Empowering digital innovation in a rapidly changing world

Accelerate is here to help you shift the digital dial in your enterprise. Access specialist expertise, exclusive digital solutions, and peer-supported learning to step up, and step out of the status quo.

Accelerate your
Digital Business Ambitions

With a community and partner ecosystem, here to support you realise the promise of Digital Transformation. Gain access to the best industry expertise, tailored digital solutions and cutting-edge courses. And become part of a collaborative community, committed to solving common industry innovation challenges.

Communities solving digital business challenges together

As we adjust to the new normal post-corona, we believe a new form of adaptive leadership is required. Digital innovation has become an even bigger imperative in a socially-distanced world. How we adapt personally, professionally and organisationally will enable us to all become more resilient to the impact of rapid change.

In this context, helping professionals optimise processes, modernise systems and re-invent their businesses, is a collective challenge that the Accelerate communities are here to support.

We'd like to invite you to become a member of one of the innovation communities and participate in making change for the better.

 

Join your fellow
Digital Business Innovators

Bringing together the key disciplines and points of view needed to effect meaningful business change is challenging within any enterprise. Accelerate communities are designed to bring together a diversity of perspectives to enable you to build bridges across the silos - so we can adapt to the next-normal together. If you are from these professions, you're invited to participate:

  • Digital Professionals
    Your focus is likely to be on the performance side of your enterprise, where customer acquisition, retention and revenue generation is a key performance indicator.
    The #industryinnovators community focus is on supporting leaders in Asset Intensive Industries adapt and evolve their business to the challenges of digital disruption.
  • Operations Professionals
    From IT, to Finance, to Operations, to Risk Management - your likely focus is on making systems and processes as effective as possible over a 1-2 year time horizon.
    The #industryinnovators community focus is on supporting leaders in Asset Intensive Industries deliver improvement initiatives, develop more resilient systems, and maturing operational performance.
  • Data Professionals
    As a data expert concerned with process optimisation, understanding behaviours and managing information, you are interested in how to better understand and mine data in a digital enterprise.
    The #industryinnovators community focus is on supporting information, data and analytics professionals support Asset Intensive Industries, as they adapt and evolve the business to the challenges of digital disruption and rapid change.
  • Public Sector Professionals
    You are looking to leverage digital infrastructure and intelligent interfaces to provide better public services. From citizen engagement, to service delivery, digital transformation means you can create better life-long experiences for citizens as well as deliver faster and more efficiently.
    The #industryinnovators community focus is on supporting leaders in the Asset Intensive Sector adapt and evolve their service delivery to the challenges of digital disruption.
  • Senior Leaders,
    CXOs, VPs, GMs
    If you are responsible for the strategy that enables the long-term viability of your enterprise. Most likely you think and plan over a 3-5 year time horizon and want access to useful future thinking and practices.
    The #industryinnovators community focus is on supporting senior leaders in the Asset Intensive Sector adapt and evolve their business to the challenges of digital disruption - over the long-term.

Learn from the Best and the Brightest

First-hand insights from experts, industry peers and leaders in embracing digital business transformation and leading from the front.

Max Theseira

DX TRANSFORMER | LECTURER
CO-FOUNDER INTAGILE

Max has over 20 years experience helping organisation’s effect large complex business transformation and organisational change. As the AN/Z IBM Organisation Change Practice Leader, Max managed a team of 40+ consultants delivering engagements covering workforce and talent optimisation, organisation design, enterprise innovation, digital reinvention, culture change and customer experience optimisation. Max is now Adjunct Faculty at the UNSW Business School on a range of programs for executives and separately runs a change consultancy specialising in change and digital transformation.

Stephen Burmester

PAC LEAD - X-FORCE INCIDENT RESPONSE & INTELLIGENCE SERVICES

Stephen is an experienced information/cyber-security professional, having spent 25+ years working as an information security leader and change agent. At IBM, he is responsible for the growth and marketshare expansion of IBM X-Force IRIS business across Asia Pacific, working with clients to be better prepared for, and to manage constant cyber threat to their business operations. Stephen joined IBM Security in 2016 , after having been the Chief Information Security Officer for the National eHealth Transition Authority (NEHTA). Stephen was (and remains) an advisor to many CIO's and Director’s General across both State and Commonwealth governments as well as the private sector.

David Goad

AUTHOR | UNSW LECTURER
FELLOW | IOT & AI STRATEGIST

David has extensive practical experience in IT and business strategy having started up his own successful IT services business - which won 12 national & international awards for sales, innovation and service before it was sold. In his career David has also managed large high-performance corporate sales & services teams for Hitachi, KPMG, and Microsoft. He provides consulting services to many Fortune 500 enterprises, universities and government organisations in Australia, Asia Pacific and globally.

Rosamund Christie

EXECUTIVE COACH | LECTURER
ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP | MENTOR

Focused on adaptive leadership, Rosamund works with National Australia Bank, CSIRO, Boral, Sensis and APRA-AMCOS. A highly experienced executive coach who works with first-time CEOs as well as seasoned professionals from the Boston Consulting Group, Oroton, and Goldman Sachs JBWere. A passionate advocate for women in leadership, Rosamund conducts programs for academic women at UNSW. A graduate of The Art and Practice of Leadership Development at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

David Gram

LEGO VENTURES | INTRAPRENEUR
ADVISOR | DIPLOMATIC REBEL

With 20 years working with radical innovation and lean start-up methods in both SMB and Enterprises in roles as Head of Innovation at Scandinavian Airlines, as Senior Innovation Director in LEGO’s Future Lab, and as a Partner in LEGO Ventures. Using design thinking and agile development, David has developed and led innovation units and projects from early incubation to full maturity. He has recently been instrumental in building and launching LEGO Ventures, the new strategic venture arm at the LEGO Brand Group.

