February 18, 2026
8:30am - 3:30pm
Collins Square Events Centre

Melbourne Enterprise AI and Automation Summit 2026

Join us at the Melbourne Enterprise AI and Automation Summit! Unlock how leading organisations are using AI and automation to streamline operations, accelerate decision-making, and drive innovation. Connect with industry leaders through hands-on sessions and expert discussions on practical strategies for scaling AI in the enterprise.

Melbourne Enterprise AI and Automation Summit 2026
Explore the future of enterprise AI and automation.

We’re bringing together CIOs, CTOs, transformation leaders, and operations executives to examine how AI and automation are reshaping business models, processes, and decision-making. From scaling intelligent workflows to embedding AI into core systems, this summit is designed to give leaders the practical strategies they need to deliver measurable outcomes.

Discover best practices for aligning AI initiatives with business goals, automating at scale without losing agility, and ensuring governance and trust in enterprise deployments. Engage in interactive sessions, real-world case studies, panel discussions, and debates to stay ahead of the trends driving enterprise adoption.

Key Themes:

  • The Future of Enterprise AI and Automation
  • Scaling Intelligent Workflows Across the Organisation
  • AI for Faster, Smarter Decision-Making
  • Governance, Risk, and Responsible AI Practices
  • Automating Finance, HR, and Core Business Functions
  • Data and Infrastructure for AI at Scale
  • Balancing Efficiency Gains with Workforce Transformation

Our Speakers

Steve Morris

Steve Morris

Head of Emerging Tech & AI, Product & Tech
Steve Stojanovski

Steve Stojanovski

GM AI Enablement and Operational Excellence
Meghan O'Sullivan

Meghan O'Sullivan

Head of Future Skills and Workforce
Andrew Scott

Andrew Scott

GM Tech Strategy, Research and Incubator, SEO
Samrat Seal

Samrat Seal

Head of Transformation and Governance | Cyber and AI
Hamish Morgan

Hamish Morgan

Head of Data and AI Governance
Cameron Larkin

Cameron Larkin

Head of Talent Acquisition and Future Workforce
Nea Dhillon

Nea Dhillon

Director, AI Technology & Delivery
Fernando Mourão

Fernando Mourão

Head of Responsible AI
Professor Abbi Sharma

Professor Abbi Sharma

Professor and Industry Chief Information Officer
Gabbie Hepworth

Gabbie Hepworth

Data Ethics and AI Governance Lead
Himanshi Juneja

Himanshi Juneja

Senior Data, Analytics & AI Manager
Kavitha Dhanraj

Kavitha Dhanraj

ex-Chief Data Officer
Leon Yin

Leon Yin

Workforce Strategy and Transformation Leader
Joao Almeida

Joao Almeida

General Manager and Sales Director
Michael Lang

Michael Lang

Solutions Architecture Manager, Asia Pacific South
Peter Swart

Peter Swart

Regional Director
Shahin Namin

Shahin Namin

Head of Artificial Intelligence, Technology
Prakash Palani

Prakash Palani

Founder & CEO
Ben Damon

Ben Damon

Enterprise Account Executive

Agenda

8:30 AM
Registration, Breakfast and Barista Coffee

Get in early avoid the queue hot coffee and fresh made barista coffee.

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9:15 AM
Welcome & Opening Remarks
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9:20 AM
Opening Keynote Presentation: The Path to Production: nbn's Adoption of AI Innovation
  • How nbn uses an internal technology exploration and development team to scale innovation
  • How GenAI was rolled-out company-wide and is now being expanded to support agents
  • How a low-latency data processing pipeline is making our network more reliable
Andrew Scott
GM Tech Strategy, Research and Incubator, SEO, nbn
9:40 AM
AI Factories: When Infrastructure Becomes a Business Engine

As AI workloads move into production, infrastructure stops being a backend concern and becomes a core business driver. This keynote breaks down how AI factories unify data, compute, networking and software into a single high-utilisation platform and why utilisation, not raw capacity, now determines cost, speed and scale. 

We'll Cover:

  • What an AI factory actually is, and how it differs from traditional AI infrastructure stacks
  • How improving fabric utilisation and GPU efficiency increases token throughput while lowering unit cost
  • Why predictable scaling turns infrastructure decisions into commercial and operational advantages

Joao Almeida
General Manager and Sales Director, XENON Systems
Michael Lang
Solutions Architecture Manager, Asia Pacific South, NVIDIA
10:10 AM
Panel Discussion: Governing AI at Scale: Moving Fast Without Breaking Trust

This panel brings together enterprise leaders governing AI at scale to share what’s working when the pressure is to ship fast. We’ll unpack the guardrails that enable speed, the controls that actually reduce risk, and the governance overhead that teams are cutting because it slows delivery without improving outcomes.

