CHANGE 2026 Workshops

PROF SHARYN RUNDLE-THIELE

Professor Sharyn Rundle-Thiele applies marketing to protect the planet. She’s co-created behaviour change programs with community and stakeholders. Her projects deliver outcomes and impact including reducing waste, removing leaves from waterways, reduced koala deaths from dog attacks by 40%, reduced koala deaths from car strikes by 83% and more. Her work is published in more than 270 books, book chapters and journal papers. Awards and appointments including The Philip Kotler Social Marketing Distinguished Service Award and the Australian New Zealand Marketing Academy Fellow acknowledge her innovative, high-quality practice and science and her leadership.

WORKSHOP 1 OVERVIEW

Change by Design: Human-Centered Solutions for Social Impact

In this interactive workshop, participants will explore how human-centered design can be harnessed to drive meaningful and lasting social change. Grounded in behavioural science and co-design principles, the session will guide changemakers through practical tools and processes to deeply understand community needs, co-create solutions with stakeholders, and design interventions that resonate and stick. Whether you're working in health, sustainability, education, or policy, this workshop will equip you to move beyond good intentions and design for real-world impact. You’ll learn why putting people at the heart of change gets results.

ANGELA MAKRIS

I’m a social scientist with a diverse background: a marketing strategist turned public health researcher, with experience across the US, EU, Australia’s public sector, and grassroots organizations. My career has been shaped by asking insightful questions and, more importantly, listening carefully to the answers. I focus on using social marketing, systems thinking, and behavioral insights to promote health equity and disability inclusion.

From unpacking the cultural roots of salt use in Caribbean kitchens to exploring how digital spaces reflect carer support needs, my work is grounded in the belief that meaningful change starts by listening to people’s lived experiences, otherwise known as everyday research. I thrive at the intersection of dialogue, data, and design, bringing curiosity and humor to complex, multi-level challenges. I believe research can be both rigorous, innovative, and human-centered. I’m passionate about building inclusive solutions with the communities who need them most.

WORKSHOP 2 OVERVIEW

Using Social Media to Understand and Respond to Community Support Needs. Social Marketing & Public Health Lens on Stress, Routines, and Digital Support

This workshop reframes social media as an informal public health infrastructure where communities actively seek support, manage stress, and engage in daily routines. Using a social marketing and public health lens, participants explore how social media use reflects preventive planning and crisis mitigation, and how the information paradox is navigated. The session moves beyond traditional social listening metrics to examine digital support signals in context, what people search for, when they seek help, and why certain platforms and peers are trusted. Participants learn to distinguish preventive from reactive support-seeking online behaviours. The workshop concludes by translating insights into coordinated downstream, midstream, and upstream actions that strengthen and inform systems and policy.

Participants will learn:
• How to Identify digital support signals that reflect routine disruption, anticipatory stress, or mitigation efforts
• Distinguish between preventive vs. reactive support-seeking social media use
• How to translate insights into multi-stream social marketing actions (downstream, midstream, upstream)

SOPHIE BOYLE

Sophie Boyle is the Senior Manager, Implementation and Engagement at Healthy North Coast. With a background in social policy, she brings extensive experience across program management, design, implementation and evaluation. Sophie specialises in place-based, collaborative approaches that aim to strengthen communities and improve outcomes in regional health and recovery settings. She has led the development and implementation of complex social programs, including the award-winning Resilient Kids Program, working closely with partners across sectors to deliver responses tailored to local needs.

Her work is grounded in social justice and driven by a commitment to empowering young people and community through innovative, collaborative and evidence-based approaches that build equity and capacity. Based on Bundjalung country in Northern NSW, Sophie is passionate about community-led climate action, food security and regenerative practices that support people and place.

AIMEE McNEILL

Aimee McNeill is the Director of Integrated Community Wellbeing at Healthy North Coast. Over nearly 13 years, she has worked across a range of roles to improve community outcomes, shaping approaches to service design and co-design in mental health, suicide prevention and drug and alcohol health across the North Coast.

She has led large-scale commissioning efforts, including the rapid co-design and rollout of four Safe Haven sites supporting communities impacted by the 2022 floods.

Aimee advocates for early intervention and prevention, backed by postgraduate training in suicidology from Griffith University.

WORKSHOP 3 OVERVIEW

Young Voices, Strong Futures: Lessons from the Resilient Kids Program

This interactive workshop shares a practical place-based example of embedding resilience-building and wellbeing activities within disaster recovery to support confidence, agency and coping capacity of children and young people aged 8-18 years. Using Resilient Kids as a case study, the workshop will demonstrate the value lived experience of young people has in designing a flexible, needs based approach that responds to local contexts. Funded through a $10 million grant from the Australian Government through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) after the 2022 Northern Rivers NSW floods, the program was co‑designed with young people and delivered through a partnership model across three streams to support those impacted by the catastrophic flooding.

Participants can expect an applied exploration on how the program was designed, delivered and evaluated. This includes the influence of evidence, co-design and community insights and partnerships. Through discussion, collaboration and reflections, participants will identify key change mechanisms that support positive outcomes and leave ideas on how these approaches can be adapted to their own region, community or area of practice.

Sam Rykers

Sam Rykers is a change specialist and Director of The Change Factor, where she supports organisations to lead and embed technology-driven change with a focus on real behaviour change.

With experience across large-scale transformation programs, Sam works closely with teams to turn complex change into practical, usable outcomes, particularly in areas such as AI adoption, modern work, and digital transformation. Her approach centres on helping people move from confusion and overload to clarity, confidence, and action.

