Real Digital Transformation is not just about building tech, it's about building partnerships and a culture of innovation.
The Hon Victor Dominello is a public figure focused on the advancement of digital government and developing trusted, valued services for citizens. He is a seasoned government leader, having served as a Minister in New South Wales for 12 years, and is best known for his role as Minister for Customer Service and Minister for Digital. He is celebrated for creating and transforming the Department of Customer Service. He is considered the pioneer of digital government in Australia, and his achievements have been admired, studied and modelled by other governments around the world.
Victor brings 26+ years of government experience, including 12 years as a former member of Parliament and Cabinet member. In March 2023, he retired from government and is now a part-time professor at The University of New South Wales and a public evangelist for digital government advancement.
Victor serves as an independent advisor and board member to corporate boards and governments with a focus on digital technologies and mental health. He is currently Chair of the Federal Ministerial Digital ID Expert Panel and the Services Australia Interim Independent Advisory Board.
In September 2023, Victor launched Service Generation, which provides advice to governments and large organisations to help them profoundly shift service delivery for the times ahead.
Talking Points
Digital Leadership
Spending an unprecedented 12 years as a government minister gives Victor the rare experience of planning and delivering digital projects and seeing their outcomes.Digital Leadership
Over this period, Victor drove a significant digital transformation of Service NSW delivering groundbreaking projects, including the development of the ServiceNSW app, digital driver’s licenses, QR Check-Ins, vaccine certificates and NSW’s dine and discover vouchers. Under Victor’s leadership Service NSW saw a significant improvement in Customer Experience driven by digital innovation.
In this keynote, Victor shares key learnings gained from managing a large-scale transformation in a complex environment and the future-forward initiatives that led NSW to become Australia's most digitally advanced state.
Key Takeaways:
- Understand why digital leadership skills are should be a key competency for any modern leader.
- Digital transformation is more than tech; it’s about building tech, partnership, culture, and trust.
- Large-scale transformation takes time and consistency; as a leader if you don’t spend enough time and the wicket it isn’t going to work.
- The importance of building a strong culture and framework for innovation so that the journey doesn’t stop when the team changes
- Understand the importance of partnerships, both internal and external. Leading and fostering digital transformation requires a strong web of support.
- Understand the threat of falling behind the speed of consumers
- How to foster an agile environment that empowers people to innovate, make mistakes and try new things.
Artificial Intelligence & Emerging Technology
In this Keynote Victor unpacks the challenges and opportunities ahead for Australian organisations grappling with the fast-paced evolution of generative AI.Artificial Intelligence & Emerging Technology
With the rare experience of 12 years as government minister overseeing a number of digital projects and innovations including the development of the ServiceNSW app, digital driver’s licenses, QR Check-Ins, vaccine certificates and NSW’s dine and discover vouchers, Victor has a keen understanding of what leaders need to know about artificial intelligence and the world of emerging technology.
Key Takeaways;
- A general overview of the latest developments in Artificial Intelligence
- Understand the geopolitical impacts of AI
- Understand how to foster digital trust by building trust into our AI systems
- Understand what steps modern leaders need to take to build their digital literacy
Navigating the Chaos of Change
In this presentation, Victor Dominello highlights key aspects of digital advancement, data-driven decision-making, empowerment, speed, customer focus, and leadership using the transformative journey of Service NSW as a case study.Navigating the Chaos of Change
Victor comprehensively examines the challenges encountered during large-scale transformation and best-practice strategies to ensure impactful collaboration, risk management, and trust-building in the digital ecosystem. Victor emphasises the necessity of fostering innovation in a risk-averse environment, balancing agility with essential governance structures to support high-level investments and reflecting on personal leadership growth to create an empowering and authorising environment for leaders and management teams. Additionally, he discusses the future prospects related to Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) and its role in the digital landscape.
Key Takeaways:
- Understand the critical components of driving a large and sustained transformation effort, including making strategic bets, structuring programs, ensuring collaboration, focusing on the customer, cultivating a positive culture, establishing partnerships, tracking progress, and managing risks.
- Recognise the importance of building trust in the digital ecosystem, fast feedback loops, and the pivotal role of data in enhancing customer experiences.
- Develop strategies to foster innovation and achieve step-changes in a risk-averse environment while ensuring safety, ownership, and clarity.
- Balance the need for speed and agility with essential governance structures to support high levels of investment, particularly focusing on the roles of leaders and management teams.
- Reflect on personal leadership growth, managing for impact, creating an authorizing and empowering environment, and fostering collaboration and alignment.
- Understand the evolving role of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) in the future digital landscape.
I have never recieved so much feedback on one of these events. The team absolutely loved your passion and focus, and they continue to quote you! ... keep reading Westpac
Victor Dominello was the Keynote Speaker at our annual Sydney VeeamOn Tour event for 2023, hosted at WINX Stand, Randwick Racecourse. With over 550 guests in attendance, Victor spoke of Embracing Disruption: Thriving in the Digital Age. He was the perfect choice for our modern data protection, backup and recovery software business and the like-minded technology enthused audience in attendance. Victor’s delivery was engaging, entertaining and informative as he spoke with our Vice President, Australia & New Zealand, Gary Mitchell, in an informal and relaxed question & answer style format on the main stage. Following the Keynote, we were fortunate to also have Victor join us for our Executive Luncheon with guests enjoying the opportunity to speak with Victor and engage with him on specific questions and topics of interest. Feedback from attendees has been overwhelmingly positive and we have no hesitation in recommending Victor as a Guest Speaker. We look forward to an opportunity to utilise his services again in the future.
Victor is consummate professional. He went the extra mile to accommodate everybody's invitations to spend time with them, before and during and after the event on the day and the day after, even when those days were very long and tiring for us all. The amount of effort he went to was obvious and hugely appreciated by all. He summarised his address with short 'takeaway' sound bytes that made it easy to remember. He delivered perfectly to time and was engaging with it. Victor's delivery style is second to none. He has an almost unique ability to relate to the audience and relate complex concepts to things that ordinary non technical people know and do everyday. It probably comes from those years in politics as an MP and having to relate to constituents and fellow politicians with no tech understanding. And then he builds his story and experiences in the tech piece, the story drawing his audience in and forward. There's a humility to the way he delivers. He doesn't shout or force - not quiet either, but factual and conversational. Unlike many speakers that come across as the great 'I am', he acknowledges mistakes and what was learned from them. The overall effect was stunning in part because it was delivered in a kind of understated way. A pretty much perfect mix of expertise and knowledge delivered in a very humanistic way that comes across as very engaging. He doesn't get flustered nor frustrated with last minute changes and requests. In our case, with 5 minutes' notice he was asked to say a few closing remarks following the Chair's closing remarks. He did so effortlessly, demonstrating that he had been listening throughout the day and therefore could combine a range of thoughts and viewpoints into a single logical retrospective summary.
Victor proved to be an excellent choice as a keynote speaker. He crafted an engaging and insightful presentation specifically for our industry, keeping the Exec audience actively engaged throughout.
Victor hit the spot for our audience of public sector CIOs with engaging stories of his experience with digital services, and really insightful and valuable discussion and Q&A with our audience.
