Meet our Session Speakers
Kristin Boag | APSC
Social Learning at Scale: How the Australian Public Service is transforming leadership and management development at all levels using cohort-based social technology powered by technology
Kristin Boag is a senior learning and development leader with more than 15 years’ experience in the Australian Public Service (APS), specialising in system-wide capability development and contemporary L&D practice. As Director of Leadership and Graduate Development at the APS Academy, she leads some of the Academy’s flagship development programs, including the APS Graduate Development Program, Leadership Edge and Management Edge.
Her work focuses on designing and delivering social learning at scale, using human-centred, practitioner-led and technology-enabled approaches to uplift leadership and management capability across the APS workforce.
Before joining the Australian Public Service Commission, Kristin was Director of Learning and Performance at Austrade, where she supported a globally dispersed and culturally diverse workforce and experimented with new delivery models that informed her current practice.
Kristin holds a Bachelor of Science (Agriculture/Economics) from the University of Sydney and an MBA from the Paris Graduate School of Management.
Talan Miller | Belbin Australia
Teams and Team Roles in the Age of AI
Talan Miller is the founder and Managing Director of Sabre Corporate Development and the Australian Distributor and Subject Matter expert for The Belbin Model.
He has been using the Belbin Model and others with corporate, government, defence, education and NGO clients since 1989. He has worked with leaders and teams from factory floor to C Suite level world-wide, is recognised as an expert in this field and has spoken to audiences as small as 3 and as large as 1500. He has been an expert speaker at Belbin's Global Conferences in Cambridge and for numerous corporate and government clients on topics related to team and leadership development, L&D, experiential learning and adapting team behaviours to the age of AI.
His first business was formed after experience as a young army officer, and he has since grown and developed it into many exciting market sectors in Australia and overseas.
Chelsea Cheney | AAS
Cassandra Grant | CSIRO
Facilitating Learning Through Co-Production: Reflections From Facilitator and Learner in the STEM-INSIGHTS Capability Enhancer Initiative
Chelsea Cheney: Chelsea Cheney is the Engagement and Evaluation Manager within the Australian Academy of Science Education team. With a background in not-for-profit leadership, stakeholder engagement and strategy, she supports the development and continuous improvement of the Academy’s evidence-based science and mathematics education programs. Chelsea leads work that connects program design with on-the-ground teacher experience, ensuring resources remain practical, research-aligned and responsive to classroom realities. A values-driven leader, she is recognised for building trusted relationships and fostering high-performing, customer-centred teams that strengthen STEM education across Australia.
Cassandra Grant:
Cassandra Grant is the Evaluation Capability Advisor within the Impact and Evaluation team at CSIRO Education and Outreach. She is an experienced evaluation professional with a background in capability strengthening in Australian and international settings. Cassandra specialises in designing fit-for-purpose evaluation frameworks, building evaluative cultures within organisations, and translating complex data into actionable insights for evidence-based decision making.
Through the STEM-INSIGHTS Capability Enhancer initiative, Cassandra works closely with collaborating organisations to strengthen their capability in accessing, understanding and using evidence, as well as co-develop sharable tools for effective use and generation of evidence.
Gergana David | Big Bloom
Unlocking Collective Intelligence: An Immersive Workshop in Creative Problem Solving
Gergana David is a Collective Intelligence Coach, facilitator, and Asia-Pacific Lead for Big Bloom, a global initiative that helps organisations strengthen innovation capability and learning agility through immersive, collaborative workshops.
Before moving into the learning and innovation space, Gergana spent over a decade in senior leadership roles in London at CNN and Cartoon Network (Warner Bros. Discovery), where she led commercial and strategy teams across Europe. This corporate experience underpins her practical understanding of how culture, collaboration, and capability intersect to drive performance.
At Big Bloom, Gergana designs and facilitates action-based learning experiences that blend Design Thinking, creative problem-solving, and leadership development to help teams co-create actionable solutions to real-world challenges. Her programs build the skills that future-ready L&D professionals need - creativity, collaboration, and systems thinking - while demonstrating the power of facilitation to unlock collective intelligence.
Her work spans corporate innovation, L&D capability building, and social impact challenges with non-profits across the Asia-Pacific region. Gergana brings a strategic mindset, cross-cultural fluency, and passion for purposeful learning to every engagement, helping organisations harness the collective intelligence of their people to drive creativity, engagement, and measurable impact.
