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 program is currently taking shape. Session details, timings and speakers will continue to be updated as they are confirmed.

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 by Dr Jenine Beekhuyzen OAM

08:55 - Welcome to Country by Uncle Allen Madden

09:05 - Video Message by Julie Inman Grant

             Ten years at the coalface – emerging technology, adaptive regulation. A short video message from                   Australia's eSafety Commissioner, reflecting on the arc of technology development over the course                   of her decade-long tenure as the world's first dedicated online safety regulator.

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

              Building systems that centre humanity – rights and abuses in the age of AI takeoff. Australia's                           Human Rights Commissioner, Lorraine Finlay, will map the ways in which new and emerging                               technologies, including artificial intelligence, are falling short of human rights expectations – and                     how create systems that are centred on humanity.

09:40 - Keynote to be confirmed

10:00 - 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. 

              • Maddy Shepherd, Microsoft 
              • Michael McDonald, 3 Steps Data
              • Jeff Wu, K-ID
              • Nina Bual, Cyberlite

             10:45  Coffee Break

11:00 - 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. 

             • Chanel Contos, Teach Us Consent
             • Colm Gannon, ICMEC Australia
             • Sophie Murray-Farrell, NSW Premier's Department

11:45 - Fireside Chat with Victor Dominello

             In Bytes We Trust? What’s needed to win public confidence and consent for essential digital                            services – and how to deliver

             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.      

             12:45 Lunch

13:45 - 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?

             • Kathryn King, eSafety Commissioner
             • Ben Au, Snap
             • Dr Jenny Duxbury, Digital Industry Group Inc. (DIGI)
             • Jordan Benavidez, Match Group
             • Zoe Hawkins, Tech Policy Design Institute (TPDi)
             • Felipe Batiwale, Fiji Online Safety Commissioner

14:45 - Panel Discussion: AI, Agency and Our Human Future

             "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. 

               • Jon Rouse, ChildLight UNSW
              • Joel Kalmanowicz, Canva

              • Maryam Shoraka, Corinium Global Intelligence

              15:30 Coffee Break

15:45 - Panel Discussion: The era of Scams Prevention: The Scams Prevention Framework and Beyond

             With the advent of the Scams Prevention Framework (SPF), tech platforms, telcos and banks will be                subject to new scams prevention obligations from March 2027. In anticipation of the release of                        finalised SPF rules and sector codes that will set out the detailed obligations on regulated entities to                comply with the SPF, this session will cover scams in Australia, measures that the sector will need to              adopt, how scams complaints will be dealt with and the key roles of regulators and industry in                          combatting scams. Speakers will also share perspectives from abroad, and overseas scams                              compensation and prevention models.

             • Michael do Rozario, Corrs Chambers Westgarth
             • Natalie Faulkner, FTI Consulting
             • Claire Shaw, Corrs Chambers Westgarth
             • Caroline Marshall, Corrs Chambers Westgarth

16:30 - 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? 

             • Edward Wee, Infocomm Media Development Authority Singapore
             • Sean Lyons. NetSafe New Zealand
             • Felipe Batiwale, Fiji Online Safety Commissioner

17:15 - Reflection Session by Dr Jenine Beekhuyzen OAM

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

08:50 - Welcome and opening comments by Dr Jenine Beekhuyzen OAM

09:00 - Opening Keynote by Catherine Fitzpatrick

             When the system becomes a weapon: Tech-facilitated abuse, coercive control, and fighting back one              process at a time. What happens when an abuser seizes control of a partner's electricity plan, or their              mobile phone account? Perpetrators of domestic violence often turn the online services relied upon                by their victims against them. Everyday tools, such as banking transactions, are weaponised. Learn                  from one of Australia's foremost Safety by Design practitioners about how banking, utilities and                        telecommunications services are abused by offenders, and how companies can fight back.

09:30 - Panel Discussion by Cyber CX

              10:15 - Coffee Break

10:30 - Parallel Tracks

Parkview Room: 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?

                • Vanessa Paech, All Things in Moderation
                • Jess Wilson, Good Things Foundation
                • Ishtar Vij, Discord

Cook Room: Workshop: Safety by Design by eSafety Commissioner

Ibis Room: 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? 

                 • Nina Bual, Cyberlite
                 • John Livingstone, UNICEF
                 • Anju, UNICEF Youth ambassador
                 • Amanda Third, Western Sydney University
                 • Edward Wee,  Infocomm Media Development Authority Singapore

11:15 - Parkview Room: Workshop: Building trusted communities online 

11:30 - Ibis Room: Panel Discussion: Smart Glasses, Consent and Trust & Safety

               • Caroline Humer, Survivors & Tech Solving Image Based Sexual Abuse (STISA)

               • Sean lyons, NetSafe New Zealand

               • Felipe Batiwale, Fiji Online Safety Commissioner
               • Dr. Milica ‘Milly’ Stilinovic, University of Sydney

12:00 - Cook Room: Workshop: Online safety certification by Online Safety Exchange

12:30 - To be Confirmed

               13:00 Lunch

14:00 - Parallel Tracks

Ibis Room: 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?

                • Colm Gannon, ICMEC Australia
                • Fleur Davidson/Caroline Wall, Commonwealth Bank
                • Jordan Benavidez, Match Group
                • Margaret O'Brien, Telstra

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

                15:30 Coffee Break

15:45 - Keynote with Michael Outram: “Complex and ambiguous”: defining the modern border and the                        challenges of digital sovereignty

16:30 - Closing remarks

Closing reception 

(by invitation only) 

Last updated 8 September 2026