THE THRIVING WORKPLACE
Thursday 25 September 2025 – Q Station, Manly, NSW
People Leaders. We see you. We hear you.
The workplace is evolving faster than ever, and leaders like YOU are at the forefront – navigating change, driving impact, and showing up for your people every day.
It’s a demanding role, and we know the pressure is real. Tight budgets, heavy workloads, and shifting priorities make it feel like the goalposts keep moving. But amidst all the challenges, there’s also incredible opportunity – to rethink, re-energize, and lead with purpose.
Conversations That Will Shape the Future of Work
Deep transformation. Bold conversations. Real solutions.
This year’s Thriving Workplace Deep Dive Day will go beyond theory and into the real challenges facing today’s leaders. It’s an exclusive, immersive experience where small groups of leaders engage in deep, honest, and action-driven discussions with some of the sharpest minds in workplace culture, wellbeing, leadership, and performance.
This year’s topics include:
Wellbeing That Works: From Programs to Performance
Financial Wellbeing: The Hidden Driver of Workforce Stability
The New Rules of Leadership: Inclusion, Influence & Impact
Beyond Compliance: The Leadership Edge in Psychosocial Safety
The Workplace Advantage: Aligning People, Culture & Place
The Leadership Blind Spot: Bias, Belonging & Decision-Making
Human-centered vision for success
The debate over the potential implications of AI are polarising, and while no-one really knows what the future holds, one thing is certain – AI is not going away.
Organisations are grappling with pressure from Boards and Governments to use AI to significantly boost productivity, and from their employees and customers who want to bring their personal experience of AI into the workplace. Integrating AI is now an imperative for gaining a competitive edge and beyond the hype of the technology there is a critical factor for success – preparing and evolving our human workforce to collaborate effectively with AI.
We’ll explore key considerations for leading a successful AI workforce transformation, including
Human-centered vision for success: What’s the most effective way to articulate a vision for how humans and AI will work together in order to guide the entire organisation through this significant transition with confidence?
Ethical implementation and employee trust: How can we incorporate the ethical considerations of AI in the workplace to ensure fairness, transparency, and build deep-seated trust with our employees?
Redefining roles & reskilling at scale: How do we create effective, large-scale programs for upskilling and reskilling our teams in order to adapt to new capabilities?
Cultivating an AI-Ready Culture: What specific shifts in leadership and organisational culture are needed to foster an environment of continuous learning, experimentation, and successful human-AI collaboration?
Measuring ROI Beyond Automation: What are the new metrics for success? How do we measure the return on investment , moving past simple efficiency measures to consider enhanced innovation, decision-making quality, and employee engagement?
The New Talent Pipeline: How must our talent acquisition and retention strategies evolve to attract and keep the people with the critical skills and adaptive mindset required for an AI-augmented future?
Your Thought Leader: Greg Taylor
More than ever before, we need leaders of change to help navigate the uncertainty that AI brings, and the pace at which we’re encountering the shift. Sharing experiences of what works and what doesn’t, looking ahead and seeing the path as 1000 first steps, are ways to build confidence.
Greg feels privileged to be working in an organisation like Salesforce that believes in being intentional in helping humans and AI work together.
With the cost of living at crisis levels, what is your organisation actually doing to ease the pressure?
Together You’ll Dive Into:
Beyond the Paycheck – Financial wellbeing isn’t just about salary, it’s about reducing stress, increasing confidence, and driving long-term success.
The Hidden Cost of Financial Stress – Understand how money worries impact focus, engagement, and retention – and what leaders can do about it
Moments That Matter – Learn how to integrate financial wellbeing into key employee touchpoints, from onboarding to career progression
More Than Compliance – Discover how financial wellbeing can be a cultural driver, not just another HR initiative
Turning Awareness Into Action – Walk away with practical strategies to boost disposable income, reduce financial strain, and support your people
Real Impact, Real Connection – Learn how to communicate with purpose, build trust, and create programs that genuinely empower your employees
Your Thought Leader: Sandi Sims
Financial Wellbeing, Maxxia
For Sandi, financial wellbeing is all about people – helping them feel secure, valued, and confident in the face of life’s challenges.
She knows that when employees feel supported financially, it transforms not just their work, but their lives. Her superpower lies in blending empathy with expertise, helping organisations build workplaces where financial wellbeing isn’t just a box to tick but a foundation for thriving people and thriving businesses.
For Sandi, it’s not just about delivering results; it’s about unlocking potential, fostering trust, and ensuring employees feel cared for every step of the way.