We'll Cover:

  • Governance that keeps pace with deployment speed
  • How leaders balance competitive pressure with risk and accountability
  • Getting tech, risk, legal and business aligned on “responsible” in practice
  • Where governance adds value vs where it becomes overhead

Samrat Seal
Head of Transformation and Governance | Cyber and AI, Kmart Group
Hamish Morgan
Head of Data and AI Governance, Treasury Wine Estates
Fernando Mourão
Head of Responsible AI, SEEK
Gabbie Hepworth
Data Ethics and AI Governance Lead, Medibank
Peter Swart
Regional Director, OutSystems
10:40 AM
How I Solved Cross-Functional Automation Across Multiple Platforms Without Breaking Core Systems

Automation across finance, operations, and product teams often promises speed but delivers fragile workflows, duplicated logic, and unexpected failures when core systems change. In this session, BCS will share how to tackle cross-functional automation at scale, connecting multiple platforms without creating tight coupling, hidden dependencies, or operational risk.Prakash will unpack the practical decisions that made the difference, including where automation should stop, how ownership boundaries were defined, and the guardrails that allowed teams to move independently while protecting critical systems.

  • Why cross-platform automation breaks when ownership and failure paths are unclear
  • Practical design patterns for automating across teams without central bottlenecks
  • How the right guardrails improve reliability, speed, and long-term maintainability

Prakash Palani
Founder & CEO, BCS
10:55 AM
Morning Tea and Networking
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11:20 AM
Interactive Audience Activity

In this innovative session, attendees will be faced with a series of scenarios that they may face in their roles. Attendees will discuss the possible courses of action with their peers to consider the ramifications of each option before logging their own course of action.

Results will be tallied and analysed by our session facilitator and results will impact the way the group moves through the activity.

Will we collectively choose the right course of action?

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11:40 AM
How I... Built AI Literacy as a Core Organisational Capability

AI is no longer a specialist topic, it’s a leadership, culture and execution capability. In this session, Abbi draws on his experience leading large-scale transformations to show how organisations can lift AI literacy across boards, executives and frontline teams. He’ll unpack how clearer understanding of the AI stack, data foundations and risk landscape enables faster, safer and more strategic adoption that actually delivers measurable value.

  • Why AI literacy must sit across the whole organisation, not just in IT or data teams.
  • Practical levers to build AI capability: architecture, data readiness, governance and skills.
  • How improved AI literacy turns hype into disciplined execution, risk-aware decisions and sustainable ROI.

Professor Abbi Sharma
Professor and Industry Chief Information Officer, Monash University
11:55 AM
How I Solve Cross-Channel Automation With Real-Time Data

Cross-channel automation often breaks down when data arrives late, signals are inconsistent, or systems respond out of sequence. In this session, Braze will share how to use real-time data triggers to synchronise actions across digital channels and internal systems, creating faster, more coordinated customer and operational workflows without increasing complexity or risk.Ben will walk through the decisions that mattered most, including which signals were trusted, how timing and ordering were handled, and where automation needed human or system guardrails to prevent unintended outcomes.

  • Why batch-based automation fails in real-time customer and operational journeys
  • How to design event-driven triggers that stay reliable across channels
  • Where real-time automation adds value, and where it creates hidden risk

Ben Damon
Enterprise Account Executive, Braze
12:10 PM
Panel Discussion: Is Your AI Program Hitting the Mark?

This panel brings together leaders responsible for implementing AI programs to discuss how organisations assess whether their AI strategy is delivering on expectations once solutions move beyond pilots. The discussion will focus on how teams measure adoption, productivity, and innovation impact, and how these signals inform decisions around scaling, refining, or adjusting AI initiatives.