Michelle Holden | CIT
Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) VET Blueprint Project - ‘Build a Future Ready Workforce’
Michelle Holden is an accomplished professional in the field of Learning and Development, HR, and Vocational Education and Training (VET) teaching. She has graduate and postgraduate degrees in Adult Education, Management, and Human Resources, and has led strategic workforce initiatives focusing on leadership, compliance, digital skills, and human skills for various government organisations. She has been instrumental over the 18-months at CIT in designing and implementing workforce capability initiatives to upskill staff workforce skills. Through her leadership, Michelle continues to contribute to the advancement of CIT’s workforce transformation agenda through the design and deliver of workforce capability initiatives aligned to the CIT VET Blueprint project.
Sue Borhan | Cater Care
Capability at Scale: How to Build High-Impact Learning for Frontline, Operational and Dispersed Workforces
Sue Borhan is General Manager, People & Talent Capability at Cater Care Australia, leading enterprise-wide capability, learning, talent, First Nations strategy, and workforce experience across a national workforce of more than 2,800 employees. With a career spanning over 25 years, Sue has delivered capability and culture transformation in some of Australia’s most complex and operationally challenging environments — including NSW Police, BGIS, DEIT, global hospitality, aged care, mining villages, and frontline services.
Known for elevating Learning & Development from a transactional function to a strategic lever, Sue has built enterprise capability functions from the ground up, introduced multi-tier leadership systems, and delivered large-scale uplift in operational and dispersed workforces. She is the architect of Cater Care’s flagship EDGE Leadership Program and the national Chefs’ Culinary Masterclass Series, both delivering measurable impact, behavioural change, and cultural uplift.
Sue is recognised for her ability to partner with executives, COOs, and frontline leaders to deliver learning that is practical, human, and aligned to organisational strategy. Her leadership is grounded in care, authenticity, and commercial insight, with a strong commitment to building capability in sectors where learning is often hardest to reach. She regularly contributes to industry conversations through mentoring, speaking, and thought leadership.
Dr Maria Montesano | Department of Defence
10x Capability: Amplifying Skills, Accelerating Growth, and Staying Agile in Complex Organisations
Dr. Maria Montesano, PhD in Human Resources Management and published author, is an expert in learning strategy and capability acceleration with 20+ years’ experience. She has led L&D initiatives for Defence and higher education and has led international capability development programs. Maria is passionate about transforming research into practical solutions to amplify skills, accelerate growth, and build agile, high-performance organisations.
Kathleen Gaynor | OD Consulting
Strategic Capability Mapping: Embedding Leadership and Technical Frameworks for Organisational Impact
Kathleen Gaynor is an experienced Organisational Development professional with over 20 years’ experience supporting enterprise-wide and business unit-level change.
She has worked with organisations of all sizes across Australia and internationally, spanning industries including professional services, post-graduate education, legal, not-for-profit, government, and financial services.
Kathleen brings deep expertise in capability mapping, executive coaching, leadership development, facilitation, organisational culture, diversity & inclusion, leadership and culture diagnostics and workforce learning and development.
She holds a Bachelor of Business (Management and Psychology), along with qualifications in Instructional Design, Agile, and Coaching. Kathleen is accredited in a range of leadership and culture diagnostics including Hogan, the Leadership Circle Profile, Barrett Values, Korn Ferry Learning Agility and EQ-i.
Kathleen is passionate about aligning capability frameworks with business strategy and embedding them across the employee lifecycle to drive meaningful organisational impact.
James Foulds | Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
High-Impact Learning Video: Evidence-Based Strategies for Engagement
James is a multimedia communication professional with a specialisation in digital production. He has a decade of multimedia production experience across film, television, Government, and Defence. He currently works as the Video Learning & Communications Manager for the Diplomatic Academy within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Amanda Behre | Dear Thrive
Francesca Dove | elan hr
Is 'Just-in-Time' the future of work? Why L&D have the opportunity to lead the next workforce shift
Amanda Behre: Amanda Behre is an experienced executive leader with almost 20 years’ experience across a diversity of categories from travel and tourism, ecommerce, disability and digital marketplaces. She has led teams for brands such as Gumtree, Wotif, Hireup and Qantas Holidays based in USA and Australia. She has partnered with L&D and HR professionals to develop programs spanning employee experience, leadership, diversity, productivity and change management.
Amanda is also an accredited coach, growth advisor, Non Executive Director supporting brands from BIG4 Holiday Parks to Flexischools and is now Founder of Dear Thrive, a platform connecting working professionals to a network of expert advisory and coaching support. Amanda has been a previous speaker and panellist across events from Mumbrella to The Customer Show. Connect with Amanda at linkedin.com/in/amandabehre.
