Kate is a passionate urbanist and placemaker with more than 25 years of international experience working throughout Australia, as well as Asia, Europe, and the United States. She is globally respected for her expertise in visioning and positioning city-scale precincts, working sensitively with stakeholders and the community to co-create powerful new futures for well-loved places.

She has been influential in shaping thinking about the global competitiveness of Australian Cities, their future identity, and quality of life. A regular speaker, panellist, and conference moderator; Kate is recognised as a thought leader in relation to city-shaping, knowledge and innovation precincts, and talent attraction.

Kate thrives on collaboration and works effectively in partnership with government, community, non-profit, and private sector stakeholders. She has strong experience in conceptualising and delivering complex urban projects, working with a diverse mix of stakeholders to curate a bold and innovative vision for future urban life that will deliver enduring shared value outcomes.

Find out more by visiting the Conference Program

Dr Kate Meyrick
Director of Urbis

Simon Kuestenmacher
Director and Co-Founder of
The Demographics Group

Simon Kuestenmacher is a Director and Co-founder of The Demographics Group based in Melbourne, Australia. Simon holds degrees in geography from leading universities in Berlin and Melbourne and worked for several years as a business consultant with KPMG Australia.

In 2017 Simon, with Bernard Salt, co-founded The Demographics Group. The group provides specialist advice on demographic, consumer and social trends for business. He presents on demographic and global trends that are shaping Australia today and into the future, and his presentations and quirky observations are enjoyed by corporate, government, and industry audiences alike.

Simon is a columnist at The New Daily newspaper and a regular contributor to The Australian newspaper; he is also a media commentator on demographic and data matters.

Simon has amassed 600,000 global followers on social media, reaches over 35 million people every month, and ranks as one of the world’s Top 10 influencers in data visualisation. If you can’t get enough of data that explains how the world works, make sure to follow him on Twitter or any of his other social channels.

Find out more by visiting the Conference Program.

Kerstin is the design director and leader on all projects undertaken by KTA, supported by a dedicated and skilled team. Her design excellence, project success, and strategic thinking have been recognised through a raft of architectural awards at state, national and international levels.

In recognition of her work and contribution to the profession and tertiary education, Kerstin was elevated to Life Fellow by the Australian Institute of Architects in 2017. In 2022, she was appointed Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and, in 2023, she was awarded the Gold Medal, the Australian Institute of Architects’ highest honour.

Find out more by visiting the Conference Program.

Kerstin Thompson
Principal at
Kerstin Thompson Architects

Mark Pesce
Podcast Host of
The Next Billion Seconds, 
This Week in Startups Australia, 
Co-founder of Wisely AI

Mark Pesce is a futurist, inventor, writer, entrepreneur, educator and podcaster. In 1994, Pesce co-invented VRML, a 3D interface to the Web. Pesce was a judge on the ABC hit series *The New Inventors*, celebrating Australia's newest inventions, and writes an award-winning column for the global tech publication *The Register*.

Pesce brings his skills as a futurist to diverse sectors of the economy, including financial institutions ranging from Westpac, World Bank, HSBC, and SWIFT. He regularly facilitates and mentors hackathons on topics as diverse as fintech, blockchain, virtual reality, and education. Pesce hosts two podcasts: *This Week in Startups Australia* - exploring tech startups; and *The Next Billion Seconds* - winner of the Best Technical and Scientific Podcast of 2018 - connecting the work of today's brightest thinkers with the world of tomorrow. Pesce has nine books, including *Augmented Reality: Unboxing Tech's Next Big Thing* and *Getting Started with ChatGPT*.

Pesce founded graduate programs at both the University of Southern California and the Australian Film, Radio and Television School, holding appointments as Honorary Associate at the University of Sydney, and Honorary Adjunct at UTS.

Find out more by visiting the Conference Program.

Anne Hollonds is Australia’s National Children’s Commissioner, a role based at the Australian Human Rights Commission.

The National Children’s Commissioner monitors policy and legislation to ensure that the human rights of children are protected and promoted, and provides advice to government.

Formerly Director of the Australian Institute of Family Studies, for 23 years Anne was Chief Executive of government and non-government organisations focused on research, policy and practice in child and family wellbeing.

As a psychologist Anne has worked extensively in frontline practice, including in child protection; domestic, family and sexual violence; mental health; child and family counselling; parenting education; and family law counselling. 

Anne currently contributes to numerous expert advisory groups and boards. Her report ‘Help Way Earlier!’ How Australia can transform child justice to improve safety and wellbeing’ was tabled in the Australian Parliament in August 2024.

Find out more by visiting the Conference Program.

Anne Hollonds
Australia’s National Children’s 
Commissioner at Australian Human 
Rights Commission

Gus Balbontin
Director at Neu21

Born and bred in wild Patagonia, Gus Balbontin never allowed his small town and humble beginnings get in the way of his big dreams. A healthy disrespect for authority and a severe case of fomo (fear of missing out) landed him in Australia at the young age of 17.

By the age of 22 he had dropped out of uni, hitchhiked South America, set up his first business and landed his dream job at Lonely Planet. Fast forward a few more years and he was leading the company globally, working with companies such as Google X, Nokia and Amazon on the latest technology, creative cultures and high performing teams.

Seeking a change from corporate life, he hung up his boots as the Executive Director and CTO of Lonely Planet and decided to move back to his entrepreneurial roots, becoming an investor, founder and mentor across the start-up ecosystem in Melbourne. He loves sharing a story, he loves even more, knowing those stories make a difference to people, helping them in their own business and life.

Over the last 3 years Gus has presented to audiences of 10 across regional Australia and New Zealand, to audiences of 10,000 across North America, Europe, South America and Asia. To him there’s no difference. Small, large, private, public, board room to mail room, his lessons hit a chord, his simplicity disarms you, his energy infects you and his counterintuitive way of looking at the world will motivate you to do things different.

Often thought as futurist, not because he predicts the future, but instead because he helps you focus on what you can control to deal with any future. Still want to talk trends? Sure! He loves as much as the next person trying to imagine a world run by AI, but he warns that getting too distracted with future guesses will only take time away from you and your company to actually do something about the future.

Find out more by visiting the Conference Program.