The data and AI experience for business leaders, technical users and SAS Partners

8:30am

Registration Open & Networking

9:15am

Conference Welcome

Craig Jennings, Vice President & Managing Director ANZ, SAS
Tracey Spicer AM

9:25am

Keynote: Outcomes that Outperform
Discover how SAS is shaping the future of data and AI with breakthrough innovations that push the boundaries of what’s possible. From Agentic AI to Digital Twins and Quantum AI, this keynote sets the tone for how organizations can partner with SAS to reduce complexity, accelerate productivity, and deliver outcomes that matter.

Bryan Harris, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, SAS

10:00am

More Productive Data & AI: The SAS® Viya® Portfolio
Explore how the SAS Viya platform — including SAS Models and SAS Solutions — helps teams do more with their data, faster. Learn how organizations around the world are driving productivity and scaling value with innovations like SAS Viya Workbench, SAS Data Maker, and SAS Viya Copilot in Model Studio. This session includes a featured use case from a local customer.

Deepak Ramanathan, Vice President, Global Technology Practice, SAS
Jacky Long, Advisory Solutions Architect, SAS

10:35am

Morning Tea & Networking

11:10am

Responsible AI Driven Decisions
Dive into how organizations are building AI they can trust — from explainability and governance to real-world results. See how SAS is enabling responsible, data-driven decisions through Intelligent Decisioning and Agentic AI in action, across a range of industries.

Alyssa Farrell, Director Global Health Care and Life Sciences Industry Marketing, SAS

11:30am

AI for Everyone, Everywhere
See how SAS Managed Cloud and our global partner ecosystem are making AI more accessible, scalable, and impactful. This session also features a pre-recorded conversation between SAS Co-Founder & CEO Dr. Jim Goodnight and Microsoft Chairman & CEO Satya Nadella, exploring the future of AI in business, technology, and society.

Ann Heng, Director Alliances and Channels, SAS

11:55am

Customer Story: Sax Institute
Solving real-life public health challenges with the power of data and AI

Matt Gorringe will share insights into Sax Institute's journey with SAS, revealing key insights into how one of Australia's leading health research organisations is leveraging data and AI. Using SAS as their technology partner, Sax Institute develops, tests and connects Australia's leading health researchers to drive life-changing outcomes in health research, policies and services.

Matt Gorringe, Senior Director, Data and Research Services
Ann Heng, Director Alliances and Channels, SAS

12:10pm

Agents of Change: Navigating AI’s Rise in Financial Services

Today's financial services industry is changing fast, and innovation is everywhere. AI, including traditional machine learning, generative AI, and AI agentic systems, is a key driver of this transformation. These technologies are making both front and back-office operations more efficient and are changing how institutions manage risk, fraud, and compliance. This panel explores how financial institutions across the globe are grappling with how to govern their information assets and their AI systems whilst building a sustainable, ethical, and trustworthy future for AI in finance.

Panelists:
James Clarke, Risk Advisory & Transformation Leader, Deloitte
Hemanshu Parekh, Executive Director – Financial Crimes Surveillance Operation, Thematics and BTL, Standard Chartered Bank; Chair - United for Wildlife, Asia Pacific
Terisa Roberts, Global Director & Global Lead for Risk Modelling, Decisioning & Governance, SAS
Tracey Spicer AM

12:35pm

Networking Lunch

1:40pm

Guest Keynote – Man-Made: How to Beat AI Bias
Artificial Intelligence is often sold as the solution to our most pressing challenges—more efficient, more accurate, and more objective than humans. But what if it’s worsening the very problems it promises to fix? In this eye-opening, deeply researched, and surprisingly funny keynote, multiple Walkley Award-winning journalist Tracey Spicer AM pulls back the curtain on the hidden biases lurking within AI systems. Drawing on real-world examples and cutting-edge research, Tracey reveals how AI algorithms—built on flawed data and human assumptions and deepened by machine learning—can quietly embed discrimination into everything from hiring and healthcare to policing and advertising.

From the ‘bodgy bots’ that reinforce stereotypes to systems that jeopardise brand integrity and customer trust, Tracey explains the very real risks that unchecked AI poses to your organisation and community. More importantly, she arms audiences with the knowledge and tools they need to fight back. With a powerful mix of storytelling, practical strategies, and a hopeful call to action, Tracey inspires leaders, professionals, and everyday users to take control of the technology shaping our future. Rather than a dystopia, she presents a ‘protopia’—a more inclusive, ethical, and human-centred vision of AI that benefits us all.

Tracey Spicer AM

2:15pm

Customer Story: Department of Veterans' Affairs

Regan Lu, Director | Actuarial Analytics Data and Insights Branch, Research Evaluation and Data Division
Marie Watson, Head, Customer Success Manager, ANZ, SAS

In this fireside chat with Regan Lu, you will hear how the Department of Veterans’ Affairs deployed industry-leading analytics to more accurately forecast the demand for DVA across current and former ADF serving personnel and provide government-leading budgeting accuracy to the Australian Department of Finance, securing the agency’s current and future funding needs.

2:35pm

Partner Story: SAS® and AWS - Trusted decisions on the world’s most comprehensive cloud platform

Olivier Debaillon, Head of AI, ANZ, Amazon Web Services
Jonathan Butow, Head of AI & Innovation, SAS

This fireside chat spotlights proven use cases where AI, machine learning, and generative AI are delivering real world outcomes for SAS on AWS customers.

3:00pm

Customer Story: HCF

Dr Virginia Wheway, Head of Data Science, HCF; Board Member Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute
Michela Guimaraes, Senior Customer Success Manager, SAS

3:25pm

Afternoon Tea & Networking

4:00pm

Solution Streams

Tailor your experience by attending the sessions that matter most to you.

5:15pm

Melbourne Business School: SAS Practice Prize
Yalçın Akçay, Professor of Operations Management, Melbourne Business School and Craig Jennings, Vice President & Managing Director, SAS ANZ will announce the three finalists for the 2025 Melbourne Business School–SAS Practice Prize! This year's projects demonstrated the power of advanced analytics to solve real-world challenges and deliver measurable organisational impact.

• Business Science Corporation – for a simulation-optimisation platform that transformed operational decision-making in gold processing
• SEEK – for a Responsible AI Assessment Tool that embeds fairness and bias detection into recruitment algorithms at scale
• Suncorp Group – for an interpretable NLP solution that detects and corrects miscoded insurance claims, improving data quality and pricing fairness.

Co-chairs:
Yalçın Akçay, Professor of Operations Management, Melbourne Business School
Craig Jennings, Vice President & Managing Director ANZ, SAS

5:45pm

Wrap-Up and Conference Close

Craig Jennings, Vice President & Managing Director ANZ, SAS
Tracey Spicer AM

5:50pm

Networking Reception