Dr Jordan Nguyen

Dr Jordan Nguyen is a leading Australian engineer, inventor and innovator, committed to improving as many lives as possible, and becoming a driving force behind both human and technological evolution as we move into the future.

An internationally renowned engineer for humanity, Jordan designs life-changing technologies to transform the lives of people with disabilities and the elderly through his role as founder of Psykinetic, a social business committed to bringing positive, sustainable and life-altering change. He also shares his adventures through documentaries across the world. Inspired by human endeavour, Jordan has big ambitions to see our world step consciously and creatively into a better future.

Jordan is Founder and CEO of Psykinetic, a social business creating futuristic, inclusive and empowering technologies to improve independence and quality of life for disability, aged care and beyond. Dr Jordan and his team have successfully created a mind-controlled wheelchair, numerous Virtual and Augmented reality applications, inclusive gaming, an instrument that enabled a friend with cerebral palsy to perform live music with her eye movements and blinks, and devices that make it possible to control household appliances or even drive cars using only the tiny electrical signals created from eye movements.

Author of the book 'A Human's Guide to the Future', Jordan is also an award-winning documentary maker and presenter. In 2016 he collaborated with the Australian-based production company, The Feds, and the ABC Catalyst to create and present his first TV documentary Becoming Superhuman, which went on to win many prestigious awards both locally and internationally. His work is regularly featured in the media. He has since gone on to present a second ABC Catalyst documentary Meet The Avatars exploring the impacts of Virtual Reality, including creating virtual interactive avatars to preserve memories of loved ones. He has also presented numerous documentaries with Discovery Channel and National Geographic “ including Frontiers of Science, Smart China Start-up Revolutions, Vietnam: Connecting East Africa, and Tibet: Living On The Roof Of The World. He recently founded his own media company and aims to continue creating world-changing content on the intersection between technology and humanity.

Jordan is a passionate ambassador for STEAM education, adaptable mindsets and big-picture thinking, and holds a degree in Electrical Engineering, First-Class Honours, Diploma in Engineering Practice, and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering (Chancellors List) from the University of Technology Sydney. He has taught university engineering masters students and overseen PhDs in Artificial Intelligence design and Biomedical instrumentation and has supervised many more research students. He believes our young generations are the change-makers of tomorrow and has the potential to create solutions to the world's greatest challenges.

In November 2022, the Dr Jordan Nguyen Innovation Centre at Baulkham Hills North Public School was officially opened - named by the school's students. Jordan was a finalist for NSW in Australian of the Year in 2017, and a finalist in the AmCham (American Chamber of Commerce) awards for Artificial Intelligence. He was named in the six Harper's BAZAAR Visionary Men of 2019, has made the list of Australia's Most Innovative Engineers by Create Magazine, was named twice in Onalyticas Top 100 Global Influencers on Virtual Reality, travelled on a Think Inc tour with Steve Wozniak, won the Australian Computer Society's (ACS) ˜ICT Professional of the Year Digital Disruptors Award, and has had the honour of being MC for An Evening With President Barack Obama on his last visit to Sydney.

Jehan Casinader

Jehan Casinader is a journalist, keynote speaker and mental health advocate.

His was named “Reporter of the Year” at the New Zealand Television Awards, and “Best Political Columnist” at the Voyager Media Awards.

In the aftermath of natural disasters, terror attacks, sporting triumphs and everything in between, Jehan has helped hundreds of Kiwis to share their deeply personal stories with the rest of the country.

Now one of New Zealand’s most-booked speakers, Jehan is a respected voice in the areas of wellbeing, leadership and workplace culture. He has delivered training and development opportunities for councils across the country.

A survivor of depression and suicidality, he is the author of This Is Not How It Ends: How rewriting your story can save your life (HarperCollins). He is also an official ambassador for Men’s Health Week.

Jonathan Pawley 

Team Lead Partnership & Assistance | National Cyber Security Centre

The NCSC will present on the cyber threat landscape as explained through the five key judgements; Aligning with NZ's National Cyber Security Strategy; The uptake of AI in the public service and the NCSC’s minimum standards for Government.

Simon Allard

Head of Technology Architecture | 2degrees

Simon leads the Network Architecture and Portfolio team at 2degrees, including the company’s work with AST SpaceMobile and the Marton satellite ground station, which will support the rollout of satellite-enabled mobile connectivity, extending into places outside of traditional coverage areas.

Resilience is personal for Simon. He has been a Coastguard skipper for 20 years, and during Cyclone Gabrielle he served on the 2degrees Incident Management Team in the CIMS Intelligence role, helping ensure critical connectivity was restored.

At ALGIM, he’ll share what satellite connectivity means for community resilience, and how councils can plan for communicating during natural disasters and emergencies.

IM Stream

Patrick Power

PhD Student | School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington

Mick Crouch

PhD Student | School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington

Customer Experience Stream

Jo Cribb

Jo is an experienced consultant with a strategy, governance and coaching focus. Recent assignments drafting gender papers for the upcoming Heads of Commonwealth meeting, policy work for APEC, and working with NZDF on their people strategies.

She was a previous Chief Executive of the Ministry for Women and former the Deputy Children's Commissioner. She is a director on several Government and NGO boards (including the Wellington Homeless Women’s Trust, New Zealand Winegrowers Board, New Zealand Media Council, and Royal New Zealand Navy Leadership Board.

