The #1 CX Forum in Australia
Experience the Most Valuable Gathering Across The
Entire Customer Experience Ecosystem
August 5-6, 2026
| The Atrium, Flemington Raceway, Melbourne
The Customer Show - Day 1 Agenda
Main Track
8:00 am - 8:50 am
Registration & Coffee
8:50 am - 9:00 am
Chair Opening Remarks
Jason Smith -
Founder Fresh View Advisory, Former Director of Customer Experience,
Foxtel Group
Chair Opening Remarks - Jason Smith
Foxtel Group
Jason Smith
Founder Fresh View Advisory, Former Director of Customer ExperienceFoxtel Group
9:00 am - 9:40 am
Keynote Panel: The Big CX Debate: Where Should Leaders Invest — Cost Control, AI Scale or Customer-Led Growth?
Simon Reiter -
Chief Technology Officer,
Aware Super
Kanika Puri - Chief Operating Officer, Fast Cover
Michele Fitzgerald - Chief Operating Officer, The Oodie
Jason Smith - Founder Fresh View Advisory, Former Director of Customer Experience, Foxtel Group
- Should investment prioritise containment or conversion?
- How far can AI scale before governance risk outweighs productivity gain?
- Is loyalty investment outperforming acquisition in margin terms?
- Where does personalisation deliver true incrementality versus noise?
- How should leaders sequence cost reduction and growth initiatives under margin pressure?
- What are the 2–3 non-negotiable bets for the next 12 months?
Jason Smith
Founder Fresh View Advisory, Former Director of Customer ExperienceFoxtel Group
9:40 am - 10:10 am
Sponsor
10:10 am - 10:40 am
Case Study: Why Transformation Fails: The Human Factors Behind AI Adoption, Risk and Real Change
Simon Reiter -
Chief Technology Officer,
Aware Super
A focused case study on CareSuper's experience progressing AI initiatives from early pilots through to production, with a clear emphasis on governance, risk and real-world adoption.
The session will explore how AI has been introduced across the organisation, and where programmes have faced friction - particularly in moving from proof of concept to scalable, embedded capability. It will examine the role of governance frameworks, risk controls and operating model decisions in either enabling or slowing progress.
It will share practical learnings from this journey including design choices, governance guardrails and adoption challenges as well as how human factors such as trust, behaviour and resistance have shaped outcomes.
10:40 am - 11:00 am
Speed Networking
11:00 am - 11:30 am
Morning Break
11:30 am - 1:00 pm
Interactive Discussion Groups: Facilitated, peer-led session focused on open discussion and practical insight-sharing
1. AI in CX: moving from experimentation to real, measurable customer outcomes
2. Reimagining the contact centre as a proactive, AI-powered customer engagement hub
3. Orchestrating real-time, omnichannel customer journeys that actually convert
4. Unifying customer data to drive scalable, personalised experiences across the lifecycle
5. Balancing automation and human touch in conversational customer engagement
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Lunch Break
Afternoon Streams
2:00 pm - 2:40 pm Panel Discussion: Industrialising Service Recovery: Protecting Retention While Reducing Remediation Cost
Alicia George - Head of Customer Care ANZ, LifehealthcareRachel Lane - Head of Customer Support, The Lottery Office
Kieran Boyce - Retail Fulfilment & Digital Operations Lead, MECCA Brands
- Clarifying ownership to eliminate repeat contacts and protect at-risk customers
- Strengthening root-cause governance to reduce defect-driven churn
- Accelerating triage in high-value segments to protect lifetime value
- Balancing policy flexibility with commercial risk controls
- Measuring recovery effectiveness in retention, margin and cost-to-serve terms
2:40 pm - 3:10 pm Case Study: Fix Before You Digitise: Improving Contact Centre Performance Without New Technology
Sarah Chamberlain - Head of Customer Operations, Australian Motoring ServicesManuela Metz - Head of Contact Centre, Australian Motoring Services
This session shares how Australian Motoring Services improved cost-to-serve, productivity and customer outcomes by simplifying processes, strengthening operational discipline, and building capability and accountability across the contact centre without major technology investment.
It will cover the problems faced, the constraints in play, and the practical changes made across people, process and operating rhythm, along with honest lessons on what delivered impact quickly, what didn't, and where this approach reaches its limits.
Attendees will gain a clear view of how to measure success without relying on new tools, and where technology starts to make sense once strong operational foundations are in place - offering a highly practical blueprint for leaders under pressure to deliver results now.
3:10 pm - 3:50 pm Coffee Break & Demo Drive
3:50 pm - 4:20 pm Case Study: Redesigning Contact Centre Operations: Improving Efficiency, Experience and Team Performance at Oodie
Michele Fitzgerald - Chief Operating Officer, The OodieLauren Oliver - Customer Experience Manager, The Oodie
Join Chief Operating Officer, Michele Fitzgerald, and Head of CX, Lauren Oliver, for a review of the transformational changes made to the CX team at The Oodie.
This case study will walk through how The Oodie completely redesigned their organisational structure and embraced technology to overcome their peak season challenges.
