Jessy is an accomplished facilitator, NLP practitioner and straight-talking HR heavyweight with over 15 years of experience tackling complex workplace challenges.

As Managing Partner at HR Gurus, she leads high-stakes Fair Work conciliations, industrial relations battles, and cultural transformations that actually work.

With a Masters of Commerce (HRM) and a career spanning retail and high-pressure sales environments, Jessy blends operational savvy with pragmatic HR solutions. She’s not about fluff—just real, commercially driven strategies that help businesses thrive.

One of HR Gurus’ first hires in 2010, she now oversees operations and client delivery, ensuring leaders make smart people decisions. When she’s not fixing workplaces, she’s wrangling her three kids—because handling HR chaos and parenting require the same skill set.

Emily is a keynote speaker, author, Founder & Director of HR Gurus with over two decades of experience in the human resources industry.

Emily is a Master NLP communicator and motivational educator, degree qualified (BComm) and she has worked across many industries for large international companies, including The Royal Bank of Scotland, Australia’s icon GM Holden, and giants Wesfarmers and Coles. In 2010, she founded HR Gurus, and since then, she has been helping businesses to humanise HR with her unique, straight-talking and no-fluff approach. This enables her to deliver the message that everyone needs to hear about managing the different generations in the current business environment.

My name is Dr Sumant Badami (or Monty as I am known to most), and I am based in Sydney Australia. I am a professional Anthropologist, and for 25 years I’ve worked at the intersection of brain, behaviour and culture. I use this experience to bring to life profound individual transformation and push forward the boundaries of human performance.

I use a uniquely anthropological approach to help you harness the symbols, structures and practices in your life to make a difference. I don’t get caught up in toxic hyper-positivity,
rather, I cut through the bullshit and I say it like it is.

I am the Founder and CEO of Habitus, a social enterprise that uses anthropology, emotional intelligence and educational psychology to unlock the creative human potential within us all.

I started Habitus because I recognised that organisations were missing a vital strategic edge by failing to understand the untapped potential of a more anthropological approach to business. When I was an academic, I spent most of my research living with a marginalised indigenous group in India, who were slaves until quite recently. It is here that I fully developed my social and ethical foundations and nurtured a deep appreciation for the innovation and resilience of humans all over the world.

In addition to teaching Anthropology at the University of NSW, Macquarie University and the University of Western Sydney, I have taught subjects in the School of Education at the University of Wollongong and the University of Notre Dame.

I support organisations to improve their performance and gain a competitive advantage by embracing our shared humanity and nurturing collaborative and inclusive cultures. Apart from being a passionate educator, I am a celebrant, jazz singer, martial arts instructor, an Honorary Associate at Macquarie University and an officer in the Australian Army Reserves.

I am also a core faculty member at The School of Life in Sydney and co-present a podcast, called “The Meaning Of…”

A serial entrepreneur, investor, and thought leader, Steve is obsessed with helping companies do more with less.

He’s the CEO of corporate innovation consultancy and startup accelerator Collective Campus, author of Time Rich — a book praised by Adam Grant for offering a blueprint to working smarter, author of the viral Harvard Business Review article The Case for the 6-Hour Workday, and host of the popular podcast Future Squared where he interviews the world’s top thinkers on the future of work, innovation, and leadership.

He’s worked with leaders from Fortune 500 companies to high-growth startups — and he’s been on both sides of the table, having scaled companies from the ground up and advised global enterprises on navigating disruption.

Steve’s message will challenge, provoke, divide, and inspire leaders to take bold action before it’s too late.

Michelle didn’t just build a company—she built a community of curious, caring, and kick-ass problem solvers. As the brains, heart, and occasional chaos coordinator behind Engaging.io, she’s obsessed with doing good work with good people and proving that business success and being a decent human aren’t mutually exclusive. She believes in collaboration, pushing boundaries, and that if you’re not having fun, you’re probably doing it wrong.

Engaging.io is officially the third-best place to work in tech, and that’s because of the people, the culture, and the way we work together. As Head of People & Culture, Fraser helps bring balance between performance and wellbeing, ensuring that great work and a great workplace go hand in hand. He believes in collaboration, open conversations, and a culture of trust, where people feel supported, challenged, and empowered to be their best. It’s a team effort, built on shared values, a few terrible jokes, and a commitment to making work something people actually enjoy.

Morag Eyles is the Chief People Officer at WPP APAC, bringing nearly 30 years of experience in HR across professional services, banking and finance, healthcare, and media and advertising. Passionate about the evolving world of work, she is deeply curious about the human condition—how people navigate their careers, make choices, and find meaning in their work. Morag believes that workplaces are shaped by how they are led, and that leaders have a unique opportunity to create environments where people thrive. Known for her engaging and authentic approach, she brings both insight and humour to discussions on workplace dynamics.