Reframe neurodivergence as a source of unique strengths, problem-solving skills, and thinking styles
Together You’ll Dive Into:
Shifting Perspectives: Reframe neurodivergence as a source of unique strengths, problem-solving skills, and thinking styles that drive creativity and focus
Spotting Hidden Barriers: Identify how recruitment practices, policies, workplace processes, and leadership behaviours unintentionally disadvantage neurodivergent employees and erode psychological safety
From Awareness to Action: Explore practical ways to redesign hiring, communication practices, and workplace adjustments to foster inclusion, wellbeing and thriving teams
Real-World Impact: Understand the measurable benefits of neuroinclusive leadership: improved retention, innovation, wellbeing, psychological safety, and business performance
Your Roadmap Forward: Leave with actionable insights and practical tools to embed neuroinclusion into recruitment, policies, culture, wellbeing initiatives and leadership practices
Your Thought Leader: Vicky Little
Neuro-Inclusion is more than a workplace policy – it’s about unlocking potential, fostering understanding, and creating environments where everyone can thrive.
A passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion, Vicky brings over 19 years’ experience in autism and neurodiverse employment in Australia and the UK, along with her own lived experience following a late ADHD diagnosis. She has led groundbreaking initiatives, from establishing NSW’s first autism-specific employment service, Aspect Capable, to developing some of the world’s first autism hiring programs with the National Autistic Society in London.
As Chief Operating Officer at Specialisterne, Vicky works with business and government to open alternative recruitment pathways, build capacity, and integrate skilled autistic and neurodivergent individuals into meaningful careers. Her superpower lies in bridging awareness with action – helping employers see the strengths of neurodivergent talent and build truly inclusive workplaces.
For Vicky, this work is personal. She knows that when workplaces embrace neurodiversity, they don’t just change careers – they change lives.
Wondering why your top female talent are leaving? What if quitting isn’t their first choice - but the only one they see?
Menopause is one of the most overlooked yet critical opportunities in DEI and workforce sustainability. Forward-thinking organisations are already taking action, ensuring they retain top talent, support experienced leaders, and build truly inclusive workplaces.
In this bold and eye-opening Deep Dive, Dr. Nic will explore why addressing menopause is a business imperative – not just a wellbeing initiative. For organisations ready to lead the next big workplace revolution, this session provides the insights and strategies to turn menopause awareness into meaningful action—and a true competitive advantage.
Together You’ll Dive Into:
The Silent Talent Drain – How many of your most experienced leaders are leaving because menopause support isn’t on the agenda?
Beyond Wellbeing – A Business Imperative – Why menopause isn’t just a health issue but a critical leadership, retention, and equity challenge
The Stigma Stops Here – Learn how to normalise conversations and remove barriers that keep menopause hidden in the workplace.
From Policy to Practice – Explore what leading organisations are doing right now to support menopausal employees and strengthen leadership pipelines
Simple Shifts, Big Impact – Practical, evidence-based solutions to retain talent, foster inclusion, and create menopause-friendly workplaces
Lead the Change – Why forward-thinking organisations are taking action – and why those who don’t will be left behind
Your Thought Leader: Dr Nicole Avard
Dr. Nicole Avard – Dr. Nic to those who know her – isn’t just a highly respected GP with over 25 years of experience; she’s someone who truly gets it.
With a deep passion for women’s health, she’s spent her career listening, supporting, and finding real solutions for the challenges women face. As Co-Founder and Medical Director of Metluma, she’s leading a movement to provide women with proactive, personalised support through menopause, blending cutting-edge medical insights with a human touch.
Dr. Nic’s warm, approachable style makes complex health topics feel relatable and empowering. Her mission is simple yet profound: to break down barriers, open up conversations, and help workplaces and communities create spaces where women feel supported, understood, and able to thrive.
Life by Design
Gill is a Catalyst for individuals and teams to discover and amplify their strengths and uniqueness. Gill’s own discovery journey prompted the realisation that harnessing our uniqueness, ‘1 in 8 billion’ on the planet is the key to unlocking potential. She has built a Think.Plan.Live.® methodology that re-designs how individual, team and organisational potential is discovered, amplified and harnessed. In this interactive Deep Dive, Gill will guide you on a pathway of curiosity, exploring the foundations of your Life Design and translate how these insights can be scaled into individual career and leadership development, plus scaled into team and organisational ecosystems. Unlocking potential, connection and results.
Together You’ll Dive Into 3 Areas:
Life Design Foundations – We will have the opportunity to explore the ‘Who’ and the ‘With’ part of your own life design, looking at how your Values, Strengths and Sources of Energy can be applied individually and collectively to build confidence, connection and trust, and in the discovery, unlock potential
Building Healthy Team and Organisational Ecosystems – We will explore the synergies between how natures ecosystems are created and ordered and how the same mapping principles of people, interrelationships and environment can be applied at an enterprise and culture level in organisations.
