Voices from the stage.

Chris Picton is South Australia’s Minister for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Economy and Minister for State Development. His responsibilities span industry, investment, innovation, science and the information economy. He represents Kaurna in the South Australian Parliament and previously served as Minister for Health and Wellbeing.

One of the world’s leading voices on AI, and a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. On where AI is actually heading, and what it means for Australian business.

CEO and Founder of Ellipsis Mining. Bridges the gap between capital and operators building with AI. Investor, advisor and operator across technology, venture capital and emerging industries. Created over $400 million in value through AI innovation in mining and exploration in 2025.

Founder & CEO of Be Fit Food and Telstra Victorian Business Award winner. Dietitian-turned-entrepreneur scaling a health business with data and AI.

Founder of Norg.ai, the AI visibility platform helping businesses get found by AI search engines. On building the infrastructure for how businesses appear in the age of AI answers, not links.

Anton van den Hengel is a Co-Founder of Metacognition. He is a Professor at the University of Adelaide and the founding Director of the Australian Institute for Machine Learning, and his work spans computer vision and machine learning and their application in industry.

Dr. Khizer Khaderi founded Stanford’s Human Perception Lab. A Stanford HAI faculty affiliate, his work spans AI, spatial computing and human performance. He has advised Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, the NBA and the International Olympic Committee.

Jeremy Cabral is co-founder and former COO of Finder, and co-founder of AI Search Leaders. He helps business leaders master LLMs and GEO, build autonomous AI workflows, and turn agentic commerce into practical business growth.

Julian Fayad is the Founder and CEO of LoanOptions.ai, the AI-powered Australian fintech he bootstrapped in 2020 to make applying for a loan as easy as checking out online. A self-taught developer and former finance broker of more than a decade, Julian has grown the business into a Deloitte Tech Fast 50 company. He also hosts the Lost & Founders podcast.

David Hoang works on AI and ecosystem at Atlassian. He joins a panel at Open Summit AI New York.

Lucio Ribeiro leads artificial intelligence and innovation at Omnicom. He works with brands on how AI is changing the way people search, discover and decide, and on what that means for the businesses behind them.

Richard Welch represents North-Eastern Metropolitan in Victoria’s Legislative Council and is Shadow Minister for AI and the Digital Economy. His background spans financial services, international technology projects and entrepreneurship. He developed patented motion-tracking technology using sensors and neural networks before entering Parliament in 2024.

Georgie hosts In the Blink of AI and writes Attention Is All I Need. A former engineer, she previously launched and led Google’s AI First Accelerator. Her work explores AI, the future of work and technology culture.

CEO, international keynote speaker, and AI strategist helping organisations turn emerging technologies into real business value. Co-Founder of Natural Velocity, building an ecosystem that enables practical, responsible AI adoption across enterprises, startups, and researchers.