SLDA Annual Conference 2024

We are looking forward to the Systems Leadership Development Association conference on the 18, 19 & 20 of April at the Hilton Hotel in Cairns, Qld and are excited to share some more details of what we have planned with you.  

Conference theme: Connecting with purpose

 

Conference outline:

Thursday 18th April

On the Thursday we will be offering a development opportunity with three workshops designed to improve the understanding and use of the concept, models, and tools of Systems Leadership:

Option 1 – A whole day workshop ‘An Introduction to Systems Leadership’.

Option 2 – A half day workshop on the ways people are or are not held to account for their work.

Option 3 – A half day workshop focusing on the levels of work.

Each of these workshops will be limited to 25 participants and the option to attend one or more of these workshops (numbers permitting) is included in the conference fee. Please let our secretariat know your workshop preference when emailing to register.

Friday 19th and Saturday 20th April

The conference proper begins on Friday 19th and continues through Saturday 20th. It includes presentations from people using Systems Leadership in a variety of organisations including: service industries, finance, aged care, education (Australia and overseas), National Health Service intensive care and National Health Service wellbeing.

See below for short bios on some of our key speakers.

There will also be opportunities for networking throughout the conference with a cocktail party on the Friday evening, to be held on the deck overlooking Trinity Inlet and a dinner on the Saturday night in the hotel restaurant. These events are included in your conference fee. 

We shall continue to keep you up to date with any further developments to the agenda including specific timings for the sessions.

Cost/Registration:

$495* for the 3 day conference.
* the conference fee includes your SLDA membership fee for 1 year

To secure your place please register your attendance, including any dietary requirements and which workshop you would like to attend on the Thursday (if applicable), with our secretariat Emma Trumper via email to enquiries@sldassociation.com

 

Accommodation

You will need to contact the hotel direct to organise your accommodation, we have secured a group rate of $245 per room (Room only) for a limited number of rooms. To book using our rate please click on the following link:  Accommodation Booking

Rooms are subject to availability and must be booked at least 30 days prior to the conference date. 

Speaker Biographies

Angela O’Brien OBE

Angela has 30 year’s experience in Primary Education, leading schools across the East Midlands in England and was awarded an OBE by King Charles in 2020, for her leadership of schools in challenging circumstances.

As a National Leader of Education and Director of Primary Education in The Spencer Academies Trust, she transformed failing schools, built new schools and improved established ones. She developed a collaborative approach across schools which resulted in significant improvements for pupils, a culture of innovation and development of new effective leaders.  

Many of the 18 primary schools currently in the Trust serve disadvantaged communities including Wyndham Primary Academy, an outstanding school which has been awarded EEF Research School status and is one of the 25 schools nationally across the UK that now works to support other schools. 

Angela took Wyndham from a bottom 200 school in the country to Outstanding in three years through transforming the culture to one that places a shared vision and Systems Leadership at the heart of everything. 

Angela is trained as a coach and has a passion for developing others and applying the experience of leading complex organisations within and beyond educational settings.

Tim Banner

Tim is based in Newcastle, Australia.

Since 2009, he has consulted extensively in the public and private sectors in Australia and New Zealand. Previously, he spent 20 years in the UK within the Financial Services industry, and during that time, he held various leadership roles.

His focus is helping leaders improve service delivery and culture. He is the author of the book ‘Reconceive: New thinking for progressive leaders to create productive, positively viewed service organisations’.

Hannah Simpson

Systems drive behaviours – the statement that redefined Hannah’s way of thinking, being and working.  For the past 20 years, Hannah has worked as an Educator for the Department of Education working across many rural and remote communities most recently as Principal of Mareeba State School. Leading as an educator with the mantra ‘It takes a village to raise a child’, Hannah is a NeiTA Teaching Award recipient and has been the driving force behind many successful regional and state Department of Education Showcase for Excellence awards.

As a leader in both small and large organisations, Hannah has maximised the System Leadership tools to bring about consistency, organisation and clarity of work and roles for optimal outcome. 

Renee Petersen

Renee Peterson discovered the power of Systems Leadership in 2017 via a recommendation to Mark Potter and Geoff McGill to support ongoing transformation efforts at Care Connect, a large Aged Care Community Care Provider. Having led and experienced significant organisational and market shifts over her 25-year career in Human Resources, her years as Executive General Manager- Operations with Care Connect provided the platform to build the organisation’s capacity to create the conditions for positive and long-lasting cultural change and improved performance through the application of Systems Leadership.

Renee has held generalist Human Resources and Senior HR roles across The Just Group, Tabcorp, Deloitte and Care Connect. In her opinion, there are very few organisational challenges that cannot be examined through the lens of Systems Leadership. Renee believes in the power of the integrative nature of SLT and its relationship with other methodologies for organisations to utilise in building systemic adaptive capabilities.

Renee has been consulting for the past 12months and has utilised Systems Leadership to help organisations position their change journeys and build more aligned leadership teams. Accredited as a Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt, as well as a Reiss Motivation Profile Master, Renee holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Graduate Diploma in Human Resources.

Bruce Houghton

Bruce Houghton is an experienced Far North Queensland educator and leader. He has a clear vision for learning, believing that all students can learn to their potential.  He has been a Primary Principal, Secondary Principal and P-12 College Principal. Bruce has extensive experience in remote Aboriginal community schools in Western Cape York Peninsula. Bruce has been using the concepts, models and skills of Systems Leadership Theory for more than 20 years.

As an exponent of student-centred schools, Bruce works to create environments where students are highly immersed in engaging, meaningful learning experiences with clear pathways to the future. At Bentley Park College he led the development of the Medical Training Precinct that specialises in health and medical pathways for students. Bruce, Adrian Rayner and Dr Susan O’Donnell initiated and led the creation of the VR Learning and Design Hub. Placing students at the centre, the core mission of the innovative project is to enrich student learning and engagement through the embedded use of virtual and augmented reality fully aligned with and supporting the Australian Curriculum. The Learning and Design Hub (VR, AR) now works with 52 schools across Queensland assisting them to implement Immersive Pedagogy (VR and AR).

Rod Barnett

Rod founded Salient Consulting, and first worked with Systems Leadership in 1996. He has been associated with Macdonald Associates ever since, and Systems Leadership is at the core of most of his work. He enjoys working in a variety of organisational and cultural contexts. Rod is immensely grateful for the generosity and learning received from Systems Leadership associates and clients over many years.

For 6 years he was the Vice President of IODA (the International Organization Development Association) and is their ambassador for the Oceania region. In 2023 he received the Richard Beckhard award from IODA. He currently works on a committee which makes an annual award to practitioners applying O.D. to work of reconciliation and conflict resolution around the world. Rod is on the leadership team of O.D. Australia, which celebrates 25 years in 2024.