The ultimate event to get you up to speed on the recent trends in everything health and safety
Health & Safety Leaders' Summit
Safety at the crossroads: Creating safe work in a dynamic landscape
9 -10 March 2026 | Grand Millennium, Auckland
Headline Sponsor 2026
About the Summit
2025 marks 10 years since the enactment of the Health and Safety at Work Act. With a current review into the Act underway and WorkSafe New Zealand undergoing refreshing its structure, strategy and operating model, health and safety in New Zealand is at a crossroad.
We are in the middle of one of the most important and consequential periods for health and safety in New Zealand in recent memory. Which makes it crucial to understand how to progress your organisation’s safety agenda in an environment where compliance, best practice and innovation is constantly evolving.
The 2025 New Zealand Health & Safety Leaders’ Summit programme has been curated to address these trends and more. Over two days, we’ll explore the changing safety landscape, and the new and emerging knowledge areas and skill domains required of safety leaders.
We have brought a range of talented local and international speakers together to share their knowledge, passion and experience into practice. The Summit will be an fantastic opportunity to connect with others in the profession meeting similar challenges with passion, purpose and innovation.
We look forward to welcoming you to the summit.
DAY 1
The first day will explore a number of themes, including the changing nature of compliance, the evolving legislative and regulatory environment, and will explore how existing ideas around safety measurement, compliance and leadership may need to be challenged to continue to be fit for purpose.
DAY 2
The second day will take a more practical approach. You’ll be hearing from health, safety and wellbeing practitioners who have put a range of innovative ideas into practice, including psychosocial risk, decluttering safety, learning teams and more. We’ll also be exploring the skills, competences and knowledge areas needed for safety professionals to continue to be influential and effective.
Have you ever asked yourself what the difference in management and leadership is?
Here is a simple explanation:
Management:
You’re focus is primarily on day-to-day operations and achieving short-term goals. As a manger, you ensure tasks are completed efficiently, processes are followed, and deadlines are met. You are concerned with things like resource allocation, control, and performance.
Leadership:
You’re focusing on long-term visions and lasting impact. As a leader, you inspire and motivate others to achieve a common goal that goes beyond immediate results. Your legacy is built on the positive change you’ve create for your team, your organisation, and potentially even beyond. You leave people feeling empowered, inspired, and with a sense of purpose.
Let's get you moved from a management mindset to leadership legacy.
Transform yourself to be an expert, innovator and visionary at the Health & Safety Leaders’ Summit 2025. So, you can not only achieve your goals but have a lasting impact!
Key Themes
Upcoming legislative changes for both large and small businesses and clarification for governance and operational management
Building a culture of safety: collaborative approaches and getting buy-in in reducing workplace harm
Company and officer obligations – what are the operational and practical implications in this changing landscape?
Beyond compliance – demonstrating leadership in driving proactive safety culture for a stronger, safer team
Psychosocial risks – a deep dive into a psychosocial wellbeing compliance and resilience
Join a community of forward-thinking leaders and uncover next-generation strategies and insights to enhance the workplace safety and wellbeing landscape.
This summit is not just about keeping up with the pace; it is about shaping your and everyone else’s future.
Here’s what we’ve curated:
- Disruptive insights: Explore cutting-edge advancements for safety solutions, predictive analytics for wellbeing, and the rise of the human-centric workplace
- Future-proof strategies: Gain actionable insight to navigate emerging trends, adapt to a changing workforce, and thrive in the years ahead
- Collaborative inspiration: Network with leaders and industry peers, share best practice, and co-create a future where wellbeing and safety are seamlessly integrated
Key Themes
Upcoming legislative changes for both large and small businesses and clarification for governance and operational management
Building a culture of safety: collaborative approaches and getting buy-in in reducing workplace harm
Company and officer obligations – what are the operational and practical implications in this changing landscape?
Beyond compliance – demonstrating leadership in driving proactive safety culture for a stronger, safer team
Psychosocial risks – a deep dive into a psychosocial wellbeing compliance and resilience
Empower your choice: Craft your perfect conference experience
Day 1 of this summit will provide you with everything you need to know to excel your health & safety leadership!
Day 2 is designed by you. We have two streams and you can decide for each session, which topic is the most relevant to your practice that allows you to drive change.
