Sydney Customer Experience Summit 2027

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

After years of customer experience being championed as a cultural value but funded as a discretionary cost, this opening keynote examines the shift underway as CX leaders build the commercial case that finally earns experience investment a permanent seat at the budget table.

• What's driving the shift in how boards and executives view customer experience investment, and why this moment is different from previous cycles of CX enthusiasm.
• Moving beyond satisfaction scores toward retention, lifetime value, and cost-to-serve metrics that speak the language finance leaders trust.
• What genuinely differentiated experience looks like when every competitor has access to the same AI tools, and how CX leaders prove their work moves the business, not just the survey scores.

As AI-powered service, personalisation, and self-service become table stakes rather than differentiators, this keynote examines where genuine customer experience advantage still exists once the technology itself is no longer a competitive edge.

• Why baseline AI-driven service is rapidly becoming an expectation rather than a differentiator, and what that means for where brands should focus instead.
• Identifying the specific moments in the customer journey where human interaction continues to build loyalty in ways AI hasn't replicated.
• How leading brands are deliberately investing in experience moments that create emotional connection, even where efficiency alone would argue for full automation.

AI is taking on an increasing share of customer interactions, from service to sales to support. This panel brings together CX leaders to discuss where they've deliberately kept humans in the loop, and what's driving those decisions.

• Concrete examples of interaction types where organisations have found AI consistently underperforms human judgment, regardless of technical capability.
• Why poorly designed transitions between AI and human agents remain one of the most common sources of customer frustration, and what's actually fixing it.
• How organisations are building frameworks that weigh AI's efficiency gains against its real impact on trust and loyalty.

After noticing customer satisfaction dropping despite successful AI service deployment, one CX leader discovered the problem wasn't the AI itself but broken handoffs to human agents, and rebuilt the transition to preserve context and eliminate repetition.

• How the team used complaint and satisfaction data to trace declining sentiment back to the handoff moment specifically, rather than assuming the AI itself was underperforming.
• The specific changes made to ensure human agents received full conversation history automatically, so customers never had to repeat themselves.
• How the team tracked the redesign's impact on downstream loyalty and repeat engagement, not just immediate post-interaction ratings.

A hands-on, interactive session working through a real customer experience scenario as a room. Details announced soon.

After customer research revealed growing discomfort with how data-driven personalisation felt, one digital experience leader redesigned data transparency and consent experiences to build trust directly into the product, moving well beyond minimum legal requirements.

• How the team used direct customer feedback to understand specifically which personalisation moments felt helpful versus invasive.
• The specific UX choices made to give customers meaningful control over their data without burying them in settings and consent fatigue.
• How the team demonstrated that customers who engaged with the new transparency features showed measurably higher retention and engagement over time.

After discovering frontline staff were routinely working around a newly deployed AI-assisted service platform rather than using it, one operations leader rebuilt the tool around actual frontline workflows, turning adoption resistance into genuine usage and measurable customer experience improvement.

• How direct observation and frontline feedback revealed the platform had been designed around management reporting needs rather than the realities of a live customer interaction.
• The specific redesign choices made to fit the tool into how frontline staff actually worked, rather than requiring them to adapt to the system's original design.
• How the team tracked genuine tool usage as an early signal of the customer experience improvements that followed.

As customers become more sensitive to how their data fuels increasingly sophisticated personalisation, this panel examines how CX leaders are recalibrating their approach to stay effective without eroding the trust personalisation depends on.

• How organisations are distinguishing between personalisation that feels helpful and what triggers discomfort or backlash.
• How some brands are turning transparency about data use into a trust-building feature rather than a buried disclosure.
• Lessons from organisations that have redesigned personalisation around explicit, well-understood customer consent rather than passive data collection.

Small-group, discussion-based sessions where you'll work through real customer experience challenges with peers in similar roles. Roundtable topics will be announced soon.

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 voucher — as the top scorer takes the crown.

Facing a finance leader who viewed customer experience investment as unquantifiable cost rather than genuine business value, one CX leader built a measurement framework that connected experience improvements directly to retention and revenue, securing sustained budget where satisfaction scores alone had failed to persuade.

• How the team recognised that satisfaction and engagement scores were never going to win the budget argument, and shifted focus to metrics finance already trusted.
• The specific approach used to connect a defined experience improvement to a measurable change in retention or spend, rather than relying on correlation alone.
• How the framework built for one pilot became the standard approach for justifying future experience investment.

As customer experience increasingly depends on frontline employees empowered by, but not replaced by, AI tools, this keynote makes the case that customer experience strategy that ignores employee experience is building on an unstable foundation.

• Evidence connecting frontline employee frustration, tool complexity, and burnout directly to declining customer experience outcomes.
• The difference between AI deployments that empower employees to deliver better service and those that employees experience as surveillance or added complexity.
• How churn among frontline and service staff quietly erodes the consistency and quality of customer experience over time, even when technology investment continues.

With points-based loyalty programs facing growing scepticism amid changing consumer expectations and tighter marketing budgets, this discussion examines whether traditional loyalty mechanics still drive genuine behaviour change or have simply become an expected cost of doing business.

• Honest evidence on whether loyalty program investment is still producing measurable incremental behaviour versus rewarding customers who would have stayed anyway.
• Early results from alternative approaches such as community, experiential rewards, and tiered recognition, and whether they're genuinely outperforming traditional programs.
• How leading organisations are redesigning programs specifically around the customer segments and behaviours most tied to long-term value, rather than broad-based point accumulation.

