Discover What’s Next for Work, People and Culture at HR + L&D Tech Fest Australia 2025
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What does the future of work really look like - and how do we get there?
With technology evolving at pace, HR and L&D professionals are facing big questions. How do we stay ahead without burning people out? How do we maintain strong workplace cultures as roles, skills and structures shift? And how do we lead teams through rapid change without losing sight of the core business strategy?
HR + L&D Innovation & Tech Fest Australia brings together the people shaping the answers. Over two days in Sydney, we’ll explore the tools, ideas and strategies driving meaningful change - from leadership and learning to tech and transformation.
Ahead of the event, we caught up with a few of our expert speakers to get their take. From the game-changing innovations shaping HR and L&D, to how we can maintain the human element in people development - here’s what they had to say.
Kristin Hay - Partner and Chief People Officer, Knight Frank Australia
What is the most exciting innovation you’re currently seeing in the HR or L&D space and why do you think it’s a game changer?
One of the most exciting innovations we’ve been involved in is a project we’ve worked on over the past 16 months with a startup called Even Better. They’re an organisation that’s developed AI-powered technology focused on solving the gender pay gap. We were a development partner on the project, which meant we had the opportunity to help define what the technology would do and how it would work.
It’s been exciting for us to be part of that process and journey, but also because it tackles a very real issue particularly in property industry around the gender pay gap and occupational segregation. Interestingly, once the technology was developed and we began using it, many of the assumptions we’d made about where the problems were and how to fix them were completely debunked. It surfaced a whole range of other issues we needed to address. It’s been incredibly rewarding to work with a startup, have that input into what the product should do and look like, and then see it come to life.
How can organisations strike the right balance between leveraging technology and maintaining the human element in people development?
Striking the right balance between technology and the human element in people development can be challenging. It’s easy to become overly reliant on AI or other tools, but when it comes to development, we have to remember that people have different learning styles and needs. There's a risk in assuming everything can be done digitally without meaningful human interaction.
Many people are now actively seeking that human connection. Whether it’s a sense of belonging to the organisation or feeling connected to their clients or peers, that interpersonal element is essential. If we focus too much on technology, we risk losing sight of how important that human element is.
What is one myth about HR tech or digital learning you’d love to bust - and what’s the truth?
Technology, especially AI, feels like it’s just accelerating so quickly in terms of what you can use. We’re doing some work - outside of specialist HR or learning - with property technology that’s game changing and exciting. But the fast-changing pace of AI can also create some fear of the unknown, especially that it’s going to replace all of our jobs.
It can be a bit overwhelming to look at technology moving so fast and wonder why they’ll even need us. But again, it comes back to what we were talking about - the human element is always and will always be important. Maybe the nature of what we do or how we do it will change, but that doesn’t negate the need to have some human element in what we do. The reason HR is here is because there are people in organisations. The people might be doing different things, but they will still wbe essential. For me, that debunks the myth that we’re all going to be replaced by technology. We might just do things a bit differently.
In your experience, what is one overlooked area in HR or L&D that’s ripe for innovation?
It’s hard to say because there’s just so much opportunity. It’s almost like you don’t know what you don’t know. Every time I look around or dig into something, there’s something new happening. We’ve seen so much development in talent acquisition and recruitment, and now there’s a lot happening in learning as well. For us, seeing how AI agents can impact REM reward strategies has been quite interesting.
So, I’m not sure there’s one area that’s been overlooked - there’s just opportunity across the board.
What are you most looking forward to sharing or learning at the HR + L&D Innovation and Tech Fest?
I’m excited to talk about the ‘Even Better’ project because I want people to know about it and connect with that team and what they offer. That’s what I’m most looking forward to sharing. As for learning, it’s about discovering what I don’t yet know. I want to see what’s happening out there and explore how we can implement new ideas and possibilities. I’m always keen to hear what other organisations and even other industries are doing. So overall, I’m really excited about that.
Kylie Gardner, General Manager People & Culture - Retail, Chemist Warehouse
What is the most exciting innovation you’re currently seeing in the HR or L&D space, and why do you think it’s a game-changer?
One of the challenges we're facing in engaging the workforce today is the shift in expectations that emerged post-COVID. HR salaries surged during that time and as a result, we’re now seeing a disconnect, particularly with younger professionals entering the industry, between salary expectations and actual experience levels. In many cases, there’s a desire for high pay despite limited exposure or tenure in the field. With that comes an expectation of accelerated development, accountability or rapid progression in roles, which can place significant pressure on both individuals and organisations.
