Tuesday, November 17, 2026 | Melbourne
Digital Leaders Forum: Strategic Momentum with Martin Eriksson
From rapid output to lasting enterprise value.
As AI transforms the speed and economics of software and systems development, executive teams face a critical inflection point. When building becomes faster and cheaper, speed alone is no longer a differentiator. Strategic momentum is.
The Digital Leaders Forum: Strategic Momentum brings together senior executives from Australia’s leading organisations for candid conversations about moving beyond AI experimentation and efficiency to the bigger strategic choices AI now creates.
Featuring Martin Eriksson, one of the world’s leading voices on product and strategy, co-author of Product Leadership, former Product Partner at EQT and author of The Decision Stack, the evening will explore how organisations can turn rapidly expanding possibilities and faster execution into distinctive advantage and lasting business value.
Event details
Date: Tuesday, November 17, 2026
Time: 5:30pm - 9:00pm AEDT
Venue: W Hotel Melbourne
Address: 408 Flinders Lane, in the heart of the Melbourne CBD
Register your interest
To facilitate meaningful peer discussion, attendance is carefully curated. We’ll review all expressions of interest and be in touch if we’re able to accommodate you on this occasion.
Martin Eriksson
Martin Eriksson is an internationally renowned product leader, board member, and strategic advisor. With over 30 years building businesses, products, and teams, he's advised over 150 companies on aligning from vision to execution, and previously served as Product Partner at EQT, one of the world's largest private investors. As founder of ProductTank, co-founder of Mind the Product, co-author of Product Leadership: How Top Product Leaders Launch Great Products and Build Successful Teams (O'Reilly, 2017), and author of The Decision Stack: How Strategic Clarity Unlocks Organizational Momentum (2026), his work has influenced how leaders and organisations around the world approach strategy, product, decision-making and execution.
KEYNOTE
Martin Eriksson
AI can create extraordinary speed, but speed is not a substitute for direction. The question is no longer simply how AI can help organisations do what they already do faster and more efficiently, but what new possibilities it creates for the business, its customers and the value it can deliver.
As AI makes it faster and less expensive to develop, test and scale ideas, the leadership challenge shifts from what can be built to what is worth building, where to invest and how to create distinctive advantage.
In this interactive keynote, Martin Eriksson, product leader and author of The Decision Stack, will explore how leaders can challenge assumptions, make clearer strategic choices and turn AI-enabled speed into strategic momentum across the products, services and core systems that create lasting value.
PANEL DISCUSSION
Facilitated by Martin Eriksson and Nigel Dalton
While AI is changing the economics of software, speed alone does not create strategic momentum. Building on Martin Eriksson’s keynote and moderated by Nigel Dalton, this panel will explore how established organisations can move beyond rapid execution to focus on what is actually worth building and how to take those opportunities into production.
The discussion will examine how leaders bring business, product, technology, data and operations together around shared customer and business outcomes, including the governance, critical-system modernisation and product- and outcome-oriented ways of working required to turn AI-enabled speed into lasting enterprise value.
Panellists
Nigel Dalton
Social Scientist and Transformation Advisor, Thoughtworks
Nigel helps organisations navigate the intersection of technology, leadership and organisational change. Drawing on a background spanning anthropology, software engineering and executive advisory, he is widely recognised for his ability to facilitate candid executive conversations that challenge thinking and surface practical insight.
Nigel will serve as emcee for the evening.
Andy Nolan
Global VP of AI at Thoughtworks
Andy Nolan leads the AI Factory at Thoughtworks globally, a distributed team building and scaling AI products, platforms and services for enterprises, neo-clouds and AI labs. Working with partners including NVIDIA and Firmus, his team helps organisations stand up and operate large-scale GPU infrastructure, improve the economics of AI workloads and build greater control over their AI capabilities. Andy’s focus is on helping organisations own more of their intelligence.
Additional speakers
We’re continuing to curate a diverse line-up of senior executives who will bring a range of perspectives to the conversation.
Thoughtworks is a global technology consultancy that integrates design, engineering and AI to drive digital innovation. We are over 10,000 people strong across 47 offices in 18 countries. For 30+ years, we’ve delivered extraordinary impact together with our clients by helping them solve complex business problems with technology and culture as the differentiator.
6 Degrees Media is an executive engagement and events agency specialising in high-impact leadership experiences. Working with many of Australia's leading organisations, it designs and delivers content-led conferences, executive forums, roundtables and private events that bring together influential business leaders, industry experts and decision-makers.