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

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

After years of customer experience being championed as a cultural value but funded as a discretionary cost, this opening keynote examines the shift underway as CX leaders build the commercial case that finally earns experience investment a permanent seat at the budget table.

• What's driving the shift in how boards and executives view customer experience investment, and why this moment is different from previous cycles of CX enthusiasm.
• Moving beyond satisfaction scores toward retention, lifetime value, and cost-to-serve metrics that speak the language finance leaders trust.
• What genuinely differentiated experience looks like when every competitor has access to the same AI tools, and how CX leaders prove their work moves the business, not just the survey scores.

As AI-powered service, personalisation, and self-service become table stakes rather than differentiators, this keynote examines where genuine customer experience advantage still exists once the technology itself is no longer a competitive edge.

• Why baseline AI-driven service is rapidly becoming an expectation rather than a differentiator, and what that means for where brands should focus instead.
• Identifying the specific moments in the customer journey where human interaction continues to build loyalty in ways AI hasn't replicated.
• How leading brands are deliberately investing in experience moments that create emotional connection, even where efficiency alone would argue for full automation.

AI is taking on an increasing share of customer interactions, from service to sales to support. This panel brings together CX leaders to discuss where they've deliberately kept humans in the loop, and what's driving those decisions.

• Concrete examples of interaction types where organisations have found AI consistently underperforms human judgment, regardless of technical capability.
• Why poorly designed transitions between AI and human agents remain one of the most common sources of customer frustration, and what's actually fixing it.
• How organisations are building frameworks that weigh AI's efficiency gains against its real impact on trust and loyalty.

After noticing customer satisfaction dropping despite successful AI service deployment, one CX leader discovered the problem wasn't the AI itself but broken handoffs to human agents, and rebuilt the transition to preserve context and eliminate repetition.

• How the team used complaint and satisfaction data to trace declining sentiment back to the handoff moment specifically, rather than assuming the AI itself was underperforming.
• The specific changes made to ensure human agents received full conversation history automatically, so customers never had to repeat themselves.
• How the team tracked the redesign's impact on downstream loyalty and repeat engagement, not just immediate post-interaction ratings.

A hands-on, interactive session working through a real customer experience scenario as a room. Details announced soon.

After customer research revealed growing discomfort with how data-driven personalisation felt, one digital experience leader redesigned data transparency and consent experiences to build trust directly into the product, moving well beyond minimum legal requirements.

• How the team used direct customer feedback to understand specifically which personalisation moments felt helpful versus invasive.
• The specific UX choices made to give customers meaningful control over their data without burying them in settings and consent fatigue.
• How the team demonstrated that customers who engaged with the new transparency features showed measurably higher retention and engagement over time.

After discovering frontline staff were routinely working around a newly deployed AI-assisted service platform rather than using it, one operations leader rebuilt the tool around actual frontline workflows, turning adoption resistance into genuine usage and measurable customer experience improvement.

• How direct observation and frontline feedback revealed the platform had been designed around management reporting needs rather than the realities of a live customer interaction.
• The specific redesign choices made to fit the tool into how frontline staff actually worked, rather than requiring them to adapt to the system's original design.
• How the team tracked genuine tool usage as an early signal of the customer experience improvements that followed.

As customers become more sensitive to how their data fuels increasingly sophisticated personalisation, this panel examines how CX leaders are recalibrating their approach to stay effective without eroding the trust personalisation depends on.

• How organisations are distinguishing between personalisation that feels helpful and what triggers discomfort or backlash.
• How some brands are turning transparency about data use into a trust-building feature rather than a buried disclosure.
• Lessons from organisations that have redesigned personalisation around explicit, well-understood customer consent rather than passive data collection.

Small-group, discussion-based sessions where you'll work through real customer experience challenges with peers in similar roles. Roundtable topics will be announced soon.

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 voucher — as the top scorer takes the crown.

Facing a finance leader who viewed customer experience investment as unquantifiable cost rather than genuine business value, one CX leader built a measurement framework that connected experience improvements directly to retention and revenue, securing sustained budget where satisfaction scores alone had failed to persuade.

• How the team recognised that satisfaction and engagement scores were never going to win the budget argument, and shifted focus to metrics finance already trusted.
• The specific approach used to connect a defined experience improvement to a measurable change in retention or spend, rather than relying on correlation alone.
• How the framework built for one pilot became the standard approach for justifying future experience investment.

As customer experience increasingly depends on frontline employees empowered by, but not replaced by, AI tools, this keynote makes the case that customer experience strategy that ignores employee experience is building on an unstable foundation.

• Evidence connecting frontline employee frustration, tool complexity, and burnout directly to declining customer experience outcomes.
• The difference between AI deployments that empower employees to deliver better service and those that employees experience as surveillance or added complexity.
• How churn among frontline and service staff quietly erodes the consistency and quality of customer experience over time, even when technology investment continues.

With points-based loyalty programs facing growing scepticism amid changing consumer expectations and tighter marketing budgets, this discussion examines whether traditional loyalty mechanics still drive genuine behaviour change or have simply become an expected cost of doing business.

• Honest evidence on whether loyalty program investment is still producing measurable incremental behaviour versus rewarding customers who would have stayed anyway.
• Early results from alternative approaches such as community, experiential rewards, and tiered recognition, and whether they're genuinely outperforming traditional programs.
• How leading organisations are redesigning programs specifically around the customer segments and behaviours most tied to long-term value, rather than broad-based point accumulation.

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