Taylor Dee Hawkins is a passionate entrepreneur focused on future-driven leadership, policy innovation, and social impact. A singular purpose drives Taylor’s work: to help leaders move beyond short-term gains and embrace their responsibility to the future.

Her work demonstrates that embedding sustainability and foresight into business practices is an ethical responsibility and essential for long-term competitive advantage and enduring success. She is the Managing Director of Foundations for Tomorrow, a non-profit dedicated to advancing the protection of future generations’ interests in Australia, which recently launched the Australian Parliamentary Group for Future Generations and the Intergenerational Fairness Coalition. Taylor was the only young person invited to speak at the Global Parliamentary Congress due to her significant work in this area. She has also served as an Advisor to the Our Future Agenda initiative of the United Nations Foundation.

An accomplished speaker, Taylor has spoken at international events such as the United Nations COP26 Climate Conference, Stockholm+50, and the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos.Additionally, she is the only young person on the World Economic Forum's Global Foresight Network Advisory Board and the Executive Leadership Team for the Global Network of Institutions for Future Generations.

Taylor's professional background is rooted in years of leadership development experience. She has designed and facilitated enterprise leadership programs to foster future-driven leadership for organisations like CSIRO, Google, Adidas, and Salesforce, for which her work has been nominated for several industry awards. This includes her ongoing collaboration with Leading Initiatives Worldwide and developing programs for the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, such as the Future Generations Leadership Accelerator and the Policy Leader Toolkit.

Taylor’s efforts have earned her recognition through various accolades, including Smart Company’s 30 Under 30, the NSW Young Achiever Awards (finalist), YAIIA’s Young Women to Watch in International Affairs, the MBAus Social Impact Awards, and the NSW Young Australian of the Year Award (finalist). In 2023, she was selected as one of the 12 Kofi Annan Changemakers.

My name is Dr Sumant Badami (or Monty as I am known to most), and I am based in Sydney Australia. I am a professional Anthropologist, and for 25 years I’ve worked at the intersection of brain, behaviour and culture. I use this experience to bring to life profound individual transformation and push forward the boundaries of human performance.

I use a uniquely anthropological approach to help you harness the symbols, structures and practices in your life to make a difference. I don’t get caught up in toxic hyper-positivity,
rather, I cut through the bullshit and I say it like it is.

I am the Founder and CEO of Habitus, a social enterprise that uses anthropology, emotional intelligence and educational psychology to unlock the creative human potential within us all.

I started Habitus because I recognised that organisations were missing a vital strategic edge by failing to understand the untapped potential of a more anthropological approach to business. When I was an academic, I spent most of my research living with a marginalised indigenous group in India, who were slaves until quite recently. It is here that I fully developed my social and ethical foundations and nurtured a deep appreciation for the innovation and resilience of humans all over the world.

In addition to teaching Anthropology at the University of NSW, Macquarie University and the University of Western Sydney, I have taught subjects in the School of Education at the University of Wollongong and the University of Notre Dame.

I support organisations to improve their performance and gain a competitive advantage by embracing our shared humanity and nurturing collaborative and inclusive cultures. Apart from being a passionate educator, I am a celebrant, jazz singer, martial arts instructor, an Honorary Associate at Macquarie University and an officer in the Australian Army Reserves.

I am also a core faculty member at The School of Life in Sydney and co-present a podcast, called “The Meaning Of…”

A serial entrepreneur, investor, and thought leader, Steve is obsessed with helping companies do more with less.

He’s the CEO of corporate innovation consultancy and startup accelerator Collective Campus, author of Time Rich — a book praised by Adam Grant for offering a blueprint to working smarter, author of the viral Harvard Business Review article The Case for the 6-Hour Workday, and host of the popular podcast Future Squared where he interviews the world’s top thinkers on the future of work, innovation, and leadership.

He’s worked with leaders from Fortune 500 companies to high-growth startups — and he’s been on both sides of the table, having scaled companies from the ground up and advised global enterprises on navigating disruption.

Steve’s message will challenge, provoke, divide, and inspire leaders to take bold action before it’s too late.

Kylie Fuller is the founder of Fuller Potential. She has specialised in leadership development and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) for more than 25 years, holding enterprise-wide roles at Lendlease, the Reserve Bank of Australia, Telstra and, most recently, Global Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Macquarie Group.

Lili Wilkinson is the bestselling author of more than twenty books for young people, including A Hunger of Thorns, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and was a CBCA Honour Book. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it. Her latest books are the Bravepaw series and Unhallowed Halls.