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Exclusive Executive Roundtable

Digital fitness in the AI Age

Everyone's bought the equipment. Far fewer have done the training. A candid roundtable for senior technology leaders on what's actually working in AI — and what's quietly falling over. 

 

 

20 October 2026
8:30am - 10:30 am
MELBOURNE

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"You can't buy fitness. You can only build it —
and AI is exposing who has done the work."
Dr Steven Hodgkinson

The Gap everyone is standing in

The demo dazzled. The capability didn't stick.

Every technology leader is under pressure to show progress on AI. The pilots are running, the vendors are circling, and the board wants to know what's landed. But between the proof of concept that impressed and the capability that endures, there's a gap — and most organisations are still working out how to close it.

It's a familiar gap. The organisations that struggled with cloud, with digital service delivery, with data platforms, are struggling with AI now for the same underlying reasons: slow procurement cycles, project-by-project thinking, and capability rented rather than built.

20 IT Leaders in the room
Dr Steve Hodgkinson

THE SPEAKER

Dr Steve Hodgkinson

Former Chief Digital Officer, Victoria Police and former CIO, Victorian Departments of Health & Human Services

 
He has seen this pattern before

And he did something about it.

As CIO of Victoria's Departments of Health and Human Services, and later Chief Digital Officer at Victoria Police, Steve popularised the Platform+Agile approach precisely because the Procurement+Waterfall cycle couldn't deliver. Not as theory — as the only way to ship at scale under real constraints, real scrutiny and real budgets.

That same cycle is now tripping up AI adoption. The lessons carry across directly.

VentureBeat
CIO50 Hall of Fame inductee
5+ years Only IT leader ranked in the CIO50 Top Ten for five consecutive years
20+ years Leading digital delivery at public sector scale
D.Phil (Oxon) Fellow, Institute of Public Administration Australia

The format

A roundtable, not a presentation

Dr Steve Hodgkinson opens with what he's learned across two decades of large-scale delivery — including what didn't work. Then the conversation belongs to the room.

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Bring your real-world problem The AI initiative that's stalled. The governance question you haven't resolved. The business case you're not sure you believe. Bring it to the table.
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Test it against your peers A small group of senior technology leaders facing the same decisions you are — and willing to say out loud what didn't work.
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Chatham House Rule Ideas leave the room; attributions don't. So the conversation can be as candid as it needs to be.
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Leave with something usable Not a vendor pitch. A clearer read on what to stop, what to standardise, and what to build next.

Four lessons that transfer

Training principles for the AI age

Platform, not project-by-project

Strength comes from a strong core, not from isolated exercises. In-house teams building on shared foundations move faster than teams reinventing the stack every time.

Cadence beats intensity

Iterating in the open with real feedback beats the single big-bang rollout — the same way consistent training beats the occasional heroic session.

Guardrails prevent injury

Consistent governance, integration templates and proven components turn "mad science" experimentation into compounding capability instead of one-off risk.

Don't over-rely on your vendor

No one gets fit by hiring someone else to do the workout. The organisations in control of their AI trajectory are the ones building capability in-house, not just buying it.
The organisations pulling ahead aren't the ones running the most experiments. They're the ones applying hard-won platform and delivery discipline to a genuinely new kind of technology.

Request your seat

This event is designed for senior IT Leaders and decision-makers

This is an invitation-only experience. If you have been directed to this page, you are already on our list.

Complete the expression of interest below, and our team will be in touch to confirm your place. Attendance is subject to confirmation.  Seats are allocated on a priority basis — don't miss out on this unique opportunity. 

Seats are limited.
Confirmed guests will be notified via e-mail and SMS.

Organised by

PhoenixDX builds AI-powered software solutions for enterprise organisations across APAC - from agentic AI deployment to legacy modernisation projects delivering tangible business value. Clients include Victoria Police, Optus, the New South Wales Department of Communities and Justice, and Pepper Money.

 

Learn more about PhoenixDX

In partnership with

OutSystems is the Agentic Systems Platform built for the enterprise. Global organisations trust OutSystems to rapidly build mission-critical apps and agents, modernise legacy processes with agentic systems, and govern their entire AI portfolio across complex regulatory environments, all on a unified platform.

 

Learn more about OutSystems

Supported by

We+ delivers digital transformation, product engineering and AI-driven automation at scale, with dedicated delivery teams across Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia. Part of the Alan Allman Associates ecosystem, We+ works alongside PhoenixDX and OutSystems to bring strategy and platform to life, and at regional scale.

 

Learn more about We+