Thriving Together

Katja Forbes is an award-winning CX innovator and Executive Director at a Global Financial Services firm, recognised among Westpac/AFR’s “100 Women of Influence” and CX Network’s Top 20 CX Leaders in AI and Financial Services. She combines human-centered design with emerging technology to help organisations rethink customer experience and growth.

Her session, Machines Are Customers Too: The Next Frontier of CX and Business Growth, explores what happens when AI-driven agents and autonomous systems begin making buying decisions without human intervention. Katja will examine how traditional customer journeys, trust and engagement need to evolve as machines become genuine customers, and will share practical frameworks to help leaders adapt their customer experience strategies for this emerging shift.

Bernie Brookes is a retail veteran with more than 40 years’ experience leading multi-divisional organisations through significant change and transformation. His career has included senior roles across Australia, India and China, including Managing Director positions with Woolworths Group.

Bernie was CEO of Myer Limited from 2006 to 2015, leading the separation of Myer from Coles Group and rebuilding the business under new ownership. At Woolworths, he was a key architect of Project Refresh, which reduced costs by more than $5 billion over five years, and also served as Director of Marketing.

His contribution to Australian retail has been recognised with the Sir Charles McGrath Award for marketing excellence and induction into the Australian Retailers Association Hall of Fame in 2013.

Simon Kuestenmacher is a Director and Co-founder of The Demographics Group, based in Melbourne. He holds degrees in geography from universities in Berlin and Melbourne and previously worked as a business consultant with KPMG Australia.

In 2017, Simon co-founded The Demographics Group with Bernard Salt, providing specialist advice on demographic, consumer and social trends for business. He regularly presents to corporate, government and industry groups across Australia on demographic trends, consumer insights and cultural change.

Simon is a columnist for The New Daily and a contributor to The Australian, and is a frequent media commentator on demographic and data matters. He has 700,000 global social media followers, reaches more than 35 million people each month, and ranks among the world’s Top 10 data visualisation influencers.