ABOUT

Governments everywhere are grappling with how agentic AI will reshape policy, service delivery and the machinery of the public sector itself.

Agentic systems - AI that can plan, act and make decisions with limited human intervention- promise faster, more personalised services and leaner operations, but they also raise hard questions about accountability, workforce transition and public trust.

This Town Hall brings together global leaders from government, strategy consulting and critical infrastructure to explore what that transformation looks like in practice, and what it takes to deliver it.

Rather than treating agentic AI as a distant possibility, the session grounds the discussion in the practical realities of implementation: how to sequence adoption, where the biggest risks and payoffs lie, and how public institutions can build the trust and capability needed to act on this technology responsibly.

SPEAKERS

The Hon. Victor Dominello | CEO of the Future Government Institute

We welcome Victor, a globally recognised leader in public sector transformation and a pioneer of secure, citizen-centred digital identity, with a career spanning more than a decade as a commercial lawyer, twelve years in the cabinet of New South Wales, and a fast-growing portfolio of advisory and academic roles spanning three continents. He served as the world's first Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government and, since April 2023, has served as a Professor at the University of New South Wales, where he directs the UNSW-UTS Trustworthy Digital Society Hub. He currently chairs the Australian Government's Services Australia Independent Advisory Board and serves as Senior Advisor to the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, having previously chaired the Federal Ministerial Advisory Committee on Digital ID and served as a Board Director of the Tech Council of Australia. A trusted advisor to governments worldwide, he consults for the World Bank on national digital identity and verifiable credentials, sat on the UK Government's independent Digital ID Advisory Group, and was recently invited to Australia's Treasurer's Economic Reform Roundtable. Victor is the author of Government 3.0 - A Vision for Public Service in the Age of AI, and has been named to Okta's Identity 25 list of global visionaries and The Australian's Top 100 Innovators, and has built a following for his commentary on trusted, citizen-focused digital government.

Miguel Carrasco | Managing Director & Senior Partner at BCG-X

Setting the Course for AI Transformation in Government: Miguel Carrasco lays out a framework for how governments can sequence and govern an AI transformation. A sought-after keynote speaker and thought leader on digital government, he has led transformations across employment, welfare, immigration and defence, and co-authored BCG's Trust Imperative series and its biennial Global Digital Government Benchmarking research. He is currently a member of BCG’s Global Responsible AI Council, the Chair of the Centre for Public Impact in Australia and New Zealand and a member of the Business Council of Australia’s Digital and AI Working Group. In 2022, the Australian Financial Review named him one of Australia's five most powerful consultants. Miguel holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Accounting from the University of Technology Sydney.

Brad Eliot | Former Chief Technology Officer at IMI Media

Delivering change at scale within critical infrastructure, Brad shares hard-won lessons on implementing technology change at scale within complex, mission-critical operating environments, drawing on more than two decades leading large-scale technology functions, including as CTO of IMI (overseeing technology across Sky News Arabia, The National, Al Ain News and CNN Business Arabic) and prior roles as Group CIO at MultiChoice and Group IT Director at AlexForbes.

Additional speakers will be announced shortly.

MODERATOR

The session will be moderated by Portal Global CEO, Maria MacNamara, and will include a facilitated Q&A, giving attendees the chance to put their questions directly to the panel.

VENUE

This event will be held in person at BCG in Sydney and online. You will receive a link 24 hours prior to the event.

TIMEZONES

The session has been timed to enable members of our ecosystem to join from Australia at 17:30 - 19:00 and the United Arab Emirates from 11:30 - 13:00.

BUY THE BOOK

Government 3.0: A Vision for Public Service in the Age of AI, by The Hon. Victor Dominello with Daniel Nellor. Click here to purchase a copy.

ABOUT SPARK FOUNDATION

This Town Hall will be presented as part of the Spark Festival 2026 delivered by the Spark Foundation - a charity that brings together Australia’s largest community of entrepreneurs: over 40,000 Australian founders, investors, policymakers, unis and supporters of our startup ecosystem. Home of the Spark Festival since 2016, we are a grassroots collective for startup community,

Town Hall for Spark Festival

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