Digital Leadership Day Queensland

Settle in, grab a coffee, and meet a few friendly faces before we begin.

A short welcome, plus a few quick tips to help you connect, share, and get real value from the day. We’ll also run a couple of quick polls to see what everyone’s interested in and what people are working on right now.

A short briefing from the Chair to get everyone aligned, comfortable, and ready for a great day of ideas and connection.

Government 3.0 demands a fundamental shift in how public sector leaders think, operate, and collaborate across systems. That shift in thinking is required from government leaders, reframing digital leadership as an enterprise-wide responsibility, not a technology function. This session will equip you with practical perspectives on leading laterally, aligning policy with delivery, and shaping operating models that enable connected, outcomes-driven government

• Advance leadership models that enable whole-of-government decision-making
• Transform siloed structures into connected systems that deliver shared outcomes
• Optimise the role of digital, data, and AI as enablers of policy execution
• Bolster accountability and trust while accelerating responsible innovation

Governments around the world are investing heavily in digital initiatives to improve services, efficiency, and citizen outcomes. Yet many transformation efforts struggle to deliver their intended impact. The difference is rarely technology; it’s leadership, culture, and how people adopt and use new ways of working. This session explores how public sector leaders can unlock the full value of digital transformation by focusing on the human side of change.

• Why many government digital initiatives fail to achieve their full potential
• The leadership behaviours that accelerate digital transformation in the public sector
• How culture, capability, and engagement drive adoption of digital tools and processes
• Practical ways leaders can help teams embrace change and deliver better outcomes for citizens

AI is changing how work gets done — but leading through this shift is as much about people as it is about technology. As public sector teams learn to work alongside AI tools, leaders are being asked to create clarity, confidence, and a sense of purpose amid rapid change. This session unpacks what it takes to build digitally mature organisations — where roles, accountability, and learning keep pace with innovation.

• Leadership for digital maturity - clarifying roles, decisions, and ownership in a tech-driven world
• As leaders, how can we cultivate a leadership style that thrives amidst the complexities of tech team dynamics
• Pathways for reskilling and redeployment in the public sector
• Building literacy and confidence to work alongside AI - leading people, not just technology

Perfect time to swap notes and compare what’s working across teams and sectors.

“Digital government” now means more than online forms and portals. AI and automation are changing how services run day to day, but the biggest gains come when agencies redesign the process around the technology: clarifying decision points, strengthening governance, and creating safe handoffs between people and AI-enabled tools. This discussion explores how public sector leaders can modernise end-to-end service workflows to be smarter and faster, while remaining accountable, auditable, and centred on public value.

• How can leaders redesign service processes to make AI additive, with clear human-in-the-loop steps, escalation paths, and decision rights?
• What governance and risk controls need to be built into redesigned workflows from the start (data quality, privacy, model oversight, auditability, and assurance)?
• In the role of a leader, how do you instil agile thinking to reshape traditional processes within the public sector
• How should leaders approach internal delivery and vendor partnerships so tools can evolve without creating fragmentation, unmanaged risk, or inconsistent decisions across channels?

Productivity is Australia's defining challenge, and AI in regulation is one of the fastest levers Queensland can pull to keep Queenslanders safe and grow the economy. But the barrier isn't the technology—it's the culture. Across Australia, regulators are sitting on new data-sharing powers they haven't yet used, and only a handful are actively applying AI. This session sets out a change management playbook for regulatory reform: how leaders can shift culture, unlock data, and put Queensland's Smart State heritage back to work ahead of the pack.

Our interactive roundtables give you space to swap notes with peers. Hosted by government and industry leaders, they blend lived experience with practical insights. Bring your biggest challenges, wins, and lessons, and leave with ideas you can apply straight away.

Grab lunch, have a wander, and chat with industry partners and peers about practical ideas you can take back to work. Arguably the most important part of the day!

• Evaluating digital and AI investments through a public value lens - moving beyond traditional ROI to include service outcomes, risk reduction, equity, and trust
• Building compelling, future-proof business cases - how to quantify benefits, manage uncertainty, and make the case for iterative, platform-based, and AI-enabled initiatives
• Partnering across strategy, tech, and delivery - strengthening collaboration between finance, digital, and operational leaders to ensure alignment, accountability, and adaptive funding models

As AI and new technologies reshape how governments plan, deliver, and make decisions, leaders must think beyond pilots and tools. The focus needs to be on strategy, structure, and stewardship. This discussion explores how executives can align AI with long-term reform goals, modernise foundations, and make confident choices amid ongoing uncertainty.

We’ll pull out a few highlights from the day, share what’s coming next, and point you to ways to stay connected.