“Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” - George Bernard Shaw
Monday Keynote speaker
Dr Keith Suter
Deng Thiak Adut
Tuesday Keynote Speaker
Since moving to Australia from London in 1973 at the age of 25, Dr Keith Suter has achieved three doctorates. He has also been a member of the prestigious Club of Rome “an informal association of independent leading personalities from politics, business and science, men and women who are long-term thinkers interested in contributing in a systemic interdisciplinary and holistic manner to a better world.
Dr Suter is a highly experienced, professional and awarded presenter of ideas, with topics including ethics, world affairs, globalisation, mining, global warming, leadership, the future, and corporate governance. Engaging in style, Keith’s discussions are always very topical and audience-specific.
Deng Thiak Adut is a Sudanese child soldier turned western Sydney lawyer and refugee advocate whose harrowing tale of his personal journey as a refugee has evoked strong emotions among Australians.
Born in South Sudan in 1984, one of eight children, Deng was conscripted as boy soldier at just six years old before going to war when he was only 10. Instead of playing games and singing children's songs he learnt war songs and was taught to love the death of others. He escaped the army in 1995 and arrived in Australia as a 14-year-old refugee in 1998. After teaching himself to read, write and speak English, Deng won a scholarship to study law at the University of Western Sydney in 2005 and graduated with a Bachelor of Law in 2010. He later obtained his Masters degree in Law at the University of Wollongong.
Deng originally told his story in a TV ad for the University of Western Sydney, in 2015. The aim of the ad was to promote the potential of education to change lives. What it achieved was so much more. NSW Premier Mike Baird was among those who saw a clip of the ad - and, without having met Deng, nominated him to give the 2016 Australia Day address at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. In Deng's memorable address, 'Freedom from Fear', he emphasised "how very lucky we are to enjoy freedom from fear, and how very unlucky are many, many others who neither chose, nor deserve their fate". He also reminded us to carefully safeguard the freedom from fear that Australians take for granted.
