Please note Purpose Program will be subject to change, so check back regularly.
VENUE MAP
Day One - Wednesday 8 November 2023
08:00 ⏤ 09:00📍 Earth Space
REGISTRATION
Arrival and welcome
with Sample Coffee
📍 Yaama Dhiyaan /
Two Good Co
Pre-conference gathering for First Nations attendees, hosted by we are the mainstream
09:00 ⏤ 10:45📍 The Centre Stage
OPENING PLENARY
Welcome to Country
Welcome to Purpose
Shantel Wetherall, MC
Dr Jason Fox, Wizard
We are Warriors
Nooky, Co-founder We are Warriors
Ben Miles, Co-founder We are Warriors
Human nature needs nature
A look at biophilia, our cravings for the natural world, and the business opportunities that lie within this most fundamental part of human nature.
Chris Grant, Co-CEO and Co-Founder, Unyoked
10:45 ⏤ 11:15📍 Earth Space
MORNING TEA
with Two Good Co.
11:15 ⏤ 12:45📍The Centre Stage
Indigenous-Designed Finance, Regenerative Finance
There’s no money on a dead planet, but innovations in finance like ‘venture conversation’, nature-based investing, the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TFND) and indigenous-designed finance may help us find a way through. This group of experts are some of the best in the world to focus in on nature and biodiversity.
Host: Timothy O’Brien, Purpose Made
Paul Girrawah House and Chris Andrew, Waluwin Foundation
Lisa Miller, Founder and CEO, Wedgetail
Sasha Courville, Chief Impact Officer, Bank Australia
📍 The Flow Stage
Mischief Makers, Matriarchs and Missing Perspectives
It's been said that 'well-behaved women seldom make history', but the handful of men who wrote our history books conveniently left most of them out. Whoops!
To rectify this situation, Eliza Reilly is setting out to revive the forgotten stories of the badass Sheilas of Australian history, and the founders of Missing Perspectives (who managed to convince Beyonce to change her song lyrics) are making history of their own.
Eliza Reilly, Author, Sheilas: Badass Women of Australian History
Hannah Diviney and Phoebe Saintilan-Stocks, Missing Perspectives
Host: Natasha Ritz, Purpose Conference
📍 The Corner Stage
Leveraging the media and publishing industries for decarbonisation
What will it really take to get us to net zero, not just in one area of a business, but across entire supply chains and our whole economy?
The media and advertising industries are responsible for a significant amount of invisible emissions, essential to address when exploring the challenges and surprises of a truly decarbonised supply chain.
Alexandra Heaven, Head of ESG, JCDecaux
June Cheung, Head of JAPAC at Scope3
Jonathan Williams, Head of Marketing, Polestar Australia
Sharnee Rawson, Head of Commercial Content, The Guardian Australia
Abigail Thomas, Head of Sustainability and Head of Product Strategy, SBS
📍 The Foyer
Unity Web Launch
Unity Web is a collective legacy artwork made by First Nations weavers from across the country.
Unity Web harnesses the method and medicine of weaving circles globally and throughout time, creating a vital, embodied and organic space for people to connect, learn and share. In the context of Purpose Conference's hard truths, Unity Web is a space for healing.
This is interactive artwork inviting in your contribution and social engagement to enhance the story within the Unity Web. You are invited to follow the prompts surrounding the work.
Missy Gilbert, Artist, Educator & Founder, UnitePlayPerform creator and convenor of Unity Web
Warren Roberts, Founder, Yarn Australia
Tegan Murdock, CEO, Ngumpie Weaving
Amethyst Downing-McLeod, Multidisciplinary Artist
Read more here.
📍 Earth Space
Make a Seed-pod with Airseed
Always on
12:45 - 13:45📍 Earth Space
LUNCH with Two Good Co.
DISCUSSION SESSIONS
For those keen to meet friends and keep the conversation going,
grab your lunch and join these 30 minute lunchtime power sessions from 1:00pm.
📍 The Corner Stage
Should our company exist?
This work raises existential questions for some companies - would the world be better off if we simply didn’t exist?
Discussion led by Louise Laing, General Manager Marketing, Intrepid Travel
Sara King, GM Purpose, Intrepid Travel
📍 The Flow Stage
Making the Symbiocene a Reality
The Symbiocene is a near future where humans live symbiotically with nature and the natural systems that support life, causing no harm to planet earth. You can't be at Purpose 2023 without being in the Symbiocene, it’s our creative theme.
