Arrival & Registration

45min

Welcome

Tyron McGurgan, CEO, Focus Network

5min

Tyron McGurgan

Tyron McGurgan is a seasoned entrepreneur, media expert, and events professional boasting over 18 years of industry experience. As the CEO and [...]

Master of Ceremonies

Mary-Beth Hosking, CEO for Change

5min

Mary-Beth Hosking

Mary-Beth Hosking is a pragmatic and seasoned technology leader with extensive experience in organizational transformations and is currently the [...]

Keynote Presentation – How New Zealand’s Safety Leaders Compare on Performance, Culture, and Innovation

Tyron McGurgan, CEO & Founder, Focus Network

Drawing on the findings from Focus Network’s recent survey of 165 senior health and safety executives across New Zealand, this session uncovers the key challenges, opportunities, and shifts shaping the future of safety leadership. From technology adoption and psychosocial risk management to leadership accountability and cultural maturity, the insights reveal where New Zealand organisations are excelling and where global peers are moving faster.

By comparing trends across New Zealand, Australia, and the United States, this session will explore what each market is doing differently, who is setting the benchmark, and what lessons can be learned to strengthen local performance. Attendees will gain an evidence-based understanding of where New Zealand’s safety landscape stands today, and the practical actions leaders can take to close capability gaps, accelerate innovation, and future proof their safety strategies.

Key Takeaways

• Understand how New Zealand’s safety maturity, leadership engagement, and investment priorities compare with peers in Australia and the United States.
• Discover what leading organisations abroad are doing differently, from cultural engagement to technology enablement and how those lessons can be applied locally.
• Explore how New Zealand organisations can leverage technology, collaboration, and data to drive continuous improvement and create safer, more resilient workplaces.

20min

Tyron McGurgan

Tyron McGurgan is a seasoned entrepreneur, media expert, and events professional boasting over 18 years of industry experience. As the CEO and [...]

Keynote Presentation – Beyond Compliance – Building a Culture of Care Across New Zealand Workplaces

Compliance provides a baseline for workplace health and safety, but organisations cannot stop there if they want to achieve lasting impact. This keynote will explore how New Zealand companies can embed a culture of care that goes far beyond minimum requirements, creating workplaces where employees feel valued, engaged, and empowered.

Attendees will hear about cultural frameworks, leadership behaviours, and communication strategies that transform health and safety from a regulatory task into a shared organisational value, improving both business performance and worker wellbeing.

Key Takeaways:

• Learn how to shift organisational thinking from compliance-led processes to care-driven safety leadership.
• Gain insights into values-based strategies that increase workforce engagement and reduce risk.
• Explore new ways leaders, boards, and frontline teams can align around a shared culture of care.
• Identify strategies to measure, monitor, and sustain cultural change over the long term.

25min

Keynote Presentation – Harnessing AI to Close Safety Gaps and Strengthen Safety Culture

Dr. Manuel Seidel, Founder & CEO, ecoPortal

AI is transforming health and safety, not by replacing humans, but by enhancing engagement, improving data quality, and empowering better decision-making at every level.

Key Takeaways:

• AI helps eliminate common barriers to safety participation, like literacy, language differences, and complex processes.
• It provides leaders with instant, data-driven insights to improve safety management.
• AI supports the development of a proactive and engaged safety culture.
• Every worker is empowered to contribute to safer outcomes through AI-enabled tools.

30min

Dr. Manuel Seidel

Manuel is passionate about transforming traditional 'box tick' health & safety, sustainability and risk management systems into modern [...]

Networking Break

20min

Keynote Presentation – How the psychological contract can create safer workplaces

Anton Tyers, GM Safety, People and Warehouse Operations, Nexus Logistics

A strong safety culture doesn’t just rely on policies or procedures, it’s built on trust, respect, and mutual understanding. This session explores how the psychological contract, the unwritten set of expectations between supervisors and workers, plays a critical role in shaping safety behaviours and preventing harm.

When leaders prioritise healthy, respectful relationships, workers are more likely to communicate openly, follow procedures, and make safer decisions under pressure. By strengthening these interpersonal commitments, organisations can foster a culture where people feel valued, accountable, and motivated to look out for one another, creating workplaces that are both safer and more human.

Key Takeaways

• Learn how unwritten expectations between leaders and workers influence engagement, trust, and safety outcomes.
• Explore how consistent communication, respect, and fairness foster safer behaviours and reduce risk-taking.
• Discover how to build a culture where employees speak up about risks, follow procedures, and feel personally responsible for safety.
• Gain practical strategies for integrating relational leadership into existing safety frameworks to improve culture and reduce incidents.