Choose between:
- Health & Wellbeing at work
- Innovation & Technology in health and safety
KEY SPEAKERS FOR 2026
Our 2026 key lineup brings together thought leaders, counsel and experts in Health and Safety. Check out more today.
Grant Nicholson
Anthony Harper
Julie Cressey
General Manager
TELUS Health New Zealand
Dr Manuel Seidel
ecoPortal
Past Attendee Profile
This summit is your chance to network with industry and occupational leaders and peers that share your passion for health & safety
Industries
Job functions
Venue
The location and how you can get there
Address
Grand Millennium Auckland
71 Mayoral Drive, Cnr Vincent Street,
Auckland 1010
Agenda
Agenda to be announced
8:00 | Registration and Coffee |
9:00 | Mihi Whakatau |
9:05 | Welcoming remarks from from Chair |
9:15 | Ministerial Address: The Road Ahead: Legislative Change and the Government’s Health and Safety Vision
Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety under invitation |
9:45 | Health & Safety in 2026 and Beyond: A WorkSafe Update
|
10:15 | Morning break |
10:45 | Navigating Change: What New Proposed Health & Safety Legislation Means for Your Business
Grant Nicholson, Partner, Anthony Harper |
11:15 | Health & Safety in Action Panel: Responding to Change and Making it Work for Your Business
|
12:00 | Beyond Compliance: Leveraging Data to Drive Boardroom Engagement
|
12:30 | Lunch |
13:30 | Officer Due Diligence: Insights from the Gibson High Court Appeal
|
14:10 | Building a Culture of Safety: Collaborative Approaches to Reducing Workplace Harm
|
14:50 | Data-Driven Safety: Streamlining Reporting to Focus on People
|
15:15 | Afternoon break |
15:45 | Compliance to Culture: How one Business Transformed Health and Safety
|
16:20 | The Art of Influence: Getting Buy-In for Health and Safety Initiatives
|
16:55 | Summary remarks from the Chair |
17:00 | Day 1 Close & Networking Drinks |
8:00 | Registration and Coffee |
9:00 | Welcome back from from Chair |
9:10 | Psychosocial Risk: Insights and Strategies from Australia
|
9:45 | Psychosocial Risk in Focus Panel: Insights from New Zealand Businesses
|
10:30 | Morning break |
11:00 | Stronger Frontlines: Developing Skills and Strengthening Teams
|
11:40 | Safety in action: Stories from the frontline
|
12:30 | Lunch |
13:30 | The Frontline Leader’s Dilemma: Carrying the mental load whilst supporting your team’s wellbeing
Julie Cressey, General Manager, TELUS Health |
2:15 | The Power of Story: Transforming Safety Culture Through Communication
|
15:00 | Afternoon break |
15:30 | Innovation in Action: Harnessing Technology to Advance Workplace Safety
|
16:10 | Artificial Intelligence: Exploring the role of AI and automation and its impact on workplace health and safety
|
16:50 | Summary remarks from the Chair |
17:00 | Conference close |
Speakers
Speakers to be announced
Speakers
More Info
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Grant Nicholson
Read bio
Julie Cressey
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Dr Manuel Seidel
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Agenda
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Workshops
Workshop to be announced
Pre-Conference Workshop:
ICAM Differently: Learning from events
25 March 2025 | 9.00 AM – 4.30 PM
This workshop takes participants through the main principles of Safety Differently, then provide hands-on practical skills to attendees on how they can use these principles in the aftermath of an event.
Learning objectives
- Understand the different forms of compliance and differentiate them from each other.
- Identify the factors that influence an organisation’s compliance profile.
- Self-assess your organisation’s compliance profile.
- Develop an organisational compliance improvement strategy.
Workshop outline
Understanding Human Error – Take a look at human error and how it is symptom, not an outcome of an event.
Data Gathering – Refresh attendees’ knowledge and understanding of the Data Gathering Phase of Investigations and share tangible tools to assist with this process including PEEPO, Learning Conversations and Learning Teams.
Data Organisation and Timelines – Provide alternatives to the traditional sequence of events that will help highlight system/ organisational gaps building better risk mitigation strategies.
Data Analysis – Learn how to sort through evidence and data in a structured and organised manner that helps to build narrative and context.
Building a Learning Organisation – Revisit building effective corrective actions that drive operational learning and help to build engagement and trust with the frontline.