With Environmental
Philosopher Glenn Albrecht
Purpose Creative Director Kate Hurst
Change Maker Andy Marks
📍 The Clearing
Climate Tech Industry Report
Climate Salad’s Mick Liubinskas will take us through this report on Australia’s strong, growing and thriving climate tech industry.
📍 Marque Lawyers
Ask the Experts: climate risk
A Q&A session covering the role business can play in changing the environment they operate in to enable climate action, led by Marque Lawyers team:
Kiera Peacock - litigation and climate law expert, Sunrise Project Board Member
Kim Middleton, commercial renewables partner, NSW Decarb Hub Board Member
Heidi Douglas is the National Director of Solar Citizens
📍The Circle
Putting Circularity into Practise
How to authentically decouple your growth from your carbon emissions. Join a conversational lunch and learn with:
Sasha Titchkosky, Co-founder & CEO of Koskela, to share innovative solutions and practical tools towards adopting circularity,
Laure Legros from WorkforClimate
Jean Darling from Cirque du Soil to discuss circularity in action and the future of the circular economy
13:45 ⏤ 15:00📍 The Centre Stage
No-one Cares About Your Purpose
This session pokes fun at the very heart of Purpose and challenges companies with the notion that to cut through to the mainstream, and ultimately drive change, we need to think outside our filter bubble and speak to those who don’t care as much as we do.
Keynote and host:
Lachie McKernan, CEO, Huckleberry
Panel:
Madeline George, Marketing Director, Arepa
Louise Tran, Head of OzHarvest Ventures
Brooke Roberts, founder, Sharesies
📍 The Flow Stage
Adaptation = opportunity. Planet saving, scalable tech
From the plastic problem to reforestation, we need an army of people working on restorative solutions.
Moderator:
Matt Vitale, Co-founder, Birchal
Vanessa Vongsouthi, Research Founder & Head of Protein Engineering, Samsara Eco
Fionnuala Quin, Seaweed Bioplastic Innovator & founder, Kelpy
Andrew Walker, CEO and Founder, Airseed Technologies
📍 Marque Lawyers
Ask the Experts: Corporate Activism
Does going woke really send you broke? Corporate opinionating - the risks and opportunities with:
Michael Bradley, Managing Partner, Marque Lawyers
Change Maker, Andy Marks
📍 The Corner Stage
How Purpose Shapes our Decisions Workshop
A session designed for senior leaders or intrapreneurs in large companies.
Hosts and facilitators:
Geraldine Chin Moody, Non-Executive Director and Advisor, Founder, One Blue Dot
Gauri van Gulik, Co-founder and Chair, Multitudes Foundation and Executive Coach
Richard Boele, Chief Purpose Officer, KPMG
Nyk Loates, Purpose Practice Lead, KPMG
📍 The Clearing
Happy People, Healthy Business: Why You Need to Look After Your People to Deliver on Purpose
As we move into more enlightened times, the goal of a profitable business isn’t enough. As businesses continue to put purposeful impact at the heart of their work, it’s as important as ever to look inwards as well as outwards. How do you make sure your team is empowered to be their best? What tools, measures and frameworks do we have at our disposal?
Hosted by:
Sarah Nguyen, Head of Product
Brooke Wallington, Customer Success, Streamtime
📍 The Circle
Yarning Circle
This special circle honours the spirit of yarning. If you identify as a First Nations elder, First Nation delegate, or First Nation contributor, we wholeheartedly welcome you to take a seat in the inner circle. For those attending the Purpose conference who are not of Indigenous descent, we extend a unique opportunity for you to actively engage in a session of deep listening, where you can learn and absorb invaluable knowledge about community, transformative care, and healing.
Led by Larissa Minniecon and Raisera McCulloch, we are the mainstream
📍Yaama Dhiyaan
First Nations only
space
15:00 ⏤ 15:3015:30 ⏤ 17:30📍 The Centre Stage
CLOSING PLENARY
The Disinformation Age.
In this session we explore the role of information, narrative and culture-shaping in the midst of uncertain times and take a deep dive on tech ethics in the disinformation age. We’ll explore the fascinating (terrifying?) shift that is taking place from the attention economy to the intimacy economy and the impact of technological shifts on our democracy. When it comes to this topic, there are no easy answers, but we can’t help but ask: what is the role and responsibility of business in attempting to avert a techno-apocalypse?
