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

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 welcome, plus a few quick tips to help you connect, share, and get real value from the day.

What makes a place truly liveable—and how can councils deliver measurable improvements over time? This keynote introduces a proven Liveability Framework developed through years of on-the-ground application, including its contribution to the City of Vincent being recognised among Australia’s most liveable communities. Moving beyond trends and buzzwords, the session offers a clear, adaptable approach that councils of any size can apply to drive meaningful, community-centred outcomes across the short, medium and long term.

Key Takeaways

• Applying a Liveability Framework in Practice: How to assess, prioritise and implement initiatives that deliver tangible improvements across community, place and services
• Balancing Short, Medium and Long-Term Outcomes: Structuring initiatives to achieve quick wins while building sustained, strategic impact
• Designing for What Communities Value Most: Aligning planning, investment and service delivery with the real drivers of liveability to enhance resident satisfaction and place appeal

• How human centred design, anchored by technology, can deliver results
• Embedding AI to optimise processes, experiences and outcomes
• Adopting new mindsets and behaviours to transform services and organisation brand

• How AI and digital tools can enhance operational efficiency, creativity, and service delivery in councils.
• The impact of technological innovation on workforce culture, engagement, and upskilling.
• Key risks and strategies for managing cybersecurity, compliance, and change during digital transformation

Every system replacement, automation project and service redesign changes how work gets done. Under WA's WHS regulations, that change is a hazard in its own right, with a duty to manage it. It is not an HR matter, and a communications plan is not a control measure.

This session examines where the duty actually lands: with the people configuring the system, and above them with officers who cannot delegate it. It looks at what eighteen months of dual running does to role clarity and workload, why transformation programs are almost never recorded as a safety risk, and what can be done about it while a system is still being built rather than after go-live. 

Key Takeaways:

• Identifying the Hazard Inside a Systems Project
• How configuration, cutover and dual-running decisions generate role ambiguity, workload spikes and loss of control, and where those effects surface
• Controlling Psychosocial Risk at the Design Stage: Practical measures that reduce risk while the system is still being configured, rather than managing the consequences after implementation
• Meeting Officer Due Diligence Obligations: What a chief executive or director should be able to answer about a transformation program already underway, and what WA's regulations require of them  

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!

Replacing core business systems is never just a technology project. For councils, it's about improving services and processes while making sure your team can continue delivering for the community throughout the change.

In this conversation with Datacom's Datascape Director John Wiggs talks with the Shire of Augusta Margaret River, the Shire's team share their experience of modernising council systems while keeping a lean team moving together: what drove it, how they put people before the project, and the lessons from choosing progress over perfection.

A practical conversation about balancing technology, people and day-to-day operations. You'll leave with insight into planning and delivering a modernisation programme, useful for any team taking on their own journey or improving council services.

• Strengthening financial sustainability, long-term planning and asset management
• Lifting governance, risk and compliance frameworks to meet growing expectations around transparency, audit and accountability.
• Driving organisational efficiency through better processes, procurement, and workforce management while maintaining service quality.

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