Neurodiversity Leadership Summit 2026

Pre-Conference Workshop

09:00 Neurodivergent Leadership Masterclass 

This one-day masterclass is designed specifically for Indigenous staff and future leaders to rise to greater levels of influence, responsibility, and decision-making. It will challenge your assumptions, and expand and develop your mindset, skillset and toolsets to become a more effective leader whilst navigating some of the challenges Indigenous professionals can face in the workplace.

Throughout the day, you will explore frameworks and tools, emotional intelligence, develop your unique leadership style, navigate workplace cultural challenges, learn powerful verbal and nonverbal communication skills, and exert your personal influence and build a foundation for positive influence and success.

Key Course Takeaways:

• Understand the value and importance of leadership for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
• Confidence you need to navigate your role and engage with multiple stakeholders
• Internalise leadership styles, qualities, and behaviours
• Develop strategic leadership skills that are effective & informed by both Indigenous culture & Western best practice
• Deepen cultural awareness & identity in the context of business leadership
• Take Away practical skills such as negotiating, problem-solving and above-the-line thinking
• Develop your unique, authentic leadership style
• Influence and engage with others with more impact and presence
• Deepen & broaden your worldview and ability to coordinate different perspectives
• Contribute to the development of Indigenous leaders and staff within your organisation

Conference Day 1

SESSION 1:
9:30 AM: Leading Minds That Perform Differently

High performing teams are not built on sameness. They are built by leaders who design for difference from the ground up.
Majella Knobel has spent seven years leading Westpac Group's Access and Inclusion strategy, recently launching its 2025–2028 Access and Inclusion Plan. As Director, she is responsible for embedding accessibility into everything from product design to procurement, turning inclusion from a policy statement into infrastructure that actually works.

In this opening session, Majella sets the tone for the summit: what it takes to move an organisation from good intentions to systems that perform for everyone, and why the leaders who get this right build a genuine competitive advantage, not just a compliance record.

Attendees will leave with a clear-eyed view of what it takes to lead this shift at scale.

10:40 AM: Morning Tea

Most workplaces are designed around a narrow set of assumptions about how people think, communicate and get work done. For many neurodivergent people, the challenge is not capability. It's navigating systems that were never designed with them in mind.

Emily Kendall is an AuDHD engineer and founder of All Minds Belong. After years of carrying the personal cost of adapting to workplaces that didn't play to her strengths, she realised her experience wasn't unique. The barriers many neurodivergent people face are not individual problems to solve. They are often system design problems.

Rather than continuing to adapt, Emily set out to change the systems around her. She helped establish neurodiversity employee resource groups within ASX200 organisations and contributed to practical changes spanning leadership development, recruitment, performance management and workplace design.

Applying the same systems thinking she uses as an engineer, Emily approaches inclusion as a design challenge. This work ultimately led her to establish All Minds Belong, helping organisations move beyond awareness and create workplaces where different ways of thinking are understood, valued and able to thrive.

Attendees will leave with practical ideas to reduce friction, unlock performance and design work that enables people to succeed without requiring everyone to think alike.

The assumption that alignment requires sameness is one of the biggest barriers to building high-performing teams.
Around 25% or more of today's workforce is neurodivergent — and if you think your team doesn't include any neurodivergent people, the data suggests otherwise. It's more likely they've learned it's safer to hide it. HESTA's Lizzy Keenan shares an honest, in-progress account of what happens when an organisation starts asking why, and what that costs.

Drawing on HESTA's own culture journey — learning together, adapting along the way, and building the muscle to genuinely believe in neuro-inclusivity — Lizzy unpacks what it actually takes to shift a team from expecting conformity to celebrating the full range of human potential.

Attendees will leave with a practical, unpolished look at how a real organisation is building a team that performs because of difference, not despite it. Because the goal isn't for everyone to show up the same. It's for everyone to show up as themselves.

1:00 PM Lunch

2:00 PM From Insights to Action: What lessons have we learned so far?

