2026 PCT Professional Development Day – Canberra, November
“AI technology + human connection = positive, lasting change“
What happens to collective leadership practice when AI can analyse, advise and generate alongside us? Which capabilities become more important, and how will leadership continue to evolve in an AI-enabled future?
Engineered by real humans – the PD Day Fellows Organising Committee is: Emma Collins, Dr Hannan Feldman, Baihua Fu, Chris Golding and Dr Joseph Guillaume.
Join us to explore how leadership responsibilities such as exercising judgement, building trust, managing risk, making ethical decisions and remaining accountable are changing in an increasingly AI-enabled world.
For Fellows and Friends working on complex water and environmental challenges, AI offers new opportunities to enhance analysis, explore future scenarios and support decision-making, and effective leadership remains critical for navigating uncertainty, balancing competing priorities and creating lasting outcomes for communities and ecosystems. But questions are already arising in our everyday work about how AI-enabled tools are shifting the ways in which we engage with one another, and the environments we work in.
This professional development opportunity will be delivered in partnership with the ANU School of Cybernetics, bringing together expertise in leadership, technology and systems thinking to help leaders navigate change in the age of AI.
Structuring the day:
- Session 1 – AI Expert Panel – meet our panelists, below
- Session 2 – System exploration – what futures do we want? What futures might we get?
- Session 3 – Ethics and guardrails – AI in Practice
- Session 4 – Principles/Leadership – what does this mean for leaders?
Content experts:
- Panelists and presenters include Chris Arnott (PCT Fellow, ArborAI); Professor Katherine Daniell, PCT Fellow, ANU), Dr Joseph Guillaume (PCT Fellow, ANU); Dr Hannah Feldman (PCT Fellow, ANU).
Skills and tools:
- Polak exercise
- System exploration work
- Guardrails and ethics
- 2×2 Matrix: should AI make decisions?
- Leadership focus: how will the sector change as a result of AI and what is our role as leaders?
Where: The Innovation Space, ANU
When: Thursday 12 November 2026 – 9.00am-4.30pm
Cost: $45 plus GST
Registrations:
- Registrations open 7 September
- REGISTER HERE
MEET OUR PANELISTS:
Chris Arnott
Director and Co-founder, ArborAI
Chris co-founded ArborAI in 2025 with Sam Redmond. The firm helps boards, executives and teams put AI to work safely and well. Chris leads ArborAI’s board and executive programs. He frames AI for leaders in terms of judgement, governance, risk and value.
Chris brings 30 years in water and natural resource management. He founded and grew the consulting firms Alluvium, Aither and Segovia. He has worked widely with state and federal agencies on strategy, investment logic and evaluation. He is an inaugural graduate of the Peter Cullen Trust Science to Policy Leadership Program, a former Board Director of the Trust and Ripple Award winner.
He is a former Chair of Engineers Without Borders Australia and former Deputy Chair of Victorian Catchment Management Council. Chris is currently a Director of Melbourne Forum.
Professor Katherine Daniell
Director, ANU School of Cybernetics
Professor Katherine Daniell is Director of the ANU School of Cybernetics and an internationally recognised leader in collaborative approaches to complex policy and sustainability challenges.
Her transdisciplinary work spans water governance, climate adaptation, and innovation, and she has produced over 100 academic publications, including four books.
She holds several influential leadership and advisory roles and several international accolades including Chevalier in the French Ordre National du Mérite.
Dr Joseph Guillaume, Research Fellow, ANU
Dr Joseph Guillaume (PCT Fellow 2023) holds two roles, as Research Fellow on Integrated Assessment and Modelling in the Fenner School of Environment & Society and the Institute for Water Futures at ANU, and Research Director at Murrumbidgee Irrigation.
He is working to empower holders of place-based knowledge to manage and reduce uncertainty over time, leveraging digital twinning and the speed of data and analysis.