Host:
Kiera Peacock, Partner, Marque Lawyers
with
Ed Coper, Author, Facts and Other Lies
Lee Schofield, Founder, Future for Now and generative AI expert
Right Story, Wrong Story
Fireside’ Q&A
Ben Hart, Founder and Managing Director Fireside and published, The Story
Dr Tyson Yunkaporta, Senior Research Fellow at Deakin University and founder of the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Lab and author of Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World and Right Story, Wrong Story: Adventures in Indigenous Thinking
Day Two - Thursday 9 November 2023
08:00 ⏤ 9:00📍 The Earth Space
ARRIVAL & COFFEE
📍 The Flow Stage
MORNING WELLBEING
Rest as resistance and living like it matters: the art of achieving more by doing less.
Talk, workshop & guided rest session by Johanna Scott, Make Do Co.
09:00 ⏤ 10:30📍 The Centre Stage
OPENING PLENARY
A New Normal
Though very different, these companies are all pushing the boundaries of what we consider ‘normal’. Through small tweaks that come to be accepted as a new cultural norm, they are creating seismic shifts.
The greatest new normal in 2023 is that purpose-driven business has well and truly gone mainstream, and these presenters will all talk about what it looks like to ride this wave, while continuing to nudge the bar higher and do even better business.
Presentations:
Andy Miller, Co-founder and CEO, Heaps Normal
Brooke Roberts, Co-founder and CEO, Sharesies
Jess Miller, Director, A New Normal Sydney and Finding Infinity
Digby Hall, Climate Adaptation Expert
10:30 — 11:00📍 The Earth Space
MORNING TEA
with Arepa and Two Good Co.
11:00 ⏤ 12:30📍 The Centre Stage
Keynote:
Desiree Fixler, Whistleblower & ESG Expert
Panel:
Whistleblowing, greenwash, governance and ESG integrity in the Australian context with:
Mele-Ane Havea - Co-Chair, B Lab Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, and expert in Next Economy Governance
Kieran Pender - Writer, lawyer, academic and founder of The Whistleblower Project, part of the Democratic Freedoms Unit of the Human Rights Law Centre
Hosted by Michael Bradley, Partner, Marque Lawyers
📍 The Flow Stage
Social Impact Business Model Innovation
The creators of two of Australia’s most famous social impact brands break down how they started and how it’s going, plus - how they think now about the best organisational models and company structures for creating the greatest impact.
Host:
Tamsin Jones,
Head of Programs, Small Giants
Ronni Khan, Founder and CEO, OzHarvest and OzHarvest Ventures
Rob Caslick, Founder, Two Good Co.
📍 The Corner Stage
Breathwork & Brain Food
A session looking at our most important assets at work and play: our noggins. A range of interesting perspectives on brain health, mental wellness, food tech and our minds.
Rory Warnock, Performance & Wellness Coach, Breathwork Guide
Angus Brown, CEO and founder, Ārepa
Professor Andrew Scholey, Chief Scientific Officer, Ārepa
📍 The Clearing
Demystifying Startup Investment
In this intimate session, we meet impact founders and the people who invested in them, to better understand how companies come to raise capital to support their efforts. A journey through the excitement and pitfalls of raising capital.
Hannah Mourney, Investment Associate at Giant Leap
Cat Long, co-founder & CEO, Trace
Garry Williams, Director of Engagement, Tractor Ventures
Jeanette Cheah, CEO and Co-founder, HEX
12:30 — 13:30📍 The Earth Space
Lunch
with Two Good Co
DISCUSSIONS
For those keen to meet friends and keep the conversation going,
grab your lunch and join these lunchtime power sessions from 12:45pm.
📍 The Clearing
Creating Viral Social Impact Moments & Movements
Paull Young takes us through the lessons learned from leading Facebook’s fundraising response to the Australian bushfires in 2020, working at Meta to launch Instagram Stories and initiate a climate team, and leading a digital strategy to take
charity:water’s growth to $100M/year
📍 The Flow Stage
Surfriders & co.
How big brands can use their funds, their platforms and their power to create real impact through small grass roots organisations like Surfrider Foundation.