We'll Cover:

  • How organisations measure AI adoption and usage in practice
  • Approaches to tracking productivity and efficiency gains across teams and workflows
  • How leaders assess whether AI investments are supporting innovation and business outcomes
  • The considerations used to decide when to continue, scale, or adjust AI programs

Nea Dhillon
Director, AI Technology & Delivery, Victoria University
Himanshi Juneja
Senior Data, Analytics & AI Manager, CBRE
Steve Stojanovski
GM AI Enablement and Operational Excellence, MYOB
Steve Morris
Head of Emerging Tech & AI, Product & Tech, Telstra
Shahin Namin
Head of Artificial Intelligence, Technology, DiUS
12:40 PM
Roundtable Discussions
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1:30 PM
Lunch and Networking
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2:20 PM
QuickFire Quiz: Test Your Knowledge Against Your Peers

Put your knowledge to the test in this fast-paced quiz covering real-world trivia, key concepts, and emerging trends. Compete for bragging rights—and a travel voucher—as the top scorer takes the crown.

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2:35 PM
Keynote Presentation: Building AI-Ready Data Foundations

AI initiatives succeed or fail on the quality of their data. This session explores how organisations are preparing their data environments to support enterprise-scale AI  ensuring information is trustworthy, accessible, and structured for learning. You’ll hear practical strategies for transforming fragmented data pipelines into reliable, high-performance foundations that turn AI experiments into operational success.

We'll cover:

  • Assess Readiness: Learn how to evaluate whether your data is fit for AI adoption.
  • Build Trust: Discover governance, quality, and accessibility practices that scale.
  • Deliver Value: See how mature data foundations accelerate measurable AI outcomes.
Kavitha Dhanraj
ex-Chief Data Officer
2:55 PM
Think Tank: The Future Enterprise Workforce: How AI Changes Roles, Teams, and Skills

AI is beginning to influence how teams operate, how work is coordinated, and how roles evolve across the enterprise. But there’s still little agreement on what this means in practice, from where AI assistants fit into daily workflows, to how management layers, team structures, and training approaches may change.

This interactive session puts these questions directly to the audience. Participants vote live on a series of real-world scenarios, explore the results together, and vote again as perspectives shift through the discussion.

We'll Cover:

  • How AI assistants are starting to support individual roles
  • How team structures and management practices may evolve
  • Which skills and training pathways become more critical
  • Early lessons from organisations experimenting with AI in daily work

Leon Yin
Workforce Strategy and Transformation Leader
Cameron Larkin
Head of Talent Acquisition and Future Workforce, Leidos
Meghan O'Sullivan
Head of Future Skills and Workforce, NAB
3:25 PM
Closing Remarks
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Past Speaker Highlights

Leonardo Borges

Senior Director Engineering AI and Digital, Optus

Daniel Palmer

Co-Founder, Relevance AI

Kavitha Dhanraj

Former Chief Data Officer, EBOS Group

Fahad Najeeb

Head of Data Engineering APAC, Bupa

AJ Missaghi

Chief Technology Officer - Healthcare & Life Sciences (APJ), Dell Technologies

Kerry Halupka

Head of Machine Learning (Teams & Education), Canva

Abbi Sharma

Professor and Industry Chief Information Officer, Monash University

Who Attends?

Head of AI

Head of ML

Head of AI Engineering

Head of Cloud

Head of Data

Head of Infrastructure

Chief Technology Officer

Chief Data Officer

Head of Digital Transformation

Head of DevOps

Application Development Director

Software Architect

Cloud Architecture Manager

Site Reliability Engineering Manager

Head of Platform

Head of Engineering

Man in gray blazer holding a laptop and talking to another man wearing a black jacket with a conference badge, surrounded by other attendees with badges at an indoor event.Audience seated in a conference room watching a speaker present slides about winning fantastic prizes on large screens.Crowd of people networking indoors at a conference or event with informational booths in the background.Audience attentively listening to a speaker in a conference room with round tables and water pitchers.

Attendee Testimonials

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Our event sponsors

For sponsorship opportunities, please get in touch with Danny Perry, danny@clutchgroup.co

Past Sponsors

Event Location

Collins Square Events Centre

Level 5, Tower 2/727 Collins St, Docklands VIC 3008
Melbourne Enterprise AI and Automation Summit 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

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Get In Touch

Contact our event team for any enquiry

Danny Perry

Director of Sales
For sponsorship opportunities.
danny@clutchgroup.co

Lili Munar

Director of Client Relations
For guest and attendee enquiries.
lilibeth@clutchgroup.co

Steph Tolmie

Director of Conference Production
For speaking opportunities & content enquiries.
stephanie@clutchevents.co

Taylor Stanyon

Director of Operations
For event-related enquiries.
taylor@clutchgroup.co