Speakers

Dr. Elissa Farrow

Dr. Elissa Farrow (PhD) is an award-winning futurist, author, facilitator, coach and strategist. She has over 25 years experience in research, organisational innovation, design, adaptation and benefits realisation and has extensive experience in strategic organisational adaptation design and delivery. Dr. Farrow has supported organisations in defining positive futures and has successfully facilitated their transformation, bringing about lasting benefits.

Dr Farrow is known for her compassionate leadership and engaging approach stemming from her background as a Social Scientist. She is an experienced board director, and has held global leadership positions with the Change Management Institute as well as chair of DVConnect a service preventing Domestic and Family Violence in Queensland. Her published doctoral research explored the implications of Artificial Intelligence on organisational futures. Dr. Farrow is a member of the Asia Pacific Futurists Network (APFN), Association of Professional Futurist (APF) and the World Futures Studies Federation (WFSF). Dr Farrow co-created the first Oceania Futures and Foresight Symposium in 2025.

Dr Melissa Innes

Dr Melissa Innes (PhD, FHEA) is a researcher specialising in Individual Foresight (IF), intuition, and knowledge management. Her award-winning doctoral research, published in the Journal of Innovation and Knowledge developed the IF Framework - an innovative approach now being applied to leadership capability development. Dr Innes is currently seeking to extend her IF research to support child safety in Queensland, aiming to enhance decision-making and knowledge-sharing in high-stakes environments. 

Melissa's ongoing research also explores the role of key network actors in Alternative Food Networks (AFNs), focusing on how effective knowledge management can drive sustainability and innovation. Her work investigates how cultivating IF within organisations can foster knowledge creation, innovation, and improved knowledge management, ultimately contributing to organisational capability and strategic efficiency for the future.

Kathryn Maggs

Kathryn is a leadership expert who specialises in Conscious Leadership, Confidence Resilience, and Transformational Change — particularly for professional women leaders and their teams. With over 25 years of experience as a mentor, coach, and corporate facilitator, she is known for sparking conversations that lead to lasting, meaningful change.

Blending her deep passion for people, leadership, and the restorative power of nature, Kathryn creates spaces — often outdoors — where leaders can slow down, breathe, and think differently. She harnesses the science-backed benefits of nature to open minds, shift perspectives, and inspire bold, impactful action. 

Her approach is as unique as it is effective: a dynamic mix of raw honesty, warmth, humour, and persistent curiosity. Whether on a forest path or in a boardroom, Kathryn helps individuals and teams find clarity, build confidence, and chart a new course toward success. She tailors every engagement to the people she works with, ensuring the journey is as transformative as the destination.

Helene Barrie

Helene Barrie is a growth, sales, innovation, and digital leader with over 15 years of experience driving strategic transformation across key markets, including water and environment, life sciences, and critical infrastructure. Currently completing a Master of Leadership and Innovation, she brings a futures-oriented lens to digital strategy, service design, and organisational growth.

Helene’s work integrates human-centred design, systems thinking, and data-driven approaches to ensure technology and service solutions meet evolving customer and community needs. Her current focus is on applying futures thinking and design-led methods to help organisations plan and adapt for sustainable success in a rapidly changing landscape.

A passionate mentor and advocate for innovative practice, Helene is committed to bridging ideas and disciplines to shape resilient, future-ready solutions that connect people, technology, and purpose.

Dr Marta Botta

Dr. Marta Botta is a researcher at the Sustainability Research Cluster of the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. She completed a Bachelor of Science/Psychology degree (CQU, Australia); a Graduate Diploma of Media Studies (Massey University, New Zealand); has a Graduate Certificate in Futures Studies and PhD from the University of the Sunshine Coast. Her research interests include social change, heritage futures, and practical spirituality. These themes are explored in her vast portfolio of published work, conference presentations, and book chapters. Marta believes in "practice grounded research" and she produced a number of video documentaries to facilitate sociocultural renewal.

Dr Caitlin Noakes

Dr Caitlin Noakes is a sessional academic and knowledge proletariat at the University of the Sunshine Coast, where she teaches courses in the humanities, arts, social sciences, and creative industries, and researches the ontologies, epistemologies, and methodologies of creative arts research. In 2025, she dove head-first into futures studies under the mentorship of Dr Marcus Bussey, and founded the Sunshine Coast Futures Hub with Camila Mozzini-Alister and Cassiana Buosi.

