October 1, 2026
08:30am - 3:30pm
Doltone House Hyde Park

Sydney AI Engineering and Infrastructure Summit 2026

Shape the future of AI and join industry leaders for hands-on sessions and insights on scalable AI systems and high-performance infrastructure.

Sydney AI Engineering and Infrastructure Summit 2026
Join us for the second edition of the AI Engineering and Infrastructure Summit!‍

We're bringing together AI engineers, data scientists, and technology leaders to explore scalable AI systems and high-performance infrastructure.

Discover best practices for deploying AI models at scale, optimising data pipelines for machine learning workloads, and implementing continuous integration and deployment. Dive into Edge AI, discuss ethics in AI engineering, and debate whether cloud or on-prem solutions are best for AI development. Engage in interactive sessions, real-world case studies, panel discussions, and debates to stay ahead of emerging trends in AI engineering.

Key Themes:

  • Building Scalable AI Systems
  • Leveraging AI modernisation to transform applications and systems
  • High-Performance AI Infrastructure
  • Deploying AI Models at Scale
  • Optimising Data Pipelines for ML Workloads
  • Implementing Continuous Integration and Deployment
  • Edge AI
  • Ethics in AI Engineering
  • Cloud vs. On-Prem: What Is Best for AI Development

Register now to secure your place and receive announcements when our full program launches.

Our Speakers

Amit Agarwala

Amit Agarwala

AI Transformation Lead
Matthew Blode

Matthew Blode

AI Engineer
Jenna Nelson

Jenna Nelson

Former Director of Engineering, Reliability Platforms
Rob Buckley

Rob Buckley

Enterprise Architect
Devesh Maheshwari

Devesh Maheshwari

Chief Technology Officer
Guillaume Poulet-Mathis

Guillaume Poulet-Mathis

Senior Director, Software Engineering
Stuart Powell

Stuart Powell

Head of Standards and Industry Advancement
Ashima Pahwa

Ashima Pahwa

Director, Business Analytics & AI
Sathiy Sivasubramaniam

Sathiy Sivasubramaniam

Manager Business Intelligence, Analytics, AI & ML
Ian Harris

Ian Harris

Director Technology Platforms and Practices
Arun Baghel

Arun Baghel

Head of AI Platform
Michael Zhang

Michael Zhang

Principal AI Engineer
Sean Spires

Sean Spires

Senior Solutions Engineer
Aron Marden

Aron Marden

Principal Solutions Consultant
Allan Waddell

Allan Waddell

Founder & Co-CEO
Suganthi Krishnavathi

Suganthi Krishnavathi

Senior Solutions Architect
Deepth Dinesan

Deepth Dinesan

HPC Architect
Avery Speller

Avery Speller

Solutions Engineer
Register Now

Register Now

To receive speaker and program updates and secure your seat!

Agenda

8:30 AM
Registration Opens & Networking Breakfast

Beat the rush and join us early for complimentary barista-made coffee and breakfast.

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9:15 AM
Welcome & Opening Remarks
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9:20 AM
Keynote: From Prototype to Production: What It Takes to Ship AI in Critical Infrastructure

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AI that looks brilliant in a demo often struggles in the real world. In this keynote, I’ll share what a research engineering team learned translating promising AI prototypes into practical organisational capability, and why success depends less on model choice than on delivery discipline, platform thinking, governance, and trust.

  • Why data, workflows, governance, and operating model matter more than most teams realise
  • How to run fast, safe experimentation without undermining reliability or security
  • What organisations need to get right before AI can deliver lasting operational value

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Amit Agarwala
AI Transformation Lead, Metcash
9:40 AM
Keynote: Designing the Systems of Intelligence Behind Enterprise AI

We are in the midst of a Cambrian explosion in AI, with an ever-increasing choice of sophisticated AI models both closed and open source that are available to enterprises.

As a result, the volume of AI workloads are expanding exponentially and enterprise are rushing to incorporate the latest AI capabilities provided by these latest models.

