Keynote Insights from OneAdvanced Connect 2026

Welcome & Opening Remarks

Adam Bowles, Country Director, OneAdvanced

Adam opened Connect 2026 with a simple message: the value of the day was not only in the content, but in bringing together people from different sectors to share ideas and learn from one another. With attendees representing government, universities, TAFEs, logistics, manufacturing and the private sector, the focus was firmly on connection and shared insight.

“Some of us can learn something from everyone - and the whole idea is to connect.”  Adam Bowles

Keynote 1: Navigating Global Economic Turbulence

Katrina Ell, Vice President & Senior Economist, Mastercard 

Katrina explored the economic outlook for Australia and New Zealand, highlighting continued pressure from interest rates, inflation and weakening business confidence. While conditions are expected to remain challenging, her key message was one of resilience: businesses, governments and consumers have become increasingly adept at adapting to uncertainty rather than waiting for stability to return.

“We’ve learned to constantly adapt because the new normal is basically chaos.” - Katrina Ell

Katrina also highlighted the extraordinary speed of AI adoption, describing it as unprecedented compared with previous disruptive technologies and already fundamentally changing how people live, work and shop. 

Keynote 2: Unlocking Value Through Suppliers, Data & Decisions

Luke Kenny, CEO, Local Government Procurement

Luke challenged procurement leaders to move beyond simply talking about “value” and instead focus on measurable outcomes - across financial performance, risk, service, sustainability and strategy. He also highlighted the untapped opportunity in supplier relationships, encouraging organisations to segment suppliers, strengthen executive-level engagement and use data to demonstrate procurement’s contribution to the broader organisation.

“I’d rather us think about outcomes, because then you can actually talk about something that’s real.” - Luke Kenny

A key theme was the importance of measurement: procurement teams need to quantify their contribution if they want greater strategic influence and a stronger seat at the decision-making table.

“Quantify your value, because otherwise people make it up for you.” - Luke Kenny

To see how LGP greatly reduces tender time with OneAdvanced, view the case study here.

Keynote 3: AI Governance & Responsible Adoption

Geoffrey Buchanan, Executive General Manager, Tourism Australia

Geoffrey shared Tourism Australia’s practical journey toward responsible AI adoption, built around a clear principle: AI should be treated as a business question, not simply an IT project. Their approach has focused on enabling people to use AI responsibly, embedding valuable use cases into everyday work and continually evolving governance as the technology matures.

“It’s not an IT Project, it should be a business solution focus.” - Geoffrey Buchanan

Responsible adoption remains central to that journey, with governance addressing confidentiality, intellectual property, stakeholder information, misinformation, bias, cybersecurity and the ongoing capability of employees to use AI effectively. 

OneAdvanced has recently launched an AI-Powered Risk Management Platform to strengthen governance & resilience across ANZ, learn more here.

Panel Session: From Data To Decisions: Converting Insight Into Impact

Bringing together leaders from healthcare, higher education, transport and logistics, local government and commercial contracting, the panel explored how organisations are turning operational data into better decisions and measurable outcomes.

Compliance needs to enable, not slow down, the organisation.
Growing regulatory complexity is putting pressure on organisations to rethink traditional, process-heavy approaches to compliance. The opportunity is to use technology, automation and better workflows to maintain control while improving agility.

“Compliance is the goal, but what we want to move towards is compliance being part of delivering real value.” - Sharon Morris, World Commerce & Contracting

Better data is only valuable when it leads to action.
Across sectors, organisations are dealing with fragmented systems, inconsistent data and growing expectations for visibility. The focus is shifting from simply collecting data to using it to identify risk, improve decisions and demonstrate measurable business value.

AI is accelerating change - but the foundations matter.
AI is already helping teams work faster, access knowledge and analyse information, but successful adoption depends on data quality, clear processes, governance, security and workforce capability. As the panel highlighted, automating a broken process simply scales the problem.

“It’s not a tech problem, it’s a people and process problem.” - Sharon Morris, World Commerce & Contracting

The future is about outcomes, not activity.
Organisations are increasingly moving away from measuring tasks and activity toward clear outcomes, transparency and accountability, giving people greater autonomy while maintaining visibility over performance.

“Having that transparency around what they’re wanting to achieve rather than what their task list is saying… has made a big impact.” - Michelle Despas, Local Government Procurement

Learn more on how organisations can connect performance, payroll, and people strategies to build a more motivated and resilient workforce in our webinar here.