for Business
A lunch built around the conversations critical industries decision-makers actually want to have
There are plenty of construction industry functions. What doesn’t exist is a curated lunch — with a credible headline guest and a locally relevant theme — designed specifically for the owners and operators of Australia’s critical infrastructure. Not a networking breakfast with name badges. Not a conference with panel sessions. A room of 80 to 150 of the right people, a genuinely interesting conversation, and enough time over lunch to let relationships form naturally.
Three cities. Three distinct themes drawn directly from what is happening in each market right now. One consistent headline guest — Professor the Hon. Greg Hunt — whose career sits at the intersection of health infrastructure, sovereign manufacturing, innovation policy, and the decisions that shape how Australia builds its most essential facilities.
Senior operators attend lunch
A lunch is a business commitment. It’s easier to justify to a diary than an evening event, and it draws the decision-makers rather than the delegates. The people we want in the room can step out of the office for two hours.
The content is the draw
A themed lunch with a former federal minister and a locally relevant topic gives prospects a reason to attend that has nothing to do with Connected. They come for the conversation. They leave knowing Connected hosted it.
Compact and high quality
Two and a half hours is enough time for a proper keynote, a fireside, and meaningful conversation over food. It doesn’t overstay its welcome — and it respects that the audience’s time is the most valuable thing in the room.
Professor the Hon. Greg Hunt
Greg Hunt is the headline guest across all three cities. His career spans three of the most relevant ministerial portfolios to critical industries in Australia — Health & Aged Care, Environment, and Industry, Innovation & Science — and he brings a perspective that no one else on the circuit can offer: what it actually feels like to commission and run critical infrastructure at national scale, under pressure, with no room for failure.
A senior CTO or facility director who would decline a generic construction lunch will make time for an event headlined by a former federal minister. Greg’s name opens invite lists that a panel of industry experts doesn’t — and his podcast appearance means the relationship with Connected is already warm and on record.
Each event speaks to what’s happening in that market right now
The format is consistent across all three cities. The theme is local — drawn from the dominant critical industries story in each market. This is what makes the series feel curated rather than repeated, and gives each city’s audience a reason to attend that feels written for them.
Race
Brisbane is building for two deadlines at once — and very few people are talking about what that actually means.
The 2032 Olympics is the most visible infrastructure programme in Queensland’s history — but behind it runs a parallel build cycle that receives far less attention: the data centre boom, the AI infrastructure corridor, the defence sovereign capability push. Brisbane is committing to critical facilities on a scale and timeline that the construction sector has never navigated simultaneously. This lunch asks the question everyone in the room is already thinking: can we actually build all of this, on time, to the standard it requires?
- —Sovereign manufacturing: what the COVID vaccine programme taught us about building critical facilities fast
- —The Olympics as a sovereign capability moment — not just a games
- —What government gets wrong when it commissions infrastructure at speed
- —Data centre operators (NEXTDC, AirTrunk)
- —Olympics infrastructure leads — state government & IOC delivery
- —Defence & sovereign manufacturing facility owners
- —Connected QLD clients
- —Consultancies with QLD programmes
The build window is now.”
for Health
Melbourne is Australia’s health and science capital — and the facilities that underpin it are being built, extended, and commissioned at a pace the sector hasn’t seen since the 1990s.
The Parkville precinct, the push for sovereign pharmaceutical manufacturing, the expansion of pathology and TIC facilities, the post-COVID rethink of how health infrastructure needs to operate when it’s under load — Melbourne is the centre of all of it. This lunch brings together the people commissioning, building, and running these facilities for a conversation about what the sector still gets consistently wrong, and what the next generation of health infrastructure in Australia needs to look like.
- —Greg’s home market — deepest personal relevance
- —What the Health Ministry learned about commissioning facilities under COVID pressure
- —The sovereign pharmaceutical manufacturing moment — what it required from builders
- —University of Melbourne connection — potential co-presenter or venue
- —Health precinct developers & operators
- —Pharmaceutical & TIC facility owners
- —Pathology & lab infrastructure leads
- —Connected VIC clients
- —Aurecon, Arup, WSP, RLB Melbourne
Boom
Sydney’s data centre pipeline is now the largest construction programme in NSW by value — and most of the people commissioning it have never built anything before.
AI is driving a capital infrastructure build cycle unlike anything the tech sector has experienced. Hyperscalers, financial services firms, and sovereign operators are all racing to secure compute capacity — and the facilities required to house it are among the most technically demanding construction projects in the country. $10M per MW. Long-lead equipment. Power constraints. Operational deadlines that don’t move. This lunch is for the people making those decisions and the people building those facilities — in the same room, having the conversation that usually only happens after something goes wrong.
- —AI and sovereign digital infrastructure — his Industry & Innovation portfolio
- —Current Alvarez & Marsal advisory work on infrastructure disruption
- —What government policy is and isn’t doing to support the data centre build cycle
- —Outside the Room: the operator’s view of what builders get wrong
- —Hyperscale operators (Equinix, Digital Realty, NEXTDC)
- —AI infrastructure decision-makers
- —Financial services technology & infrastructure leads
- —Connected NSW clients
- —Turner & Townsend, RLB Sydney
The lunch — consistent format across all three cities
Two and a half hours. Structured enough to deliver a genuinely interesting programme, open enough to let the room breathe. The content is timed so the formal session ends while people are still at the table — conversation continues naturally over coffee rather than being abruptly closed.
Guests arrive to a standing drinks reception. No lanyards, no branded merchandise. The room is set for a private lunch — not a conference. Conversation starts before the programme does.