Francesca Dove: Founder of elan hr, Francesca Dove, is a People & Culture senior leader with deep experience in organisational development, change, leadership and culture across Australia, New Zealand and the UK. I've worked in FMCG, financial services, infrastructure, property, professional services and as an independent HR consultant and interim Head of HR in SME, mid cap and ASX listed businesses.
I’ve supported local and global businesses to make better decisions about how they structure, lead and support their teams. My background as an HR generalist spans business strategy, leadership coaching, performance and reward, employee relations, L&D and performance and capability strategy.
I’m skilled at cutting through complexity, building trust quickly and turning business pressure into clear, practical people decisions - including guiding executives through restructures, realignments, terminations, culture rebuilds and phases of scale.
Through elan hr, I partner with organisations that are growing, changing or experiencing friction, working with founders and senior leaders to align leadership, reset culture and org structures so they can make smart, simple, long-term decisions about their people.
Dr Natalie Francis | Department of Defence
Building AI Literacy Through Practice: How L&D Teams Can Learn by Doing
Dr Natalie Francis is an experienced executive working at the intersection of Defence capability, organisational psychology and applied AI. As Executive Director People for the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group, she leads workforce capability uplift aligned with the National Defence Strategy, supporting a diverse workforce of public servants, contractors and ADF personnel. Natalie has previously established the strategic workforce planning and analytics functions and held senior roles in global HR technology companies including IBM Watson AI Talent and Fuel50, where she led APAC operations.
A published researcher and former organisational psychologist with the Defence and Systems Institute, her PhD examined creativity, innovation and complex systems in engineering workforces. She has presented nationally and internationally on the future of work, cognitive computing and culture change in technology adoption, and is Co-Chair of the Defence Gender Advisory Committee
Gabrielle Harris | Interchange
Behind the Curtain: Diagnosing the Hidden Dynamics that Make or Break Capability and Organisational Change
Gabrielle Harris is a practitioner with 22 years’ experience in learning, culture and strategy, supporting organisations across the spectrum—from ASX20 companies to not-for-profits—to lift performance and deliver meaningful, system-wide change.
She has led more than 30 organisational transformations spanning capability development, leadership effectiveness, customer experience, engagement, safety and cultural renewal. Her work integrates creative methodology with rigorous organisational theory, enabling leaders and teams to accelerate learning, navigate complexity and deliver strategic outcomes with clarity and confidence.
Gabrielle holds a Master of Science in Organisational Change (DUX) from INSEAD and is currently a PhD candidate focused on decoding organisational systems and leadership dynamics to better understand how capability, behaviour and performance shift at scale.
A dynamic and sought-after presenter, Gabrielle works closely with boards, executive teams and leaders at all levels to enhance decision-making, build adaptive cultures and strengthen organisational capability. Her research into unconscious group dynamics and social defences offers a fresh, practical lens for L&D professionals seeking to create learning environments that are agile, human-centred and fit for the future.
Kestrel Stone | Elemental Projects
Beyond ‘Learning in the Flow’: Designing Work as the Engine of Learning
Kestrel Stone is the CEO of Elemental Projects, a Registered Training Organisation specialising in project and program management across sectors including infrastructure, defence, government, health, environment, and social outcomes.
With more than two decades of experience in project management, capability uplift, and organisational change, she is recognised for designing learning that integrates seamlessly with real work, building both performance and culture.
Kestrel is a Board Member of the Global Alliance for the Project Professions (GAPPS), a Fellow of the International Project Managment Association (Australia), and Industry Partner of the John Grill Institute for Project Leadership at the University of Sydney, where she lectured in the Master of Project Management for six years.
She is also the founder and host of The Artful Argument, a monthly forum that brings together senior leaders from government, industry, and academia to explore complex challenges in project delivery and leadership.
Her work blends contemporary research with practical application, focusing on individual and organisational project management capabiltiy uplift.
Leah Asensio | Hammondcare
Coaching at the Core: Transforming Learning in High-Turnover Care Environment
Leah Asensio is the General Manager Learning at HammondCare, where she leads strategic learning initiatives With over 20 years in aged care, Leah brings deep expertise in education, quality, and regulatory compliance. Prior to her current role at HammondCare, she served as Manager of Learning Delivery, ensuring training excellence across care settings, including a focus on coaching, and mentoring in practice and the delivery of mandatory and accredited training. Earlier in her career, Leah worked for 15 years for the aged care regulator, specialising in quality and education and was a registered quality assessor for 13 years. She played a pivotal role during the COVID-19 response as a Quality and Compliance Manager for a large not for profit aged care provider and led a team of quality specialists to support continuous improvement across the residential care homes. Leah is passionate about relationship-based learning, driving a culture of continuous learning across the organisation, with the aim of ensuring quality care for older people in aged care settings.
