A snapshot of the 2019 ASFA Conference

4 min read
4 min read

If you attended last month, then you’re probably still contemplating some of the big ideas and themes—around change, customer, culture, compliance, competition and creativity—that were explored over three big days. And if you missed it, here’s a recap of some of the awe-inspiring presentations and thought-provoking conversations that transpired.

Day one kicked-off with keynote presentations from a number of esteemed speakers including the Hon. Julie Bishop, Richard Goyder AO, Stephen M. R. Covey and Moshe A. Milevsky.

Julie Bishop at the 2019 ASFA ConferenceThe Hon. Julie Bishop

Richard Goyder AO and Dr Martin Fahy at the 2019 ASFA ConferenceRichard Goyder AO and Dr Martin Fahy

Coinciding with World Kindness Day, delegates heard a moving story about how to harness the power of kindness to make a positive difference from Kindness Factory Founder, Kath Koschel, who also appeared on The Project that evening after being filmed on-site earlier that day.

Once the day’s final keynote sessions concluded, which could only be described as incredibly moving, delegates were invited to join the 40 exhibitors in the Super Expo for an official networking event and to pledge an act of kindness on the Kindness Wall. The goal was to beat the current world record of 4,900 acts of kindness pinned to a bulletin board which, we’re pleased to report, was achieved by a narrow margin.

Kath Koschel and the Kindness Wall at the 2019 ASFA ConferenceKath Koschel (R) and the Kindness Wall

The Conference’s second day was dedicated to parallel sessions, where delegates chose between 28 sessions covering a diverse range of technical and thought-provoking content including culture, global retirement trends, insurance in super, customer engagement, sustainability, investing, digital transformation and mental health.

Member outcomes session at the 2019 ASFA ConferenceMember outcomes session

These sessions included two new learning formats introduced for the first time this year; the Lego Serious Play sessions and the Dialogue in the Dark sessions supported by Victoria Guide Dogs. Conference Committee Chair, Andrew Boal, commented on how profound the Dialogue in the Dark session had been, saying that “in the dark everyone’s voices were equal” highlighting the importance of “collaboration and clear communication”.

Dialogue in the Dark session at the 2019 ASFA ConferenceDialogue in the Dark session

Day two culminated with a gala dinner, giving delegates the opportunity to come together and reflect on the content delivered so far. During the dinner ASFA CEO, Dr Martin Fahy, awarded ASFA Life Membership to two members in recognition of their significant contribution made to the industry—Nicolette Rubinsztein and Joe De Bruyn—before delegates enjoyed entertainment from global music sensations, The Ten Tenors, and Mark Seymour.

Lifetime achievement recipient Nicolette Rubinsztein at the 2019 ASFA ConferenceLifetime achievement recipient Nicolette Rubinsztein with Dr Martin Fahy

The Ten Tenors at the 2019 ASFA ConferenceThe Ten Tenors

The final day began with a much-anticipated keynote address by APRA’s Helen Rowell who unveiled APRA’s new heat maps, the first of which will be published in early December.

Helen Rowell at the 2019 ASFA ConferenceAPRA Chair Helen Rowell

Senator the Hon. Jane Hume followed with an address reiterating Rowell’s earlier message that underperforming funds should merge in order to make the super system more efficient and deliver better outcomes to members.

Senator the Hon. Jane Hume at the 2019 ASFA ConferenceSenator the Hon. Jane Hume

Delegates then heard from five inspirational speakers, each one sharing invaluable ideas on how to be creative, emotionally agile and resilient during challenging circumstances.

Fredrik Haren gave an energetic presentation about creativity, highlighting its importance during rapid change and sharing ideas from around the world.

Susan David encouraged us to be kind to ourselves, saying “When you create a space that feels kind and connected with yourself and others, you are likely to get greater levels of honesty, of motivation, of commitment and of success,” she said.

Susan David at the 2019 ASFA ConferenceSusan David

Jill Klein explored the theory of cognitive dissonance, explaining that it is the uncomfortable feeling when get we realise that the way we’ve done things in the past may not be the best way going forward. To overcome cognitive dissonance, Klein recommended acknowledging the emotional discomfort and then move on by saying “we were doing the best we could at the time but now we know more”.

Jill Klein at the 2019 ASFA ConferenceJill Klein

Dylan Alcott OAM, delivered a humorous yet profound presentation that broke down the stigmas associated with disability, and Todd Sampson reminded everyone that we can all achieve so much more than we think by having a flexible, rather than a fixed, mindset, during the Grand Finale Lunch: Mind over matter.

Todd Sampson at the 2019 ASFA ConferenceTodd Sampson

You would have received the newsletter after each of the Conference days. However, if you missed them, these can be viewed on the ASFA Conference website.

