Program
MAIN STAGE PLENARY
The Collider, Tech Central
7:30am
Arrival · Registration opens. Coffee and a light breakfast
8:30am
Welcome
Acknowledgement of Country and welcome from our MC.
8:45am
KEYNOTE
Proptech 2027
Kylie Davis · President, Proptech Australia
What are the opportunities and challenges Australian proptechs face over the next 12 to 18 months? Proptech Australia President Kylie Davis sets the scene.
9:15am
KEYNOTE
The Future with AI
Nigel Dalton · Thoughtworks
Four years into the AI boom, the jury is still out. Large language models have delivered pockets of real efficiency, but also slop, dependency and disruption, and nobody can yet show they've lifted our quality of life or what our organisations produce. AI is also only one part of the disruption, alongside climate change, ageing populations and widening inequality. Nigel draws on the history of big technology-driven shifts to ask what comes next, and makes the case that proptech, which contributes $120b to Australian GDP and supports more than 1m people, could be the industry that shows everyone else how to get it right.
9:45am
PANEL
Structural or Cyclical? The Real Drivers of Housing Affordability
Lucinda Hartley · Co-founder, Zeroo, and author of Finding Home
Atom Go Tian · Economist, Ray White
Eliza Owen · Principal Advisor, NSW Office of the Rental Commissioner
Australians are being squeezed from both sides of the housing market. Buyers face high prices and deposit hurdles, while renters face low vacancies and rising rents. How much of this is the market cycle, and how much is built into the structure of our housing system? Ray White economist Atom Go Tian, urban designer and Zeroo co-founder Lucinda Hartley (author of Finding Home) and Eliza Owen, Principal Advisor at the NSW Office of the Rental Commissioner, unpack the forces behind affordability and the impact of the current market downturn.
10:15am
FIRESIDE CHAT
The Agentic Imperative
Michael Scutt · Head of AI, Google APAC, in conversation with Sev Thomassian · Optus
AI has stopped answering questions and started doing the work. Are we ready? Michael sees how Australia's largest organisations are putting AI agents to work. Sev leads customer facing AI inside one of the country's biggest consumer businesses, after various senior roles at Domain and McKinsey, where he also focused on AI strategy. In this fireside chat they'll look at what agentic AI really looks like in production, where it's delivering and where it isn't, and what property businesses should be doing about it now.
10:45am
Morning tea
11:15am
Attracting International Capital into Your Proptech
Stuart Daun · The Proptech Connection
Offshore investors are taking a closer look at Australian proptech, and US investors in particular are paying attention to what's being built here. But international capital comes with its own expectations, and the founders who close rounds are the ones who position their offerings in language and terms investors understand. Stuart Daun of The Proptech Connection shares what global investors are looking for right now and how to find, get noticed by, and convert the right ones. He'll also explain what makes an Australian proptech stand out in a crowded environment amid increasing global innovation.
11:45am
KEYNOTE
Building Trust in an AI World
Dr Sarah Bell · MRI Software
We keep trying to make artificial intelligence trustworthy. But trust has never been a property of technology. It is a relationship between people, institutions and power. So when machines acquire agency, trust depends not on what they are but on who gave them power, what they are permitted to do and who remains accountable.
12:15pm
FIRESIDE CHAT
The Credibility Blueprint
Amy Gerraty · Real Prime, in conversation with John Minns · Proptech Australia
AI has made it cheaper than ever to look like a credible proptech founder –
a slick landing page, a working demo, a confident pitch -- while the real infrastructure of trust stays invisible: licensing, trust account obligations, data protection, and genuine knowledge of the industry being disrupted. Drawing on experience as former Chief Regulatory Officer at an ASX-listed proptech, Amy unpacks what's usually missing beneath a fast, AI-generated demo.
12:30pm
KEYNOTE
The AI Mirror
Michael Kong · Former CTO, Australian regulator, and adviser to Defence and Home Affairs
When AI can do a task cheaply and at scale, it shows how much of our work was never as uniquely human as we believed. It also holds up a mirror image of ourselves. So do we like what we see? Michael Kong, former CTO for an Australian regulator, Gartner consultant and adviser to Defence and Home Affairs, will explore the impact of AI on our thinking, the reflection of ourselves that we are building, and the opportunity in front of us to change, not just the AI, but ourselves.
1:00pm
Lunch · Then choose your afternoon track
AFTERNOON TRACKS
After lunch, choose your stream. The Residential track stays on the main stage at The Collider. The Commercial track runs in parallel in the Stone & Chalk Level 1 boardroom, in the same building. Everyone comes back together for the closing keynote.
RESIDENTIAL TRACK
The Collider · from 1:45pm
1:45pm
PANEL
Solving AI’s Last Mile Problem
Scott Bateman · CEO, Kolmeo (host) · Darren McCoy · CTO, Barry Plant · Chantelle Collin · Head of Property Management, Bresic Whitney · Pamela Medeiros · Head of Investment Management, Di Jones
Real estate agencies are curious about AI, and many are already paying for products with it built in. But in too many offices those tools sit unused or half used, and that gap between adoption and advantage is quietly feeding scepticism about what AI can really deliver. Kolmeo CEO Scott Bateman leads a panel of senior real estate leaders to unpack what's really standing in the way. What are agencies most focused on right now, and are proptechs solving those problems or just a hammer looking for a nail? What gets a purchase over the line, why do teams embrace some tools and ignore others, and what does good change management actually look like? And when agencies hear proptech talk about what's next with AI, are they excited or confused? What can we as an industry do to build clarity and confidence?