Building a ‘The best of both’ Culture – The healthiest organisational cultures and highest performing teams apply a ‘best of both’ design approach to how they operate. Harnessing and unlocking individual strengths alongside a clear organisational strategy and blueprint for success. In this last part of the session, we will explore a 4-step diagnostic that helps you understand and map your organisation through the ‘best of both’ lens.
Your Thought Leader: Gill McLaren
She went on to create Think.Plan.Live., a globally recognised framework that has since become a book, audiobook, and a powerful life design tool used by individuals and organisations around the world.
As a global speaker, author, and trusted coach, Gill brings warmth, wisdom, and practical insight to every experience. Helping leaders step out of autopilot and design a life and career they genuinely love. For Gill, thriving starts from within. She is passionate about helping others find their way there too.
Where People, Culture & Place Converge: A New Approach to Workplaces
Together You’ll Dive Into:
Breaking Down Silos – Why keeping People & Culture and Property separate is holding organisations back – and how integrating them changes everything
The Workplace as a Living Ecosystem – Discover how physical space, workplace culture, and human connection work together to create thriving environments
Beyond Design – Shaping Behaviour – Explore how workplaces don’t just reflect culture; they actively shape it, influencing collaboration, engagement, and belonging
Meeting Core Human Needs – Connection, purpose, and belonging aren’t ‘nice to have’ – they’re the foundation of a high-performing workplace
Future-Proofing Workplaces – Learn how to design adaptive, people-first workplaces that evolve alongside hybrid and digital-first strategies
A Blueprint for Change – Walk away with practical insights and strategies to create workplaces that attract, engage, and support people for long-term success
Your Thought Leader: Melissa Marsden
At her core, Mel is a curious, empathetic, and visionary. She sees the design of workplaces as a living, breathing organism, the ultimate medium for shaping environments that evolve, adapt, and grow with the people they serve.
With an energy that inspires and a passion for creating transformative spaces, Mel has earned trust and admiration across industries by optimising workplaces and enhancing employee experiences. Driven by a deep desire to see people thrive, Mel understands that when employees feel a sense of community, purpose, connection, and belonging, they bring their best selves to work—and to life.
Her work is rooted in the belief that thriving workplaces are built on more than just physical spaces; they are brought to life through intentional design that fosters shared values, meaningful relationships, and a unified vision.
When was the last time you questioned the story you tell yourself about the people around you?
Leadership begins with self-awareness – and understanding how unconscious bias shapes decisions, relationships, and workplace culture.
In this interactive Deep Dive, Adrienne will guide leaders through a journey of curiosity, connection, and transformation, creating a safe and engaging space to explore bias without judgment. Through immersive activities and open dialogue, you will gain clarity on their impact, fresh perspectives on leadership, and a commitment to positive change.
Together You’ll Dive Into:
From Awareness to Action – Move beyond the concept of unconscious bias to uncover how it truly impacts your leadership and workplace culture
Bias Without the Blame – A safe, engaging space to explore bias without fear or judgment – just curiosity and discovery
How Bias Shapes Decisions – Identify hidden influences that affect hiring, promotions, team dynamics, and everyday interactions
Self-Reflection That Sparks Change – Engage in immersive exercises that challenge assumptions and open up fresh perspectives
Belonging as a Leadership Superpower – Learn how small, intentional shifts can create a more inclusive, connected workplace
Commit to the Shift – Walk away with clarity, personal insights, and real strategies for leading with authenticity and awareness
Your Thought Leader: Adrienne Meakin
Adrienne is a passionate pioneer in creating inclusive, human-centred experiences that inspire connection and belonging.
With her infectious energy, immense heart, and sharp expertise, Adrienne brings a warmth and authenticity that makes her work as engaging as it is transformative. Adrienne helps organisations navigate the complexities of diversity with ease, designing experiences that empower teams to connect meaningfully across cultural and linguistic divides.
Her work fosters equity, understanding, and a shared sense of purpose, enabling individuals and organisations to truly thrive. Adrienne’s ability to blend heart and strategy leaves a lasting impact, creating spaces where everyone feels seen, heard, and valued.
Beyond Psychosocial Safety: Strengthening Performance AND Wellbeing for organisational health
Together You’ll Dive Into:
The Leadership Challenge – Balance the need to build cultures that engage your people and support wellbeing while delivering commercial success in challenging market conditions
Organisational Health – what is true organisational health and what gets in its way?
