The Human in the Loop & Managing Digital Colleagues

Kristine Dery is the Professor of Work, Technology and Innovation, and Associate Dean Curriculum and Learning- Post-experience at Macquarie Business School.

She leads the strategic development and delivery of all post graduate programs for executives with business experience looking to upskill or transition to new roles. These courses include: MBA, GMBA, Master of Applied Finance and a suite of Executive Education open and bespoke programs including micro-credentials. Kristine is also an Academic Research Fellow with MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research (MIT CISR).

Kristine’s current research explores what it takes for large companies to transform their workforce to be relevant in a digital world. Together with colleagues at MIT CISR, Kristine has recently published a framework that helps firms understand the degree to which their workforce is future-ready. Kristine’s previous research has explored the employee experience in the context of Agile Ways of Working, Virtual Connectivity, and also what it takes to attract and retain the Talent with the digital skills to successfully deliver on the challenges of new digital business models. She works closely with research colleagues both at MIT CISR and Macquarie Business School to ensure that her research is integrated into the broader context of digital transformation.

Dom Price is a Work Futurist, team obsessive, and Partner at Be Luminous and someone who has lived the chaos of scaling a business from the inside out. Joining Atlassian as employee #600, Dom stayed for 12 years as their resident Work Futurist, helping grow the company to over 16,000 people globally. That’s not theory – that’s scar tissue.

Dom operates at the intersection of tech and humans, and his mission is simple: upgrade the human operating system of how we work. Because as he’ll tell you, “a fool with a tool is still a fool… you’ve just made them faster.” In a world drunk on AI and the next shiny solution, Dom is the pragmatic voice asking whether your people are actually set up to use it well – driving change that’s sustainable, not just spectacular.

As a keynote speaker, Dom doesn’t trade in polished frameworks or borrowed wisdom. He shares real, lived experience the messy, hard-won kind which is exactly why he’s in demand. Less thought leader, more battle-tested practitioner.

Co-creator of the Atlassian Team Playbook, TED speaker, and advisor to C-suite leaders globally. Dom believes that work and life should be about thriving, not just surviving. A keen traveller and veteran of 53+ countries, he calls Australia home. Manchester made him. The rest? Still very much in progress.

Humbled and honoured – they’re two words Sir John Kirwan (known to most as JK) often uses to describe how he feels about his contribution to a campaign to raise awareness about depression, but they’re also the same words he uses to describe his knighthood. The former All Blacks and 1987 Rugby World Cup winner became a “Sir” in 2012, joining a list that includes other well-known former All Blacks. However, unlike his fellow All Blacks, Kirwan was recognised as much, if not more, for his contribution outside of rugby; for services to Mental Health, having been for several years at the forefront of the campaign to heighten public awareness of depression, an illness he has suffered from himself.

JK’s willingness to share his mental wellbeing story from surviving to thriving has gone a long way to removing the stigma that surrounds mental health here in New Zealand.

This energy and commitment to share his story has led him to create the mental wellbeing platform Groov (formerly Mentemia). Originally developed as a workplace wellbeing app to tackle everyday stress and anxiety in the workplace, a free version of Groov was specially adapted to help Kiwis and Australians through the COVID-19 pandemic, with the support of Kiwibank and Westpac in New Zealand, and AIA Vitality in Australia.

What keeps JK thriving today is found across the Groov platform, along with world class, evidence based tools and techniques from leading clinicians.

Bri Williams is one of Australia’s leading authorities on behavioural influence.

A CPA with a degree in Applied Psychology, Bri founded People Patterns in 2011, a specialist consultancy that helps businesses get staff, customers and stakeholders to take action. Prior to this she worked in finance, HR and product management for some of Australia’s leading brands.

A regular contributor to Smartcompany and host of Talking Talks, Bri has written multiple books including “The Williams Behaviour Book”, “Behavioural Economics for Business” and “The How of Habits” and appears regularly as a presenter, panellist and media commentator.