity remain distinctly human responsibilities — from the original idea and storytelling through to final execution — and identify opportunities within your own organisation where AI-generated visual content could complement traditional production.

Break-out Room 1 | Connaught Room

  • Julia Loughlin SCMP CPM, Founder & Principal Consultant, Echomakers

    Communication has always been a strategic function. It has often been mistaken for a tactical one — by the businesses that hire us, by the clients that brief us, and sometimes by the profession itself. AI is now threatening to make the tactical work obsolete. Which gives communicators a rare opportunity: to be re-priced and re-positioned around the strategic work that was always the real job.

    The window is narrow. The communicators who move quickly will define the next decade of the profession. The ones who don't will be left defending a tactical role that no longer exists.

    In this session, Julia Loughlin — strategic communications consultant, former President of IABC Victoria, and holder of both SCMP and CPM accreditations — draws on research from Harvard Business School and Boston Consulting Group to explore AI's uneven impact on professional performance. The research is clear: AI amplifies judgement rather than replacing it, making strong practitioners more valuable and exposing weaker ones faster than ever before.

    Attendees will leave with a clearer view of how their value proposition is shifting, the language to elevate their role with leadership and clients, and a framework for the integrated strategic function communications must now hold.

    Because what comes next will be led by communicators who can name their value clearly, hold it with courage, and connect it to the decisions that matter.

    What you’ll learn:

    1. How AI Is Reshaping the Commercial Value of Communications — Understand the real threat AI poses to the profession — and why it's not the writing, but the communicators who have built their entire value around execution alone who are most at risk.

    2. How to Use AI in Ways That Elevate Your Role — Learn how to apply AI with the judgement and strategic standards that distinguish strong practitioners — and how to articulate that distinction clearly to leadership and clients.

    3. A Framework for Leading Communications as an Integrated Strategic Function — Leave with a practical model for repositioning communications at the centre of organisational decision-making, not as a support function reacting to it.

  • Amanda Newbery, Managing Director, Articulus

    Forget the old rules about how to communicate.

    In an AI World, where nothing we see or hear, can be trusted, the only thing we can truly rely on is real human interaction.

    While AI has transformed workplaces, delivering unimagined productivity gains, it has led to social isolation, fewer social connections, and a world where people are more comfortable asking for help from an AI chat bot than another human being. It’s led to more misinformation, disinformation and conflict.

    But, as we tune up our AI skills, we are tuning down our human communication and interpersonal skills. These “soft skills” are essential.

    This presentation will introduce the BE HUMAN method, developed after training 10,000-plus people over two decades. It will identify tangible tools and tips to equip employees with skills to manage conflict, foster stronger relationships, and how to be more believeable than AI.

    It will introduce 4 identifiable communication zones: safe ground, slippery ground known as the intervention zone, the conflict cliff and the chasm.

    Discover how to beat the modern communication obstacles of digital distraction, misinformation, artificiality, and anxiety.

    And most importantly, embrace fun and happiness, as the core of being human.

    What you’ll learn:

    1. tangible tools and tips to equip employees with skills to manage conflict, and foster stronger, more respectful relationships

    2. the modern obstacles for communication including digital distraction, misinformation, artificiality, and anxiety

    3. how to manage conflict and keep from falling off the conflict cliff

  • Megan Thomas SCMP, Founder, Buzz Communications | Co-author, The AI Edge

    Most communication professionals are using AI more than they were a few years ago. But most are only scratching the surface — and entire categories of work are emerging that the profession has barely begun to grapple with, let alone consider the ethical and strategic implications of.

    The future of communication will not simply be an extension of today, just more automated. It will look fundamentally different. And it will arrive faster than most of us expect.

    In this session, Megan Thomas — one of Australia's leading voices on AI and communication, co-author of the Amazon #1 bestseller The AI Edge, and former Change and Communications lead for Commonwealth Bank's AI, Data and Analytics practice — goes beyond the basics and the hype to explore what is actually happening to communication roles. From autonomous agents creating campaigns and anticipating misinformation, to synthetic leaders becoming key communication channels, this session is practical, energising, and grounded in real-world expertise. You'll leave more AI-confident and better equipped to build the skills that will keep you relevant, credible, and in demand.

    Because the opportunity to shape what comes next is not on the horizon. It is right now.