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Derek Thompson

Best Selling Author, Podcast Host of 'Plain English'

Sessions

Keynote 8 – Navigating the energy transition: opportunities, investor strategies and policy needs

Few speakers can match Derek Thompson‘s ability to synthesize mega-trends in society, labor, economics, technology, and politics. Put another way: Derek trawls the data sets and does the forecasting and deep reporting necessary to help us better understand how we live, how we vote, how we spend, and how we work.

In his paradigm-shifting #1 New York Times bestseller, Abundance (co-written with Ezra Klein), this award-winning journalist reveals how our policies and culture have pushed us into a world of scarcity (not enough housing, workers, or progress)—and offers a radical new path towards a world where housing is affordable, energy is plentiful, and innovation flourishes across industries.

He shares a compelling vision of a future where we have more than enough for everybody, and a practical, actionable roadmap for how to get there. It starts with taking more risks, building more expansively, and recognizing that we all have the power to create a world of abundance. “Everything’s utopian until it’s reality,” he says.

Carmen Beverley-Smith

Executive Director - Superannuation, Life & Private Health Insurance, APRA

Sessions

Keynote 8 – Navigating the energy transition: opportunities, investor strategies and policy needs

Carmen joined APRA in March 2023 and holds the role of Executive Director, Life and Private Health Insurance and Superannuation.  

She has had an esteemed career in financial services, spanning over 25 years. She has held diverse leadership roles at Westpac and Commonwealth Bank of Australia, including across risk, transformation and change, product and portfolio development, and sales and service. 

Prior to joining APRA, she held the role of General Manager, Risk Transformation Delivery Integration at Westpac. This involved leading the group-wide implementation of a suite of solutions to uplift risk management capability and develop data, analytics and reporting. 

Carmen leads with a values-driven approach and a particular interest in developing and mentoring talent. 

She holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Accounting, is a certified Chartered Accountant and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. 

Amy C. Edmondson

Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, Harvard Business School

Sessions

Keynote 8 – Navigating the energy transition: opportunities, investor strategies and policy needs

Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, a chair established to support the study of human interactions that lead to the creation of successful enterprises that contribute to the betterment of society.

Edmondson has been recognized by the biannual Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers since 2011, and most recently was ranked #1 in 2021 and 2023; she also received that organization’s Breakthrough Idea Award in 2019, and Talent Award in 2017.  She studies teaming, psychological safety, and organisational learning, and her articles have been published in numerous academic and management outlets, including Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Harvard Business Review and California Management Review. Her 2019 book, The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation and Growth (Wiley), has been translated into 15 languages. Her prior books – Teaming: How organizations learn, innovate and compete in the knowledge economy (Jossey-Bass, 2012), Teaming to Innovate (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and Extreme Teaming (Emerald, 2017) – explore teamwork in dynamic organisational environments. In Building the future: Big teaming for audacious innovation (Berrett-Koehler, 2016), she examines the challenges and opportunities of teaming across industries to build smart cities. 

Edmondson’s latest book, Right Kind of Wrong (Atria), builds on her prior work on psychological safety and teaming to provide a framework for thinking about, discussing, and practicing the science of failing well. First published in the US and the UK in September, 2023, the book is due to be translated into 24 additional languages, and was selected for the Financial Times and Schroders Best Business Book of the Year award.

Before her academic career, she was Director of Research at Pecos River Learning Centers, where she worked on transformational change in large companies. In the early 1980s, she worked as Chief Engineer for architect/inventor Buckminster Fuller, and her book A Fuller Explanation: The Synergetic Geometry of R. Buckminster Fuller (Birkauser Boston, 1987) clarifies Fuller’s mathematical contributions for a non-technical audience. Edmondson received her PhD in organisational behavior, AM in psychology, and AB in engineering and design from Harvard University.

 

Daniel Mulino MP

Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services

Sessions

Keynote 8 – Navigating the energy transition: opportunities, investor strategies and policy needs

Born in Brindisi, Italy, Daniel was a young child when he moved with his family to Australia. He grew up in Canberra and completed his first degrees – arts and law – at the ANU. He then completed a Master of Economics (University of Sydney) and a PhD in economics from Yale.

He lectured at Monash University, was an economic adviser in the Gillard government and was a Victorian MP from 2014 to 2018. As Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer of Victoria, Daniel helped deliver major infrastructure projects and developed innovative financing structures for community projects.

In 2018 he was preselected for the new federal seat of Fraser and became its first MP at the 2019 election, re-elected in 2022 and 2025. From 2022 to 2025, Daniel was chair of the House of Representatives’ Standing Economics Committee in which he chaired inquiries; economic dynamism, competition and business formation and insurers’ responses to 2022 major floods claims.

In 2025, he became the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services.

In August 2022, Daniel published ‘Safety Net: The Future of Welfare in Australia’, which aims to explore the ways in which an insurance approach can improve the effectiveness of government service delivery.