At the close of the conference, in a sector carrying extraordinary emotional weight — when the exhaustion is real, the masks are slipping and the conversations become honest — Amy Gildea delivers a keynote that is a raw, magnetic and deeply human exploration of where resilience, meaning and hope still live.

Drawing on two decades leading humanitarian and health responses across natural disasters, conflict zones and complex global crises, Amy Gildea brings audiences into the deeply personal stories that shaped her leadership, her worldview, and ultimately her forthcoming book Orchids Don’t Flower Every Day.

With honesty, humour and magnetic energy, Amy explores what it means to lead — and remain human — in industries where burnout has become normalised and where people are often expected to carry impossible emotional loads while continuing to perform. Through powerful lived experiences from humanitarian deployments, executive leadership and healthcare, she reframes resilience not as endless endurance, but as our capacity to reconnect with purpose, perspective and each other.

This is not a keynote about pretending everything is fine. It is an electric conversation about humanity. About grief, absurdity, hope, survival and the moments that crack us open enough to become better leaders, colleagues and human beings. It is about learning how to find light in difficult places. How to empower people without losing ourselves. How to lead differently in moments that test us. And how the ageing sector — perhaps more than any other — holds profound lessons about dignity, connection, grief, courage and what truly matters.

Audiences will leave energised, emotionally moved and deeply inspired — with practical reflections they can carry into their teams, leadership and lives long after the conference ends.

Expect laughter. Expect truth. Expect the kind of conversation people continue over drinks long after the keynote finishes.