Facilitated by: Georgina Poole
Georgina Poole is an experienced safety leader currently with expertise in Human and Organizational Performance. She has driven impactful safety programs across industries like mining, construction, and energy. Georgina has also enhanced ICAM course content and facilitated national safety training. An accomplished author, her book co-authored with Sidney Dekker Random Noise – Measuring Your Company’s Safety Performance highlights her innovative approach to safety management. Georgina is also the host of the Leading Safely Podcast, currently listened to in over 100 countries globally. Passionate about safety, Georgina enjoys sharing her insights with professionals as a Keynote speaker in various global forums.
Georgina Poole
Health and Safety Leadership Partner, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
Author, ‘Random Noise: Measuring Your Company’s Safety Performance’ (AUS)
Post-Conference Workshop:
Innovating within the lines: Where compliance meets innovation
28 March 2025 | 9.00 AM – 4.30 PM
In this workshop, participants will be introduced to a framework that repositions compliance as a more complex and nuanced concept than is typically thought. Through sharing the different types of compliance along with the individual, team, leader, and organisational factors that predict these, Dr Tristan Casey will help you to develop a compliance improvement strategy. Leveraging extensive practical examples drawn from a multi-year research program, this workshop will make the underlying ideas tangible and actionable.
Learning objectives
- Understand the different forms of compliance and differentiate them from each other.
- Identify the factors that influence an organisation’s compliance profile.
- Self-assess your organisation’s compliance profile.
- Develop an organisational compliance improvement strategy.
Workshop outline
- Compliance is more than just a ‘yes or no’. In the first module, we will learn about the problems and pitfalls of a simplistic approach to compliance. The evidence supporting a new compliance framework, consisting of surface, deep, and adaptive compliance, will be presented and explored. The different forms of each type of compliance will be explained in depth.
- Shifting from surface to deep compliance. Understand the differences between surface and deep compliance, and the factors that can successfully improve deep compliance behaviours.
- Innovating within the lines – adaptive compliance. First, we will aim to understand the benefits of adaptive compliance and what it looks like in practice. Next, we will explore the boundaries and limits to adaptive compliance. Finally, we cover the characteristics of a ‘safe to fail’ environment and discover the practices that encourage adaptive compliance.
- Putting the ideas into practice. In the final module, participants will be able to self-assess their organisation’s compliance profile, and the various antecedents of deep and adaptive compliance. Dr Casey will provide a compliance improvement strategy template and through collaboration, guide participants to complete a strategy for their own organisations.
Facilitated by: Dr Tristan Casey
Dr Tristan Casey is a seasoned ‘scientist-practitioner’ who understands how to generate safety science research with practical impact. With a career in workplace health and safety spanning over 15 years, he has consulted nationally and internationally across a diverse range of industries. Dr Casey is an endorsed Organisational Psychologist with two doctoral degrees. His passion is translating abstract/theoretical concepts into practical tools that have measurable impact. Dr Casey is skilled at forming collaborative partnerships between government, industry, and academia.
Dr Tristan Casey
Director
New View Safety (Australia)
Sponsors
Headline
EcoPortal
Platinum
TELUS Health
Exhibitor
Habit Health
Clearhead
EdenFx
Lanyard sponsor
EdenFx
Supporting Organisations
Notepad Sponsor
Life Care Consultants
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DOUBLE PASS
-
Must be from same organisation and book at same time. For a valid tickets, payment by 9 March 2026.
Individual Tickets
Early Bird
-
For a valid ticket, payment must be made by 12 February, 2026.
Group tickets
Team of 5 - Tickets
-
Must be from same organisation and book at same time. For a valid tickets, payment by 9 March 2026.
Workshop tickets
Registration Conditions
Ticket Terms
All prices are in New Zealand dollars ($NZD)
A surcharge of 2.5% + GST applies to credit card payments on top of the total amount.
Pre-Sale Tickets are valid only for the specific event for which they were purchased and cannot be transferred to other events. To remain valid, Super Saver and Early Bird tickets must be paid by date quoted.
Group ticket options are valid for registrations from the same organisation, booked at the same time.
By selecting any special pricing offer for classes of organisation, sector, or individuals or using any promotion code, you are asserting to the organiser your right to claim any such pricing offer, and acknowledge the organiser’s right to audit such claim and, if in the opinion of the organiser using its sole discretion the conditions for special pricing are not met, reject any registration.
For full terms & conditions, please visit https://www.brightstar.co.nz/terms-and-conditions
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