Simone Ainsworth | ABC
The Solo L&D Lead: Building Capability Without a Team
Simone Ainsworth, a long-time ABC tech-nerd turned Learning Lead for the broadcast technology team, has spent the past three years navigating the highs and the hurdles of solo L&D leadership.
After delivering a winning hands-on technical training program in 2024, Simone realised that without structured processes, the model and results couldn't be repeated or scaled.
With a few false starts and many lessons learned, she’s ready to share practical insights on what works—and what doesn’t—when building L&D capability without a team.
Sally Foley-Lewis | Sally Foley-Lewis
Clarity in the Middle: How Middle Managers Resolve Role Ambiguity and Lead with Confidence
Sally Foley-Lewis works with mid-level leaders equipping them to be confident, capable and courageous. She gets results. With a leadership development career spanning more than 20 years, she has seen the middle from every angle: reported to the middle; worked in the middle; and as a CEO led the middle. She walks the talk!
She is a global award-winning motivational speaker, Hall of Fame educator, 6 x Author, and in-demand mentor. The drive to support and skill mid-level leaders comes from her own leadership experiences. Sally delivers keynote presentations and deep development programs to skill managers, boost productivity and amplify results. Her burger framework is fun and functional and her presentation is perfect right before lunch (burgers, anyone?)!
Sally has worked with over twenty thousand managers and leaders from medium sized to global organisations in Germany, Middle East, Asia, North America and across Australia. Name an industry and she’s helped mid-levels leaders shine in that industry, from early childhood education to finance, FMCG and heavy industry, to government agencies. Her extensive qualifications; wicked sense of humour, and ability to engage and inspire while making people feel at ease makes her your first choice for your developing your management team.
Téa Angelos | Vivlo Learning
Meeting Employees Where They're At: Changing How We Consume Learning in the Modern Age
Described by Forbes as a “visionary on a mission”, Téa Angelos is an entrepreneur, best-selling author, speaker, consultant, expert media commentator and founder of two companies - Vivlo Learning and Smart Women Society (SWS). SWS is an online education company providing innovative products, tools and content for women to grow their independence with money, career, wellbeing and love. With over half a million followers on social media, SWS reaches over five million people a month and their educational videos have amassed over 200 million video views.
Her ability to simplify complex topics into engaging, actionable and easy-to-understand steps has led her to create innovative solutions in the personal development space. She is now on a mission to engage and upskill employees through her innovative corporate learning and training programs under Vivlo.
Téa is highly sought after as a workshop and keynote speaker and has featured on top-rating podcasts and in multiple media publications around the world providing her practical ideas and tips relating to careers, productivity and finance. She is also the author of 'Smart Moves', published by Wiley Global, which is available in all major bookstores globally.
Trinity Ryan and Cathy Saunders | Qld Department of Families, Seniors, Disability Services and Child Safety
Pros vs Cons: Choosing the Right Learning Solution for Your Context
Cathy and Trinity first met at an AITD event in Brisbane a few years ago. What started as casual networking quickly turned into a conversation about learning, capability and the art of creating training that people actually enjoy. They recognised a similar way of thinking and a shared passion for learner experience. Over time, their shared stories about what works, what doesn’t, and all the nuances in between have grown their connection into a genuinely aligned collaboration, resulting in this presentation.
Cathy is a proud lifelong learner who never really left the classroom, she has just spent the years moving to different sides of the whiteboard. A qualified teacher and senior L & D leader with over 20+ years across education, industry, and people and culture, Cathy brings a passion for capability building and training that lifts both skill and enthusiasm.
Trinity has worked in L&D for almost 30 years and has held a variety of roles in the industry, including instructional designer, learning consultant and learning manager. She's passionate about designing excellent learner experiences and has recurring nightmares about online courses that feature slabs of text on the screen.
Yamini Naidu | Yamini Naidu Consulting
X Factor: Unleash Your Secret Superpower
Yamini Naidu, CSP is the world’s only economist turned Bollywood dancing, business storyteller. Award-winning speaker and best-selling author of 7 books, she works with leaders helping them shift from spreadsheets to stories.