    Learning Outcomes

    By attending this session, you will learn:

    1. What Is Actually Happening to Comms Roles — Cut through the noise to understand where AI is genuinely reshaping communication functions, and where the real gaps and opportunities lie for practitioners today.

    2. Tools, Tips and Inspiration for AI in Comms — Walk away with practical, immediately applicable guidance on how to use AI effectively in your work — not just efficiently, but strategically and ethically.

    3. The Skills to Stay Confident, Credible and In Demand — Identify the technical fluency and human capabilities communicators need to thrive in an AI-driven world, and leave with a clear sense of how to start building them.

Break-out Room 2 | Norfolk Room

Afternoon Plenary Sessions

  • Join us after lunch in celebrating the winners of the 2025 and 2026 Silver Quill Awards.

  • Pia Broadley, Head of APAC, Workvivo by Zoom

    AI transformation is happening faster than many organisations can explain it. And when employees don't have clear answers about what's changing, why it's happening, or what it means for them — they fill the gaps themselves. With rumours, uncertainty, and resistance.

    In this keynote, Pia Broadley — Head of APAC at Workvivo by Zoom and a leader with more than 20 years of experience in the technology industry — explores how internal communicators can move beyond simply announcing AI initiatives to actively shaping how employees understand, experience, and respond to transformation.

    Drawing on a practical framework for AI communications, Pia unpacks how to segment audiences by readiness, build a narrative people can actually repeat, equip managers to lead the conversation, create genuine space for questions, and measure whether communication is changing behaviour — not just generating clicks.

    Because successful AI transformation depends on more than the technology itself. It requires bringing your people along every step of the way.

    Learning Outcomes

    By attending this session, you will learn how to:

    1. Understand Your Audiences — Identify the questions, concerns, and readiness levels that different employee groups bring to AI transformation, and tailor your approach accordingly.

    2. Build a Narrative That Travels — Create an AI communications narrative that connects business priorities with what AI actually means for employees — one that people can understand, believe, and repeat.

    3. Equip Managers and Measure What Matters — Turn managers into confident AI communicators rather than leaving them to navigate difficult questions alone, and shift your measurement focus from activity and clicks to behaviour, trust, and adoption.

  • Tammy Baart, Founder, Blak Ignited

    Many organisations believe they're doing the work when it comes to culture — through acknowledgements, campaigns, and carefully crafted messaging. But despite good intentions, much of this effort remains at the level of awareness. And awareness alone does not change behaviour.

    In this session, Tammy Baart — proud Dharug woman of the Boorooberongal clan, award-winning educational leader, and Founder of Blak Ignited — challenges communicators to close that gap. Drawing on lived experience and extensive work in cultural intelligence and organisational transformation, Tammy explores why Cultural Intelligence (CQ) is the leadership capability communicators need next.

    Moving beyond surface-level understanding, CQ is about how we respond in real time, adapt across difference, and build genuine trust — especially when it's uncomfortable. Positioned at the intersection of influence and narrative, communicators are uniquely placed to lead this shift. This session invites participants to rethink their role — not as storytellers of inclusion, but as leaders of it.

    True change happens when organisations move beyond knowing, into doing.

    What you’ll learn:

    • Awareness vs. Cultural Intelligence — Understand the critical difference between cultural awareness and cultural intelligence, and why that distinction is fundamental to leadership credibility and lasting impact.

    • From Performative to Purposeful — Discover practical ways to shift from symbolic communication to behaviour-driven, trust-building practice that creates genuine accountability — not just good intentions.

    • Lead Culture, Don't Just Reflect It — Explore how communicators can step into a leadership role that actively shapes organisational culture, moving from amplifying messages to driving meaningful, systemic change.

  • Dr Neryl East

    As organisations navigate the AI revolution, rampant misinformation, and relentless public scrutiny, the role of communication has irrevocably shifted.

    Senior communicators are no longer just shaping messages — they're shaping decisions, influencing leadership, and safeguarding trust in real time.

    In this session, Dr Neryl East — authority on trustworthy communication, former TV and radio reporter, Olympic announcer, and trusted adviser during some of Australia's most high-profile public controversies — explores the three defining communication frontiers shaping the decade ahead: the impact of disruptive technologies on credibility, the growing force of misinformation and activism, and the widening gulf between leadership intent and stakeholder trust.

