Day One - 1 July 2026
8:00 - 9:00
REGISTRATION
9:00 - 9:15
WELCOME TO COUNTRY
Binowee Bayles
9:15 - 9:30
SUMMIT WELCOME
MC – Dan Ilic
9:30 - 10:20
OPENING KEYNOTE
Clarity forged under pressure
Clarity is easy when the path is straight. It’s far harder — and far more meaningful — when the situation feels impossible. Professor Arnold Dix brings this to life like few others. As a tunnel engineer, barrister and scientist who has led teams through some of the world’s most challenging underground disasters, he knows what it takes to make sound decisions when information is limited, emotions are high and the stakes are unmistakably real.
In this opening keynote, Arnold shows how clarity is forged under pressure — through steady communication, earned trust and the discipline to stay focused on what truly matters. It’s a powerful way to open the Summit and set the tone for a year centred on clarity.
Keynote Speaker
Professor Arnold Dix
Moderator
Dan Ilic
10:20 - 11:00
CONNECTION AND CLARITY
Session details coming soon!
11:00 - 11:30
MORNING TEA
11:30 - 12:45
Profit & Purpose
Clarity on cost and outcomes for employment‑focused social enterprises
Speakers
Tara Anderson, CEO (Social Traders)
Rachel Power, Associate Director (Deloitte Access Economics)
Kristen Stevenson, Executive Director Effective Philanthropy (Minderoo Foundation)
Jessica Graham-Franklin, Senior Associate (Paul Ramsay Foundation)
Diana Porta, Finance & Social Impact Manager (The Bread & Butter Foundation)
Social enterprises across Australia are tackling some of the hardest employment challenges. They support people facing complex barriers into paid work that lasts. Yet the real cost of doing this well is still poorly understood.
This session shares emerging insights from new research led by Social Traders and Deloitte Access Economics, with support from the Paul Ramsay Foundation and the Minderoo Foundation. Drawing on data from hundreds of employment‑focused social enterprises, the research offers a clearer picture of what it actually takes to support people into sustained work, where cost shortfalls sit, and how outcomes are being measured across the sector.
The session looks at how shared evidence on costs and outcomes can improve pricing, procurement, investment and policy decisions. And how better measurement can move from a reporting exercise to a practical input into everyday decision‑making.
Attendees will leave with clearer evidence, stronger language and sharper insights to support inclusive employment and help reshape the systems that underpin it.
People & Communities
Youth co-design in action: Lessons from regional Queensland
Speakers
Sara Brown, Social Innovation Program Manager (Central Queensland University)
Steve Williams, Program Manager Social Impact (Central Queensland University)
Jodie Gosel Ågotnes, General Manager Philanthropy (The John Villiers Trust)
Nova Whitmore – Q-SEED Project Youth Participant
This session explores the unique qualities of co-design in regional settings, drawing on the lived experience and shared learning of the Q-SEED project. The process of co-design is incredibly unique to regional contexts.
The panel will unpack how these dynamics shaped the project and led to unexpected breakthroughs—such as new employer partnerships, young people designing their own engagement pathways, and community-led prototypes influencing local systems.
A youth codesigner will speak directly e.g. to how it felt to be trusted with decision-making power, and how this shifted their confidence and sense of belonging in community.
Collective Transformation
Primary Care, ADHD support and psychosocial safety
Speakers
Beth McKenzie, CEO (GPEx)
Leanne March, General Manager – Models of Care (GPEx)
Mardi Webber, Mentally Healthy Workplaces Consultant (ReturntoWorkSA)
How do we build systems that move beyond service delivery to create real pathways for participation, confidence and belonging?
What happens when a young person leaves child health services – but there is no clear pathway into adult care?
This transition can become a cliff edge at the very moment young people step into study, training and work. This session shares the meaningful social impact of designing a transition pathway where none previously existed – connecting young people with ADHD aged 16–18 with a GP to ensure continuity, safety and confidence at a pivotal life stage.
Using this as a case study of system change, we explore a broader insight: healthcare continuity is essential – but not sufficient. Real outcomes are shaped not only by access to care, but by how workplaces are designed and experienced.
Bringing together primary care and workplace perspectives, this session highlights how organisations play a critical role in shaping those outcomes. Through leadership, psychosocial safety, and manager capability, we explore a shift from responding to harm to preventing it – creating workplaces that are designed to support participation, inclusion and wellbeing from the outset.