This is where AI can really help us meet the evolving needs and expectations of emerging practitioners. Traditionally, most HR professionals have been deeply involved in the day-to-day delivery of work. But newer entrants to the profession often aren’t looking to stay in repetitive tasks for long. They’re expecting to add value quickly and move into more strategic work.
AI is helping us shift the model. It is taking away some of that more repetitive work, especially in advisory. We’ve all experienced the same questions coming in over and over again, and leaders today want answers instantly. They don’t want to go find a policy and interpret it. They just want to know what it means, in plain terms, now.
What’s exciting is how we’re now using AI tools to manage queries through ticketing systems. No one has to open an email and think, “Here we go again.” Instead, AI can generate a well-crafted response, using our policies and drawing on Fair Work and other sources. It still needs a human touch to review and approve it, but it means we can get accurate answers back to the business faster and free up our people to focus on more meaningful, high-impact work. Importantly, the review step also ensures that individuals remain accountable for the output and continue learning through the process, rather than simply relying on automation.
In a centralised model like ours - 20,000 employees, 500 stores, that’s huge. It enables people to come out of the weeds faster and focus on the value-added pieces.
How can organisations strike the right balance between leveraging technology and maintaining the human element in people development?
I think the key is understanding the limitations of technology and being very intentional about what you hand over to AI. You can’t hand over responsibility, especially in people development. Not only is it obvious when something has been completely generated by AI, but it also raises questions around accountability and even ethics.
For example, I’m currently working on a policy reconciliation process where I’ve taken two companies’ policies and used AI to align them with governance and compliance requirements. One company had certain elements, the other had different ones, and AI was great at identifying those gaps and overlaps. But I wanted to include a focus on engagement and put people first, because too often these documents are dry and inaccessible. I want people to actually want to use them.
That’s when I realised AI couldn’t do that part. It can give you structure, facts, and even language that sounds engaging, but you can tell when something lacks a genuine human voice. You can feel the absence of culture and intent. That’s not just about people development generally, it was part of my own learning too. You can’t rely on AI to deliver nuance, empathy or insight. It can create a foundation, but it can’t build a whole solution that truly connects with people.
In our own team, even where we use AI to support advisory work, we’ve designed it so any response generated still goes to a human advisor for review. We’ve been very clear that the expectation isn’t just to pass it through, but to understand, evaluate and add value. That human element matters. It is what brings meaning to the work and ensures we’re actually developing people, not just processing tasks.
What is one myth about HR tech or digital learning you’d love to bust - and what’s the truth?
The myth I’d love to bust is that HR tech or AI is going to take our jobs away. It’s not. What it will do is take away the repetitive tasks that most people don’t want to be doing for long anyway. So in that sense, there’s no need for panic. But at the same time, having no concern at all isn’t right either. We need to understand exactly what these tools can do and what the unintended consequences might be. I remember seeing a lecturer from SAP talk about a situation where a customer began interacting with a company chatbot for companionship. It became problematic when that person started to form a dependency on the interaction.
Like anything, too much of a good thing can become harmful. AI is amazing, but it still needs to be used thoughtfully. We have a responsibility to understand its impact, both from a business and human perspective, and to make sure we use it ethically, with awareness and restraint.
In your experience, what’s one overlooked area in HR or L&D that’s ripe for innovation?
AI does amazing things in the interviewing process and in training needs analysis, where it’s really taken off. When it comes to the L&D space more broadly, I haven’t had much exposure, so I’m really interested to find out what’s happening there. That’s part of the reason I’m going to the HR + L&D Innovation and Tech Fest.
What are you most looking forward to sharing or learning at the HR + L&D Innovation and Tech Fest?
I’m really looking forward to finding out what I don’t know, especially what’s emerging across the L&D space. I want to see what others are doing and thinking, and to share some encouragement around engaging with AI. I know it can feel uncomfortable at first. People worry about what it means and whether it’s the right thing to use. But I believe it is right. It reflects where we are as a profession and as a society.
At the same time, if there are concerns about how AI might be used or what the consequences could be, we should face those head-on. We need to have open, honest, and robust conversations about that. I don’t think there’s enough of that happening right now. We should be stepping into this space fully aware, understanding what AI can do constructively, and also thinking critically about its implications in the context of society, ethics, and policy. As people professionals, we have a responsibility to help shape how AI is used. It’s not just about harnessing it for productivity; it’s about using it to help people and protect people. So let’s talk about that together as a community and lead those decisions before we’re forced to react to problems later.
