DAY 1 | WEDNESDAY, 23 SEPTEMBER 2026

8:00 AM

Registration

9:00 AM

Opening Remarks

9:20 AM

Navigating complexity through learning

[Opening keynote]
Reimagining L&D leadership: Balancing agility and business impact

Traditional learning frameworks were built for stability, but modern business demands speed. In an AI-driven landscape, L&D professionals must transition from instructional curators to future capability builders, to match the velocity of market shifts and multiply business impact.

In this opener, we will explore how the L&D function can champion a modern ecosystem where human ingenuity and machine intelligence unite to drive tangible commercial outcomes.

Get set to discuss:

  • Balancing consistency with extreme flexibility to respond instantly to shifting business priorities.
  • Embedding relevant technology to sharpen skill gap identification and deliver targeted, in-the-flow, on-time learning.
  • Unlocking workforce insights to match real skill gaps with targeted learning, creating a trusted ecosystem where data empowers personal growth and accelerates business capability.

10:00 AM

[Presentation]
Future-ready succession: The non-negotiables for high-potential development in an era of change

Today’s organisations are operating in an environment with no clear roadmap. Yet many traditional high-potential (HiPo) and succession programmes still rely heavily on past performance and subjective manager opinions.

In this context, building a strong foundation of people who can grow, adapt, and take on more complex challenges is essential for organisational stability and business continuity.

This research-backed session explores why it is time for talent and L&D leaders to rethink what matters most in leadership development, HiPo identification and succession planning. The focus is on moving beyond narrow, inconsistent processes towards holistic, fair and objective programmes that reflect the demands of today and strengthen the company of the future.

You will hear from our speaker on:

  • Why traditional high-potential programmes anchored in performance and subjective judgements overlook genuine potential, slow down internal mobility, and shrink succession pipelines.
  • What “future readiness” looks like today: Capabilities that define leaders who can navigate change, complexity and uncertainty.
  • Turning insights into impactful development: How to embed change readiness and transferable skills, competencies and support, into leadership journeys for those stepping into critical roles.
Amberlicia Anthony Thane

Amberlicia Anthony Thane

Senior Consultant

Talogy

10:40 AM

Networking break

11:10 AM

[Presentation]
Data storytelling: Make your insights impossible to ignore

Great analysis means nothing if nobody acts on it. Learn how to turn data into a clear, compelling story that drives decisions.

  • Craft a key takeaway that resonates with your specific audience
  • Choose the right visualisation and strip away the clutter
  • Use AI to sharpen your message and write persuasive action titles

Speaker:

Dominic Bohan

Dominic Bohan

Co-Founder

StoryIQ

11:50 AM

[Presentation]
Beyond the workshop high: Making organisational development stick in daily work

Leadership workshops can inspire managers, but inspiration alone rarely changes behaviour. Once daily pressures return, old routines often take over, and the impact of training fades.

This session explores how HR and L&D leaders can move from one-off programmes to repeatable systems that embed leadership practice into everyday work. We will look at how to build accountability, repetition, and coaching habits that help managers lead better, sustain change, and improve team performance.

Get set to discuss:

  • Moving from one-off workshops to continuous leadership journeys embedded in real work.
  • Creating practice rhythms and accountability structures that turn learning into habit.
  • Helping managers move from giving answers to asking better questions that grow team capability.
A. Sathiyan

A. Sathiyan

CEO

Engage Corporate Training & Consultancy

12:30 PM

Lunch break

1:30 PM

Talent trivia

Humanising technology

1:40 PM

[Panel discussion]
From vacancy to velocity: Keeping pace with mid-management scarcity, critical skills and digitalisation

Many organisations are facing a mid‑management gap as experienced staff retire. Amidst this crisis, the demand for critical skills such as advanced engineering, digital, automation and AI continues to rise.

In this fireside chat, we discover how to design an integrated talent and leadership pipeline that links structured hiring needs with hands-on development, global exposure and a strong line of sight to business needs. Through mentoring, partnerships, and differentiated learning for different generations, we can enable L&D leaders to rebuild future ready capability.