SESSION 4
2:20 PM: Leaving No One Behind: How Inclusive Leadership Leads to Better Systems

SESSION 5:
3:30 PM: Loud, Late and Unapologetic: Rewriting Success on Your Own Terms

Diagnosed with ADHD at 42, then autistic soon after, Em Rusciano spent decades performing "normal" before her real mind was ever seen. In this fireside chat, Em shares the story behind the headlines: masking, unmasking, raising neurodivergent kids, and building a career and a family life on her own terms.

This is not a leadership framework. It's proof that late diagnosis doesn't mean a smaller life, and that performance built on masking is performance built to burn out.
Attendees will leave Day One with a genuinely uplifting, funny, and disarmingly honest reminder of what's possible when people stop hiding how they think.

4:20 PM Closing Reflections and Insights to Action

4:40 PM Close of Day one & Networking Drinks

Conference Day 2

SESSION 1:
9:10 AM: Rethinking Productivity

Traditional measures of productivity do not always capture how people actually deliver value at work.

This session will explore how different thinking styles approach focus, output and performance, and why a one size fits all model often falls short. We will examine how leaders can rethink expectations, redefine productivity and create environments where individuals can perform at their best.

Attendees will gain practical insights into how to better align work, expectations and outcomes to drive more consistent and sustainable performance across their teams.

Many of the most valuable ideas come from people who approach problems in different ways.

This session will explore how cognitive diversity contributes to innovation, creativity and better problem solving. We will look at how leaders can create the conditions for new ideas to emerge, be heard and be acted on, rather than unintentionally filtering them out.

Attendees will walk away with a clearer understanding of how to harness different perspectives to drive innovation and unlock new opportunities within their teams and organisations.

When leadership capability does not match team complexity, the impact is often hidden but significant.

Amanda Barker has spent over a decade bringing rigour to how organisations measure and report on what matters — from ESG strategy at Aware Super to human rights consultancy work nationally. In this session, she applies that same discipline to neuroinclusion: what happens when the cost of getting it wrong is real but unmeasured, and how leaders can start treating it with the same accountability as any other business risk.

Attendees will gain a clearer, evidence-based view of where these costs show up in their own organisations, and practical steps to start measuring, reducing, and reporting on it.

SESSION 4
12:30 PM: AI, Focus and Cognitive Strengths

SESSION 5:
2:40 PM: Building Teams That Actually Work

Strong teams are not defined by alignment alone, but by how effectively they work through difference.

QBE has just launched its fifth Reconciliation Action Plan — proof that inclusion, done well, is never a one-off initiative but a practice rebuilt year after year. Anu Wettasinghe, QBE's Inclusion and Wellbeing Manager, is joined by a colleague to close out the summit with what that actually looks like in practice: the systems, habits and everyday decisions that keep a mature program moving rather than stalling after the first win.

Attendees will leave with clear, actionable approaches to build teams that are more effective, more resilient, and equipped to perform in complex environments — drawn from an organisation several iterations into doing the work.

3:30 PM Bringing it all together: Final From Insights to Action

4:00 PM Conference Close

Post-Conference Workshop

09:00 Neurodivergent Leadership Masterclass

This one day practical workshop is designed specifically for neurodivergent leaders and professionals who want to perform at a higher level without compromising how they think and work.

Too often, leadership expectations are built around a narrow definition of performance. This session challenges that model and focuses on how you can lead, work and succeed by leveraging your natural strengths rather than masking them.

Throughout the day, you will explore practical tools, strategies and frameworks to better manage energy, improve focus, navigate workplace expectations and build a leadership style that is both authentic and effective.

Key Course Takeaways:

• Reframe your neurodivergence as a strength and understand how it shapes your leadership style
• Build practical strategies to manage energy, focus and avoid burnout
• Learn how to structure work and workflows to improve productivity and consistency
• Develop a clear and professional way to communicate your working style and preferences
• Strengthen your confidence to lead without masking or over adapting
• Walk away with a clear, practical plan to improve your performance immediately

• Put advice and information into appropriate language for the receiver