Participants will gain a powerful, transferable lens: many challenges we see are not service gaps – but pathway gaps – and addressing them is key to meaningful social impact.
GPEx – Bridging the gap between health, safety, wellbeing initiatives from effective frontline access to knowledge.
11:30 - 12:45
IMPACTLAB MASTERCLASS #1
AI Tools for Impact
Speaker
Royden Howie, Director | Head of Advisory (ImpactInstitute)
This session is a practical, hands on masterclass focused on how AI can be used today to support impact strategy, measurement and storytelling, without losing rigour, judgement or human insight.
Together will discuss what AI means for organisations working in human-centred, high-stakes environments, where trust is paramount. We’ll explore:
- What organisations can reasonably do on their own using off-the-shelf AI tools and
- Where more structured tools, systems and specialist support can dramatically accelerate progress
- Advanced applications and tools where the technology is heading
From there, we will work on practical examples, showing how AI can be used in real-world impact work.
If you are already experimenting with AI and want clearer direction, or if you are looking for ways to use AI to accelerate your impact journey, this session will give you grounded insights and practical next steps.
*Note: Small group session with a maximum of 40 participants per session. Booking via event App required.
IMPACTLAB MASTERCLASS #2
Unlocking the S in ESG: Start with Purpose
Speakers
Suzi Young, CEO (Think Impact)
Kailly Hill, Social Impact Lead (SSI)
Dhruv Iyer, Senior Consultant (Think Impact)
As expectations around ESG continue to expand, many for-purpose organisations are finding that the traditional frameworks do not easily align with how they create value.
This workshop, led by SSI and Think Impact, explores how ESG can be reframed as a tool for clarity. Drawing on SSI’s experience developing an ESG strategy grounded in its Social Impact Framework, it examines how organisations can identify what matters most, align this with purpose, and translate it into practical decision-making.
Through a combination of case insight and hands-on application, participants will be introduced to materiality assessment and integrated thinking, with guidance on how to embed these approaches within their own organisations.
*Note: Small group session with a maximum of 40 participants per session. Booking via event App required.
12:45 - 13:45
LUNCH
13:45 - 15:00
Profit & Purpose
How social performance is reshaping corporate strategy
Speakers
Dan Ilic, MC
Aaron Reid, GM Social Sustainability (Ventia)
Tara Anderson, CEO (Social Traders)
Martin Loosemore, Distinguished Professor (UTS)
Suhair Alkilani, Senior Lecturer in Construction Management (UTS)
Expectations around social performance are rising, but how it shapes real strategic decision making inside organisations is still unevenly understood. Many organisations can articulate intent, fewer can explain how social performance holds together across governance, procurement, delivery and reporting when the pressure is on.
This session opens with a demanding real‑world context from the construction sector, using it to explore how social performance gains or loses traction as it moves across an organisation and its supply chain. Drawing on buyer, operating business, delivery partner and system‑level perspectives, it examines the strategic choices, risks and trade‑offs organisations are now navigating as social performance becomes more material to how they operate.
Participants will leave with clearer insight into how social performance influences corporate strategy in practice, stronger language to engage internal stakeholders, and a grounded understanding of what it takes to sustain social performance at scale.
People & Communities
Purpose under pressure: Leading for social cohesion in contested environments
Speaker
Adele Stowe-Lindner, Executive Director (Institute of Community Directors Australia)
Social impact leaders face growing pressure from funders, boards, staff and communities – often with competing expectations and deeply held views. The challenge is to stay true to purpose while working across difference without fracturing relationships.
Led by ICDA, this interactive workshop session explores how to hold strong positions while listening deeply, engage with evidence, and navigate tension with courage and curiosity, making decisions that are both principled and inclusive.
Collective Transformation
The data funders want (and how to use it)
Speakers
Jo Garner, Founder and CEO (Strategic Grants)
Kristi Mansfield, Founder and CEO (Seer Data)
Emily Fuller, Head of Strategy and Operations, Snow Foundation
Tim Taylor, CEO (Assistance Dogs Australia)
This session explores the essential data organisations need to collect and analyse to confidently demonstrate impact and strengthen trust with funding partners. It unpacks how nonprofits can align their evaluation methods with funder expectations while still generating insights that support internal learning and better decision‑making.
Drawing on lived experience from both a major funder and a nonprofit partner, the discussion will highlight how strong, transparent impact evidence shifts relationships from transactional reporting to genuine shared accountability. Speakers will explore how funders are increasingly using data across both grant and investment portfolios, and how organisations can use the data they already have to show alignment with different funders’ goals and giving intentions.
