Open Summit AI: put AI to work in your business

We bring founders, business owners, operators and senior decision-makers together to examine what AI can do inside a real business. The conversation covers the work behind a deployment: the costs, the people, the systems, the results and the decisions that come next.

Our format is one day, one stage and a shared programme. You hear the same conversations as the people sitting beside you, then continue them through networking and our wider community. You do not need a technical background to take part. Bring the business problem you are trying to solve and the questions you want answered.

Our next Australian stops are Adelaide Town Hall on 29 October 2026 and Brisbane City Hall on 11 November 2026. Our 2027 tour includes New York, Chicago, Dallas, Melbourne and Sydney. Choose your city from the tour below for its programme and booking options.

A programme built around business decisions

AI adoption involves much more than choosing a model. A useful deployment has to fit a workflow, justify its cost and work for the people using it. Our operator format brings those questions into the room through keynotes, practical conversations and panels.

We explore several connected themes. Business and investment discussions consider where AI creates operating value and where resources should go. Enterprise sessions examine the move from experiments into production. AI search and agent commerce explore how customers discover businesses when software agents participate in the buying process. Research and policy perspectives help leaders understand the wider direction of the technology.

These themes have substance behind them. The Sydney 2026 deck collection covers task-based model routing and token economics, an enterprise AI maturity model, and customer discovery in an agent economy. You can explore the speaker decks before deciding which conversation matters most to your team.

The experience and the time commitment

Join us in Adelaide or Brisbane in 2026, with doors opening at 11am, followed by the main programme from noon to 3pm. That is a three-hour stage programme, with an arrival and networking window beforehand. We also have evening activities planned from 5pm, including networking, VIP drinks and an AI Pitch Night; access depends on the activity and ticket arrangements.

For Melbourne and Sydney in 2027, our doors also open at 11am and the programme runs from noon to 3pm. We're still developing our United States programmes and will announce their timings separately.

The one-stage approach gives teams a common starting point. A founder, operations lead and marketing lead can hear the same examples, compare what each means for their role and leave with a shared set of questions. There are no parallel tracks to divide the core programme. Networking adds time to meet other attendees and discuss what was presented.

Find your Open Summit

Choose where to join us. The dates and booking options below are current as of 22 September 2026.

Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Dubai are taking expressions of interest through city updates. Dates, venues and tickets for those cities have not yet been released on the tour board. Joining an updates list keeps you informed; it does not reserve a seat.

People who have shaped the conversation

Our 2026 events brought together research, enterprise technology, entrepreneurship and practical operating experience. Past voices featured in our series include:

• Toby Walsh, Scientia Professor of AI at UNSW and a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, bringing a research perspective on the direction of AI.
• John McGiffin, Co-Founder of Natural Velocity, discussing enterprise adoption and the work involved in turning emerging technology into business value.
• Clayton Cross, CEO and Founder of Ellipsis Mining, connecting investment decisions with the operating systems built around AI.
• Jack Bear, Founder of Norg AI, exploring business visibility, AI search and the way agents find information.
• Georgie Healy, founder of In the Blink of AI and writer of Attention Is All I Need, whose work connects AI, technology culture and the future of work.
• Kate Save, CEO of Be Fit Food and host of the Inspired CEO podcast, bringing a founder's perspective as MC and host.
• Hugh Madden, Founder of Turquoise Bay AI and former Group CEO of BC Technology Group, with experience across financial-market technology and digital assets.
• David Keane, Founder and CEO of SCX AI and previously a leader of Bigtincan, working on sovereign AI infrastructure.

These are voices from our past events. We announce each upcoming line-up separately: Anton van den Hengel joins us in Adelaide, while Jeremy Cabral, Dr Khizer Khaderi and Julian Fayad are announced for Brisbane.

A record you can explore

We filled Melbourne Town Hall on 14 May 2026 and Sydney Town Hall on 23 July 2026 for two sold-out events. Explore our photographs and Sydney event film to see the stage, the people in the room and the conversations around the programme.

Our speaker deck library provides another way to examine the work. Clayton Cross's presentation looks at AI as an operating advantage. John McGiffin's examines the next stage of enterprise adoption. Jack Bear's considers what changes when agents search on a customer's behalf. These are concrete examples of the business questions our series addresses.

Our 2026 audience included people from organisations such as Commonwealth Bank, Qantas, Telstra, Microsoft, AWS and BHP. These organisations were represented in our past audience. Our 2026 partners separately included Norg.ai, SCX.ai, AgiBot, Fishburners, Same Day Printing and School of Hope across different partnership roles.

Come with a question, leave with a next step

To prepare, identify one decision your business needs to make. It might concern an inefficient workflow, the cost of moving a pilot into production, or how customers find your services through AI. Use the talks to test your assumptions and the networking time to ask how others approached similar work.

If you attend with colleagues, agree on the questions you want answered before the event. Afterwards, compare notes and choose an action you can assess against your own costs, constraints and results. The value is in making the discussion relevant to your business.

Once booked, our attendee portal uses your booking email to provide programme information, ticket downloads and attendee networking. For community participation, explore community partnerships. To put forward work with demonstrated outcomes, see the Open Summit AI Awards.

Explore Adelaide or explore Brisbane to plan your next event. For a different city or a partnership conversation, contact us.

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