Shadi Rouhshabaz

Shadi Rouhshahbaz is a researcher, futurist, peacebuilder whose work sits at the intersection of futures thinking, intergenerational collaboration, and feminist transformation within global governance. Formerly a Peace and Security Analyst at UN Women HQ and an Associate Research Fellow at Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation and now a PhD candidate in Peace and Conflict Studies (University of Melbourne), she uses foresight methodologies to reimagine more inclusive futures with communities. 

Shadi was a 2023 Next Generation Foresight Practitioner Fellow in Nuclear Disarmament at the School of International. Shadi specialises in designing accessible, emotionally-grounded, and politically aware foresight processes.

Dr Marcus Bussey

Dr Marcus Bussey is an educator and futurist with 35+ years’ experience across neohumanist, community, Montessori and university settings. 

At USC he teaches world history, supervises research students, and serves as Deputy Head of the School of Law and Society. 

His work spans futures thinking, social learning, intercultural engagement and embodied practice. 

Marcus has presented internationally, held a Taiwan Fellowship, contributed to engineering education research, and co‑edited major works on dissent, embodiment and transformative futures.

Dr Rob Leach

Rob Leach is a foresight practitioner, researcher, and founder of OCNUS Consulting. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of the Sunshine Coast, exploring Entrepreneurial Agency in the Age of AI through the lens of Causal Layered Analysis (CLA). His research investigates how AI is transforming entrepreneurial practice and identity, focusing on human–AI collaboration within startup ecosystems.

Rob’s professional work spans foresight strategy, systems innovation, and organisational transformation across public, private, and education sectors. His recent focus lies in applying futures methodologies to help organisations navigate uncertainty and technological disruption.

As a researcher–practitioner, Rob is particularly interested in the intersection of human creativity, ethics, and technology—how foresight can help societies adapt to profound shifts in agency, autonomy, and meaning. His approach combines empirical insight with layered futures thinking, connecting micro-level human experiences to broader systemic and cultural change.

Dr Alina Bas

Dr. Alina Bas, PCC, is an Executive Coach, Strategy Consultant, and Organizational Psychologist with over 20 years of experience coaching leaders on making strategic high-stakes decisions under uncertainty. She is an Adjunct Professor at NYU’s Graduate School of Arts and Science, where she teaches Advanced Executive Coaching and Development, Personnel Selection and Organizational Development. 

Dr. Bas designs and facilitates corporate workshops on embodied leadership and decision-making under uncertainty. Her clients include leaders at Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, and other leading institutions in healthcare, government, and higher education. Dr. Bas is a published book author and a co-author of several book chapters and academic papers.

Steph Clarke

Steph is a futurist and facilitator who helps the C-Suite see around corners, so they can be ready for what's next.

Her combination of 20 years in professional services, and global experience as a facilitator mean she's well-equipped to work with leadership teams to expand their thinking about the problems they face today, and share the signals of change that spark bigger conversations about what might happen tomorrow.

She has certifications from The University of Houston, Copenhagen Institute of Futures Studies (CIFS), and the Institute for the Future (IFTF) and has worked with clients across professional services, banking, financial services, fintech, design, government, and utilities industries. She regularly appears on podcasts and contributes writing to a variety of outlets.

Thomas Biedermann

Thomas is a Senior Lecturer in Cybernetic Futures at the Australian National University (ANU).

He integrates his background in systems engineering and interests in organisational design to research and deploy methods to create safe, sustainable, and responsible systems. His approaches draw on cybernetics, visual arts, and playcentric and embodied methods, to support diverse participants in imagining and acting towards hopeful futures.

He has applied these approaches in various contexts, including a Sino-French joint research lab on haematology in Shanghai; the science diplomacy sections of French embassies in the USA and Australia; and the Australian Higher Education sector. Prior to his current role, he has served as inaugural manager of the 3AI Innovation Institute at ANU, and inaugural program manager for the ANU-wide decarbonisation program, Below Zero

Aunty Leanne Phillips (Keynote)

Leanne Phillips (Mietha) is a Minjungbal womyn with blood ties through her maternal line to the Jarowair people of the Bunya Mountains . As a Spirit Way Healer and Lifestyle Practitioner, she integrates ancient cultural knowledge with contemporary healing practices.

