DDD Perth 2026 Agenda
River Room 1 (Lv 3)
River Room 2 (Lv 3)
River Room 3 (Lv 3)
Cygnet room (Lv 2)
Black Swan (Lv 2)
8:00 am - 8:50 am
Registration
8:50 am - 9:30 am
Welcome and Housekeeping
9:30 am - 10:15 am
10:15 am - 10:45 am
Morning Tea
10:45 am - 11:30 am
10:45 am - 11:30 am
River Room 1 (Lv 3)
George Coldham
10:45 am - 11:30 am
River Room 2 (Lv 3)
Eunice Sari
10:45 am - 11:30 am
River Room 3 (Lv 3)
Flic Manning
10:45 am - 11:30 am
Cygnet room (Lv 2)
Ashley Aitken
10:45 am - 11:30 am
Black Swan (Lv 2)
Tanya Hallett
11:30 am - 11:40 am
Changeover
11:40 am - 12:25 pm
11:40 am - 12:25 pm
River Room 3 (Lv 3)
Dunja Lewis
11:40 am - 12:25 pm
Black Swan (Lv 2)
Amanda Tolfo Porto
12:25 pm - 1:25 pm
Lunch
1:25 pm - 1:45 pm
1:25 pm - 1:45 pm
Black Swan (Lv 2)
Alisa Blakeney
1:45 pm - 1:55 pm
Changeover
1:55 pm - 2:40 pm
1:55 pm - 2:40 pm
River Room 3 (Lv 3)
Kai Striega
1:55 pm - 2:40 pm
Cygnet room (Lv 2)
Sierra McDowell
2:40 pm - 2:50 pm
Changeover
2:50 pm - 3:35 pm
2:50 pm - 3:35 pm
River Room 1 (Lv 3)
Amanda Pitcher
2:50 pm - 3:35 pm
River Room 2 (Lv 3)
Cheryl Watts, Dale Field
2:50 pm - 3:35 pm
River Room 3 (Lv 3)
Trent Cain
2:50 pm - 3:10 pm
Black Swan (Lv 2)
icetana AI
3:35 pm - 4:00 pm
Afternoon Tea
4:00 pm - 4:45 pm
4:45 pm
Wrap Up and Prize Draw
What Women Want: What Every Ally Needs to Hear
🕓 2:50 pm - 3:35 pm📍 River Room 2 (Lv 3)
In the 2000 movie What Women Want, Mel Gibson gains the ability to hear women’s inner thoughts and discovers they want something completely different from what he assumed.
This talk works the same way, but with fewer questionable early-2000s gender politics and hopefully better workplace advice.
Co-presented by {Speaker 1}, an Engineering Manager and part of the Canva’s Women Collective, and {Speaker 2}, Senior Manager, Tech Business Analysis, bringing an ally perspective, this session gives you a practical look at what allyship can mean in everyday workplace moments.
Through fictionalised personas based on familiar patterns, we’ll introduce you to some of the women you probably work with: the woman who gets talked over in meetings, the capable teammate quietly opting herself out of opportunities, the person doing invisible glue work, and the beginner who wants to learn something new but does not feel safe asking basic questions.
For each scenario, we’ll unpack what commonly happens, what might be going unsaid, what allies often miss, and what practical support can look like in the moment.
This talk draws on lived experience, the Women Collective work at Canva, and honest conversations to move allyship from good intentions to useful action. If you’re a manager, team lead, mentor, teammate, or simply someone who works with women and wants to support them better, this talk is for you.
Speakers
Cheryl Watts
Engineering Manager at Canva, ANZ Women Collective Lead Canva, mentor, and professional cheerleader for women finding their voice in tech.
Cheryl Watts is an Engineering Manager at Canva with over 15 years’ experience across technology leadership, product delivery, systems engineering, operations, and transformation. She has worked across Canva, Qantas, and Telstra, leading teams through complex change and the very human side of technology delivery. Cheryl is also an ANZ Lead for Canva’s Women Collective, a mentor for women in technology, and an active community volunteer passionate about helping people feel supported, seen, and confident enough to back themselves.
Dale Field
Senior Manager of Technical Business Analysis
Dale Field started his career in the Casino Industry in Saskatchewan, Canada. Which, it turns out, is surprisingly good training for a career in business analysis. After modernising systems at the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority and moving into a management role, he decided to get serious about BA and joined BHP Billiton, working on complex Geoscience projects. In 2015 he relocated to Perth with South32, working his way through BA, Project Manager, and Program Manager roles, with a career highlight as Program Manager for the global COVID response. He joined Canva in 2022 and has spent the last three years building a BA team with a genuine reputation for delivery, peer development, and doing things properly.
Meet the Experts
Table 1
Table 2
Table 3
Table 4
10:30am – 11:25am
- Table 1
- Table 2
- Table 3
- Table 4
11:25am – 12:20pm
- Table 1
- Table 2
- Table 3
- Table 4
12:20pm – 1:15pm
- Table 1
- Table 2
- Table 3
- Table 4
1:15pm – 2:10pm
- Table 1
- Table 2
- Table 3
- Table 4
2:10pm – 3:05pm
- Table 1
- Table 2
- Table 3
- Table 4
3:05pm – 4:00pm
- Table 1
- Table 2
- Table 3
- Table 4
No bio provided.
2026 Sponsors
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