8:30 AM – 9:00 AM | Connection Time

Doors open. Coffee flows. Conversations start.

9:00 AM – 9:15 AM | Opening Remarks

Welcome from the ICON President.

9:15 AM – 10:15 AM | Keynote: Finding Focus in a Shifting Market

How can you navigate the uncertainty and complexity of the current VUCA world and find potential for growth, innovation, and value creation? Join us for this inspiring and insightful keynote session, where our speaker will share their perspective on the emerging global trends and their impact on the professional services sector. They will offer practical advice and examples on how to adapt your strategy, culture and skills to a more uncertain environment and leverage your strengths and capabilities to meet the changing needs and expectations of your clients.

• Identifying and anticipating the changing market landscape.
• Adapting to global market trends and understanding their impact on clients and professional services.
• Navigating uncertainty and adjusting strategies in response to economic and other changes.

10:15 AM – 10:45 AM | Tea. Talk. Tactics.

Morning tea and networking.

10:45 AM – 11:45 AM | Session 1: The Great Debate: That tomorrow’s marketing dream team will be a robot, a chatbot, and a toaster - leaving humans free to focus on more important things, like lunch proudly sponsored by Squiz

Ready for a lively break from the usual panel? Join us for The Great Debate, where top marketing minds - and maybe a few machines - go head-to-head on the future of marketing teams. Will AI take over, or do humans still have the edge? Expect fresh research, quick-fire arguments, and plenty of laughs as two teams battle it out for your vote. You’ll get to weigh in live and help decide who wins! This will be a fast-paced, interactive session that promises insight, entertainment, and a chance to see if robots really are coming for your lunch break.

Rochelle Tognetti, Co-Founder, ACAM

Rochelle Tognetti is an accomplished marketing leader and the first female Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Deloitte Australia. Since joining Deloitte in 2008 and becoming a Partner in 2019, she has been instrumental in elevating the firm’s brand and market presence. Promoted to CMO in 2020, Rochelle previously served as the Chief Operating Officer for the Marketing, Communications, and Business Development function and held the position of Marketing Director. Before her transition into professional services, she specialised in digital marketing within the B2C sectors of the wine and travel industries in Australia and the UK.

As CMO, Rochelle led a team of around 250 professionals, driving Deloitte Australia's go-to-market strategy and enhancing the brand by leveraging the firm’s capabilities to deliver exceptional client experiences. With extensive experience across consumer and business-to-business markets, she is passionate about building world-class marketing functions. Her innovative and impactful strategies have garnered numerous accolades, including recognition on the 2023 B&T CMO Long List.

Beyond her professional accomplishments, Rochelle is a meditation teacher, a casual academic at Sydney University Business School, and a trainer at the Australian Marketing Institute. She is also deeply interested in the intersection of neuroscience and business.

Currently on sabbatical to pursue a Master’s degree in Neuroscience, she is exploring how insights from this field can inform and enhance marketing, business strategy, and leadership.

Rory Grant, Chief Growth Officer, Squiz

Debate Moderator

Rory Grant has spent his career at the intersection of professional services, technology and growth strategy. As former Co-Chief Marketing Officer at Gilbert + Tobin, he led marketing and business development through a period of significant digital transformation, building deep expertise in how knowledge-driven organisations navigate shifting client expectations and market dynamics.

Now Chief Growth Officer at Squiz, Rory partners with professional services firms, higher education institutions, and government agencies to implement digital experience platforms that drive engagement, unlock insight, and empower marketing and BD teams to move faster with less friction. He understands the pressures these teams face: doing more with less, proving ROI in real time, and adapting to AI-enabled workflows while maintaining the rigour clients expect.​

Rory's approach is grounded in practical outcomes, bringing a rare combination of frontline marketing leadership experience and technology platform knowledge, making him equally comfortable talking strategy with CMOs or implementation with digital teams.

Jessamy Field,
Head of Marketing, A&O Shearman

Jessamy Field is the APAC Head of Marketing at A&O Shearman. With deep expertise in legal marketing and client engagement, Jessamy leads a team focused on driving strategic client engagement, cross-border collaboration and unlocking opportunities for the firm in the Asia Pacific region. Jessamy also leads the global marketing function’s AI strategy, innovation and adoption supporting the firm’s ambition to be leading innovator in this space and rethinking what the marketing function of the future looks like.

11:45 AM – 12:30 PM | Session 2: CX Programs that Deliver: Driving Revenue, Retention and Growth through Client Experience

In today's volatile and uncertain business landscape, maintaining and developing your key accounts and client relationships is more important than ever. But how do you adapt your account management strategy and skills to meet the evolving needs and expectations of your clients, partners, and stakeholders? How do you create value, trust and loyalty in a competitive and dynamic market? How do you identify new opportunities for growth?

In this panel discussion, you will learn how to:

• Assess the current state and potential of your key accounts and relationships, using a simple and effective framework
• Align your account management objectives and actions with your clients' goals and challenges, using a consultative and solution-oriented approach
• Nurture and expand your key accounts and relationships, using a proactive and creative approach

By the end of this session, you will have a clear and actionable plan to manage and grow your key accounts in a rapidly changing environment, and a set of tools and tips to help you implement it successfully.

Facilitator 
Antonia Calvo,
Director & Principal Consultant, ACT XM

Antonia brings over 20 years of experience supporting organisations across the public and private sectors with the design and delivery of customer, employee, and brand experience programs. She is a recognised expert in experience management strategy, research design, and advanced data analysis, with expertise in the implementation and optimisation of the Qualtrics XM Platform.

Antonia adopts a holistic, outcome-focused approach to Experience Management, integrating best-practice methodologies in quantitative and qualitative research, human-centred design, and strategic advisory. She is skilled in aligning experience programs with organisational goals, driving measurable improvements in customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and service delivery outcomes.

Antonia has led over 400 successful engagements across a range of industries including government, education, financial services, healthcare, telecommunications, and professional services. She is also responsible for Act XM’s quality assurance and client delivery frameworks, ensuring consistency, rigour, and alignment with both ISO and government compliance standards.

Gavin Christie, Ex-Deloitte

Gavin Christie is a senior leader in client strategy and growth, with deep expertise in building and leading client experience programs that deliver measurable impact. Until recently, he was Director of Client Strategy and Transformation at Deloitte, where he oversaw national client experience initiatives including Market & Client Insights, client strategy and planning for the firm’s top 250 clients, and client-centred cultural programs. These initiatives were critical in driving Deloitte’s growth over the past decade and translating client expectations into actionable insights that improved retention, unlocked growth opportunities, and fostered a client-centric culture.

Gavin has spent most of his career in professional services, spanning legal, engineering, and consulting. He was also the Principal Economic Policy Advisor to the Treasurer of Queensland, bringing a unique perspective on how economic and social policy drivers influence markets. With over 25 years’ experience, Gavin offers a pragmatic perspective on how client experience can shape strategy, influence outcomes, and prove its value at the highest levels of leadership.

Midday Program

12:30 PM – 1:30 PM | Bites & Banter Break

Lunch and casual networking.

1:30 PM – 2:15 PM | Session 3: Pass the Mic: Real Stories. Real Wins. Real Misses.

When the post-lunch slump hits, we’re doing the opposite of slowing down. This interactive session puts the spotlight on the room - not the stage.

Break out into four groups and dive into the real stuff: lessons, misses, lightbulb moments and practical wins shared by your peers. Whether it's swapping AI tips, dissecting client moments, or increasing your influence, this is where BDMC stories meet reality.