    Drawing on compelling real-world examples and fresh research, Neryl equips communication professionals to step confidently into their essential role as strategic influencers — ensuring leaders communicate with clarity, consistency, and certainty when it matters most.Because trust isn't built in calm waters. It's forged under pressure.

    What you’ll learn:

    • Navigate the Three Trust Frontiers — Identify the three critical forces shaping organisational credibility in 2026 and beyond, and understand how to lead through each of them with confidence.

    • Elevate Your Strategic Role — Move from message delivery to strategic influence, advising leaders on communication that builds and protects trust when the stakes are highest.

    • Apply Practical Frameworks — Use proven tools to help leaders communicate with clarity, consistency, and certainty — reclaiming trust, reputation, and stakeholder confidence in complex and uncertain environments.

  • Stretch your legs, grab a refreshment, and then head back for the last session of the conference.

  • Katie Bennett-Stenton CPM & Trudi Rowley

    The future won't belong to communicators who produce more content — it will belong to those who create more clarity.

    In an AI-driven environment, executive influence increasingly comes from translating complexity into decisions leaders can act on. But too often, communicators present the numbers without the narrative, the data without the judgment, the update without the recommendation — and that gap erodes trust and limits authority.

    In this interactive session, Katie Bennett-Stenton and Trudi Rowley introduce The Authority Cycle, a practical framework that helps communicators use AI, data, and judgment to build trust, strengthen authority, and earn a stronger voice at the executive table. Through live exercises, attendees will learn how to identify the numbers that matter, reframe tactical updates as strategic recommendations, and leave with a one-page cheat sheet they can put to work immediately.

    Because in a world of noise, authority belongs to those who bring clarity.

    Learning Outcomes

    By attending this session, you will learn:

    1. Connect Data to What Matters — How to link data and insights to business metrics through practical scenarios, identifying the numbers tied to outcomes, risk, and value creation — not just activity.

    2. Reframe Updates as Recommendations — How to move beyond reporting performance to creating decision-ready narratives that give executives something they can act on.

    3. Build Authority Through Clarity — How to position yourself not as a message manager, but as a strategic advisor who helps leaders navigate complexity, risk, and trust in an AI-driven world.

  • Angela Bliss, Behavioural Science Expert

    An introduction to behavioural design, and the responsible application of behavioural science to communication.

    Every message a communicator sends is really an attempt to change what someone does — to adopt a tool, trust a decision, or act on a change. That makes communicators far more than storytellers. It makes them behavioural designers, whether they realise it or not.

    In this closing keynote, Angela Bliss — behavioural scientist, designer, and Head of Behavioural Science at NAB — offers a plain-English introduction to behavioural design and what it means for the future of the communications profession. No prior knowledge of behavioural science required. Just an open mind and a willingness to see your work in a completely new way.

    Angela will show that behavioural science is simply the study of how people actually make decisions — often very differently from how we assume they do — and that once you understand it, you can design communication that genuinely moves people, not merely reaches them. To make it concrete, she'll use the challenge every organisation is now facing: AI adoption. Most rollouts stall, and leaders assume the problem is the technology or the training. It isn't. People resist AI because of how it makes them feel — uncertain, threatened, replaceable — and no amount of polished messaging can fix a feeling.

    Angela will unpack what's really happening beneath that resistance, what communicators can do differently to move people from fear to genuine buy-in, and where the line sits between ethical persuasion and manipulation — because influence this powerful carries real responsibility.

    You'll leave seeing your work differently. Not as a storyteller or content producer, but as the behavioural designer your organisation needs to lead what's next.

    Learning Outcomes

    By attending this session, you will learn:

    1. The Behavioural Science Mindset — Understand, in plain English, how people actually make decisions — and how that knowledge transforms the way you approach communication design, from the messages you craft to the moments you choose to send them.

    2. Why AI Adoption Really Stalls — and What to Do About It — Discover what's actually driving resistance to AI in organisations, why polished messaging alone can't fix it, and how a behavioural design approach can move people from fear to genuine buy-in.

    3. Influence With Integrity — Understand the critical distinction between persuasion and manipulation, and leave with a clear ethical framework for applying behavioural science responsibly — to genuinely help people make better decisions, not to exploit them.

  • We’ll wrap up the last two days and celebrate the learning!

    Don’t forget - if you’re still in Brisbane on Wednesday, 21 October, you can join us for a debrief chat over coffee.