Jo co-authored the book Don't Worry About the Robots: How to Survive and Thrive in the New World of Work that synthesises trends in technology including AI that are impacting on work and practical tools for future-proofing careers. The book has been re-printed multiple times.

She also co-authored the book Take Your Space: Successful Women Share their Secrets; that aims to support women and girls to advance. All proceeds from the book are donated to charities supporting women and girls.

Jo is the proud mother of two, distils her own gin, owns a small vineyard in Martinborough and in her spare time writes columns about wine.

Sam Pengelly

Customer Experience | City of Moreton Bay

Sam Pengelly is Manager Customer Experience at City of Moreton Bay, leading the council's CX strategy and its organisation-wide delivery.

Sam is a Certified CX Performance Leader, with a Bachelor in International Business Studies and 15 years’ experience leading large operational teams across Australian State and Local Government organisations.

Web, Digital & Communications Stream

Cameron Pegg

Content Strategist

Cameron is a leading content strategist who is a passionate advocate for better corporate storytelling. As a journalist, he writes features for The Australian, and previously hosted a regular segment on ABC Radio Queensland.

Cameron teaches a suite of content and writing courses for ALGIM and the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand. He is also the creator of DataDeck, a hands-on tool to help storytellers and teams quickly and effectively devise data visualization and infographic concepts.

Seamus Boyer

Principal | seamus.nz

Seamus is an independent communications strategist and former journalist who advises public sector agencies across New Zealand and Australia. He specialises in helping organisations navigate the changing communications landscape, with a focus on digital channels, audience attention and trust, and the emerging role of AI.

Nicole Skews-Poole

Consultant | Anchordown

Nicole Skews-Poole is a consultant who specialises in helping organisations understand and build resilience to the growing problem of online harm. Through her small consultancy firm, Anchordown, she helps a range of sectors deal with targeted harassment, campaigns of false information, and increasingly, issues of extremism and security.

After helping steer some of the first responses to the disinformation targeting of the public sector during COVID-19, Nicole has spent the last six years building a body of best-practice education and training as well as commissioning research and monitoring of technology-facilitated violence. She is also a member of the Christchurch Call Advisory Network.

Robert Emberson

Deputy PM for Disasters and the Manager for NASA's Geosphere programme | NASA

Joint Session | Data & Insights and Smart Communities & Innovation Streams
Presented virtually in the Data & Insights stream room

Macushla Howell

Head of Data | NZ Post

Macushla Howell is a passionate and experienced data and analytics professional, with expertise in building high performing teams. She has been involved in the data transformation at two large New Zealand organisations, uplifting data and analytics capabilities before joining NZ Post as the Head of Data in February 2025, where she has accountability for the enterprise data platform, data governance and data operations and risk.  Macushla has a proven track record in building and managing complex data ecosystems.  Her background in Market Research consultancy, banking, energy and logistics means she brings a unique perspective to conversations about Data.

Jarred Griffiths

Practice Lead - AI Transformation | MartinJenkins

Jarred is a senior leader recognised for driving innovation and change in the public sector. As a key member of Hutt City Council's Corporate Leadership Team, he spearheaded the organisation's AI adoption programme which is widely recognised as an exemplar in New Zealand. He also oversaw development of Council's Long Term Plan and Annual Plan, including award-winning community engagement. Jarred is in the rare position of being able to advise on adopting and scaling AI effectively in practice, not just in theory.

Now at MartinJenkins, Jarred advises public sector organisations and senior leaders on how to adopt AI effectively, from strategy and governance through to operating models and practical implementation. His focus is on turning the potential of AI into meaningful organisational change and measurable value.

Smart Communities & Innovation Stream

Dr. Jonathan Reichental

Founder | Human Future

Dr. Jonathan Reichental is a multiple-award-winning technology leader and educator, whose career spans the private, public, and academic sectors. He’s been a senior software engineering manager, a director of technology innovation, and has served as chief information officer (CIO) at both O’Reilly Media and the City of Palo Alto, California. Reichental is currently the founder of advisory, investment, and education firm, Human Future, and also creates online education for LinkedIn Learning and Coursera. In academia he is a professor at the University of San Francisco and several other universities and colleges. He has a regular column in Forbes and has written many books including Smart Cities for Dummies, Exploring Smart Cities Activity Book for Kids, and Data Governance for Dummies.

Zoe Eather

Director | My Smart Community

Zoe Eather is The Funny Futurist, a civil engineer, PhD researcher and stand-up comedian helping people make sense of a fast-changing world.

She is known for taking the overwhelm out of technology and shifting audiences from thinking things are impossible to seeing what is possible.

Through humour, storytelling and real-world insight, Zoe helps people understand what technology means for them and how they can actively shape what comes next.

Steven Welsh

Corangamite Shire Council | Warrnambool City Council | Board Director of ALGIM Australia

AI Infringement Review Assistant

Steven Welsh is Manager Information Services at Corangamite Shire Council, Warrnambool City council, and a Board Director of ALGIM Australia. With a strong belief that technology is ultimately about people, he is passionate about helping councils embrace innovation, strengthen cyber resilience and improve the way services are delivered to their communities. Steven is an active advocate for collaboration across local government and enjoys connecting professionals to share experiences, learn from each other and navigate the opportunities and challenges of a rapidly changing digital landscape. 

Day Three Presenters