Facilitators:

• Dr Tiffany De Sousa Machado – Mentoring and Coaching Skills
• Dr Nick Hadjinicolaou – Strategic Thinking/Practical AI for Leaders
• Mark Priadko – Future Thinking
• Taryn Sexton – Group Coaching/Conflict Resolution
• Gary Edwards – High Level Problem Solving

Key Focus Areas:

• Strengthen leadership skills and confidence
• Improve governance understanding and practice
• Build strategic planning capability

Intended Learning Outcomes:

• Strengthen strategic planning to increase impact and support clearer decision-making
• Lead and develop others with greater confidence and effectiveness
• Apply practical mentoring and coaching techniques to support individuals and teams
• Think strategically beyond immediate operational priorities, considering longer-term organisational and regional impacts
• Develop a future-focused mindset and identify emerging trends, opportunities, risks and challenges
• Approach complex and high-level problems systematically and creatively
• Navigate difficult conversations and resolve conflict constructively
• Make informed, confident and accountable decisions in complex or uncertain environments
• Adapt their leadership approach to changing circumstances, people and organisational needs

The program moves participants through four connected stages, beginning with self-awareness, building a strategic perspective and the ability to lead through others, and culminating in applied, accountable leadership.

Know yourself: Leadership Profiling + Group Coaching Each participant completes a TMP (team management profile) assessment ahead of Session 1, then joins a small-group coaching session with a leadership coach to explore what their results mean in practice. This early investment in self-awareness ensures every subsequent session is grounded in genuine personal insight.

See the bigger picture: Sessions 1–2 | Strategic Thinking + Future Thinking These sessions help participants look beyond day-to-day operations, consider the future of their organisation and sector, and identify a live strategic issue, referred to throughout the program as the Challenge. This gives participants a personal stake in the program and a real issue to work on over six months.

Lead through others: Session 3 | Mentoring and Coaching This session builds participants’ coaching and mentoring capability, informed by the self-awareness developed through profiling. Participants develop practical ways to engage, support and bring along their people.

Lead through complexity: Sessions 4–6 | Problem Solving + Conflict Resolution + Decision Making The final three sessions apply participants’ real-world Challenge, self-knowledge and people skills to increasingly complex leadership situations, culminating in a genuine decision and next step they are accountable for in their workplace

How do I effectively lead a team, committee, or organisation?

The Regional Leadership Development Program builds the capability of current and emerging regional leaders. The program is highly practical and provides participants with tools, frameworks, and strategies that can be immediately applied within their organisations and community groups. Through a focus on strategy, governance, community engagement, leadership development and operational effectiveness, participants will strengthen their capacity to lead people, steward resources, and create sustainable community impact.

Participants will:

• Strengthen strategic planning and adaptive leadership capability
• Develop practical governance and organisational leadership skills
• Improve financial sustainability and funding capability
• Build confidence in leading meetings, managing conflict, and fostering collaboration
• Strengthen communication, stakeholder engagement, and community relationships
• Develop mentoring and coaching capability
• Improve operational effectiveness and organisational sustainability
• Build connections with leaders from across the region

(Inclusive of a 1:1 coaching session with Sarah McGregor after the program end)

How can I contribute as a leader in my community?

Youth engagement and leadership succession came through strongly in stakeholder consultation and regional leadership discussions. Communities across the region are asking who will lead next, and young people want genuine ways to contribute now, not later.

The Regional Youth Leadership Program is designed for young adults aged 18 to 25 and draws on proven elements of the metropolitan Youth Governor’s Leadership Foundation (YGLF) program. Participants learn adaptive leadership: the practice of helping people make progress on challenges that have no easy or expert answer, where progress depends on people changing how they think and work together. Across five full-day sessions, participants build the capability to know themselves, know others, and know how to get great things done in their communities.

Participants then form small groups around a shared passion, and each group is matched with a mentor from the broader regional leadership cohort. With their mentor’s support, each group progresses a real adaptive challenge in the region. This puts what they learn to work straight away, and it connects them with established leaders who can open doors long after the program ends.

Participants will:

• Understand their values, strengths and the impact they have on others
• See complex situations from several perspectives, including those of people whose voices are often missing
• Use adaptive leadership practices to mobilise others around a shared vision
• Lead conversations and meetings that are inclusive and productive
• Work as a team to progress a real community challenge, supported by an experienced leader
• Communicate their work and learning with confidence
• Build lasting relationships across generations and the regional leadership network

Program structure

The program follows a deliberate arc. The first two sessions are full learning days that lay the foundations and bring participants together into groups around the challenges they want to take on. Sessions three to five pair a half-day of learning with a structured half-day alongside their mentor, so participants can apply what they learn to their challenge the same day. The program closes with a graduation capstone event.

Running a community event takes more than good intentions. It takes a plan, a clear budget, practical logistics, and the confidence to lead stakeholders and volunteers through delivery day.

This full-day workshop is delivered by Up-to-date Consultancy, led by Andy Glen, Chloe Head and Sue Edwards, who bring deep experience from a local government events perspective.

What you’ll learn:

• Event planning foundations: purpose, goals, stakeholders
• Building an event plan, run sheet and timelines
• Roles, responsibilities, risk and compliance basics
• Budgeting and finance: estimating, tracking, and reporting
• Operational planning: suppliers, logistics, and the day-of plan
• Post-event evaluation and continuous improvement

What’s included:

• Full day catering
• Workbook for every attendee
• Practical tools and templates

Major event partner:

Proudly Supported by The Barossa Council