Melbourne CISO Community
Executive Summit
13 November 2025 | Crown Conference Centre
13 November 2025
Crown Conference Centre
Collaborate with your peers
Get together with Melbourne's top CISOs to tackle shared business challenges and critical priorities facing your role today. Participate in this one-day, local program with peer-driven topics and interactive discussions with your true C-level peers.
Join your peers to discuss the most critical issues impacting CISOs today:
Modernising IT and Security for Agile, Aligned, and Value-Driven Outcomes
Strengthening Cyber Resilience for Sustainable Growth in an Evolving Risk Landscape
Scaling AI and Establishing Value
Melbourne CISO Governing Body
The Governing Body Co-Chairs shape the summit agenda, ensuring that all content is driven By CISOs, For CISOs®.
Governing Body Co-Chairs
Mark Burns
Alfred Health
CISO & Director, Cyber Security
John Ellis
QBE Insurance Group Ltd
Global Head of Security Trust & Influence
What to Expect
Interactive Sessions
Hear from CISO practitioners and thought leaders on how they're solving critical challenges impacting your role today in Keynote sessions, and join smaller, interactive discussions with your peers in Breakout and Boardroom sessions.
Community Networking
Make new connections and catch up with old friends in casual conversations during dedicated time for networking designed to better acquaint you with your Melbourne CISO community.
Peer-to-Peer Meetings
Connect with like-minded peers in a private, one-on-one setting through Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.
Agenda
Keynote Sessions
Leading Digital Transformation in Complex Systems: Lessons from Health
Explore the powerful insights on offer for CIOs and CISOs across industries through the health sector's digital transformation journey with Sharon Hakkennes, Chief Digital Health Officer for Victoria.
Join Sharon as she draws on real-world experience navigating complexity, urgency, and scale to help:
- Unpack how trust, interoperability, and leadership have become the cornerstones of successful digital reform
- Gain a fresh perspective on how to lead transformation in environments where legacy systems, regulatory pressures, and public expectations collide
- Understand how to turn these challenges into strategic advantage
Driving Growth – IT Strategy That Delivers
CIOs and CISOs face competing demands - boards expect both innovation-driven growth and significant cost savings. Must leaders choose one, or is there a path to achieve both? According to Gartner, 53% of IT strategies fall short, but those that succeed align IT investments directly with enterprise priorities.
Join Andy Rowsell-Jones, VP Distinguished Analyst at Gartner, to learn:
- Common pitfalls that disconnect IT strategy from business goals
- How to select IT and security investments that drive enterprise growth
- Ways to build stakeholder support, manage expectations and lead change
Executive Boardroom Session
Unlock Revenue and Control Costs with AI-powered Observability
In today's fast-evolving business environment, IT leaders confront significant challenges: cloud overspending, complex architectures, rapid innovation, security threats, and rising customer expectations. Overcoming these barriers is key to boosting revenue, reducing costs, and improving operational efficiency. How can IT leaders leverage AI-powered observability most effectively?
Join this peer roundtable to discuss how to:
- Evolve from reactive troubleshooting to a proactive, strategic approach
- Democratise access to understanding the behaviour of complex systems using AI
- Improve operational efficiencies using agentic AI workflows
Breakout Session
Driving Enterprise Value with Agentic AI and Cloud
Agentic AI—autonomous systems that proactively execute tasks aligned with enterprise goals—is reshaping how organisations innovate, operate, and protect digital assets. For CIOs and CISOs, the imperative is not just adoption, but secure, scalable integration that delivers measurable value. What strategic approach should tech leaders adopt that leverages cloud environments to augment agentic AI, while balancing innovation with governance, risk, compliance, and cyber resilience?
Join this panel discussion to know more about:
- Buying, building or governing - evaluating commercial solutions for rapid deployment and proven scalability
- Using cloud capabilities as a strategic enabler to deploy agentic AI at scale
- Aligning AI initiatives with business outcomes and risk management
Apply to Participate
Apply to participate in the Melbourne CISO Community Executive Summit.
Gartner facilitates exclusive, C-level communities by personally qualifying and understanding the priorities, challenges and interests of each member.
Our selective approach maintains the high quality of the network and ensures top-level discussions with peers from the world’s leading organizations.
Each application will be reviewed, and once your participation is confirmed, you will have access to year-round community programs.
Location
Venue & Accommodation
Crown Conference CentreYour Community Sponsors
Global Thought Leader
CISO Thought Leader
CIO and CISO Thought Leader
Program Sponsors
Community Program Manager
For inquiries related to this community, please reach out to your dedicated contact.