Delegates will also be introduced to practical tools and examples that make it easier to turn raw data into compelling stories, reports and dashboards—while reducing reporting burden and focusing effort where it matters most.
13:15 - 15:00
IMPACTLAB MASTERCLASS #4
A hands-on guide to impact measurement: From purpose to proof
Speaker
*Note: Small group session with a maximum of 40 participants per session. Booking via event App required.
** Note: Participant are asked to check-in at 13:15 – which is half way through the lunch break as this session needs to start at 13:30 sharp.
13:45 - 15:00
IMPACTLAB MASTERCLASS #3
Co-designing with regional communities: Practical tools for impact
Speakers
Sara Brown, Social Innovation Program Manager (Central Queensland University)
Steve Williams, Program Manager Social Impact (Central Queensland University)
This hands-on session will guide participants through tools and methods for authentic co-design in regional or resource limited contexts. Participants will experience practical activities used to engage diverse
stakeholders—from youth with lived experience to local business leaders—focusing on:
• Translating co-design principles into practice in regional settings
• Building equity, safety, and creativity into engagement
• Turning community ideas into actionable, measurable outcomes
*Note: Small group session with a maximum of 40 participants per session. Booking via event App required.
15:00 - 15:30
AFTERNOON TEA
15:30 - 16:45
Profit & Purpose
Creating the conditions for social innovation
Speakers
Paul Thambar, Associate Professor (Monash University)
Melina Morrison, CEO (BCCM)
Gillian McFee, Program Director (BCCM)
Interest in social innovation is growing, but the conditions needed to support it are often fragile or missing altogether. While individual ventures are expected to deliver change, the systems around them are rarely designed to help them succeed.
This session focuses on what enables social innovation in practice. Drawing on the Care Together program as a live case study, it examines how innovation ecosystems are built alongside social ventures, and what this reveals about the roles of intermediaries, government, and community‑led organisations.
Participants will leave with sharper insight into why social innovation stalls, where support structures matter most, and how different actors can contribute to innovation that is viable, not just visionary.
People & Communities
From insight to influence: making impact visible and actionable
Speakers
Theresa Collignon, Group CEO (Macquarie Community College and Gateway Community High)
Simon Vaughan, Head of Delivery (Huber Social)
Paula Cowan, Managing Director (ImpactInstitute)
Clear, credible impact does not emerge from data alone, nor from storytelling in isolation, but from the interplay between the two.
This session explores that dynamic through the Gateway Community High case study. Bringing together perspectives from Macquarie Community College, Huber Social and ImpactInstitute, it examines how impact data is measured, interpreted and translated into narratives that resonate with different audiences.
The discussion highlights how clarity gained through rigorous measurement can shape decision-making, and how effective communication extends the reach and influence of evidence.
Attendees will gain a concise understanding of how to align measurement and storytelling to produce insight that is both robust and meaningful.
Collective Transformation
What happens when we design care differently?
Speakers
Sophie Boyle, Senior Manager, Implementation and Engagement (Healthy North Coast)
Sam Huntley, Implementation and Engagement Manager (Brain and Mind Centre – University of Sydney)
Hayley Oakes, Lived Experience Advocate (Life Without Barriers)
What if we could design mental health care to be clearer, smarter and more effective — instead of simply adding more services to an already strained system? This session explores Right care, first time, where you live program, a nationally recognised approach delivered by the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre. Centred in participatory design, the program used youth lived experience, co-design, system modelling, and shared data to explore the complexity of the health system and develop an tool for community informed and evidence-based decision-making.
Using a powerful regional case example, we’ll show how patterns, trade‑offs and opportunities that usually stay hidden can be identified to inform change. Attendees will leave with practical examples of how communities, services and decision-makers can work together to better understand local challenges, strengthen advocacy, and support more connected, responsive mental health systems.
IMPACTLAB MASTERCLASS #5
Why, when, how – shifting from rhetoric to reality
Speaker
Kathy Hilyard, Co-Founder (Centre for Collective Leadership)
*Note: Small group session with a maximum of 40 participants per session. Booking via event App required.
