Innovation Uncovered: An evening of stories, ideas & genuine connections
Why this event? Why now.
How many of you, in the last week, had a conversation that genuinely shifted how you think about something? Not a meeting. Not a briefing. An actual conversation — where you walked away different to how you walked in.
That is why we built this evening. Not another conference. Not another panel where five impressive people say impressive things you won't remember by Friday. Five speakers are going to share one specific thing — an innovation, a decision, a moment — that changed how they work. Real. Specific. And fifteen minutes or so each.
Konnectile exists on the belief that in an era of limitless automation, the scarcest business resource is a conversation worth having. Welcome to the first one.
Hosted by Konnectile · Wednesday 7 May 2026 · Tank Stream Labs, Sydney
What is Innovation Uncovered?
The most valuable conversations in business are rarely the ones that happen on stage. They happen in the ten minutes before the room fills — when two strangers find out they're solving the exact same problem, or one offhand remark unlocks a strategy someone's been stuck on for six months.
Innovation Uncovered is Konnectile's inaugural panel event — an evening designed around exactly those moments. Five compelling Sydney operators. Five real stories. One shared theme: the single innovation — adopted, deployed, or discovered — that changed how they build, sell, lead, or grow.
No pitch decks. No vendor sessions. Just candid, high-quality conversation from people doing the work.
Who's speaking?
Our speakers represent the full commercial stack of a scaling business — talent, sales, revenue, leadership, and AI-native product. Each presents for fifteen minutes, followed by an open panel Q&A moderated by Konnectile's Founder & Head of Growth, Mirela Xhota.
Speakers:
Emily Sautter: Founder, A New Way Forward · Ex-Accenture MD
Joanna Perry: Founder, Firm Ready · 2025 Rising Star of the Year
Steve Tolen: ounder, Stolen+Co · Sales & Personal Brand
Lauren Calautti: CRO, Scalare Partners ASX: SCP
Mark Taoube: Co-Founder, Lamigo.ai · B2B AI Sales, & EX- S&P.
What to expect on the night:
→ Networking drinks from 5:00 PM with structured introductions
→ Opening remarks from Emily Sautter on leading with humanity in the AI era at 5.30 pm.
→ Four 15-30 minute talks each— no slides required, storytelling first
→ A 30-40 minute open panel Q&A — candid, challenging, no-filter
→ Snacks, drinks, and genuine conversation from 8:00 PM onwards
→ A room of 80–150 max founders, operators, and senior commercial leaders
Who is this for?
Founders and co-founders building or scaling businesses in Australia. Revenue, GTM, and commercial leaders at growth-stage companies. Anyone who believes that the most important business assets in 2026 are not technical — they are human.
Why attend?
In a world where AI is rapidly automating the transactional, the premium is shifting to the things machines cannot replicate: judgment, relationships, storytelling, and trust. This evening brings together five people who have already reckoned with that shift — and built something because of it.
Free to attend. Spaces are limited to 150 max. Register above to secure your place.
Partners & Sponsors: Supported by Tank Stream Labs, Lamigo.AI, The Founders Union, Plan and Publish, ivygo, Circa94
About the Speakers:
Founder, A New Way Forward · Opening Remarks
"The Human Equation: Why the Age of AI Is the Age of People"
Emily Sautter is a leadership and organisational development specialist who spent two decades as a Managing Director at Accenture in Software, Platforms, Talent & Organisation — working with Fortune 500 companies and Australia's leading corporate brands. She observed, at close range, the displacement of human dignity in the name of optimisation. That observation led her to found A New Way Forward, a professional services practice built on a counterintuitive premise: the more sophisticated AI becomes, the more leadership must become human.
Her approach integrates neuroscience, psychology, mindfulness, and executive coaching into a practical methodology for helping leaders navigate the future of work with clarity, compassion, and courage.
#Leadership #FutureofWork #OpeningRemarks
Founder, Firm Ready · Speaker 1
"The New Era of Professional Development: Building the Workforce AI Can't Replace"
Joanna Perry is a business advisor and the founder of Firm Ready — a professional development platform built on a direct challenge to conventional training: that universities and legacy corporate programmes are producing graduates who are technically credentialled and strategically unprepared. She transforms established organisations with modern strategy and develops the next generation of professionals to close that gap.
A former accountant turned keynote speaker, Joanna was named 2025 Rising Star of the Year and is recognised internationally for her work on generational workplace dynamics. She has worked with leading professional services firms across Australia and speaks globally. With over three months of LinkedIn content that reached 5.3 million people, she is also one of Sydney's most compelling voices on what professional growth looks like in a world where AI is rewriting the job description.
#ProfessionalDev #NextGen #Talent #FirmReady
Founder, Stolen+Co · Speaker 2
"The Brand Is the Pipeline: How Founders Win Clients Before They Ever Pick Up the Phone"
Steve Tolen is the founder of Stolen+Co, a specialist talent and sales advisory firm, and the creator of the "Change the Game" (CTG) sales methodology. With more than 20 years of experience in business development, recruitment, and commercial leadership, he has spent his career challenging the premise that more outreach produces more results.
