Wednesday 21 June: Future Retail Stream

Attend Live or Virtual Event

08:30
Welcome Coffee

08:50
Opening remarks from the Chair

Ben Barnes
General Manager - Corporate Affairs and Retail
Australian Energy Council

Dealing with the consequences of increasing power prices and affordability issues
09:00
Managing a customer base in financial difficulties – a new look at the impacts of, and responses to, rising energy bills
  • Assessing the impacts of the energy crisis on households, the retailers that serve them and the markets they operate in
  • Finding the new intersection of risk management, product innovation and customer hardship support
  • Delivering win-win outcomes and the right supports in a different, dynamic and uncertain energy retail market
  • Setting a path for equitable access to the benefits of renewables and participation in the new energy future

Shannon Hyde
Chief Executive Officer
Simply Energy

09:30
Examining the intersection of AI and behavioural science to retain customers
  • Marrying AI and behavioural science to reduce customer churn in the real-world

Libby Dale
Co-Founder
SmartMeasures

09:50
Supporting and enabling all customers, including businesses, through the energy transition
  • Ensuring all customers understand their role in the energy transformation
  • How retailers should and must engage customers on this topic
  • Helping customers to reduce their consumption and gain access to new energy solutions
  • Programs and reforms needed to protect households and businesses from the worst impacts of high prices

Lisa Chiba
Managing Director
Momentum Energy

10:20
FIRESIDE CHAT: A focus on affordability for customers as we ride the transition to Net Zero

Rapid changes to the energy sector mean impacts to customers in terms of price and engagement with an increasingly fragmented energy sector.  How is Queensland stepping up to the challenge?

  • Leadership to assist customers navigate the transition
  • Supporting customer segments from vulnerable to highly engaged consumers
  • Managing consumers’ expectations about the transition and prices

Ayesha Razzaq
Executive General Manager, Retail
Ergon Energy Retail

Michael Dart
Executive General Manager, Customer
Energy Queensland

10:50
Morning tea in the expo hall

11:20
Energy-as-a-Service: is this the future of energy in Australia?
  • What exactly is EaaS? Who are the players and what does the landscape look like?
  • Cutting through the hype: benefits, challenges and opportunities that EaaS will bring
  • Taking your EaaS offering to market: what you need to consider

Julie Romanet-Perroux
Managing Director Energy Transition
Accenture

 

Examining the policies needed to re-invigorate the energy sector and make it fairer for all participants
11:50
INTERNATIONAL KEYNOTE: Energy retailing in crisis – UK’s retailer collapse

Between July 2021 and May 2022, 29 UK energy suppliers failed, affecting nearly four million households.

  • Examining the conditions that created the boom/bust in UK energy retailing
  • Balancing encouraging competition by allowing new domestic energy suppliers into the market against rigorous financial resilience standards
  • Ensuring energy retailing can survive large-scale price shocks

Neil Lawrence
Director of Retail,
Ofgem (Office of Gas and Electricity Markets), UK (pre-recorded message)

12:10
PANEL DISCUSSION: How can the retailing sector manage the growing number of consumers unable to pay their bills?
  • What internal policies and standards are most important for retailers trying to cope with households in financial distress?
  • What levers are available to reduce consumer costs? Should electricity networks and generators – not just retailers –help to meet the costs of supporting those in need?
  • How can the current "piecemeal" approach to energy subsidies and concessions across jurisdictions be better coordinated?

Moderator:

Sabiene Heindl
Executive Director
Energy Charter

Panellists:

Jacqueline Crawshaw
Interim Chief Executive Officer
Energy Consumers Australia

Hope Allum
Customer Operations
Genesis Energy (NZ)

Nigel Clark
Chief Executive Officer
Aurora Energy

Stephanie Jolly
Executive General Manager, Consumers, Policy and Markets
Australian Energy Regulator (AER)

12:50
Lunch in the expo hall

Responding to the changing needs of consumers through the transition
13:50
Reimagining the energy customer relationship, from one direction to the connected customer of the future
  • Using purpose to create deeper connections with consumers (decarbonisation through electrification)
  • Transitioning to sustainable energy and solutions business (helping customers decarbonise the way they live, work and move)
  • Delivering an attractive customer experience enabled by leading edge technology and simple, elegant processes

Jo Egan
Chief Customer Officer
AGL

14:20
Answering consumer needs with a flexible digital customer experience
  • Developing cutting-edge propositions to match the desires and aspirations of energy consumers
  • Using customer-facing apps and future-energy technologies to deliver an outstanding digital customer experience

Mark Humphreys
General Manager, Australia
Gentrack

Jessica Padman
Head of Customer Assets
Energy Australia

14:40
Improving competitiveness by bundling services – energy plus other household needs
  • Establishing the risks and potential rewards of branching out into bundled services (eg getting in before Google and Amazon develop their own offerings)
  • Working with partners to find the right mix of bundled services (broadband + energy or rooftop solar + energy)
  • Creating an innovative and flexible portfolio of services to meet the needs of specific customer segments

Duncan Permezel
General Manager, Retail Sales and Marketing
Origin Energy

Utilising data to deliver better customer experiences
15:10
Afternoon tea in the expo hall
15:40
"There is no spoon": experience, risk and process in the age of AI
  • Building a more engaged digital strategy to increase customer lifetime value, digitising their core business capabilities, fostering alliances and enabling business agility
  • Identifying and understanding customer needs and the solutions and services that will bring them on board and keep them loyal

Ben Burge
Member of the Team, Telstra Energy
Telstra

16:10
PANEL DISCUSSION: How can energy retailing be re-invented to produce better outcomes for consumers?
  • How can retailers translate net zero sentiments into products and services for that market?
  • What is the impact of technology like smart meters, 5G and Web3 on energy retailing?
  • How can energy retailers share the data vital to developing new products and services without infringing privacy or risking data breaches?
  • What are innovative ways of responding to prosumers?

Moderator:

Chris Thompson
Chief Executive Officer and Founder
Amber Electric

Panellists:

Rob Morris
Chief Executive Officer
iO Energy

Emmett Williams
Head of Client Solutions
Flow Power

Julie Romanet-Perroux
Managing Director Energy Transition
Accenture

16:50
Closing remarks from the Chair
16:55
End of Future Retail stream and main conference