ACA Victoria Conference: Unlocking Potential, Inspiring Growth
What if the leader you’ve always aspired to be is already within you?
Have you ever felt the spark of potential but wondered how to fully embrace it?
Leadership is not defined by a title—it's measured by the impact you create every single day, it’s all about influence, connection, and cultivating an environment where everyone can thrive!
Join ACA Victoria at the Unlocking Potential, Inspiring Growth Conference 2025 on the 22nd and 23rd of August at Pullman Melbourne on the Park —an exclusive two-day, expert-led event that pushes the boundaries of traditional leadership. Discover the leader within you and learn strategies from authors, academics, and influential speakers on how to harness that awareness to foster growth, collaboration, and meaningful change.
Why This Conference Matters?
Whether you’re an educator shaping young minds, a centre director guiding a team, or an approved provider steering the vision of your service, you play a vital leadership role. Leadership in early childhood education isn’t just about making decisions- it's about inspiring, mentoring and crafting environments where both children and educators thrive.
At the ACA Victoria Conference 2025, we invite you to step into your own leadership journey- not by waiting for a title or promotion, but by embracing the leader already within you.
What to expect?
- Tools to uncover and nurture your leadership potential, regardless of your title.
- Practical, hands-on strategies to create an inclusive, collaborative environment for growth.
- Inspiring talks from world-class speakers who have empowered leaders across industries and communities.
- Opportunities to network with like-minded leaders and share your vision for creating lasting change in early childhood education.
- Gala Dinner on Friday night—a chance to unwind, connect with fellow leaders, and celebrate the spirit of leadership together.
Don’t miss out!
The best leaders aren’t born- they're built through self-awareness, collaboration, and a commitment to growth. This year’s theme, “Unlocking Potential, Inspiring Growth,” is all about helping you recognise and develop the leadership qualities that already exist within you.
Last year, we inspired hundreds of educators and leaders with actionable insights and strategies to support children’s emotional and behavioural growth. This year, we are pushing the boundaries even further by focusing on leadership as a catalyst for growth, collaboration, and transformation.
This two-day conference will leave you feeling inspired, connected, and ready to lead with purpose.
Stay tuned for more exciting speakers and a thought-provoking panel discussion that will ignite your understanding of leadership.
Are you ready to unlock your potential?
Secure your place today!
Special accommodation rates at the Pullman
Take advantage of special ACA Victoria accommodation rates for the Conference.Click here to book GroupSync - Hotel bookings made easy
Bulk tickets
If you are wanting to purchase 6 or more full (two day) Conference tickets, please contact us for a special rate.
Speakers
Kemi Nekvapil
Kemi Nekvapil is one of the world’s leading credentialed coaches for female executives and entrepreneurs, a bestselling author and a highly sought-after international speaker. With the level of compassion and wisdom only gained through extraordinary life experience, Kemi is a powerful advocate for connected, value-based living. Tune in to the session titled " Emerging Leaders "
Megumi Miki
Megumi Miki is an international speaker, author, and consultant in leadership, culture and diversity and inclusion, with earlier career experiences in strategy, economics and finance. She is best known for her book "Quietly Powerful: How Your Quiet Nature is Your Hidden Leadership Strength," which challenges conventional assumptions about what it takes to be a successful leader. Tune in to the session titled : Stop Faking Till You Make It!
Catharine Hydon
With over 30 years experience leading and advocating for quality early childhood education and care, Catharine Hydon’s work as the Principal Consultant and Director at Hydon Consulting, focuses on supporting professionals to explore the relationship between theory and practice. Catharine’s collaborative approach and engaging style have taken her all over Australia to think alongside leaders and educators in a collective effort to create meaning, define quality and engage in the art of transformational change. Cultivating professional dialogue that responds to complexity and invites deep reflection is central to Catharine’s work informed by a Masters in early childhood education specialising in practice and governance. Critical reflection is fundamentally different from reflective practice and essential for transformative change in early childhood education. Catharine Hydon and Kerrie O'Neill will engage in a conversation, debate, or dialogue on this topic, and together they will explore how each approach influences pedagogy. Can one exist meaningfully without the other? Tune in to the session titled :Reflective Practices or Critical Reflection. What leads to real change?
Kerrie O'Neill
Kerrie O’Neill, M.ED (Early Childhood) is an Early Childhood Consultant and author whose experience with the early childhood sector spans over 30 years. Kerrie has worked as a kindergarten teacher, a Director of an Early Learning Centre, a trainer and assessor delivering the Certificate III and the Diploma of Early Childhood Education and Care and as a tertiary level lecturer at Melbourne Polytechnic (formerly NMIT). She has worked for the Department of Education and Training in Victoria as both an Authorised Officer and as a Senior Policy Officer. Kerrie is a founding member of the Reggio Emilia Australia Information Exchange (from 2000) and is a current committee member. Kerrie’s work in the early childhood sector has been profoundly influenced by the educational project of Reggio Emilia, Italy, since her first study tour to the city in 1996. Tune in to the session titled :Acts of Resistance : An Alphabet of Potential