16:45 - 17:30
MEET THE UNUSUAL SUSPECTS
Speaker
Simon Fenech, Acting CEO (Fruit2Work)
17:30 - 19:00
NETWORKING DRINKS
Day Two - 2 July 2026
8:30 - 8:45
REGISTRATION
WELCOME TO SUMMIT
MC – Dan Ilic
9:00 - 11:00
INTERACTIVE KEYNOTE: SEEING THE WHOLE: CLARITY IN COMPLEX SYSTEMS
Facilitator
Renu Burr, Director (Burr Consulting)
11:00 - 11:30
MORNING TEA
11:30 - 12:45
Profit & Purpose
Impact stacks in practice: from the organisations capital is built for
Speakers
Hanna Ebeling, CEO (Sefa)
Ben Gales, Executive Advisory, Office of Social Impact (QLD Treasury)
Wadzi Katsidzira, Head of Sustainability (Minderoo Foundation)
Katherine Leong, Acting Managing Director (CSnet)
Impact stacks bring together philanthropic, government and private capital – each playing a different role. This session centres on how capital actually lands for impact-led organisations: what makes it usable, what creates friction, and where well-intended structures fall short.
Drawing on perspectives from both funders and organisations, we’ll explore what different types of capital enable, the conditions that make them work, and where expectations diverge.
People & Communities
Community 2050: designing the places we’ll belong
Speakers
Peter Lalor, Head of Strategy and Community Engagement (Beyond Bank)
Luke Achterstraat, CEO (CHIA NSW)
Jo McClellan, Senior Executive Policy and Advocacy (Planning Institute of Australia)
Vanessa Pilla, Co-founder and Impact Strategist (Pathmaker)
Session details coming soon!
Collective Transformation
Building pathways, not programs: A systems approach to youth futures
Speakers
Assmaah Helal, Chief Operating Officer (Creating Chances)
Laurie Michel, Business Development Operations & Partnerships Lead (Creating Chances)
Anamlee Griffin, Senior Manager Youth Employment Partnerships and Governance Lead (Brotherhood of St Laurence)
Youth unemployment persists not for lack of effective programs, but because those programs are expected to resolve challenges that sit beyond their reach in policy, funding and system design.
This session reframes youth employment as a systems question. Combining system-level insight from the Brotherhood of St Laurence with an in-depth case study from Creating Chances, it examines the conditions required for sustained pathways from education into employment, alongside the practical work of building them over time.
Through a facilitated design lab, participants will interrogate where pathways break down, distinguishing between challenges within program control and those that require coordinated, cross-sector response.
Attendees will leave with a more precise understanding of how program practice and system architecture interact, and where meaningful intervention is most likely to produce lasting outcomes.
11:00 - 12:45
IMPACTLAB MASTERCLASS #7
Storytelling for Impact: Telling participant stories
Speaker
Rian Newman, Head of Brand Experience (ImpactInstitute)
Frontline teams are surrounded by powerful moments every day — but turning those moments into respectful, evidence‑aligned stories isn’t easy.
This workshop gives your team a practical way to gather and craft participant stories that honour lived experience, build trust with communities, and help others understand the difference your organisation makes.
*Note: Small group session with a maximum of 40 participants per session. Booking via event App required.
IMPACTLAB MASTERCLASS #8
Co design for all: A four phase framework and toolkit for easy co-design
Speakers
Tracey Johnson, Co-Founder (Co.Design4All)
Natasha Doherty, Co-Founder (Co.Design4All)
This session is a practical, hands-on workshop focused on how co-design methodology can be used today to develop solutions that truly meet community and stakeholder needs, while building genuine buy-in and ownership.
Together we will explore what co-design means for organisations working across health, social care, regional development and major projects – where understanding real needs and shared decision-making are paramount. We’ll discover:
- How to move beyond consultation to genuine co-creation using demographic principles
- The Co.Design4All 4D Framework (Discover, Design, Decide, Debrief) and its 14 stages
- How to engage the right stakeholders and harness collective creativity to solve complex problems
- Real-world examples of integrated care models, community development and place-based solutions
From there, we will work through practical examples, showing how co-design can be applied to your own impact challenges – from scoping the problem through to evaluation and sustainability.
If you are already engaging stakeholders and want a more structured approach, or if you’re looking to move beyond traditional consultation to co-creation, this session will equip you with frameworks, tools and practical next steps to drive meaningful change.
*Note: Small group session with a maximum of 40 participants per session. Booking via event App required.
