
You’re invited to the LG Professionals SA Business Performance and Improvement Network for their final Forum of the year - Innovation vs. Continuous Improvement: Competing Forces or Perfect Partners?
Join us for a thought-provoking morning designed to challenge assumptions, inspire creativity, and strengthen your approach to improvement and innovation. You’ll hear real-world insights and practical tools to drive change!
Start your morning with Dr Lisa Bailey, Director of MOD (Museum of Discovery) where she will help us explore the “preposterous” ideas that could shape tomorrow’s essential services and hear from the City of Marion who are embarking on a journey to embed a culture of continuous improvement.
We’ll end the forum with a staff led panel discussion to challenge the notion that innovation is more valuable than continuous improvement - guaranteed to spark discussion and new perspectives and invite participants to discover how Design Thinking can help you ideate and visualise new solutions, then put your learning into practice back in your workplace as a true change maker.
Don’t miss the opportunity to explore whether innovation and continuous improvement are truly competing forces - or the perfect partners for progress.
Welcome to City of Playford
Jo Edwards
Manager - Community Insights, City of Playford
From Probable to Preposterous: Imagining Possibilities to Shape Better Futures
Dr Lisa Bailey
Director, Museum of Discovery (MOD)
What if the most 'preposterous’ ideas today become tomorrow's essential services? In this session Lisa will discuss how futures thinking can help identify when you need innovation rather than business-as-usual improvements.
Dr Lisa Bailey is Director of MOD, Australia's award-winning future-focused museum at the University of South Australia. With a PhD in biochemistry, she transitioned from bench research to science communication, working at cultural institutions including the Royal Institution of Great Britain and The Royal Institution of Australia. She served as president of Australian Science Communicators from 2018-2021 and has lectured in Science Communication at Flinders University. At MOD, Lisa leads innovative approaches to science communication and futures thinking, creating accessible experiences that help diverse audiences engage with complex ideas and contemplate possibilities for shaping better futures.
Continuous Improvement Framework at the City of Marion
Claire Bircumshaw
Change Manager, City of Marion
The City of Marion is on a journey to embed continuous improvement into its everyday way of working across the organisation. Hear about their progress so far, the lessons they’ve learned, and what lies ahead as they continue to grow and strengthen a culture of continuous improvement.
Driving organisational excellence by supporting change initiatives and embedding a culture of continuous improvement focussed on the customer and improved community outcomes. Claire’s role guides employees through change, promotes innovation, and empowers staff with problem-solving skills to strengthen capability across the organisation.
Ignite Your Thinking
In the pursuit of progress, innovation is more valuable than continuous improvement.
Our panel of speakers will 'debate' the topic to ignite your thinking!
Continuous Improvement will be presented by:
- Gemma Capoccia - Manager Business Improvement and Transformation, City of Norwood Payneham & St Peters
- Damian Garcia - Manager Operations, City of Marion
Innovation will be presented by:
- Adrian Hill - Manager Community Safety, City of Holdfast Bay
- Dan Stevens - Manager City Safety, City of Adelaide
Design Thinking
Aaron Schroeder - Strategic Projects and Planning Manager, City of Burnside
Stuart Boyd - Manger - Strategy and Governance, City of Holdfast Bay
An introduction to ideate and visualisation to support business performance and improvement.
Participate in this interactive session to learn the basis of Design Thinking so you can head back to your workplace and become a change maker!

Thinking about making the trip? We encourage our members to join us in-person for this forum. Reach out to your colleagues for carpooling opportunities to maximise connection and reduce your environmental footprint.
Registrations for this forum are open to Local Government Professionals Australia, SA members, council employees, employees of regional subsidiaries and Local Government Professionals Australia, SA invited guests.
By registering for this forum, you will be subscribed to the LG Professionals SA mailing list. Should you wish to unsubscribe at any time, please email admin@lgprofessionalssa.org.au.