2:15pm
CONVERSATION
New Leaders on the Block
Simon Berglund · Reapit · Brian Donn · PropertyMe
Between them, Reapit and PropertyMe power most of Australia's real estate agencies. Both now have new leaders who come from outside the industry, have private equity funding for growth and over the past 18 months have altered their course. Meet the new leaders of two of the country’s most powerful proptechs to learn what keeps them awake at night, their take on AI and how they see the future of proptech.
2:35pm
PANEL
Beyond Listing Data
AJ Chand · Chief Growth Officer, Forms Live · Tim Jenner · Managing Director (Australia), Valocity · Sarah Gorman · Co-founder of agri-fintech, Digital Agriculture Services
Property is now generating datasets it has never had before. These include contracts and compliance records, digital valuations and lending data, agricultural and satellite and climate risk data. Tim and Sarah will explain how these complex new datasets are driving AI adoption. They look at where the data comes from, who owns it, how it is cleaned and connected, and what has to be true before agents, lenders and insurers will trust AI-driven decisions built on it.
3:05pm
PANEL
Capitalising on Energy Efficiency in a Shifting Market
Cecille Weldon · Founder, Energy Efficiency Features Standard (host)
Panellists to be announced
As the property market shifts, owners and investors are asking which upgrades will add value and valuers, lenders and buyers are asking whether it shows. This panel unpacks the energy efficiency conversation - from verifiable data capture and Home Energy Ratings through to valuation and finance, and asks what residential property businesses need on their roadmaps to support it. Moderated by Cecille Weldon with panellists from valuation, government and proptech, this panel explores where perceptions of value are shifting, how finance is responding and what to build first.
3:40pm
FIRESIDE CHAT
Lessons from a Serial Entrepreneur
Ian Campbell · Co-founder and CEO, GoList, in conversation with Sarah Dawson · PropertyMe
Ian Campbell has spent more than 20 years building technology for Australian real estate. He co-founded AIRE and gave the industry RiTA, years before ChatGPT made AI mainstream, before selling to CoreLogic. He's now co-founder and CEO of GoList. Knowing what he knows now, what is he doing differently? What went right back then, what did it cost, and what should founders building with AI today learn from one of the first?
COMMERCIAL TRACK
Stone & Chalk, Level 1 Boardroom · from 1:45pm · Curated by Carolyn Trickett.
1:45pm
The AI Capability Chasm: Up-skilling Your B2B Customers for Tech Adoption
Dr Biyanka Ekanayake · UTS
Explore how a widening capability gap between tech-savvy junior staff and senior decision-makers stalls your software's adoption. Discover structured training and mentoring frameworks to help your clients successfully deploy and champion your tools.
2:15pm
FIRESIDE CHAT
Capital in a Tight Market: Hard-Won Lessons from Our Latest Funding Round
Derek Feebrey · Trendspek
Get a candid, behind-the-scenes account of navigating a successful venture capital raise in a challenging economic climate. Discover how to articulate your valuation, pitch deep tech defensibility, and keep investors engaged.
2:30pm
Scaling Without Snags: The Founder's Guide to Capital, IP, and Compliance
John Turnbull · Cornwalls
A critical legal checklist detailing how to protect your IP, structure robust ESS, investor agreements, and regulatory frameworks. Learn how to prevent critical governance errors that risk jeopardising your upcoming funding rounds or eventual exit strategy.
3:00pm
Scaling a global PropTech business from ANZ in the AI age
Dai Williams · Re-Leased
Drawing on Dai’s experience scaling SiteMinder in the pre-AI era and Re-Leased today, this session explores how the playbook for global growth is changing. What remains true, what is different in the AI age, and how is AI changing the product, operating model and strategic decisions required to scale globally from ANZ?
3:30pm
PANEL
Crack the Corporate Code: Sales and Integration Strategies for Enterprise Clients
Carolyn Trickett · JLL Spark (host)
Dai Williams · Re-Leased · James Keane · Openspace · Dr Benjamin Coorey · Archistar
Scaling past early adopters requires robust enterprise sales pipelines and seamless onboarding systems. Hear how these Proptechs learned how to satisfy corporate procurement requirements, handle rigorous data security audits, and work through the layers of enterprise executives to ensure success.
MAIN STAGE PLENARY
The Collider · from 4:00pm
4:00pm
CLOSING KEYNOTE
The Next Three Years
Dr Rishni Ratnam · CEO, MXA Consulting
Across the conference, each session has circled the same question: as AI does more of the work, what's left for us? And if we don't like that, how do we change it? In our closing address, AI expert Dr Rishni Ratnam looks at where the frontier of AI is headed and how we can build human judgement alongside the technology. At a time when it's impossible to know all the answers, he'll send you home with the questions that every proptech leader needs to ask to build a blueprint for trust.
4:30pm
Wrap and close