Christine Nixon APM was the 19th Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, the first woman to become a police commissioner in Australia. She led 14,000 staff, operating across more than 500 locations and oversaw an annual budget of $1.7 billion.

After retiring from this position, she was appointed to chair the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority and tasked with the oversight and coordination of the largest recovery and rebuilding program Victoria has ever faced.

Christine's presentation will focus on women in leadership and will address both women succeeding in a male dominated profession, and what men need to keep in mind when leading a team with women in what is traditionally such a male dominated field.

In 2004, four Latino teenagers arrived at the Marine Advanced Technology Education Robotics Competition at the University of California, Santa Barbara. They were born in Mexico but raised in Phoenix, Arizona, where they attended an underfunded public high school. No one had ever suggested to these 4 friends that they might amount to much—but two inspiring science teachers had convinced these impoverished, undocumented kids from the desert who had never even seen the ocean that they should try to build an underwater robot. 

The inspiration behind the hit movie, Spare Parts, Oscar Vazquez was captain of the Carl Hayden High School Robotics Program that overcame extreme odds and beat Duke University, Virginia Tech and MIT in a National Robotics Competition.

On stage, Oscar shares the lessons learned and how he was able to embrace the obstacles put in front of him by accepting the challenge and finding a solution.

Ben Morgan (Director of IT) & Andrew McCarthy (Assistant Director of Learning Technologies) are from United World College in Singapore where they work closely together to lead change and encourage staff and students to step into the unknown. 

They will share their experiences of, among other things, using data to inform progress and thoughts on codifying best practices to sustain innovation.