Sam is known for delivering practical, engaging sessions that balance insight with application, giving participants tools they can take away and use immediately in their own environments.

WORKSHOP 4 OVERVIEW

Why AI Adoption Is Confusing Employees Right Now, and What Actually Works

This is an interactive session focused on the gap between rollout and real behaviour change. Many organisations are introducing AI tools, but employees are overwhelmed, unclear on expectations, and adoption is often fragmented.

The session includes:

• A short overview of current AI adoption challenges and patterns we are seeing across organisations

• Exploration of the key behavioural barriers preventing meaningful uptake

• Practical frameworks to shift from awareness to action

• An interactive component where participants apply these concepts to their own context

The intent is to provide practical, usable approaches that participants can take back into their own organisations, regardless of sector.

Kendelle Treloar

Kendelle Treloar is Co-Founder and Director of All Teams Culture, bringing a rare blend of frontline leadership and organisational expertise to her work. With over 10 years’ experience as a change practitioner, qualified in Prosci and Lean Change and a former Australian Federal Police Senior Constable, she has led complex change across law enforcement, national security, intelligence and government- experience that informs everything she does.

Kendelle specialises in the intersection of leadership, culture and change resilience, helping organisations create workplaces where people can perform and connect, particularly during uncertainty and pressure.

A warm, engaging and experienced facilitator, she regularly presents to senior leaders, teams and organisations across government, sport and industry. Recent engagements include Keynote Speaker for Sport Integrity Australia on Zero Discrimination Day 2026 and change management and culture sessions across private sector and national security agencies.

Louise Frame

Louise Frame is a strategic advisor in change management, culture, and leadership at All Teams Culture. A qualified Prosci and Lean Change practitioner with a Diploma in Leadership and Management, she brings over 15 years of experience across organisational change, learning and development, and facilitation.

Louise creates collaborative environments where teams move from intention to action, translating values into behaviour and conversations into clear, usable outcomes. She brings a deep understanding of behavioural change and culture activation, helping organisations embed accountability and sustain momentum.

A confident and engaging facilitator, she brings strong experience working with senior leaders, teams and organisations across government, sport and industry. Recent engagements include culture and leadership programs with health sector organisations and sporting clubs.

WORKSHOP 5 OVERVIEW

Lean Culture Canvas: From Conversations to Action in Change

In this high-energy, hands-on session, you will step into a live leadership scenario and use a Lean Culture Canvas - a rapid-cycle change management method designed to move teams from conversation to action. You will work in small groups through a real-world leadership scenario, identifying the behaviours that strengthen performance and those that undermine it- then watch your inputs transform in real time into a working team agreement using AI. Fast, practical, and a tool you can use on Monday.

What you will walk away with:
• A practical method and reusable canvas to run this in your own organisation
• A tool to run culture conversations that actually lead somewhere
• Facilitation techniques to guide meaningful culture conversations
• A clear path from discussion to action
• A firsthand example of AI supporting, not replacing, culture work.

JOAN YOUNG

Joan is a leading strategic social marketer with over 30 years’ experience in behaviour change research and evaluation. She works with government and not for profit organisations to develop, refine and evaluate behaviour change programs, services and communications. Joan has dedicated her career to contributing to better social outcomes informed by best practice social marketing research and is a Fellow of The Research Society. Joan has recently joined Lonergan to establish its Evaluation unit and The Behaviour Change Agency. Joan previously worked with The Behaviour Change Collaborative, Alliance Strategic Research, Arcadia Social Research and Colmar Brunton Australia where she was CEO.

Joan regularly speaks at national and international conferences and has trained social marketing researchers in New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, South Africa and Australia, most recently running a half day workshop at the International Social Marketing Conference. She is also highly skilled in evaluation and recently delivered evaluation training workshops for the Australian Evaluation Society (AES) to over 40 evaluators from New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific Islands and South-East Asia and ran a full day workshop on qualitative research in evaluation at the AES Conference 2025.

MOHAMMED AL-KABOUR

Mohammed Al-Kabour is currently the Director of the Riyadh Behavioural Insights Center for Labor Market Policies at Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development. His expertise spans labour market dynamics and employment research, guided by his passion and commitment to ensuring opportunities for all to reach their potential. Throughout his career, Mohammed has worked closely with governments, multilaterals and academia to drive change. He aims to understand the human impact from social and public policies by listening to and engaging with those directly affected and placing their insights at the core of his efforts. More recently, he was the Senior Researcher at the UAE’s Education and Human Resources Council, focusing on labour market and education policy. He also worked with Harvard University’s Evidence for Policy Design, researching SMEs hiring and retention practices of female employees in Saudi Arabia, and at the former Ministry of Labor, exploring topics around youth employment and career progression.

WORKSHOP 6 OVERVIEW

How to Use Social Marketing Research, Behavioural Insights and Strategic Insights to Influence Government and Change Lives

This interactive workshop will draw on a series of case-studies to demonstrate how to use social marketing research, behavioural insights and strategic insights to influence government and change lives. It will draw on the speaker’s expertise. Speakers will share frameworks and processes that participants can use to increase their ability to develop effective behaviour change programs, services and communications and to influence government decision making and policy development.

Who should attend?
• Practitioners and change makers seeking to increase their ability to influence government decision-making and policy development
• Policy makers seeking a refresher on best practice behaviour change approaches
• Social marketers at the planning, implementation or refinement stages
• Researchers seeking to hone their skills in social marketing
• Academics interested in the application of social marketing research techniques.