30min

Anton Tyers

Anton has worked in the broader occupational health, safety and wellbeing field for the past 20 years, holding senior roles in Safety, HR, [...]

Speaking Presentation – Why Systems Fail Without Strategy and Values

Matt Turner, SVP of Compliance, Ideagen

Even the most comprehensive safety systems can fail when they are built on process rather than purpose. Without a clear strategy, leadership alignment, and deeply embedded organisational values, safety frameworks risk becoming just another compliance exercise, a checklist that ticks the box but fails to create real impact.

This session will explore why strategy and values must form the foundation of every successful safety system. Learn how to define a clear vision and measurable objectives that align safety performance with business outcomes.

Key Takeaways:

• Understand how strategic intent provides direction, coherence, and meaning to your safety systems, ensuring actions connect back to organisational purpose.
• Learn how to translate high-level goals into practical, operational safety outcomes that drive accountability and progress.
• Explore how to use metrics, feedback loops, and performance data to track progress, celebrate wins, and maintain cultural momentum.
• Discover the leadership behaviours and communication approaches that bring systems and values to life, making safety both personal and sustainable.

30min

Matt Turner

As co-owner since 2004, and Managing Director since 2008, Matt has overseen phenomenal growth at Plant Assessor. This growth has arisen from [...]

Panel Discussion – From Tick-Box to Trust, Redefining Safety Leadership in New Zealand

PANELLISTS: 

Denva Wren, Head of Safety, Health & Wellbeing, Woolworths

Keri- Anne Martin, Health, Safety & Risk Manager, Fullers360

Karen Naude, Group Safety Manager, Port of Tauranga

Tersia Van Der Merwe, Head of Workplace Health & Safety, Bupa Villages & Aged Care - NZ

MODERATOR:

Traditional safety management has often focused on compliance, procedures, and checklists, but in today’s complex workplaces, that approach no longer drives true safety outcomes. This session explores how New Zealand’s leading organisations are shifting from a compliance-driven mindset to one grounded in trust, empowerment, and authentic leadership.

Through honest discussion and shared experiences, this panel will examine what it means to build trust-based safety cultures where people feel genuinely valued and engaged. Attendees will gain insights into how psychological safety, leadership transparency, and shared accountability can transform safety from a tick-box exercise into a strategic enabler of performance and wellbeing.

Key Takeaways

• Learn how New Zealand safety leaders are replacing control with connection, building cultures that encourage honesty, openness, and learning.
• Understand how to balance regulatory expectations with adaptive, values-led approaches that inspire commitment rather than compliance.
• Explore how leaders can cultivate ownership and engagement at every level, enabling teams to take proactive responsibility for safety outcomes.
• Gain actionable insights to foster workplaces built on respect, communication, and collaboration, where safety is lived, not mandated.

30min

Denva Wren

Denva has a background of over 15 years experience in retail & supply chain within the Woolworths Group in various roles across Aotearoa, New [...]

Tersia Van Der Merwe

Tersia brings over a decade of senior leadership experience in Health, Safety, and Wellbeing across diverse sectors and roles. Her career has [...]

Keri- Anne Martin

With extensive experience in health, safety, and risk management, currently contributing to Fullers360 as Health Safety and Risk Manager. Focused [...]

Karen Naude

Karen is the Group Health and Safety Manager at Port of Tauranga Limited, New Zealand’s largest container, and general cargo port accounting for [...]

Speaking Presentation

Mohotti Premaratne, National Safety Manager, DHL Express, NZ

30min

Mohotti Premaratne

Bio coming [...]

Networking Lunch

40min

Speaking Presentation – Embedding Safety and Wellbeing into Organisational Purpose

Duayne Cloke, Head of Safety, Link Alliance

In today’s evolving world of work, safety and wellbeing must move beyond compliance checklists to become fundamental to an organisation’s identity and purpose. This session explores how leading organisations are integrating wellbeing, psychological safety, and human centred leadership into their core values and decision making processes.

Participants will gain insights into how embedding wellbeing at the heart of organisational purpose not only enhances trust and engagement but also drives resilience, innovation, and sustainable performance.