Find out how Oodie:
- Achieved a reduction in first response time during peak season from 4 days to 44 seconds
- Rolled out automation and help centers which reduced tickets by 50% across the year
- Enabled a more stable agent base throughout the year, that has improved quality of responses and boosted CSAT scores
2:00 pm - 2:40 pm Panel Discussion: Loyalty as a Profit Engine: Retention, Frequency and Margin Economics
Jaimi Farrey - Head of Loyalty, Hanes Brands AustralasiaPascale McBain - Head of Digital, Customer Experience, Bakers Delight
Christopher Douglas - Member Services Director for Pacific, Accor Plus
Adam Posner - Customer loyalty specialist / CEO: The Point of Loyalty / Author: for Love or Mo, The Point of Loyalty
- Insight into organisations who are repositioning loyalty from a rewards led function to a measurable commercial growth engine
- How behavioural data is being used to predict and prevent churn
- Evaluating how owned channels such as email, SMS, apps and wallets are being activated as revenue-generating assets
- Learn how leading teams are embedding incrementality testing to prove true financial impact
- How organisations are driving retention, frequency and margin through loyalty strategies directly accountable to commercial outcomes
Adam Posner
Customer loyalty specialist / CEO: The Point of Loyalty / Author: for Love or MoThe Point of Loyalty
2:40 pm - 3:10 pm Presentation: Technology Tunnel Vision: Why Better Cx Requires More Than Better Tech
The most common mistake in CX transformation isn't choosing the wrong technology. It's reaching for technology before the harder work is done.
Across industries, organisations rush toward platforms, AI, and automation in search of a shortcut, while the real barriers sit upstream: misaligned stakeholders, fragmented processes, and teams that aren'tset up to deliver on the brand promise in the first place. Until those fundamentals are addressed, more technology means more complexity, not more progress.
Real transformation starts with a clear view of the customer, and builds outward from there. People need the context and capability to act. Processes need to be designed around outcomes, not legacy habits. And technology, when it finally enters the picture, should amplify what good already looks like rather than paper over what doesn't work.
3:10 pm - 3:50 pm Coffee Break & Demo Drive
3:50 pm - 4:20 pm Presentation: Loyalty Isn't A Program: What Dough Getters Taught Us About Emotional Loyalty
Pascale McBain - Head of Digital, Customer Experience, Bakers DelightWhen Bakers Delight set out to review its Dough Getters loyalty program, the biggest discovery wasn't about points or rewards—it was about what loyalty actually means to customers. Research with more than 1,000 customers and 130 franchisees revealed that loyalty is driven primarily by trust, love, advocacy and feeling valued, rather than transactions alone. While Dough Getters has a measurable impact on purchase decisions, spend and customer advocacy, the findings suggest that the most successful loyalty programs don't create loyalty—they strengthen the emotional connection customers already have with a brand. This session will share the key insights from the research and explore what they mean for the future of customer loyalty, engagement and brand growth.
4:20 pm - 4:50 pm
Fireside Chat: From Feedback to Revenue: Insight into how Crown Resorts is Operationalising Voice of Customer for Retention and Growth, delivering +20 NPS
Simona Davtyan -
CX Manager,
Crown Resorts
Adam Posner - Customer loyalty specialist / CEO: The Point of Loyalty / Author: for Love or Mo, The Point of Loyalty
- This session will explore how Voice of Customer (VoC) data can be translated into real operational and commercial decisions, using examples from operations within The Crown.
- It will highlight how customer feedback and NPS insights were used at The Crown to identify service gaps, prioritise change, and drive measurable improvements — including a +20 point increase in NPS.
- The session will also share an example where VoC insights led to a negative outcome, unpacking the key lessons learned and how this informed a more effective approach moving forward.
- Attendees will gain a practical view of how to use VoC beyond reporting, to guide decision-making and deliver tangible impact.
Adam Posner
Customer loyalty specialist / CEO: The Point of Loyalty / Author: for Love or MoThe Point of Loyalty
Main Track
4:50 pm - 5:30 pm
Panel Discussion: Optimising Workforce Performance: Protecting Margin Through Capability and Productivity
Mitchell Palmer -
Chief Operating Officer,
Aussie Industries
Lauren Reid - Head of Member Experience, BankVic
Cindy Dent - Director of Customer Experience, Airtasker
Jason Smith - Founder Fresh View Advisory, Former Director of Customer Experience, Foxtel Group
- Improving forecasting and workforce planning to reduce volatility and cost pressure
- Elevating coaching and frontline capability to improve first-contact resolution in high-value journeys
- Redesigning roles and team structures as automation removes lower-value work
- Protecting experienced capability to stabilise quality and reduce churn risk
- Linking productivity gains back to measurable outcomes such as unit cost, retention and margin
Jason Smith
Founder Fresh View Advisory, Former Director of Customer ExperienceFoxtel Group
5:30 pm - 5:40 pm
Chair Closing Remarks
Jason Smith -
Founder Fresh View Advisory, Former Director of Customer Experience,
Foxtel Group
Jason Smith
Founder Fresh View Advisory, Former Director of Customer ExperienceFoxtel Group
5:40 pm - 6:40 pm
Networking Drinks & End of Day 1
7:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Download the Official Agenda for more!
Want to learn more about what's happening at The Customer Show Exec Forum? Download the Official Agenda here for more information.
