Early September saw us come together in Brisbane for the two day 2025 HCANZA conference – with some excitement, as once again we had finalists in several categories. The speakers were varied and interesting and provided stimulating ideas to get us all thinking. Here is a quick wrap up of the speakers who presented.
Day One
Day one started with a somewhat sobering session by Glen Welby on “cybercy “where he emphasised the need for caution when sharing our data, and awareness when it comes to time spent in front of screens and on social media. Awareness and caution are essential in this new age of technology.
His session was followed with a very different session, where Nickolas Yu spoke about “Contemplative Coaching” for self-care and made us all realise how our coaching presence is more important than anything we do or say.
Day Two
Day two sessions focused on the “Business of Healthcare” and we heard from many speakers from different areas – Ben Harris from private healthcare, Dr. Karen Dwyer from the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Dr Peter Bruckner speaking on digital metabolic health, and Dr. Adam Hall reminding us of the value of community which Park Run creates in bucketloads. Following this, Elizabeth Calleja from the Heart Foundation spoke about the success of their walking program.
Dr. Dimitra Mersinia, a WCA graduate, gave a talk about her ‘MIND’ program that helps health professionals to navigate stress and burnout, reigniting their passion for work. It was a highlight for us to hear how she is using the training in this vital space.
In the afternoon, elite NZ rower Zoe McBride spoke about the mindset challenges that high performing athletes face, Claire Mccaffery discussed the need to embed wellbeing into corporate culture to address, and Lucas Finch from Xero discussed coaching in systems and daily rituals to create a wellbeing climate in organisations. Karen Stein discussed leveraging positive psychology when working with corporate women in menopause to create a mindset shift in individuals and organisations.
These inspiring sessions were followed by examples of coaching applications in New Zealand and Australia, from a shared patient model and coaching within schools, to coaching under the banner of an insurance provider.
It was so lovely to see so many past graduates at this years event, here are some quick snapshots of some of our WCA faces:
