Australian founders used AI to build a sold-out business event and now they’re bringing it to Sydney
Two Australian founders have used artificial intelligence to build and run the majority of a national business convention, proving AI is no longer just a topic for the stage, proving it can now help operate the business behind it.
Open Summit AI will make its Sydney debut at Sydney Town Hall on 23 July 2026, following a sold-out first edition in Melbourne attended by leaders from 388 organisations, including 52 of Australia’s 100 largest companies.
What makes the event different is not only its focus on agentic AI, robotics and automation but how it was created. The Open Summit team says AI has been used across more than 60 per cent of the business operation, including marketing, content creation, customer communications, campaign strategy, operational workflows and event delivery.
Human founders remained in control of the strategy and decision-making but much of the execution was supported by AI systems and automation.
“Most AI conferences are still PowerPoint presentations about what AI might do one day,” said Charlie Bear, Founder of Open Summit.
“We decided to prove it. We used AI to help build the business behind the conference itself and then sold out Melbourne Town Hall. That is a very different conversation.”
The Melbourne debut showed how quickly Australian companies are moving from AI curiosity to implementation. More than half of the attendees, 56 per cent, said their organisations were already running AI in production.
Rather than focusing on theory, Open Summit puts business leaders and founders already using AI on stage to show how the technology is being applied in the real world.
The Sydney program will explore enterprise AI, robotics, automation, governance, cybersecurity, workforce transformation, investment and public policy. Live demonstrations and case studies will show how AI is moving beyond chatbots and content generation into autonomous agents, robotics and business-critical systems.
Popular speaker and Norg AI Founder Jack Bear will return for Open Summit Sydney, sharing a frontier view of where AI is heading and what Australian businesses need to do now to prepare for the next major shift in digital commerce.
“Within the next few years, every business will need to rethink how customers discover them,” said Jack Bear, Founder of Norg AI.
“AI agents won’t just recommend products. They will increasingly influence which businesses are found, trusted and chosen.”
With AI adoption accelerating across corporate Australia, Open Summit Sydney aims to answer the question many executives are now asking: if AI can already help run a business, what happens when it starts reshaping entire industries?
Open Summit AI takes place at Sydney Town Hall on 23 July 2026. Capacity is fixed at 1,800.
Tickets are available at https://opensummit.ai/
About the Author
Adrian Gunning Adrian lives in Melbourne Australia and has a huge passion for gaming, technology and pop culture. He recently finished his a Bachelor of Journalism and is currently focusing on games journalism. When not writing and playing video games, Adrian can be found in Comics 'R' Us debating the pros of the DC Universe and cons of the Marvel Universe.
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