The inaugural Trust & Safety Festival Sydney is a global gathering designed to bring together the full ecosystem of professionals working to create a safer, more inclusive, and more resilient digital world.

The Sydney 2026 programme is currently taking shape. Session titles, timings and speakers may continue to evolve, but this preview reflects the themes, conversations and structure we’re actively developing for the Festival.

Wednesday October 7, 2026 

Opening reception 

(by invitation only) 

Day 1 - Thursday October 8, 2026

Focus – Understanding the system à framing the problem à illuminating the strategic issues à looking ahead   

08:00 - Registration / Tea Coffee

08:45 - Opening remarks

08:55 - Welcome to Country

09:05 - Video Message by Julie Inman Grant

             Ten years at the coalface – emerging technology, adaptive regulation.

09:10 - Keynote by Lorraine Finlay, Australian Human Rights Commissioner

              Building systems that centre humanity – rights and abuses in the age of AI takeoff

09:30 - Keynote Panel: Defining the Trust & Safety Landscape 

              Hear some of the region’s most thoughtful leaders in technology, age assurance, and safety by                         design reflect on what trust and safety as a discipline actually is, and what it should achieve. 

             10:15  Coffee Break

10:30 - Panel Discussion: Not just ‘digital’ harm – how online risks and threats produce real human                            consequences

             The distinction between what is online and offline, ‘real world’ and digital, are false binaries in today’s              environment of embedded digital services. Listen to some of the most compelling voices in online                    safety discuss how the online and offline worlds have merged to produce a continuous harms                            landscape. 

11:15 - Fireside Chat with Victor Dominello

             How can be build systems that are trusted by those who rely most on them? In a world where it feels              as if the fabric of shared reality is slipping, governments and authorities have never faced a more                      urgent challenge in providing digital services that win and maintain the confidence of users The Hon                Victor Dominello MP built a global reputation on doing just that, and he joins us to talk about what                    needed to bring people to the digital revolution.

              12:00 Lunch

12:45 - Panel Discussion: Policy and regulation in practice – how can we best move from principle to                          enforceability?

             Governments are moving increasingly quickly to name and control online harms through sweeping                  reforms that go well beyond social media services – often with strong public support. However,                        speed to legislate can create a range of unintended consequences, and raises questions about public              consent. What is the best approach to create new public law about digital harm?

13:30 - Panel Discussion: “Absolutely, let’s dive into that!” Artificial intelligence, agency and our human                      future

             Is your p-doom number climbing every day? Feeling like your cognitive machinery is grinding to a                      halt? Worried about what you’ll do with your bag of zero days now that Fable 5 is on the hunt? Find                  your people in this panel of our smartest thinker and critics of AI and new technologies. We’ll be sure              to end on a positive note, promise. 

              14:15 Coffee Break

14:30 - Panel Discussion: TBC

15:15 - Panel Discussion: Around the sun? Dispatches from the Splinternet on trust and safety

             Is the fragmentation of the internet a foregone conclusion? If so, what does that mean for trust and                  safety, and is there any realistic hope of creating global communities of practice? If we are arguing                  over the definitions of fundamental freedoms – of speech, of participation, of expression – can we                  ever agree to a shared ethical framework for combatting online harms? 

16:00 - Reflection Session: TBC

16:45 - End of sessions

Evening reception 

(by invitation only) 

Day 2 - Friday October 9, 2026

Focus – Paradigm challenge à driving action à giving practitioners the tools

08:30 - Registration / Tea Coffee

09:00 - Opening Keynote: When the system becomes a weapon: Tech-facilitated abuse, coercive control,                  and fighting back one process at a time

09:30 - Panel Discussion: TBC

              10:15 - Coffee Break

10:30 - Parallel Tracks

Room 1: Panel Discussion: When moderation is not enough: Building trusted communities online. 

                Those who create and maintain online communities often need to play multiple roles at once:                           facilitator, traffic warden, moderator and police officer. How are the best communities constituted                     and run, and is it correct to say that they are managed, or cultivated?

Room 2: Workshop: Safety by Design

11:30 - Parallel Tracks

Room 1: Panel Discussion: Beyond the Report Button: Youth Safety, AI Companions and the Limits of                           Platform Policy

                Young people are increasingly turning to AI chatbots and companions as trusted confidantes,                           friends and even romantic partners. What are the consequences of this shift in social relations, and                 is it really as bad as we are being led to believe? If this is the future, what should companies be                         expected to do to limit the harms, and what is needed beyond platform policies? 

Room 2: Workshop: Building trusted communities online

                 12:30 Lunch

13:30 - Parallel Tracks

Room 1: Panel Discussion: People write the code: Safety by Design as moral leadership

                Technologies are made by people, and the design choices they make about functions and features                   are an expression of specifics values. Safety by Design is an idea whose time has well and truly                         come. For companies that embrace it as a core ethos, what does it say about a company’s moral                     compass – and is there any realistic alternative?

Room 2: Workshop: Behind the Chat: AI Companions, Young People and Trusted Adults

                15:00 Coffee Break

15:15 - Panel Discussion: “Complex and ambiguous”: defining the modern border and the challenges of                    digital sovereignty

16:00 - Closing remarks

Closing reception 

(by invitation only) 

Last updated 15 July 2026