30 minutesGuests move to their seats. Lunch begins. No programme yet — the first course is for the room to settle and conversations to start forming at tables.
15 minutesEmma opens the programme with a single data point — the city’s Number, delivered live in five minutes. It sets the intellectual tone before the main conversation begins. The room understands immediately that this is not a standard industry lunch.
5 minutes · live “The Number” segmentEmma introduces Greg — his credentials, his relevance to the day’s theme, and his history with the Connected podcast. Brief and purposeful. The room should be leaning in before he says a word.
5 minutesGreg delivers a 15-minute keynote framed around the city’s theme. Not a speech — a structured perspective from someone who has sat on the other side of the table from every person in the room. What does critical infrastructure actually require of the people who commission and build it? What does Australia keep getting wrong — and what does getting it right actually look like?
15 minutes · keynoteEmma and Simon join Greg for a 30-minute fireside. This is the live version of the podcast’s Outside the Room format — the decision-maker’s experience of critical infrastructure, told from the side of the table the room doesn’t usually hear from. Simon provides the construction counterpoint. The tension between Greg’s operator perspective and Simon’s builder perspective is where the most interesting moments will come from.
30 minutes · live podcast recordingEmma moderates 15 minutes of audience questions. This is the moment where the room reveals what it’s actually thinking — the questions asked are as useful to the Connected team as any conversation at the event.
15 minutesThe formal programme closes while people are still at the table. The conversation continues naturally over coffee. The Connected team circulates with intent — no pitch decks, just follow-through on the conversations that have already started in the room.
35 minutesEmma closes with a brief tease of the podcast episode being released from the day’s recording. Every guest receives a personalised follow-up email with the episode link when it goes live — the lunch extends its life as content.
5 minutesThe lunch feeds the podcast. The podcast feeds the lunch.
The fireside conversation is recorded live and released as an episode of Built for Business within two weeks of each event. Attendees share the episode. The podcast audience hears about the next event. Greg’s network — which is substantial — amplifies both. Each lunch generates one full episode, three social clips, photography, and a follow-up content sequence that runs for four weeks after the event.
Who gets invited — and how
The invite list is the most important production decision. A room of 100 right people outperforms 300 wrong ones every time. The targeting below is the framework — the Connected team and Greg Hunt’s network refine it per city.
| Segment | Who | Invite route | Target mix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Existing clients | Decision-makers Connected has worked with directly in each city | Personal invite from Connected team — email or call, not a form | 25–30% |
| Warm prospects | Companies in active conversation or with known upcoming critical facilities projects | Sales team invite framed around the theme, not Connected’s work | 30–35% |
| Critical industries operators | Facility managers, CTOs, infrastructure heads in data centres, health, advanced manufacturing | LinkedIn outreach + partner introductions + Greg Hunt’s network | 20–25% |
| Consultancy partners | Aurecon, Arup, WSP, Turner & Townsend, Rider Levett Bucknall | Direct invite — these firms multiply Connected’s presence in each market | 10–15% |
| Greg Hunt’s network | Former colleagues, current advisory contacts, government and institutional connections | Greg invites directly — his network adds credibility and reach to every city | 5–10% |
What each event needs
Venue brief
- Private dining room — 80 to 150 capacity depending on city
- Round or cabaret tables — not theatre rows
- A defined focal point for the fireside: two or three chairs, no lectern
- Good acoustics, lower ambient lighting for the programme
- Microphones and discreet recording setup — no visible production rig
- Melbourne: consider University of Melbourne as a venue partner given Greg’s connection
Content & speakers
- Emma as host and opener across all three cities
- Simon as fireside co-host — construction counterpoint to Greg
- Greg Hunt as keynote and fireside guest across all three cities
- The Number prepared per city — locally specific data point
- Recording setup for podcast episode release post-event
- City-specific theme brief prepared and shared with Greg 2 weeks prior
Guest experience
- Printed invitation — not a digital Eventbrite link
- No branded merchandise, no lanyards, no tote bags
- Simple place cards at the table
- Post-event: personalised email with podcast episode link when live
- Optional leave-behind: Built for Business season two episode schedule
Content output per city
- One full podcast episode from the fireside recording
- 3 social clips for LinkedIn and Reels
- Post-event recap for the Connected website
- Photography — candid, not posed, for brand use
- 4-week follow-up email sequence to all attendees
How we measure the series
What we need to move
Three lunches across three cities is an executable, contained commitment. The biggest lead-time item is securing Greg Hunt across all three dates. Once he’s confirmed, the invite list, venue, and theme brief follow quickly. Brisbane is recommended as the first event — smaller room, pilot the format, take learnings into Melbourne and Sydney.
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1Confirm Greg Hunt across all three cities. This is the longest lead item and the one that unlocks everything else. The relationship is warm from the podcast — the ask is a continuation of an existing conversation.
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2Greenlight the series — all three cities at once. Brisbane Q3, Melbourne Q3, Sydney Q4. Booking venues and building invite lists simultaneously is more efficient than sequencing city by city.
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3Brief a venue partner per city. Private dining rooms at the right calibre — not hotel ballrooms. Melbourne has the University of Melbourne option given Greg’s connection. Budget and shortlist confirmed once format is approved.
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4Run Brisbane first. Tighten the run of show, test the recording setup, and take learnings into the larger Melbourne and Sydney rooms.
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5Align with podcast season two. The lunches should launch or land mid-season — so each event has a content moment to announce in the room and amplify afterwards.