His CTG platform — launched in 2026 with paying clients from Australia, New Zealand, the US, and Thailand within 30 days — teaches founders and sales leaders to turn personal brand into a commercial asset. His philosophy: in a world of AI-generated noise, the people who win are the ones clients already know and trust before the first conversation. His talk is a practical, story-led case for why visibility is now a revenue strategy.
#Sales #PersonalBrand #GTM
Chief Revenue Rocketeer, Scalare Partners (ASX: SCP) · Speaker 3
"The Revenue Rewire: What B2B Selling Actually Looks Like in 2026"
Lauren Calautti is Chief Revenue Rocketeer at Scalare Partners, an ASX-listed services and investment firm that backs Australia's most ambitious technology founders. Working directly with early-stage and scaling tech companies, she designs and executes the kind of practical revenue strategy that turns fragmented, founder-led sales into a structured, repeatable growth engine.
Known for her direct, no-nonsense approach to commercial leadership, Lauren has delivered workshops and advisory engagements across B2B GTM strategy, enterprise sales, and revenue operations. She is also the co-founder of Nine On Purpose, a coaching community for women navigating career transitions. Her talk will address the question every revenue leader in 2026 is actually asking: what has AI genuinely changed about B2B selling — and what has it not?
#Revenue #B2B #GTM #ScalarePartners
Co-Founder, Lamigo.ai · Speaker 4
"The Always-On Teammate: What We Learned Building an AI That Remembers Every Deal"
Mark Taoube is the co-founder of Lamigo, an early-stage AI company building what it describes as the always-on sales assistant for B2B teams. Over 17 years in GTM and enterprise sales, he has taken products to market, built commercial teams from scratch, and invested across multiple industries. Lamigo connects to a team's email, calendar, and CRM — not to automate the sale, but to build a living memory of every deal: the people, the decisions, and the reasoning behind every move.
His thesis is that CRMs capture data, but context is what wins deals — and that gap is where AI has the most underutilised potential.
#AI #ProductB2B #Sales Lamigo.ai
Founder & CEO, Konnectile · Host & Moderator
"Opening, Welcome & Panel Moderation"
Mirela Xhota is the Founder & Head of Growth of Konnectile, a Sydney-based business community and technology partnerships group operating across six professional verticals and an annual summit. With over 18 years of experience spanning media, technology, and go-to-market strategy, she has built a career at the intersection of ideas and relationships — including her role at Financial Times, Thomson Reuters, Freshworks, First Advantage, and recently Decidr and inTruth
She founded Konnectile on a single conviction: that in an era of limitless automation, the scarcest and most valuable business resource is a conversation worth having.
#Host & #MC Moderator #Konnectile #Founder #Salesleader #AngelInvestor
Agenda:
5:00 PM — Doors open. Registrations, welcome drinks and networking.
5:45 PM — Welcome from Mirela Xhota, Founder & Head of Growth at Konnectile.
5:50 PM — Opening remarks: Emily Sautter, Founder, A New Way Forward.
6:00 PM — Panel Discussion
7:10 PM — Open panel Q&A — all speakers, moderated by Mirela Xhota.
7:45 PM — Closing remarks.
7:50 PM — Networking, open bar, and grazing platters.
8:30 -9 PM — Closing Event
This session is perfect for HR professionals, people leaders, CEO's, VC's, leaders in innovation, Product Leaders, Engineers, Tech proffesionals, CEO's, Employee Experience (HR), Innovators, researchers, and anyone working
📅 Date: Thursday 7th
🕔 Time: 5-9 pm AEST
📍 Location: Tank Stream Labs, Sydney
🌐 Online: TBC
Host: Konnectile — www.konnectile.com
Come ready to challenge assumptions, ask questions, and leave with practical insights you can apply immediately.
This evening is free to attend. But your time is not free — and I take that seriously. So let me be direct about what I believe you should expect to walk away with, at minimum, before the night is over.
One deal in the room. Not a follow-up email. An actual conversation that opens a commercial door — with a speaker, a sponsor, or another attendee. The room is being curated deliberately. Every person here is either building something, buying something, or advising someone who is. Come with a clear offer and a clear ask.
One partnership conversation. Not every opportunity is a transaction. Some of the most valuable relationships I have ever formed began as an exchange of ideas with no immediate commercial intent. Identify one person in the room whose work complements yours. Have a real conversation. See where it goes.
One new connection worth keeping.
One idea you did not arrive at.
A sharper understanding of where sales and B2B are actually heading.
A stronger sense of where your brand stands.
That is the return I am designing this evening to deliver.
One deal. One partnership. One connection. One idea. One shift in commercial thinking. One honest look at your brand.
For the cost of a Wednesday evening in Sydney.
I will see you on May 7th at 5 pm AEST. Thank you.
— Mirela Xhota, Founder & Head of Growth, Konnectile
Enquiries:
e: [email protected] & DM me on LinkedIn.