With a lifetime of experience as a Master Healer, Life Coach, and Mentor grounded in Aboriginal Healing Practices, Leanne supports individuals and communities through culturally rooted, spirit-led healing.

Well known as a conduit for transformative healing energies from the Universe, Ancestors, and Natural World, she channels the Language—a vibrational expression of creation energy that facilitates holistic balance across mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions.

Guided by Integrity, Equality, Respect, and Love, Leanne is committed to embracing difference and fostering collective wellbeing. She advocates that individual self-realisation is foundational to community healing. Leanne’s path to being healed is one of love, connection, and profound listening.

Associate Professor Leonie Hallo

Associate Professor Leonie Hallo (University of Adelaide) has over 40 years of expertise in complex systems management, leadership, and AI integration. With a PhD in Psychology, her research examines the synergy between human intuition and analytical decision-making in volatile environments. 

An international keynote speaker and educator, she has supervised over 25 doctoral students globally. At the symposium, Leonie will explore serendipity and Indigenous wisdom, bridging contemporary foresight with embodied knowledge to address challenges at the human-technology interface.

Dr Marta Sinclair

Dr. Marta Sinclair, Griffith Business School, received an M.A. in Education from George Washington University, USA, and a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from The University of Queensland, Australia. She is the founder of Intuition in Organizations, a global online forum of researchers and practitioners, the editor of a series of Edward Elgar intuition handbooks (2011, 2014, 2020) and the co-editor of Frontiers in Psychology/Sociology special issue on female intuition (2025). 

Beside numerous intuition publications, she co-authored a practical intuition guide (Windpferd, 2012) and published the novel Woman’s Intuition (Kindle/iTunes, 2013). Prior to joining academia, Marta was active in various management positions in Europe and USA, including Silicon Valley.

Cate Houston

Cate has engaged in community work for most of her adult life. She was a partner of a successful business for 20 years. 

Cate is a Counsellor and a member of Australian Counselling Association and the Mental Health Academy. Cate was awarded for a short story written for adults with low English literacy levels.

Cate completed a series of Metafuture courses and a journal article that was awarded an APFN-JFS Award, Honourable Mention. Cate appreciates and values the potential impact of transformative futures strategies.

Currently, Cate contributes to DCA Mentoring Supports’ (DCAMS) management team within the disability sector.

Adam Sharpe (Keynote)

Adam Sharpe is the Co-founder and Director of Learning at Metafuture School and a youth participation specialist at UNICEF. His programming has reached hundreds of thousands globally, with foresight research published in academic journals and for the United Nations. 

A recipient of the 2022 NGFP Award for Intergenerational Fairness for his game People Power, Adam is a KFAS-Salzburg Global and NGFP Fellow. He co-leads the UNICEF Innocenti Youth Foresight Fellowship, winner of the APF If Award for Participatory Futures and runner-up in the Dubai Foresight Awards.

Claire Marshall

Claire Marshall is an award-winning futurist who leads the National Futures Initiative at the Australian Centre for Social Innovation. Her work focuses on how the stories we think through influence how we imagine and enact futures. She is the creator of the Museum of Futures, a participatory exhibition exhibited nationally and internationally, that brings to life our visions for different futures. 

Amanda Reeves

Amanda Reeves is a Naarm/Melbourne-based futurist, art therapist, and facilitator at The Understory Art Therapy. She uses the arts to access metaphors to make sense of our lives and explore how our worlds could be made differently. 

Jess Price

Jess Price works at the intersection of humans, technology and future systems. She is the founder of Paradigm Makers, a futures-oriented practice designing for the world of 2075. Jess brings a long-horizon perspective to how invisible systems shape work, wellbeing and technological outcomes. 

She challenges the assumption that current systems are broken, arguing instead that they are producing exactly what they were designed to produce. Her current work focuses on translating futures thinking into collective, systems-led approaches and designing future human-technology systems grounded in care, adaptability and intentional choice.