The challenge is that these Enterprises must adopt a structured and methodical approach to their AI infrastructure to ensure success.

In this Keynote, we’ll cover:

  • How Enterprise Architecture has evolved after chatGPT
  • Which AI capabilities you must champion in your enterprise
  • Most importantly, where to place your intelligence?

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Deepth Dinesan
HPC Architect, Sharon AI, Inc
10:10 AM
Panel: Ethical and Responsible AI Engineering

As AI moves into real-world systems, responsibility must be built into the technology itself, not added later. Engineering teams are now expected to design AI that is fair, transparent, and accountable, while still delivering innovation at speed.

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This panel explores how organisations are embedding ethical considerations into AI engineering, from bias mitigation and model transparency to governance and accountability.

  • Identifying and reducing bias in AI systems
  • Improving transparency and explainability in models
  • Embedding accountability and governance into AI development

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Stuart Powell
Head of Standards and Industry Advancement, SwitchDin
Devesh Maheshwari
Chief Technology Officer, Lendi Group
Ashima Pahwa
Director, Business Analytics & AI, JLL
Allan Waddell
Founder & Co-CEO, Kablamo
10:40 AM
How I Solved... Identity for the AI Era: Securing Customers, Employees, and AI Agents

As AI agents take on more autonomous roles, the identity and access patterns built for humans and APIs no longer hold. This session draws on Auth0's real-world experience securing agentic workflows where misconfigured permissions can have serious consequences.

We'll Cover:

  • How Auth0 handles agent authentication and authorisation in real-world agentic workflows
  • How to maintain full audit trails and enforce least-privilege access for autonomous systems
  • Why standards-based identity makes it easier to ship AI features without security trade-offs
Sean Spires
Senior Solutions Engineer, Auth0
10:55 AM
Morning Tea and Networking
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11:25 AM
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 Solved: Governing AI at Scale Without Slowing Engineering Down

Most AI governance slows teams down because it treats every project the same. This session shares a simple framework for sorting AI initiatives by risk and autonomy, so low-risk work moves fast, and only the initiatives that need scrutiny get it.

We'll cover:

  • Not every AI use case needs the same level of oversight. Governance should scale with risk and autonomy, not apply uniformly.
  • A simple routing framework (based on autonomy, data sensitivity, error cost, and system integration) can cut decision time without cutting rigor.
  • Good governance is a speed enabler, not a blocker. The goal is fewer bottlenecks, not fewer controls.
Rob Buckley
Enterprise Architect, Lion
11:55 AM
How I Solved... Securing Software at AI Speed

AI is changing how software is built, with more code being created faster and at greater scale. AppSec needs to keep up without simply creating more alerts for security and development teams to manage.
This session looks at how Checkmarx Fusion, Triage & Remediation can help teams find risk more accurately, fix vulnerabilities faster and maintain control as AI becomes part of software development.

We’ll cover:

  • Capture — Find the risks that matter. Combine security engines and AI to improve vulnerability detection without sacrificing accuracy.
  • Eliminate — Get from finding to fix faster. Prioritise real risks and reduce the manual work involved in remediation.
  • Govern — Keep control as AI scales. Maintain visibility, policy and human oversight as AI becomes embedded in development.
Avery Speller
Solutions Engineer, Checkmarx
12:10 PM
Panel: AI Observability and Reliability: How Do You Know Your AI Is Actually Working?

AI systems don’t fail like traditional software. They degrade, drift, and behave unpredictably, making them harder to monitor and harder to trust. Traditional observability tools weren’t designed for probabilistic systems, leaving teams without a clear way to measure reliability in production.

This panel explores how engineering teams are building observability into AI systems, from tracking model behaviour and drift to monitoring end-to-end workflows across multi-model and agent-based environments.