Beyond Compliance – Psychosocial safety isn’t about ticking boxes; it’s about building culture that drives connection, trust, and performance
The Unseen Barriers – Surfacing underlying workplace dynamics that impact cultural and commercial success
Root Causes, Real Solutions – Understand how leadership behaviours, team dynamics, and workplace culture shape employee experience
Your Leadership Narrative – reset the context for your organisation into one that empowers success
Lead with Clarity & Purpose – Walk away with practical, high-impact strategies to build a safer, stronger, and more engaged workforce
Your Thought Leader: Vanessa Fudge
Vanessa possesses a rare and extraordinary gift: the ability to see what others often can’t. As a registered psychologist specialising in systemic leadership and system dynamics, she has a unique ability to connect the dots beneath the surface, uncovering hidden dynamics that often act as barriers to growth and progress.
Vanessa has been working in the area of organisational culture and leadership development for more than 20 years, yet she still maintains that she is learning and evolving at a rapid pace. Blending a research-oriented approach with an innate intuition we all share, enables Vanessa to illuminate unseen complexities and transform them into clear and actionable pathways for growth.
What sets Vanessa apart is not just her insight but also her warmth and authenticity. She operates with a presence that inspires trust, creating environments where leaders and teams feel genuinely valued, supported, and empowered to thrive. Through her thoughtful and compassionate approach, Vanessa transforms how leaders see themselves, their teams, and their organisations.
Wellbeing Strategy Sprint
It’s time to flip the script on workplace wellbeing. Too many programs still default to yoga classes, fruit trays, or a tick-the-box EAP – nice intentions, but little impact.
In this sprint-style workshop, you’ll roll up your sleeves and build the foundations of a wellbeing strategy that actually works. Guided by Exsona’s award-winning 5D Framework, you’ll move fast, focus on what matters, and leave with a strategy skeleton you can take back to your business.
Together You will:
Discover – Pinpoint your biggest wellbeing challenge and quantify the cost
Develop – Define success with measurable objectives that align to business priorities
Design – Generate initiatives, prioritise them with an impact/effort lens, and focus on what really matters
Deliver – Shape a practical action plan with quick wins and big bets leaders can back.
Data – Decide how you’ll measure success and prove ROI
This isn’t theory. It’s a hands-on sprint designed for senior people leaders who want to move from wellbeing “fluff” to business-critical strategy.
You’ll leave with:
A clear challenge statement
Your Thought Leader: Ryan McGrory
His work goes far beyond fruit bowls and fitness challenges – Ryan helps leaders turn wellbeing into a measurable, business-aligned strategy that actually shifts the dial. If you’re ready to ditch the fluff and lead wellbeing in a way that earns respect, changes behaviour, and drives results – Ryan’s your guy.
Energy is the real currency of work
Every organisation talks about time as a finite resource — we budget it, measure it, and try to make the most of it. But there’s another resource that’s even more precious and far less visible: human energy.
Energy is the real currency of work. When it runs low, productivity, decision-making, innovation, and wellbeing all take a hit. Burnout, disengagement, and even the “grey zone” of languishing are all signals of depleted energy. And unlike time, which ticks on regardless, energy has to be carefully managed, protected, and renewed.
In this session, Emma reframes energy as capacity — our individual limits and reserves that power how we show up in work and life. Drawing on research and contemporary frameworks for understanding energy she will introduce a practical language for understanding that capacity is finite, deeply personal, and critical to sustainable performance.
Participants will leave this Deep Dive with a compelling new way to think about energy, a clearer understanding of their own capacity, and practical strategies to protect the resource that truly powers performance: human energy.
Together You’ll Dive Into:
Understanding Energy as Capacity – recognising that capacity looks different for everyone, and why knowing your own limits is the foundation of resilience
Spotting the Drainers – burnout, languishing, decision fatigue, emotional labour, and digital overload, and how they quietly erode performance and wellbeing
The Ripple Effect – how depleted energy affects both work and home life, and why the two are inseparable
Budgeting and Protecting Energy – shifting perspective to treat energy like money: budgeting, investing, and renewing it with intention
Boundaries as the #1 Strategy – learning how to set, communicate, and protect healthy boundaries in practical, everyday ways. Emma will explore what boundaries really are (not walls, but clear markers of respect and care), why so many of us struggle with them, and how simple shifts can transform our relationships, decision-making, and ability to thrive
Your Thought Leader: Emma Spencer
Drawing on her clinical expertise in trauma, chronic illness, anxiety, ADHD, autism, PMDD, hormonal shifts, and women’s mental health, Emma understands the challenges people are often navigating quietly behind the scenes in our workplaces. This gives her a powerful foundation to translate deep psychological knowledge into practical strategies that resonate with leaders and teams alike.