Key Takeaways

• Understand how to align safety and wellbeing with your organisation’s mission, values, and long term strategy.
• Learn practical approaches to integrate wellbeing into leadership, systems, and decision-making.
• Discover how a people first mindset fosters trust, psychological safety, and consistent performance improvement.
• Explore how authentic leadership and continuous learning ensure that safety and wellbeing remain embedded, measurable, and meaningful.

30min

Duayne Cloke

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY A results-driven Health, Safety, and Wellbeing (HSW) leader with extensive experience in mega civil construction projects, [...]

Speaking Presentation – Safety That Pays – Leveraging Safety Through Innovation

Jay Ferguson, Head of HSE & Innovation, Programmed

This session will look at highlighting how investing in forward-thinking safety solutions not only protects people but also strengthens operational efficiency and business outcomes.

By integrating innovation into safety practices, organisations can reduce risks, lower costs, and create a culture where safety becomes a strategic advantage rather than just a compliance requirement.

Key takeaways:

• Commercialising safety outcomes – building capacity and capability that can be channeled into revenue streams
• Reinvestment into technology – efficiency gains from improved solutions are reinvested.
• Future-focused growth – A strategic enabler that strengthens competitive advantage, supports ESG and long-term business objectives.

30min

Jay Ferguson

Jay Ferguson is the Head of HSE and Innovation for Australia and New Zealand at Programmed. Known for challenging the status quo, he [...]

Breakout Session – Managing an Invisible Safety Risk in the Modern Workforce

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation remains one of the most overlooked workplace safety issues, particularly for outdoor and field-based workers in construction, agriculture, mining, and utilities. While the sun’s impact on health is well-known, the regulatory, clinical, and organisational implications of UV exposure are often underestimated.

This session explores guidance and employer obligations, reviews the clinical science behind UV exposure, and examines what a proactive, prevention-first approach looks like in today’s workplace. Leaders will discuss how to translate medical data, legal standards, and workforce engagement into tangible safety outcomes that protect employees and reduce organisational liability.

Key Takeaways:

• Clarify what “reasonably practicable” means for UV exposure management under WHS legislation and how it applies to your workforce.
• Learn the biological and medical impacts of UV exposure, including cumulative dose risks, and how to integrate these insights into policy and training.
• Explore how leadership visibility, consistent messaging, and safety culture drive stronger compliance and worker engagement in UV protection.
• Discover how UV sensors, environmental tracking, and exposure logging can help organisations forecast risk, improve PPE adherence, and demonstrate due diligence.

40min

Breakout Session – Rethinking PPE for the Modern Workforce

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) remains a cornerstone of workplace safety, yet too often, it’s treated as the last line of defence rather than part of an integrated risk management strategy. With changing work environments, new materials, and evolving psychosocial expectations, PPE must evolve from “compliance necessity” to “strategic enabler of workforce wellbeing and safety performance.”

This session explores how organisations can strengthen their PPE programs through better design, fit, and cultural adoption, while aligning with, supplier innovation, and leadership accountability. Emerging WorkSafe Australia updates and compliance expectations for PPE programs.

• The gap between PPE policy and real-world worker adoption, understanding barriers to use and cultural perceptions.
• Innovations in PPE design, technology integration (smart PPE), and sustainability
• Understand how PPE fits within the hierarchy of controls and how proactive design can reduce overreliance on the “last line of defence.”
• Learn strategies to improve workforce buy-in and address comfort, usability, and gender-specific PPE issues that often reduce compliance.

40min

Breakout Session – AI-Driven Engagement, Leading the Charge to Build Smarter, Safer Organisations

Dr. Manuel Seidel, Founder & CEO, ecoPortal

Craig Bleakley, Safety & Risk Consultant, ecoPortal

As AI continues to revolutionise safety management, the role of C-suite leaders is more critical than ever in fostering a culture of engagement alongside innovation.

This session will explore how AI can not only help close the safety gap but also drive employee participation, empower safety leadership, and enhance risk management.

Key Takeaways:

• Learn how AI can be used to close safety gaps, improve risk management, and create a more proactive safety culture within your organisation.
• Discover how AI tools can empower employees and safety leaders, driving greater participation and engagement in safety initiatives.
• Explore the key opportunities and challenges involved in integrating AI into existing safety systems, and how to overcome common barriers.
• Understand how C-suite leaders can foster a culture of safety that combines both innovation and engagement, using AI to create smarter, safer workplaces.

40min

Dr. Manuel Seidel

Manuel is passionate about transforming traditional 'box tick' health & safety, sustainability and risk management systems into modern [...]