Steph Curley, Impact and Activism Manager, Ben & Jerry’s
Sean Doherty, Head of Editorial at Patagonia
Drew McPherson, Surfrider Foundation
📍 The Circle
How to Start a Side Hustle
Kaylene Langford, founder of StartUp Creative and Author of ‘How to Start a Side Hustle’ will lead this session breaking down, you guessed it: how to start a side hustle!
📍 Earth Space
Make a Seed-pod with Airseed
📍 Marque Lawyers
Post-panel debrief: whistleblowing
What does whistleblowing look like if done right? Join us to discuss how whistleblowing rights and protections translate into practical real life measures? Led by Marque Lawyers:
Wes Rogers Marque’s workplace partner
Kieran Pender, Human Rights Law Centre’s Whistleblower Project
13:30 ⏤ 15:00📍 The Centre Stage
Scaling Science to Change the World
The next big wave of innovation is tech that responds to the need for completely regenerative and net zero materials, manufacturing and supply chains.
Companies and Governments require the innovation, and as we’ll learn in this session, it’s often those in deep in technical disciplines or research organisations who are answering the call.
Dan Fitzgerald,
Managing Partner, ReGen VC
Dr Toby Parkes (UK),
Founder, Rhizocore
Rupal Ismin, Director, Sydney Knowledge Hub
📍 The Flow Stage
Impact Investing: Deploying Capital for Good
The latest developments in the impact investing landscape including: ethical AI considerations for investors, inclusive investing and systems change investing.
Host:
Vidit Agarwal,
Investment Lead, Ecotone Ventures & Host, The High Flyers Podcast
Alison Fort (UK), CEO Katapult Foundation, systems change and ethical AI expert
Ingrid Albert, Executive Director, Alberts
Judy Anderson-Firth, Group CEO, Euphemia
📍 The Corner Stage
Inside Out: How inner work connects to purpose, community and systemic change
Feeling stuck and deflated? You work hard to see change in the world, to live well, to support others, but you are drained, burnt out or just demotivated? Can’t imagine a different way to work?
This workshop, "Inside-Out", will explore the powerful connection between inner work, community engagement, organisational health and ultimately impact and purpose in the world. With diverse backgrounds in human rights and corporate environments, we'll delve into the role of meaningful self-work in fostering personal and systemic change. Participants will be provided with a framework to embark on their own self-support work
Geraldine Chin Moody, Non-Executive Director and Advisor. Founder, One Blue Dot
Gauri van Gulik, Co-founder and Chair Multitudes Foundation and Executive Coach
📍The Clearing
Reimagining Leadership: It’s Time for a Candid Conversation
It's time for a candid conversation. The leadership that got us into our current challenges will not be the leadership that gets us out.
Join us for an engaging session where four diverse and visionary leaders come together to ask the tough questions and pave the way for us to reimagine a fresh and inclusive future of leadership.
Deb Collins, Wicked Elephants
Larissa Minniecon we are the mainstream.
Mele-Ane Havea - Co-Chair of B Lab Australia & Aotearoa NZ
Garry Williams - Director of Engagement at Tractor Ventures
📍 Marque Lawyers
Ask the experts: greenwashing
Led by Marque Lawyers team:
Hannah Marshall, Marque’s queen of anti-greenwashing, and how to market (legally)
Belle Jing, Marque corporate partner providing insight from an investor and corporate regulator perspective
15:00 ⏤ 15:30📍 The Earth Space
AFTERNOON TEA
with Two Good Co, Ben & Jerry’s
15:30 ⏤ 17:15📍 The Centre Stage
CLOSING PLENARY
Project Zero
Jonathan Williams, Head of Marketing, Polestar
Sophia Hamblin Wang, COO, MCi Carbon
Imagination
There are many things we lose as adults that we have in abundance as children, and one of them is this faith that our imagination is a bridge between now and the future. Imagination and dreaming is an essential practice for everyone wanting to leave the world better than they found it. In this session we explore the role of imagination and new patterns of thought in creating a brighter future.
Roya A. Azadi, Author, How to Be a Creative Thinker
CLOSE
Jason Fox, Wizard
Sally Hill, Founder, Purpose Conference
Kate Hurst, Creative Director,
Shantel Wetherall, MC
17:00 ⏤ 19:00📍The Foyer
Wrap Drinks