Jane Kennelly

FOUNDER, FROG RECRUITMENT
PEOPLE TRANSFORMER

A natural designer and creator in the people industry – today Jane is transforming how businesses and people achieve distinctiveness.
Jane is the founder of Frog Recruitment. As well as leading the company for 17 years, she is known as an industry expert across a multitude of areas including the latest methodologies, social/communications and employment branding. Having been in the industry for many years she talks about the thrill of interacting with thousands of employers and career seekers across New Zealand – and when you meet her, you can tell, this is genuine.

Sam Williams

CREATOR OF ACCELERATE
DIGITAL CHANGE AGENT

Fascinated by the exponential change we are in the midst of, Sam works at the forefront of digital transformation strategy and how it impacts communications, digital experiences and the evolution of value. A Silicon Valley Veteran - Start-Up’s, Digital Business, technology sales and marketing have been the staple of Sam’s career – one which spans North America, APAC and Northern Europe. As Founder and Managing Partner of Aamplify he continues to work closely with brands like IBM, Microsoft, Cisco and Kordia.

Dr. Arash Dadras

HEAD OF OPEN INNOVATION LABS & ARCHITECTURE PRACTICE, RED HAT

Dr Dadras is a transformation agent. For the past 15 years, he has helped major organisations in driving the digital transformations. He has spent more than a decade leading organisations and studying their responses to market opportunities and threats. He heads the Red Hat Open Innovation Lab and Architecture Practice in Australia and New Zealand. He is a lecturer at the University of Victoria, leading research on business agility, scaled Agile adoption and blockchain technology.

Josep Curto

CEO | CHIEF DATA SCIENCE OFFICER
VISITING PROFESSOR UNSW

Josep helps organisations to create competitive advantage based on data. He believes that the combination of data, models, technology and experience is the ultimate combination to yield better services and create new products. His expertise covers data technologies, methodologies & strategies and their application to solving business problems, improving decision-making, providing insight, & validating hypothesises to create data products. A founder of Delfos Research, Advisor at L’Escola L’Horitzó and Subject Matter Expert at the Institute of Passion.

John Martin

SENIOR SECURITY ARCHITECT & SECURITY PRACTICE LEADER

John is a Senior Security Architect for IBM NZ. He is an IBM Expert level certified architect and Open Group Master Architect. His qualifications include CISSP, ISSAP, Chartered Information Technology Professional and CISM. He holds a Master’s degree in Managing Information Systems from the University of Salford, UK and has over 30 years of experience in the various security and privacy fields including healthcare and privacy related environments. He migrated to New Zealand with his wife in 2000 and joined Logical Networks as a contractor. He is the president of the Auckland Chapter for ISC2 and is actively involved with members including those within many sectors.

Access Digital Innovation Partner Ecosystems

WITH A CURATED MARKETPLACE

Bringing together like-minded experts, solution providers and leading educators to support you professionally.

Ecosystem partners are selected to participate in the marketplace because they share a common interest in helping transform enterprise for the better.

The marketplace brings together partners from different disciplines, technologies and capabilities. Providing you with the opportunity to explore options and get to know the people behind the curtain.

Your host
Samuel Williams

 

Hello and welcome...

Interested in working together?

As the community and ecosystem host, I'd like to hear what's on your mind or how Accelerate can help you on your innovation and transformation journey?

I'm seeking to understand industry challenges and how we collectively adapt to sweeping digital change. Please reach out via the form below or connect with me on LinkedIn, so we can discuss what's on your mind.

Curious about what others think, here is a sample of some of the feedback and endorsements we've received so far...

You'll learn something new, you'll find out something that you didn't know before. I’d love to come back to Accelerate next year.
Nicki Shirley
Head of Marketing
Qrious
We’re extremely proud to be involved with Accelerate and see a lot of alignment between Accelerate and AGSM’s own purpose of developing leaders for an accelerated world.
Wesley Toms
Head of Enterprise Development
AGSM
Accelerate represents a way to really help business leaders across Australia and New Zealand navigate the challenges that come with digital transformation.
Shelley Lowe
VP Enterprise & Commercial
IBM A/NZ

On a mission to empower Digital Innovators

2016 and a Taste OF Artificial Intelligence

Accelerate came together to help professionals come together to explore, experience and understand the impact of Digital Disruption.

The first immersive experience developed was a collaboration with Master Chef Simon Gault. By using Chef Watson an Artificial Intelligence taste-pairing and recipe development platform, a degustation menu was developed to give participants a Taste of AI.

Since the programs inception, the concept of collaborative ecosystems built on powerful digital platforms has evolved into today's collaborative community and digital partner ecosystem approach to enabling enterprise innovation .

BROUGHT TO YOU IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Have a question?

Please get in touch via this form. We aim to get back to you within one day.