Yamini recently received the Educator of the Year 2025 award from Professional Speakers Australia. This award recognises speakers who consistently create high-quality, original learning experiences across diverse audiences and formats.
In 2005, she co-founded Australia’s first storytelling company, pioneering the art of business storytelling in Australia. Her clients include Google, Tiffany & Co., Adidas and Ford Motor Company.
Glin Bayley | SimplyGlin
The Identity Trap: Why Self-Leadership Is the Missing Link in Transformation
Glin Bayley is an award-winning writer and Transformation Strategist exploring what it really takes to lead, negotiate, and create meaningful change from the inside out.
Her work bridges strategy, psychology, and human behaviour to help leaders shift from surface-level change to transformation that is embodied, sustained, and genuinely impactful.
Glin is the author of The Negotiation Playbook, which won the 2025 Australian Business Book Awards in the Management & HR and Personal Development categories, and Unstoppable Woman. Her forthcoming book, The Identity Trap, introduces the I² Framework - 'Identity × Integrity = Impact' - a new paradigm for understanding why personal and organisational evolution succeeds or stalls.
Known for her clarity, depth, and ability to articulate complex inner dynamics in ways leaders can immediately apply, Glin works with CEOs, founders, and executive teams across diverse industries and complex systems. Her approach is grounded, practical, and deeply human - focused on strengthening the internal foundations that determine how people lead, learn, collaborate, and create outcomes that matter.
Through SimplyGlin, she supports change-makers who are ready to evolve how they lead, work, and live by becoming the kind of person whose inner alignment naturally creates meaningful impact.
Cameron Pegg | Communication Skills Academy
Visual storytelling secrets: Effective PowerPoint design tactics for facilitators
Cameron is a sought-after communications coach, speaker and trainer who specalises in the education, engineering and design, research and fundraising sectors. Also, a highly experienced journalist and editor, he contributes features to The Australian and hosted a regular segment on ABC Radio Queensland.
Cameron has created a suite of workshops which he delivers through reputable training provider, Communication Skills Academy. He previously taught at the University of Queensland and professional development courses for the QUT Executive Education program.
Brian Inglis | Inglis Consultants Pty Ltd
How to collaboratively design and develop accredited training to support the energy transition in QLD
Brian Inglis is director of Inglis Consultants (Energy Training Solutions), Hydrogen & Ammonia Community Manager with The Competency Alliance (a global energy training organisation) and partner with Inglis Puckridge providing heavy industry training & skilling services. Brian previously had operational, managerial and training roles with major energy companies: ConocoPhillips, CS Energy, Rio Tinto and the State Electricity Commission of Victoria. Brian holds a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) from Curtin University and is a previous AITD President of the QLD/NT Council. Brian also attends and speaks at many energy-industry related conferences and events, including career days and awareness sessions teachers and students on aspects of the changing energy industry.
Dr Deniese Cox | Teachingonline.com.au
The learners we never get to meet: Building practitioner capability to support motivated learners who are stuck outside our digital doors
Dr Deniese Cox (MBA, ML&D, PhD) researches adult learning effectiveness across the vocational education sector. Through her hands-on work with hundreds of trainers and learners annually, she conducts longitudinal studies on learner experiences and outcomes along with educator professional development engagement. As founder of TeachingOnline.com.au, she delivers research-backed insights that improve learning outcomes across diverse training contexts.
Hannah Ryan | Versent
Small Levers, Big Impact: Decoding and Cultivating Your Learning Culture
Hannah Ryan is a Learning and Capability Manager who has rapidly built a reputation for designing impactful, business-embedded learning cultures in technology consulting. As the architect of Versent’s Craft|180 learning ecosystem, Hannah has shaped a holistic approach to year-round development, peer-led knowledge sharing, and practical skill-building that aligns with business needs and empowers people to hone their craft.
Stepping into Versent as its first dedicated L&D professional, Hannah has focused on making learning accessible, relevant, and driven by curiosity. She is passionate about amplifying what works, listening deeply to employee needs, and weaving learning into the fabric of organisational life.
Hannah’s approach centres on enabling people to experiment, grow, and contribute, ensuring learning is recognised, celebrated, and connected to business success.
Madeline Miller | Coaching With Madeline
Presence to Power: Building Leadership Capability in Post-Institutional Workplaces
Madeline Miller is a Gen Z Leadership Architect and the founder of Coaching with Madeline, a consultancy specialising in identity-first leadership development, communication capability and modern L&D strategy. Her work helps organisations build the kind of leadership cultures needed in today’s post-institutional workplaces, where traditional career ladders, linear progression, and predictable pathways no longer hold.
