On September 18, 2009, Rhiannon Tracey awoke with elation on a warm, blissful day in Bali on a dream holiday. Little did she know that the day was to end in tragedy; after diving into a pool, Rhiannon’s life would change forever.

She was diagnosed as a C-5 quadriplegic, given only the faintest hope of ever being able to walk again. Rhiannon was just a few months from turning twenty-one.

After the accident, Rhiannon’s emergency surgery was delayed by nine hours due to a horrific earthquake on Indonesian shores. She was moments from death after her lungs had collapsed, and a hospital ward was left deserted as people ran for cover. Later, two nurses were flown in from Australia under her travel insurance, and they treated her for the huge amounts of water that were in her lungs. Then finally two weeks after, she was flown to an Australian hospital and underwent two more lifesaving surgeries.

With a strong love for animals, Rhiannon worked as a veterinary nurse before the accident, and was an aspiring singer. Her outgoing and bubbly personality was contagious, and an extremely bright future lay ahead of her. But when doctors told her she would never walk again, they advised her to sell her beloved RAV4, as she would never be physically able to drive it again. Being the tenacious person she is, Rhiannon would not simply accept this, and she set out to prove them wrong.

Her only ambition from then on was to regain her independence. In 2011, two years after her accident, Rhiannon proved the doctors wrong and can now walk short distances with crutches, and can drive her modified RAV4.

Rhiannon is living proof of the limitless potential of the human spirit. For long distances, she still requires a wheelchair, but through her hard work and commitment she has surprised doctors and proved that anything is possible.

Since her injury, Rhiannon has used her experience to create a positive outcome for others living with spinal cord injuries. In 2012 Rhiannon, with the help of her mother Sharyn, founded The Next Step (TNS) as a not-for-profit organisation, and opened The Next Step Spinal Cord Injury Recovery Centre in 2014 in Thomastown, Victoria. The Next Step Spinal Cord Injury Recovery Centre is a recovery facility for those with neurological disorders who want to obtain a greater quality of life and regain their independence.

Verne Harnish is founder of the world-renowned Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), with over 14,000 members worldwide, and chaired for fifteen years EO’s premiere CEO program, the “Birthing of Giants” held at MIT, a program in which he still teaches today. 

Founder and CEO of Scaling Up, a global executive education and coaching company with over 190 partners on six continents, Verne has spent the past three decades helping companies scaleup. 

He’s the author of the bestseller Mastering the Rockefeller Habits which is translated into 9 languages; and along with the editors of Fortune, authored "The Greatest Business Decisions of All Times," for which Jim Collins wrote the foreword.

Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0) has been translated into 19 languages and has won eight major international book awards including the prestigious International Book Award for Best General Business book. 

His most recent book is Scaling Up Compensation: 5 Design Principles for Turning Your Largest Expense into a Strategic Advantage, released in 2021.

Verne also chairs the annual ScaleUp Summits and serves on several boards including vice chair of The Riordan Clinic; co-founder and chair of Geoversity; and board member of the social venture Million Dollar Women.

A private investor in many scaleups, Verne enjoys piano, tennis, and magic as a card-carrying member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.

Sales Leadership expert Lisa Earle McLeod created the Noble Purpose Methodology after her research revealed that organisations driven by a Noble Purpose outperformed the market by over 350 percent.

She is the author of five bestselling books, in four genres: leadership, sales, personal development and a collection of humour essays. Her bestselling book, Selling with Noble Purpose, has been a game changer at global firms like Flight Centre, Hootsuite, and Roche. Her other books include The Triangle of Truth, Leading with Noble Purpose, and Forget Perfect.

McLeod is the Sales Leadership expert for Forbes.com. She has appeared on the NBC Nightly News, the Today Show, Oprah.com nd Good Morning America.
A sought-after keynote speaker who has rocked the house everywhere from Apple to Peterbilt Trucking, McLeod is known for her cutting-edge ideas, practical techniques, and inspirational humour.