The Experience Age - a night at PwC as a STARTUP

This week the team at girledworld paid a visit to the new PwC (Price Waterhouse Coopers) offices located in Southbank, Melbourne, for The Experiences Event.

With 360 degrees of the city, the new state of the art office facilities filled with open plan offices, technology and collaborative spaces were an enviable setting, which provided the perfect backdrop to begin discussions about the future of big business in Australia.

To begin the evening, we were invited to select three of following perspectives: 

  1. Student experience: Going digital to raise the bar on student employability
  2. Connected Retail Experience: Maximising the engagement of tomorrow's customer in a connected retail world
  3. Employee experience: How creative communications is changing the employee experience
  4. Solving wicked problems: Co-designing solutions to wicked problems in an experience-led world
  5. When data is the difference: Three ways to use data to reduce cost and engage your customers
  6. Cyber Security: Security by design
  7. Disruption: Swimming against the tide - Disruption in established organisations incorporating a Blockchain case study
  8. Government: Solving big problems and rebuilding trust in Government

We selected the following perspectives and here's our biggest take-aways from each: 

1. Student experience: Going digital to raise the bar on student employability

  • Given the way that students (at both secondary and tertiary levels) interact with one another, technology needs to be at the core of key communication strategies
  • Understand what the outcome of tertiary education is --> employability 
  • When designing curriculum, ensure that the end goal (of employability) is always engineered into the educational framework. Students must be skilled and ready for employment 
  • STUDENTS are educational institution's CUSTOMERS

3. Employee experience: How creative communications is changing the employee experience

  • Internal communications within companies continues to be under-utilised and under-valued
  • Storytelling is the most effective way to communicate KEY information. This can come in many forms including storybooks, one page posters, in-office interactive technology displays
  • Digital communication tools do not completely replace traditional communication media (i.e. paper materials)

4. Solving wicked problems: Co-designing solutions to wicked problems in an experience-led world

  • Human-centred design approaches are now becoming more "mainstream" 
  • Ensure that diversity is at the core of the design process - bring the right people into the design process 
  • Understand the PROBLEM that you are trying to solve 
  • Co-creation leads to a deeper connection, higher engagement and ownership of solutions 

Following the live perspectives, a panel presentation included the following: 

  • Airbnb Australia & New Zealand Country Manager, Sam McDonagh

  • Telstra Group Chief Technology Officer and previous Ericsson Australia and New Zealand CEO,  Hakan Eriksson

  • NSW Treasury Director and previous EGM Strategy, Education and External Relations at SunSuper, Andrea Forbes

  • Previous Executive General Manager of Channel Ten and PwC's current lead of our Chief Marketing Officer Advisory, Russel Howcroft

  • Commonwealth Bank National Director of Health, Caitlin Wilson
The all-star panel including representatives from Airbnb, CBA, Telstra, NSW Treasury and PwC

The all-star panel including representatives from Airbnb, CBA, Telstra, NSW Treasury and PwC

The panel discussion largely focused around discussions of innovation (integrating innovation projects into large companies), technology (like 5G and drones), disruption and addressing national problems of the future (like health industry and the ageing population of Australia).

From a start-up perspective, it was fascinating to see the discomfort and struggle that large corporations are experiencing in relation to the broader market which is being rapidly disrupted by innovation, technology and startups! The future is going to be vastly different to the past and present. That's why we need to ensure the next generation is prepared and skilled accordingly with the soft and hard enterprise skillsets to adapt to this rapid change.

At girledworld we're constantly seeking new information and checking in with industry to ensure our eduTech resources and experiences for Australian girls are relevant and in-tune with the employment landscape of the future. We are developing world-leading educational experiences for Australian girls, so that they have the resource and skill-sets to succeed in the future of work - whatever that looks like!

If you have any suggestions regarding resources, events or initiatives you think we should be aware of please don't hesitate to get in touch with us at hello@girledworld.com  - we're always up for a great conversation!