Ryan Byrne, Senior Manager Capability & Learning, Sydney Trains
What is the most exciting innovation you’re currently seeing in the HR or L&D space, and why do you think it’s a game-changer?
AI-powered personalised learning - the tools and technology around artificial intelligence to enable that personalised, or hyper-personalised, learning.
Whether that’s someone doing self-directed learning through something like ChatGPT even in the workplace or using their own AI tool to develop themselves in whatever they need to, or the technologies out there that use AI-driven platforms to change content in real time based on somebody's role, their need, and their responses.
The idea of hyper-personalised learning available in seconds - that's the most exciting innovation, especially to drive or enable people to develop themselves. We're already down that path with things like YouTube and Google on an individual level, but AI is just giving that a superpower. People can find information and best-practice ways of doing things through an app on their phone and if they really want the best information or development, they can pay $20 a month and have access to that themselves.
How can organisations strike the right balance between leveraging technology and maintaining the human element in people development?
It is a challenge. But for me, especially from a learning experience or learning design perspective, you’ve still got to maintain human-centred design and that human-centred approach.
Even when we use advanced technology and the pieces that are out there, you’ve really got to keep that people-first approach when you're designing things. Yes, the tech is innovative, but we’ve got to make sure that it’s intuitive and inclusive, and aligned to how people work and how they learn. We can’t just implement tech and think it’s going to be the solution.
What is one myth about HR tech or digital learning you’d love to bust - and what’s the truth?
The myth I’m hearing is that AI and learning technologies will solve all capability problems, especially at scale. But they’re not a silver bullet. These tools bring efficiency and personalisation, but they won’t fix issues like a broken learning culture, poor leadership, or unclear communication.
Without strong foundations - such as clear capability frameworks, engaged leadership, thoughtful and human-centred learning design technology just automates dysfunction. If those foundations aren’t in place, tech can make problems worse. But when you focus on the basics and use technology correctly, it can help achieve success. So, it’s not a silver bullet, that’s the truth.
In your experience, what is one overlooked area in HR or L&D that’s ripe for innovation?
Compliance. It’s not the most glamorous area when it comes to tech and innovation, but for many organisations like ours, compliance and competence management are important. I think that’s a significant pain point that’s ripe for innovation.
What are you most looking forward to sharing or learning at the HR + L&D Innovation and Tech Fest?
I’m looking forward to learning. I’d love to hear what other people are doing and everything that’s happening out there. I’m happy to share what we’re doing too, but for me, I really want to learn how others are leveraging AI and tech that maybe isn’t on our radar yet. I’m excited to hear how organisations are implementing AI and other emerging technologies in the L&D space, then see how we can leverage that, build on it, or learn from it to apply within Sydney Trains.
Jan Roden, Head of Organisational Development and Learning, Endeavour Energy
What is the most exciting innovation you’re currently seeing in the HR or L&D space, and why do you think it’s a game-changer?
AI is by far the most exciting development in my mind. It’s creating great opportunities to shorten the time and cost of producing training materials. It’s taking away a lot of the repetitive, mundane aspects of our work. That means we can be freed up to focus on the value add - understanding the business context and challenges our stakeholders face and partnering with leaders to find solutions to their capability and performance challenges.
How can organisations strike the right balance between leveraging technology and maintaining the human element in people development?
That was an interesting question. I think that as L&D and HR practitioners, we naturally have a strong focus on the human elements - that’s our work. Technology is just another tool in the kit bag that we can draw on to unlock productivity and performance.
If we remain focused on designing solutions to deliver outcomes, I think the balance will follow. The technology is there to serve the cause - enabling people to perform more effectively for our customers. So, if we deploy tech the right way to the right challenges, both our customers and our people will benefit.
What is one myth about HR tech or digital learning you’d love to bust - and what’s the truth?
I think in the learning space, there’s a myth that technology will save time and accelerate learning transfer. But it can become a formula for what I call lazy design. The reality is, any learning or training program with poor instructional design - whether face to face, blended, or online is going to deliver poor outcomes.
Digital solutions can enable efficiencies, and I’m emphatic about that. But to be effective, you still need strong, robust instructional design. So don’t get caught up in the idea of saving time or accelerating learning transfer without doing the heavy lifting and applying adult learning principles to any course design - with or without amazing tech attached.
4. In your experience, what’ is one overlooked area in HR or L&D that’s ripe for innovation?
This is more specific to my industry - we’re in the energy sector, a distributed network organisation managing power lines and the pulse of the grid. What we often miss is the opportunity to provide remote, or field-based workers, with high-impact coaching and development focused on interpersonal leadership skills.