2:15 PM – 3:00 PM | Session 4: Building a Sales Culture: Empowering Teams for Growth

In today’s fast-paced and competitive market, cultivating a robust sales culture is essential for driving growth. But how do you embed a sales-focused mindset and behaviours across your firm, ensuring that every team member is empowered, accountable and committed to continuous improvement?

In this session, you’ll hear from leaders who have successfully transformed their organisations by instilling a culture where sales is everyone’s business. They will explore:

• The key elements that define a high-performing sales culture and why it matters for professional services firms
• Practical frameworks and tools to assess your current sales culture and pinpoint opportunities for improvement
• Proven strategies to design, implement and reinforce initiatives that drive sales action, accountability and collaboration at every level
• Approaches to measuring progress, tracking outcomes and sustaining momentum for long-term success

Whether you’re looking to kickstart a cultural shift or take your existing sales culture to the next level, this session will provide you with actionable insights and practical guidance to help your teams thrive and deliver real results.

Kate Potter, Head of Employee Experience, HWL Ebsworth
Facilitator 

Kate Potter is the Head of Employee Experience at HWL Ebsworth Lawyers, where she leads firm-wide initiatives to enhance employee experience, engagement, and innovation. With a career spanning legal operations, strategic consulting, and design thinking, Kate brings a unique blend of commercial insight and creative problem-solving to the legal sector. Her work focuses on aligning client needs with business strategy, driving continuous improvement, and fostering a culture of collaboration and responsiveness. Kate’s experience across both private practice and consulting gives her a broad perspective on how law firms can evolve to meet the demands of a changing market.  

Sian Burgess-Lange, Director of Business Development, BDO

Afternoon Program

3:00 PM – 3:30 PM | Refresh & Recharge

Afternoon tea and final networking boost.

3:30 PM – 4:15 PM | Session 5: Pricing for Impact: Balancing client value and commercial success

How can firms price their services so that they attract and retain clients, while also ensuring they cover costs and generate a reasonable return? This is a perennial challenge for professional services firms, but especially so in a market that is constantly changing due to factors such as technological innovation, client preferences and competitive pressures. In this session, we will explore some of the key concepts and tools that can help firms achieve a balance between competitive pricing and sustainable profitability, such as:

• Understanding the value proposition and key differentiators of your services, and how they align with your target segments and their willingness to pay
• Conducting a thorough and regular analysis of your costs, margins and leverage, and identifying opportunities for efficiency and innovation
• Developing a pricing strategy that allows you to adjust your prices according to changing market conditions and strategic objectives
• Communicating and demonstrating the value and benefits of your services to clients, and building long-term relationships based on trust and satisfaction

The session will provide participants with some useful frameworks and tips to apply to their own pricing decisions.

4:15 PM – 5:00 PM | Session 6: Evidence of Influence – Making BDMC Results Impossible to Ignore

How do you prove the value of your marketing and business development activities to your stakeholders? How do you align your goals and metrics with your organisation's strategy and vision? How do you communicate your results and insights effectively and persuasively?

In this session, you will learn how to:

• Define and measure the key performance indicators (KPIs) that matter for your marketing and business development objectives, such as awareness, engagement, conversion, retention, and advocacy.
• Use data and analytics tools to track, analyse and report on your marketing and business development impact and ROI.
• Showcase your success stories and best practices using compelling and clear visualisations, dashboards and narratives that highlight your value proposition and differentiation.

This session is designed for marketing and business development professionals who want to enhance their skills and confidence in measuring and demonstrating their impact and ROI to their internal stakeholders.

Facilitator
Chris Barron, Optimise

Dan Quinn, Gilbert & Tobin

Chele Dore, HSF

Naomi Barber, Omni Bridgeway

5:00 PM – 5:15 PM | Closing Remarks

Key takeaways and thank you from the ICON President.

Evening Program

5:30 PM – 7:30 PM | Unwind. Connect. No Slides Required.

Canapés and networking drinks to close out the day at Verandah Bar, 55/65 Elizabeth St, Sydney NSW 2000