Craig Bleakley

I am an accredited health and safety professional having worked with hundreds of companies and organisations across New Zealand and Australia, [...]

Networking Break

20min

Keynote Panel Discussion – Harnessing Innovation to create safer and risk reduced Workplaces

PANELLISTS: 

Rachel Moon, Chapter Lead/Snr Mgr People Safety Business Partnering, Air New Zealand

Terry Johnson, GM Health Safety & Wellbeing, Summerset Group Holdings Limited

Charles De Vilder, GM, Health, Safety & Environment, 3 Islands Intermodel

MODERATOR:

Innovation is rapidly transforming the health and safety landscape, from AI-driven analytics and predictive technologies to smart wearables and connected safety systems. Yet, technology alone doesn’t guarantee safer outcomes, success depends on how innovation is integrated into people, processes, and culture.

In this forward-thinking panel, health and safety leaders will explore how to leverage innovation to reduce risk, enhance decision-making, and empower workers. The discussion will unpack examples of technology adoption that have improved visibility, responsiveness, and overall workplace safety performance.

Key Takeaways

• Understand how innovations such as AI, IoT, automation, and data analytics can be applied to predict and prevent safety incidents before they occur.
• Learn how to embed innovation into daily safety practices while maintaining human connection, trust, and accountability.
• Explore how digital tools can provide real-time insights that strengthen safety governance, compliance, and performance tracking.
• Discover how to future-proof your organisation’s safety approach by fostering agility, collaboration, and continuous improvement through innovation.

30min

Terry Johnson

Across the last 25 years I have led organisations in H&S Strategy, Leadership & Governance processes. I have gained experience across many [...]

Rachel Moon

Bio coming [...]

Charles De Vilder

A dedicated health and safety professional with a passion for creating and embedding process improvements in health, safety and wellbeing, and [...]

Breakout Session – Raising safety standards across contractors and subcontractors

Rachel Newman, Regional Safety Manager, New Zealand, Lineage

Maintaining consistent safety standards across complex contractor networks is a growing challenge for many organisations.

This session will explore practical strategies to strengthen accountability, improve communication, and ensure alignment on safety expectations throughout the supply chain.

Key Takeaways:

• Building clear safety governance and accountability frameworks for contractors and subcontractors
• Enhancing onboarding, training, and competency verification processes
• Using data and audits to monitor and improve performance across multiple worksites
• Fostering a shared safety culture through collaboration and leadership engagement

20min

Rachel Newman

People are a business’s biggest asset which is why I’m passionate about helping people keep healthy and safe at work. I started my career in [...]

Breakout Session – Cultural Transformation and Engagement

Afele Paea, Health & Safety Manager, Te Roopu Taurima

Creating lasting safety improvements requires more than systems, it demands a cultural shift driven by genuine engagement at every level.

This session will examine how organisations can build trust, accountability, and shared ownership to embed safety into everyday behaviour.

Key Takeaways:

• • Defining what a positive safety culture looks like within your organisation
• • Engaging leaders and frontline teams to drive meaningful change
• • Overcoming resistance and sustaining cultural momentum over time
• • Measuring cultural maturity and linking engagement to safety performan

20min

Afele Paea

Hugely passionate about the HS & Well-being of all people and am advocating for them all day. In his current role, he facilitates [...]

Breakout Session – Enhancing Safety Through AI-Powered Driver Monitoring

Adam Bowers, Safety, Health and Wellbeing Partner, Linfox Australia & New Zealand

This 30-minute interactive workshop equips safety leaders with practical strategies to improve workplace safety using AI in-cab driver monitoring technology, especially in high-risk sectors such as transportation. Participants will discover how AI can identify risk indicators like fatigue, distraction, and harsh driving events before they lead to incidents.

The session explores how this technology supports proactive safety management, aligns with Human and Organisational Performance (HOP) and Just Culture principles, and strengthens both safety and operational efficiency.

• Learn how AI-driven monitoring uses behavioural data to identify early warning signs and reduce incident rates.
• Understand how AI complements HOP, Safety Differently, and Just Culture approaches that prioritise learning and care.
• Gain strategies to address privacy concerns, build trust, and drive workforce engagement through transparent communication.
• Explore how to position AI monitoring as both a safety and performance enhancement tool that improves efficiency and reduces costs.

20min

Adam Bowers

Experienced Associate with a demonstrated history of working in the construction industry. Skilled in Government, Emergency Management, Workplace [...]

Free Time

1h 20min

Networking Drinks

60min

Networking Dinner

2h