Join us to discuss:

  • Designing integrated pipelines that connect recruitment, upskilling and clear progression pathways to ensure sustainable succession planning.
  • Applying mentoring, mobility and cross-border exposure to build practical capability.
  • Adapting learning to generational preferences and incentivising critical soft skills, such as problem solving and knowledge sharing.

Moderator:

Eric Lim

Eric Lim

Head of Learning Excellence, Group Business & Transaction Banking

Alliance Bank Malaysia
Panellist:
Alicia Yip

Alicia Yip

Head, Organisational Development & Culture

Proton

Alvin Toh

Alvin Toh

Co-founder and Head of International Operations

Straits Interactive

2:20 PM

[Presentation]
Context is king: Why L&D remains the architect of performance in an AI world

This presentation provides a practical roadmap for integrating AI into the L&D workflow to achieve mass customisation. Our speaker moves beyond a simplistic understanding of AI applications to the specific steps required to build a performance-led framework. 

By anchoring AI in established human performance models, we look at how L&D practitioners can transition to strategic architects who deliver personalised development at scale.

This session covers:

  • The performance-first audit: Ensuring AI is activated to solve systemic performance gaps rather than just delivering more training content.
  • Expertise driven AI literacy: Upskilling interventions for high precision prompts to generate rapid, contextual solutions.
  • Scaling the learning loop: Using AI as a real-time partner to bridge formal training and on-the-job challenges for the workforce.
Farha Burhan

Farha Burhan

Talent Development Lead

PETRONAS

3:00 PM

Networking break

3:30 PM

[Panel discussion]
A gaping developmental gap: What happens when AI takes over work that is used to build experience and character?

The foundations of leadership have traditionally been built on repetitive, hands-on tasks that allow talent to sharpen their judgement. These repetitions, which act as a critical training ground, are now automated by AI, eliminating a vital stage in their skills acquisition journey.

So how can companies upskill staff to bridge this emerging gap? This session explores how to redesign development pathways so that the efficiency of automation does not come at the cost of long-term leadership capability.

Key discussion points include:

  • Rethinking talent development when AI removes traditional apprenticeship work.
  • Balancing productivity with the long-term need for human skill building and internal upskilling.
  • Shifting the focus towards the ability to audit and guide reliance on AI-generated outputs to ensure the leadership pipeline remains robust.

Moderator:

Joachim Ooi

Joachim Ooi

Head of People

CoinGecko

Panellist:
Andy Muniandy

Andy Muniandy

Regional Director, Global Human Resources, and General Manager

Dell Technologies Malaysia

4:10 PM

[Presentation]
Cultivating the AI native pipeline: Rethinking talent development from classroom to boardroom

In an era where technology evolves faster than traditional curricula, relying solely on internal workshops to upskill existing staff is no longer sufficient. To build a sustainable advantage, the L&D leader must act as a strategic architect and work with academia to ensure talent is community powered and industry ready before day one.
Reflecting the commitment of a global MNC to Malaysia’s growth economy, this approach moves beyond the classroom to foster deep integration with institutions of higher learning (IHLs). By co-creating immersive graduate programmes, organisations can bridge the gap between academic theory and industry reality to ensure the next generation is truly AI native.

Join this session to learn:

  • The L&D evolution: Why leaders must pivot from merely running training programmes to architecting end-to-end ecosystems that integrate talent from school to the workforce.
  • Partnerships which matter: Building shared accountability with IHLs to design graduate programmes that ensure talent is AI ready and community powered before they enter the industry.
  • The Malaysia roadmap: Navigating the local landscape of graduate employability to build resilient pipelines tailored to Malaysia’s specific digital economy goals.
Shawn Lim

Shawn Lim

Global Head, Emerging Talent

Infineon Technologies

4:50 PM

Closing remarks

5:00 PM

End of Conference Day 1