Known for her insight and warmth, Emma connects effortlessly with people, putting them immediately at ease while helping organisations tackle burnout, stress, and mental health challenges.
At Westfund, We Believe the Future of Business Is Human
We’re thrilled to welcome Westfund Health Insurance as our Corporate Community Partner for the Deep Dive Day. Westfund embodies everything our Thriving Workplace community values: people first, purpose-driven, and committed to building healthier, more resilient workplaces.
Having Tara McCarthy, Westfund’s Chief Brand & Reputation Officer, as our MC is a natural fit. Tara brings warmth and depth to every conversation, and her leadership reflects Westfund’s vision that the future of business is human.
Founded in Lithgow, NSW in 1953 – with roots back to 1881 – Westfund Health Insurance is a proudly Australian, not-for-profit health fund deeply connected to regional communities. Today, we’re more than a health insurer. We’re a purpose-driven organisation with a bold vision: redefining healthcare through community investment, equitable access, and whole-person wellbeing.
With over 135,000 members nationwide, we partner with employers to build healthier, more resilient workplaces – because thriving people drive thriving businesses.
In a world where leaders face complex challenges – talent retention, mental health, cultural transformation, social impact – our member-first philosophy goes beyond policy. It’s about empowering people. We invest in our own teams with the same care we offer our members: nurturing growth, development, and meaningful connection at every level.
Together, let’s lead with empathy, innovate with purpose, and shape a future where wellbeing isn’t a perk – it’s a priority”
Your MC: Tara McCarthy
Possiblist, Westfund
Tara McCarthy is a Leadership and Culture Coach with over 20 years experience in the Insurance, Banking, and Local Government sectors.
She is passionate about empowering individuals to uncover their potential and create new possibilities in their lives and careers.
Tara’s background as a People Leader, Project and Change Manager, and Customer Excellence advocate gives her deep insights into leadership and culture. She is endlessly fascinated by the human experience and dedicated to helping clients understand their thoughts, behaviors, and actions.
Tara brings energy, passion, and curiosity to every interaction, inspiring personal and professional growth.
Patrick Bruneau – HR Executive, Psychologist & Mental Health Practitioner
Patrick Bruneau is both a seasoned HR Executive and a trained Psychologist, with over 15 years experience leading people and culture across Asia and Australia. Currently the Director of Human Resources for Jack Link’s Asia Pacific and a Board Member at Growing Potential Ltd., he combines clinical insight with executive leadership to build resilient, inclusive, and high-performing cultures. A recognised IDE Champion and Mental Health Practitioner, Patrick is known for coaching C-suite leaders through complex change and challenging organisations to embrace the evolving workplace as a catalyst for growth.
He has held senior roles with some of the world’s most recognised brands, including Diageo, FUJIFILM, and Konica Minolta. Alongside these, he has led his own successful practice, P.N.B. Psychological Services, supporting executives and organisations through transformation for more than 15 years.
Session: Calm in the Storm – Reconnecting to Your Inner Strength
As leaders, you’re constantly pouring into others. The demands on your time, energy, and presence can feel endless. This session is your chance to pause, recharge, and remember that everything you need to calm the storm already lives within you.
Through gentle, accessible movement and mindful breathing, Elizabeth will guide you back to your body’s natural state of balance. You’ll leave feeling alive, grounded, and re-energised, not just for the people you lead but for the most important person of all – YOU.
Together in nature, we’ll also reconnect with the reminder that we are part of something bigger than our work, a shared humanity that unites and sustains us all.
08:00 | Let the Conversations Begin…
08:30 | Welcome
08:40 | Meet Your MC – Tara McCarthy, Westfund Health Insurance
09:00 | Thought Leadership Uncovered 1
09:30 | Deep Dive 1 – Diving In
11:00 | Fuel Up
11:30 | Thought Leadership Uncovered 2
12:00 | Deep Dive 2 – Into the Flow
13:30 | Food for Thought
14:30 | Choose Your Pause
- Join Qigong master Simon Blow for a gentle, grounding movement practice
- Buddy up and take a walk through the beautiful National Park
- Take some quiet time to reflect and recharge.
15:30 | Deep Dive 3 – The Final Plunge
17:00 | Thought Leadership Uncovered 3
17:30 | Emerging from the Deep
17:45 | Celebrating Together
19:15 | Farewell for Now
Melanie Evans
CEO, ING
Adam Jadresic
General Manager Health, Safety and Wellbeing, Greencross Pet Wellness Company
Audrey McGibbon
Co Founder, EEK & SENSE