12:45 - 1:45
LUNCH
13:45 - 15:00
Profit & Purpose
Infrastructure for Impact: how commercial technology is closing the employment gap
Speakers
Janet Broz, Digital Employment and Partnerships Lead (Generation Australia)
Rachel Murphy, Director (Arise Foundation)
Topic and session details coming soon!
People & Communities
Seven keys to social connection in growth areas
Speakers
Bronwen Clark (National Growth Areas Alliance)
Jhermaine Capistrano (City of Whittlesea)
So Pyay Thar (City of Whittlesea)
Local governments are uniquely placed to strengthen social connection and a sense of belonging, particularly in fast growing outer suburban communities where population change, diversity and rapid development can place pressure on social cohesion.
This session brings together two complementary perspectives on the role of local government in building social connection. The first focuses on how councils can deeply understand their communities through high quality, locally driven data and insights. The second explores how local government can take an active role in designing, enabling and measuring social connection in practice.
Attendees will walk away with a grounded understanding of how evidence‑based frameworks can guide meaningful local action and create conditions where social connection can thrive at scale.
Collective Transformation
You can’t pass the buck to the bot: Ethics, judgment, and ownership in the AI era
Speakers
Kara Bombell, Director of Operations (EthicAi)
Simon Brock, Chief Product Officer (EthicAi)
As artificial intelligence becomes more embedded in everyday decision-making, questions of ethics, accountability and trust are becoming increasingly urgent, particularly in complex human-centred systems.
13:45 - 15:00
IMPACTLAB MASTERCLASS #9
Community ownership: Could it unlock growth in your region?
Speakers
IMPACTLAB MASTERCLASS #10
From purpose to proof: A hands-on guide to impact measurement
Speaker
15:00 - 15:30
AFTERNOON TEA
15:30 - 16:30
Profit & Purpose
From intent to endurance: embedding social impact for long-term value
Speakers
Pam Wilson, National Community Manager, Marketing & Community (Scentre Group, owner of Westfield destinations in AU and NZ)
Chad Renando, Co-Founder (Ready Communities)
Geoff Woolcock, National Manager – Research, Training and Advocacy (Edmund Rice Education Australia)
Programs designed to create social impact are often peripheral or short-lived. Few become embedded in the core of a business, shaping how it operates and how it participates in community life.
This session examines Scentre Group’s Westfield Local Heroes program as a distinctive model of corporate-led, place-based impact. Over more than a decade, it has positioned Westfield destinations as platforms for recognising and resourcing community leadership, strengthening local networks and building enduring partnerships.
Drawing on evaluation, organisational insight and lived experience, the session explores how the program has been sustained, what it reveals about the role of business in social impact, and the conditions required for this kind of work to endure.
People & Communities
Are we okay? Australia’s wellbeing check
Speakers
Cressida Gaukroger, Moderator (Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership)
Siobhan Henderson, Head of Social Impact & Strategy Manager (Australian Unity)
Nathan Hawkins, CEO (Many Rivers Microfinance)
Rachel Power, Associate Director (Deloitte Access Economics)
Marketa Reeves, Senior Project Manager (University of Western Australia)
Australia’s wellbeing agenda is entering a more consequential phase, as national frameworks, large-scale datasets and outcomes-based commissioning begin to shape policy, investment and institutional priorities.
This session examines what happens when wellbeing shifts from aspiration to infrastructure. Bringing together perspectives from Australian Unity, Many Rivers and Deloitte Access Economics, it explores how wellbeing is constructed, measured and mobilised across systems; and the implications these choices carry for value, accountability and power.
Attendees will gain a more rigorous understanding of how measurement frameworks influence strategy and evaluation, and how to engage with them in ways that preserve nuance, context and plural definitions of wellbeing.
Collective Transformation
The way we ask: rethinking fundraising in a low-trust era
Speaker
Katherine Raskob, CEO, Fundraising Institute Australasia
Led by Fundraising Institute Australasia, this session explores how fundraising practice both reflects and shapes the broader social contract between organisations and the communities they serve. Drawing on current sector dynamics, it considers how funding models influence behaviour, incentives and collaboration, and what it would take to move beyond transactional approaches toward more durable forms of support.
Attendees will leave with a clearer perspective on how fundraising approaches can strengthen trust, deepen connection and contribute to a more resilient and sustainable social impact ecosystem.
16:30 - 17:15
HINDSIGHT 2020: THE VALUE OF GETTING THINGS WRONG
Speakers
Paula Cowan, Managing Director (ImpactInstitute)
Margot Morton, CEO, (CareZen)