COFFEE AND REGISTRATION

OPENING REMARKS BY CONFERENCE CHAIR

ROSS MONAGHAN
Public Affairs AI Lecturer, Deakin University

From promise to practice: how AI tools are actually being used

• Which regions are leading, and which are lagging, in uptake
• The inevitable next stage: from experiment to infrastructure
• Winners and losers in the AI-driven communications race

KATRIN MAURER
Head of Communications, Google

● In comms/PR, AI drives efficiency vs inconsistency depending on governance foundations (standards, playbooks, content strategy)
● Public-facing AI is a comms channel. If government deploys stakeholder/ user-facing AI assistants or chat interfaces, we assess why comms must be part of the development.

MODERATOR:

ANGELA CLOWRY
Director, Ernst & Young

PANEL MEMBER:

HOLLY BADIOR
Assistant Director, Digital Atlas of Australia Delivery

10:40 NETWORKING BREAK & REFRESHMENTS

● When speed outpaces verification: the crisis-communications dilemma
● Using predictive analytics to get ahead of disaster narratives
● Coordinating multiple agencies without producing chaos
● Balancing urgency with accuracy in public warnings

MODERATOR:

MELANIE GIBBONS
Communications Consultant and Director,
Elm Communications Canberra

PANEL MEMBER:

DEANNA EMMS
Assistant Director of Communications and Publishing, Parliamentary Library

● How to adapt to the relentless change of the next two years
● Determining which resources are of value to help discern future direction
● The new role of trust in building strategies
● Practical uses of AI in current innovative coms

MODERATOR:

WILL GILMOUR
Senior Manager, People Consulting, Ernst & Young

PANEL MEMBERS:

CRAIG THOMLER
Senior Business Analyst & AI Whisperer, Icon Water

JOEL WYSE
Communications Lead, AI Delivery, Department of Finance

Large Language Models and their answers are becoming a critical reputational blind spot, yet existing communication measurement methodologies still haven’t been able to quantify their impact. Join Amrita Sidhu as she unveils the methodology and learnings from Medianet’s pioneering Australian market first research on Generative Citation Analysis; a new service concept designed
to bring the rigour of media analysis to this "black box" and gain a foundational understanding of how to measure an organisation's footprint in this emerging and influential channel. In partnership with some of Australia’s leading brands such as Westpac, Commonwealth Bank, RACV and Victorian Govt,, this research aims to unlock the opportunity to interpretand identify the sources, narratives and sentiment surfaced by GenAI.

Key session takeaways for attendees:

● A framework for the black box: Learn about Medianet’s evolving
methodology for brand measurement and analysis in unpredictable LLM environments.
● Unpacking the influencers of LLM outputs: Discover how we analysed citations informing LLM responses to understand what kinds of content and information has the most influence over a brand’s LLM visibility.
● Take control of your LLM reputation: See how our award winning
framework can help you unpack the levers that your brand reputation and prominence in LLM responses, and that of your competitors - in LLM responses - and that of competitors. Actionable takeaways for the GenAI future: Tips and tricks for Public Affairs and Communication professionals on navigating LLM measurement using Medianet’s methodology.

AMRITA SIDHU
Member Board of Directors, AMEC & MD Medianet

12:30 NETWORKING LUNCH

● How to spot a genuine AI opportunity (and ignore the hype)
● Making integration work in the messy reality of government IT
● Why internal capability beats reliance on external vendors
● Measuring outcomes in more than just ‘likes’ and ‘clicks

CRAIG THOMLER
Senior Business Analyst & AI Whisperer, Icon Water

● Which technologies might endure, and which will fade as fads
● New skill sets public communicators will be forced to acquire
● Private-sector partnerships: necessary but fraught
● Anticipating changes in public expectations and tolerance

AMANDA SHEAT
General Manager, Australia Renewable Energy Agency

● Understanding the role of GEN AI in research and insight generation
● Assessing the pipeline technologies that demonstrating impact
● An exploration of the critical success factors in innovation

PAUL X MCCARTHY
CEO, Research Leader, League of Scholars

15:00 NETWORKING AND REFRESHMENTS

● The danger of eroding human judgement through over-automation
● Where authenticity cannot be convincingly faked
● The limits of machine empathy in public messaging
● Cultural nuance as a final frontier for AI

PIA ANDREWS
Senior Policy Advisor, Innovation and Digital,
UNDP, Bangkok

● AI literacy as a baseline skill, not a specialist niche
● Structuring teams to move at the speed of technology
● Change management without the buzzword bingo
● Setting realistic priorities in an environment of constant novelty

PANEL MEMBERS:

LAURA JIEW
Marketing Communications Manager, Innovations, CSIRO

DEANNA EMMS
Assistant Director of Communications and Publishing,
Parliamentary Library

PAUL X MCCARTHY
CEO, Research Leader, League of Scholars

● The murky trade-offs between speed, accuracy, and fairness
● How to handle machine-made mistakes in the court of public opinion
● Creating frameworks that survive political turnover
● Why the hardest ethical calls will involve grey areas, not clear lines

ROSS MONAGHAN
Public Affairs AI Lecturer, Deakin University

16:30 – 17:30 NETWORKING DRINKS