    • What “reliability” actually means for AI systems in production
    • How teams are extending observability beyond logs, metrics, and traces
    • Monitoring model drift, hallucinations, and unexpected behaviour
    • Observability across multi-model and agentic systems
  • Jenna Nelson
    Former Director of Engineering, Reliability Platforms, Canva
    Guillaume Poulet-Mathis
    Senior Director, Software Engineering, Resmed
    Aron Marden
    Principal Solutions Consultant, New Relic
    Michael Zhang
    Principal AI Engineer, MYOB
    12:40 PM
    Roundtable Discussions

    Select a topic of discussion and engage in an interactive roundtable discussion with a group of your like-minded peers.

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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
    How I Solved... Shipping Internal Apps and Agents Safely Without Slowing Teams Down

    AI tools have made it easy for teams to prototype internal apps and agents, but taking them into production often creates a governance gap: fragmented accounts, unclear ownership and unmanaged access to company systems.

    This talk explores how organisations can give builders a fast path from prototype to production without compromising security or control.

    Suganthi Krishnavathi
    Senior Solutions Architect, Vercel
    2:55 PM
    Beyond the Hype: What the Data Says About AI in Software Engineering

    AI can help engineers write code faster, but does that actually lead to better software? This session looks at the evidence behind AI in software engineering, how teams can measure its real impact, and what changes when AI-generated code moves into production.

    Key Takeaways:

    • Measure the real impact. Understand whether AI is actually improving engineering performance.
    • Focus on outcomes, not more code. Faster development only matters if it leads to better software.
    • Get AI-generated code ready for production. Put the right testing, reviews and guardrails in place before it goes live.
    Matthew Blode
    AI Engineer, Linktree
    3:15 PM
    Think Tank : The AI Infrastructure Dilemma: Scale, Cost, or Control. What Do You Optimise For?

    A lively session on how organisations are navigating the growing pressure on AI infrastructure. From GPU shortages and rising cloud costs to sustainability targets and performance demands, engineering leaders are being forced to make trade-offs with no clear right answer.

    This interactive think tank puts the question 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.

    • What is your biggest constraint in scaling AI today?
    • Where should most AI workloads run long-term?
    • If AI infrastructure costs doubled, what would you prioritise?
    • Where do you see the biggest hidden cost in AI infrastructure?
    • What will matter most in AI infrastructure decisions over the next 3 years?

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    Sathiy Sivasubramaniam
    Manager Business Intelligence, Analytics, AI & ML, Sydney Water
    Ian Harris
    Director Technology Platforms and Practices, Nine
    Arun Baghel
    Head of AI Platform, Creditor Watch
    Suganthi Krishnavathi
    Senior Solutions Architect, Vercel
    3:25 PM
    Networking Drinks Hour

    Unwind with your peers for a couple of drinks on us!

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    4:30 PM
    Event Closed
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    Our event sponsors

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

    Past Speaker Highlights

    Devesh Maheshwari

    Chief Technology Officer, Lendi Group

    Kurt Brissett

    Chief Digital and Information Officer, Built

    Kanishka Mohaia

    VP of Engineering, Sonder

    Krishnan Subramanian

    Chapter Lead, AI & ML, Commonwealth Bank

    Henry Huang

    Head of IT - Digital Services Delivery & Operations, ubank

    Dominick Ng

    Director of Engineering, Relevance AI

    Past Sponsors

    Event Location

    Doltone House Hyde Park

    3/181 Elizabeth St, Sydney NSW 2000
    Sydney AI Engineering and Infrastructure Summit 2026

    About Clutch

    Hyper-Niche Content

    Our conferences are specific to niche sub-sets of the technology industry, drilling down into the biggest issues, challenges and market trends facing tomorrow's leaders.

    Collaboration first

    Enjoy ample networking opportunities, roundtable discussions, interactive group sessions and real-world case-studies that arm attendees with actionable insights.

    Dynamic & Bite-Size formats

    No more death-by-PowerPoint. Our events are short, sharp and collaborative with a variety of session formats and a 3/4 day commitment to ensure returns on your time investment.

    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
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