Drawing on 15 years in law, including a decade in Hollywood as an entertainment lawyer, Madeline brings a rare combination of professional rigour, cross-sector insight, and human-centred practice. Her signature A.I.R. Framework (Alignment, Influence, Resilience) integrates psychology, communication, behavioural capability, and cultural design to help emerging leaders build resilience and to help L&D teams design learning experiences that actually shift behaviour.
Madeline works across Australia and APAC with organisations including Adobe, Chartered Accountants ANZ, universities, and several national law firms and financial services organisations. Her thought leadership has been featured in major media outlets, and she regularly speaks on the future of leadership, capability development, and generational shifts in the workplace.
Her work sits at the intersection of capability building and culture: supporting L&D practitioners to create learning that sticks, leadership that scales, and environments where people can do their best thinking and best work.
Dr Hayley Linthwaite | Performance Frontiers
Cultivating Curiosity: The Leadership Capability AI Cannot Replace
Dr Hayley Linthwaite is a creative provocateur and global changemaker. She works to empower people to believe in impossible dreams and activate change through collaboration, social innovation and creative exploration. In her work, Hayley specialises in theories, forms, and conventions of behavioural and systemic change, strategic conflict analysis, applied performance and experiential learning. She partners with her clients to achieve transformative behavioural and mindset shifts, drawing on her extensive experience in adult learning principles and high performing leaders.
At Performance Frontiers, Hayley has advocated a humanistic approach to corporate partnering and value creation, and supported leaders in building collaborative cultures, particularly through her work at Woolworths Group.
Her expertise has been honed through extensive work in Australia and parts of Europe and Asia as an arts educator, director, performer, corporate consultant, trainer, researcher and Rotary Peace Fellow. Prior to joining Performance Frontiers in 2017, she worked as an Associate Professor at the University of Northampton UK. She also co-founded the
Imagine A Day Project(IADP) in 2014, commissioned by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission and she received the Global Changemaker Award for her work on the project.
Marc Ratcliffe | MRWED Training and Assessment
Creating ICONIC Learning Experiences
Marc Ratcliffe is a globally recognised leader in vocational education, renowned for his dynamic approach to training. As CEO and founder of MRWED Training and Assessment, he has dedicated over 30 years to enhancing trainer capability. A passionate advocate for "edu-tainment," Marc blends engagement with expertise, making learning both impactful and enjoyable. With extensive international experience, he continues to shape the future of training through innovation and best practice.
Kylie Sturday and Darryn Gray | Crackin’LnD
Less Communities of Practice, More Communities of Purpose
Kylie Sturday: Kylie is a learning and development professional with nine years of experience supporting capability growth across public service organisations. Her career began in customer service and operational roles — an origin she sees as the foundation that keeps her grounded in the realities managers and frontline staff navigate every day. That early perspective continues to shape her work, reminding her that capability isn’t abstract: it’s lived, negotiated and constantly reshaped through real constraints and real people.
A firm believer that learning emerges through connection, Kylie sees every interaction as a chance to surface insight. This shows up in her facilitation practice and her co-leadership of Crackin LnD (Down Under), a practitioner-led learning community where people from across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands share challenges, test ideas and explore the evolving identity of L&D together. The community is built on purpose: members learn with and from one another, strengthening the profession through collective sense-making.
In her current role, Kylie designs capability solutions, emergency-management training and exercises, bringing together operational expertise, human-centred design and process improvement. Her work reflects a simple belief: capability develops best when people are supported, connected and actively shaping their own professional communities.
Whether it's shaping impactful learning programs, chasing that personal goal, or cultivating vibrant learning communities — his work with clients is grounded in people, purpose, and practical impact, and having a little fun along the way. His approach integrates principles from te ao Māori, coaching, and modern learning design to create environments where learning feels meaningful, connected, and doable.
Crackin’ LnD began as a simple idea: a place where practitioners could learn with each other, not just from each other. Crackin' LnD is about building a connected virtual community of LnD professionals in NZ, Australia and the Pacific Islands where stretching our thinking is the norm, and learning innovation flourishes. It’s a place to collaborate and discuss how we lift the lid on learning that sticks and has impact.
Known for his warm facilitation style, sense of humour, practical insights, and obsession with great virtual learning, Darryn is passionate about building communities of practice that unlock potential and make learning fun, authentic, and transformative.