Because these workers have limited interaction with their managers for coaching and feedback, it’s easy to overlook their drive and desire to advance their careers. Given the technology we have now, I believe we need to focus on how to deliver cost-effective solutions like simulations, chatbots, or realistic role plays and scenarios. These should be accessible anytime, anywhere, enabling workers to progress their leadership and career aspirations.
That’s a great way to close the gap.
5. What are you most looking forward to sharing or learning at the HR + L&D Innovation and Tech Fest?
I’m really looking forward to hearing some great ideas, networking, and having rich conversations with my peers.
Clare Horrobin - Learning Director, Horrobin Learning
What is the most exciting innovation you’re currently seeing in the HR or L&D space, and why do you think it’s a game-changer?
Without a doubt, it’s AI. What excites me this year, and what I’ve seen at other conferences and countries is how AI is showing us, as learning and development practitioners, how we can elevate our solutions much faster. Most importantly, it’s helping us connect better with each other, accelerate learning, and keep doing the work that drew us to this field – bringing out the best in people – without spending hours writing content.
How can organisations strike the right balance between leveraging technology and maintaining the human element in people development?
I think it’s really important, and with every innovation I’ve seen in the last 25 years of my career, it comes back to not forgetting the lessons of the past as we move forward. With each new big innovation, I’ve learned to keep to the basics of why we design what we do. We need to start with the business strategy: how do we use the technology to elevate that strategy, and at the same time, what do we need to do to elevate the human-centred skills to achieve it? We’ve always done that. It’s like when we first introduced Microsoft products into the workplace. We used the tools to achieve the business strategy in one way, and then developed the skills, behaviours, and attributes in our people in another way to make it happen. We can’t lose those lessons as we move forward.
What is one myth about HR tech or digital learning you’d love to bust - and what’s the truth?
There is still a myth that digital connection doesn’t create true connection. I believe that if it’s done the right way, and people learn how to communicate digitally in a way that brings out the best, we can absolutely connect. The majority of my work is now online. My courses run online, and I connect deeply with my clients and in my workshops in the same way I do in a live space – sometimes even better. You can absolutely connect in the digital space. It’s about bringing those human skills we use to connect in person and applying them online.
In your experience, what is one overlooked area in HR or L&D that’s ripe for innovation?
Evaluation for L&D – which is what I’m coming to talk about at HR + L&D Innovation & Tech Fest. It’s something we all know we have to do, but it’s complex and hard. The more I learn about it, and about learning transfer, the more I see how it not only justifies our existence as practitioners but also shows us the loopholes where we might be going wrong. At the same time, it highlights what we’re doing well to grow our people and our businesses.
What are you most looking forward to sharing or learning at the HR + L&D Innovation and Tech Fest?
In terms of sharing, I’m excited to present the high-impact evaluation model developed by Lynette Gillis and Alan Bailey, two of Canada’s leading evaluation experts who I had the pleasure of meeting in America. Their simple methodology not only helps evaluate learning transfer but also sparks valuable conversations with the leaders we serve, asking them where they think their gaps might be in learning transfer and evaluation.
I’ll also be sharing a case study on my client, Parenting Place, and how they’ve applied this evaluation model. It’s helped parents plan and commit to transferring their learning - from navigating parenting in the digital space to setting boundaries around screen time, while also providing powerful evidence to funders that the program works. We can show that parents are watching the videos, completing the worksheets, and successfully applying the skills with their kids, and it’s making a real impact.
In terms of learning, I always gain so much from the incredible speakers Tech Fest brings together. But honestly, one of the biggest highlights for me is the person I end up sitting next to. This event has an uncanny way of creating those connections. For example, I sat next to Emma Weber at Tech Fest about three years ago, told her I thought she was amazing and wanted to connect and that conversation eventually led to me working with her. She’s now one of my greatest mentors. I can count multiple connections like that – people I’ve met by chance here who have become long-term friends, collaborators, and sources of wisdom in my L&D journey.
Over two dynamic days filled with inspiring content, lively discussions, and actionable insights, HR + L&D Innovation & Tech Fest Australia offers the opportunity to discover the ideas, technologies, and strategies shaping the future of work today.
Connect with a community of HR and L&D professionals as we explore new approaches, emerging technologies, and practical solutions shaping the future of work.
22–23 September | Hyatt Regency Sydney
Secure your tickets online or contact the team to learn more.