The future
is ours
to .
The annual conference for operations, transformation and technology leaders in Banking, Insurance, Healthcare and BPO.
Welcome to Capacity26
Automation is scaling. AI agents are joining the workforce. And the pressure to prove it’s all worth it is rising faster than most organisations can keep up with.
The leaders who own the future aren’t waiting to find out if it paid off. They’re building the evidence as they go.
Capacity26 is built for the people responsible for how organisations actually run and change. Operations leaders. Transformation leaders. Automation and AI leads. CIOs and CTOs.
Different roles. One conversation that matters.
There are questions every leader is sitting with right now:
- Are you backing the right transformation initiatives?
- Is the ROI still there once the project team has moved on?
- Are you in control of what AI is costing you, or just watching the bill?
Real challenges. Honest conversations. Genuine peers.
You’ll hear from leaders doing this for real, spend time with peers carrying the same pressure, and leave with a clearer read on how to use data and AI to focus on what matters, backed by the confidence to prove it.
This is where leaders doing the hard work come to think, connect, and move forward. Come and join them.
An exceptional line-up of speakers sharing real-world expertise and proven operational impact.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
KRZYSZTOF DĄBROWSKI
Owning the future at scale
Krzysztof Dąbrowski leads operations for mBank S.A., one of Poland’s largest banks, and he’s flying in from Warsaw to share what that scale of responsibility looks like in practice.
Regulators want human oversight of every AI decision that matters. The board wants ROI. And the operation’s team still has to run, every single day, while all of that gets figured out in real time.
In this opening keynote session, Krzysztof shares what it actually takes to scale AI transformation inside a regulated bank, where the accountability doesn’t move, even when the work does.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
ERIC PHILIPS
What space taught us about getting it right the first time
In 2025, Eric Philips became the first person to fly into orbit under the Australian flag: an operator making real-time decisions where the margin for error was zero.
A year on, as humanity pushes back toward the Moon, the discipline that kept him alive up there looks a lot like the discipline operations leaders are trying to build down here: data you can trust, people who know when to override the system, teams that hold their nerve under pressure.
Eric closes Capacity26 Melbourne with what operating in genuinely unknown territory demands, and what today’s AI transformation leaders can borrow from someone who never got a second attempt.
Sarah Edwards
Cotality Australia
Adrian Chevalier
KPMG Australia
Shraddha Potay
Bendigo Bank
Sam Peters
EY
Patti Eyers
First Title Australia and New Zealand
Richard Jeffery
ActiveOps
Emma Salthouse
ActiveOps
Phil Moody
ActiveOps
Bhavesh Vaghela
ActiveOps
One day. Nine sessions. The questions Operations, Technology and Transformation leaders are actually asking right now.
From the uncomfortable truth about agentic AI, most pilots never make it to production, to the capacity trap that quietly swallows what automation was supposed to release, to what “in control” even means once AI tokens show up as a cost the CFO can’t ignore.
This isn’t theory. It’s the leaders running large-scale operations sharing exactly what they’re doing about it.
8:30 – 9:30
Breakfast & Registrations
9:30 – 9:45
Welcome
The future is ours to own
Operations is changing faster than ever, with human effort, digital labour, and AI working side by side, redefining what a high-performing operation looks like. In this opening address, we set the scene for Capacity26: why the future of operations belongs to those who choose to shape it, not wait for it, and what that means for how we manage capacity, control the cost of AI, and lead with confidence.
9:45 – 10:30
Keynote
Owning the future at scale
How mBank S.A., one of Poland's largest banks, is navigating AI transformation, human-in-the-loop accountability, and the pressure to prove ROI while regulation tightens.
10:30 – 11:00
Panel Session
The truth about agents
Agentic AI promises autonomous workflows and cost cuts at scale, but most pilots never reach production, and regulators are demanding human oversight of every consequential decision. A frank panel on what agentic AI is actually delivering in operations: where it's working, where it isn't, and what regulators are watching.
11:00 – 11:30
Coffee Break
11:30 – 12:30
ActiveOps Product Showcase
ActiveOps platform: building the future of operations
Every operation today has two workforces: the people you employ and the automation and AI you've invested in. In this session, we'll introduce the ActiveOps Platform and our vision to bring people, automation and AI into one connected picture of capacity, so you know what's actually working, what isn't, and what to do about it.
12:30 – 13:30
Lunch break + Product Labs
13:30 – 14:00
Fireside Chat
The Capacity trap
Automation gets rolled out, the project wraps up, everyone celebrates, but then the capacity it was supposed to free up quietly disappears. That's the capacity trap. In this session, a major financial institution shares how they avoided it: using Decision Intelligence not just to find where automation would pay off, but to make sure the capacity it created was real, released, and put to work. A practical, honest look at getting automation right, all the way to the last mile.
14:00 – 14:30
Fireside Chat
Staying in control when the machine is running
The CFO used to ask one question about operations: are we doing more with less? Now AI has introduced a third resource into the operational model - one without established governance, or an established cost of getting it wrong. How do you build a cost model for something that didn't exist three years ago, and what does good AI cost governance actually look like?
14:30 – 15:00
Panel Session
Augmented, not replaced
When agents handle the repetitive and the predictable, your people get time back. The question nobody warns you about is: time back to do what? Released capacity doesn't reinvest itself, and culture doesn't adapt just because the technology did. This is a panel of operations leaders who are living it, the resistance, the reskilling, the uncomfortable conversations. What does it actually feel like to work alongside a bot? What changed, what didn't, and what would they do differently if they were starting again tomorrow?
15:00 – 15:30
Coffee break + Product labs
15:30 – 16:20
Closing Keynote
What space taught us about getting it right the first time
There is no environment on earth where the consequences of bad data, poor decisions or broken trust are more immediate than in space. In this closing keynote, Eric Philips, first person to fly into orbit under the Australian flag, reflects on what it genuinely means to operate in unknown territory, and what the leaders navigating today's AI transformation can learn from the people who have always had to get it right first time.
16:20 – 16:30
Conference Close
By Invitation Only
The ActiveOps Awards Gala Dinner, recognizes our customers who are committed to operational excellence. Enjoy a night of celebration in the heart of Melbourne’s city centre.
We’re at the W Hotel, Melbourne on 29 October
Located on iconic Flinders Lane in the heart of the CBD, W Melbourne draws its design inspiration from the creative laneway culture surrounding it. A bold, design-led five-star hotel that celebrates the city’s creative spirit and energy.
This is where it starts.
Places are limited – register now and be part of the conversation.