Digital Transformation - a masterclass presentation

Join Desmond Seeley, Executive Manager, AI & Engineering at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, as he shares lessons and insights from leading a major digital transformation within one of Australia's largest and most complex organisations.

Desmond's presentation will be followed by a panel discussion with academics from the ANU School of Cybernetics, bringing different perspectives to the challenges of navigating technological and organisational change.

The conversation will be moderated by Gareth Davies, an experienced technology practitioner and Master of Applied Cybernetics student at ANU.

Lessons from digital transformation at CBA

Drawing on his experience leading the delivery of an Integrated Development Platform for finance and regulation at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Desmond will take participants inside the realities of transformation at scale.

He will explore:

Why transform? The organisational and business pressures driving change, including the need to deliver digital products faster, more accurately and at lower cost.
What changed? How platform engineering was used to respond to these challenges, what it enabled, and how changes interacted with surrounding systems and processes.
How was change navigated? The people, resources, methods and technologies involved in implementing significant change within a large and complex organisation.

Bringing a cybernetics lens to the conversation

Following Desmond's presentation, academics from the ANU School of Cybernetics will join the conversation to explore what the CBA experience can tell us about transformation more broadly.

The Q&A panel will consider digital transformation as a systems challenge: how people, technology, organisational structures and decision-making interact; how change in one part of a system affects another; how transformation could enable the productive upgrade of other systems; and what it takes to steer complex systems through periods of technological change.

Who should attend?

Organisations across Australia — large and small, public and private — are navigating rapid technological change. The challenge is not simply adopting new technologies, but understanding how to introduce, govern and adapt them within complex organisational systems.

This event is designed for leaders, executives and practitioners working across technology, transformation, strategy, AI and organisational change who are interested in the practical realities of transformation and what a systems perspective can add.

In-person only. Registration is essential. Please register for your preferred session.

Canberra - 17 September

Location: Innovation Space, Level 2, Birch building, ANU, Acton, 2601

Q&A panel: Des Seeley, Jessamy Perriam, Paul Wong and Paris Smith-Davies

Sydney - 22 October

Location: Australian Institute of Directors, Level 5, 1 Martin Place, Sydney 2000 (entrance via 159 Pitt St)

Q&A panel: Des Seeley, Paul Wong, James Allsopp and Matthew Nicholas

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