Tue 04 Aug 2026
View event detailsRegistration, Coffee & Hellos
9:30 AM - 10:00 AM (30 mins)
Settle in, grab a coffee, and meet a few friendly faces before we begin.
Opening from Public Sector Network
10:00 AM - 10:10 AM (10 mins)
Welcome & How to Make the Most of Today
10:10 AM - 10:20 AM (10 mins)
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.
Local Government 3.0
10:20 AM - 10:40 AM (20 mins)
Leading Through Growth: Shaping Liverpool’s Future as a Global City
10:40 AM - 11:00 AM (20 mins)
Liverpool is experiencing rapid transformation driven by major infrastructure, population growth, and the development of the Western Sydney Airport and health and education precinct. This keynote will explore how councils can lead confidently through large-scale change while continuing to deliver strong outcomes for their communities.
- How councils can balance rapid growth, infrastructure delivery, and community expectations.
- Strengthening collaboration across government, industry, and community stakeholders to support city development.
- Embedding sustainability and circular economy principles into long-term planning.
Restoring Trust and Transparency in an AI-Driven World - Presented By SmartSheet
11:00 AM - 11:20 AM (20 mins)
As innovations in AI lead organisations into autonomous ways of working, new forms of complexity have surfaced. Councils must enable work orchestration across silos while supporting visibility, trust, and informed decision-making.
AI and Digital Transformation: Opportunities and Challenges
11:20 AM - 11:50 AM (30 mins)
- 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.
Lunch: Wander, Discover, Connect
11:50 AM - 12:35 PM (45 mins)
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!
Interactive Roundtable Discussions
12:35 PM - 1:35 PM (60 mins)
Our interactive roundtables give you space to swap notes with peers. Hosted by 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.
Roundtable 1: Who needs to be in the room? Embedding AI in everyday council work
12:35 PM - 1:35 PM (60 mins)
Most conversations about AI in local government focus on the technology - what to buy, what to pilot, what to scale. This roundtable shifts the focus to the organisational question: who needs to be involved to move AI from isolated pilots into day-to-day practice across council?
Across the sector, there are already examples of AI and automation reducing manual effort and improving responsiveness. But these results rarely depend on the tool alone. They depend on who is leading the work, how responsibility is shared and whether the right mix of teams - from IT and operations to CX, comms and planning - are part of the conversation early enough.
Drawing on experience from working with councils across Australia and New Zealand, John and Georgiana will facilitate a candid, peer-led discussion shaped by the experience in the room. Participants will leave with a clearer view of the roles, ownership and cross-council alignment needed to make AI stick in practice
Roundtable 2: Unlocking Capacity & Revenue: Modernising the Community Experience of Public Assets
12:35 PM - 1:35 PM (60 mins)
For government leaders, "doing more with less" means rethinking traditional community touchpoints. Public venue management is ripe for modernisation, historically bogged down by manual approvals and complex bond reconciliations. This session explores how forward-thinking councils leverage automation to turn public space booking into a seamless digital asset, eliminating up to 80% of admin time, boosting revenue streams, and freeing staff for high-value community projects.
Roundtable 3: AI in Action: Practical Strategies for Smarter, More Efficient Service Delivery
12:35 PM - 1:35 PM (60 mins)
As councils face increasing pressure to deliver better services with limited resources, AI and automation are becoming critical tools for improving operational efficiency and customer outcomes. This interactive roundtable will explore practical use cases, lessons learned, and implementation strategies for streamlining processes, reducing administrative burden, and enhancing community experiences through AI-enabled service delivery. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss common challenges, share insights, and explore how organisations can move from experimentation to scalable impact.
Roundtable 4: Is Your Council Putting the Community at Risk? The Hidden Cost of Not Knowing Who You're Hiring
12:35 PM - 1:35 PM (60 mins)
Local governments employ people who work directly with vulnerable residents, manage sensitive data, and represent the community's trust. But in an era of AI-generated documents and faster hiring cycles, the gap between who someone claims to be and who they actually are is growing, and the consequences of getting it wrong fall squarely on the public.
This roundtable examines the evolving threat landscape, the audit and liability exposure councils face when screening fails, and how risk leaders are elevating hiring integrity from admin task to enterprise risk priority. Walk away with practical strategies to protect your community, your staff, and your council's reputation.
Roundtable 5: The Intelligent Council: Leveraging Secure AI and Automation to Transform Local Government Delivery - Presented By SmartSheet
12:35 PM - 1:35 PM (60 mins)
Local councils face intense pressure to accelerate permitting, manage community grants, and modernise operations. While AI offers incredible opportunities to do more with less, it requires strict security and governance. Join your peers to explore how to securely unite human expertise with AI-powered automation to deliver visible, trusted community outcomes.
The councils we could be: turning technology into better outcomes
1:35 PM - 1:55 PM (20 mins)
Councils have more technology available to them than ever before - and more pressure to make it count. This session explores how local government leaders can cut through complexity, make better decisions about where technology adds real value and move toward building more responsive, capable organisations.
Leading independent technology analyst Peter Carr and Datascape Director John Wiggs, will share an honest and practical perspective on the moment councils are in: the opportunities, the competing demands and the choices that matter most. Grounded in real experience, the conversation will focus on how leaders can set priorities, bring their people with them, and use technology with greater clarity and purpose.
Attendees will leave with a more confident way to think about the decisions ahead - and a stronger sense of what their council could be.
Future-Ready Workforce Models: Addressing Skills Gaps in ICT and Corporate Functions
1:55 PM - 2:15 PM (20 mins)
Redesigning roles, addressing skills gaps and leading organisational change as AI and automation reshape council operations.
Leading Under Pressure: Navigating the Challenges of Modern Local Government
2:15 PM - 2:50 PM (35 mins)
- Managing budget constraints, cost shifting and resource pressures while continuing to deliver essential services and long-term community outcomes
- Balancing rising community expectations with operational realities, navigating reform and exploring opportunities for collaboration across councils and government
- How to lift cyber security from an ICT issue to a whole-of-council governance priority, in line with NSW regulatory requirements and growing public scrutiny
- Strengthening governance, transparency and emerging AI oversight to maintain community trust while supporting innovation and organisational performance
Closing Remarks: What We’re Taking with Us
2:50 PM - 2:55 PM (5 mins)
We’ll pull out a few highlights from the day, share what’s coming next, and point you to ways to stay connected.
Afternoon Tea
2:55 PM - 3:25 PM (30 mins)
