Defence Connect: The Progress Report Luncheon 2026
WorkSec is proud to be a Platinum Partner of Defence Connect’s The Progress Report Luncheon 2026, an industry-leading event focused on showcasing real, measurable progress in building a more inclusive, capable, and future-ready defence workforce.
As part of this partnership, Sari Mustonen-Kirk, Director of People, Culture & Brand at WorkSec, will join a senior industry panel exploring how Defence and industry are moving beyond intent to deliver tangible workforce outcomes. Our involvement reflects WorkSec’s commitment to embedding inclusion, culture, and capability as strategic levers for Defence readiness.
About The Progress Report Luncheon
A Platform for Measurable Progress
The Progress Report Luncheon is a Defence Connect initiative designed to move the conversation beyond aspiration and rhetoric. It provides an outcomes-focused forum where leaders across Defence, industry, and government share what is actually working to support workforce inclusion, leadership development, and long-term capability growth.
Rather than revisiting well-known challenges, the luncheon highlights accountability, evidence-based approaches, and practical strategies that organisations can apply immediately.
Bringing Leaders Together
The event brings together senior Defence and industry leaders to share lived experience, insights, and lessons learned from across Australia’s defence ecosystem. It creates space for candid discussion, peer learning, and collaboration – recognising that workforce challenges cannot be solved in isolation.
Attendees have the opportunity to engage in conversations aligned to their priorities, including culture, capability uplift, leadership pipelines, and workforce sustainability.
From Conversation to Action
At its core, The Progress Report Luncheon is about translating allyship into action. Sessions are designed to explore how inclusion is being embedded as a strategic advantage – across recruitment, retention, leadership development, and organisational culture.
The focus is on genuine progress: measurable outcomes that strengthen workforce capability, improve retention, and support women’s participation and leadership across the defence sector.
Key Focus Areas
- Workforce capability and future skills
- Talent attraction and retention
- Inclusive leadership and organisational culture
- Capability uplift through diversity and inclusion
- Collaboration between Defence, industry, and government
WorkSec on the Program
From Allyship to Action: Building a Future-Ready Defence Workforce
Sari Mustonen-Kirk, Director of People, Culture & Brand at WorkSec, will speak on the panel:
“From allyship to action: How industry is building a future-ready defence workforce.”
The panel will explore how leading organisations are moving beyond commitment statements to deliver measurable outcomes that support women’s participation and leadership. From recruitment through to retention, culture through to capability, the discussion will unpack what genuine progress looks like – and why collaboration across Defence, industry, and government is critical to securing the future workforce.
Why You Should Attend
- Connect with senior Defence and industry leaders committed to inclusion and capability growth.
- Gain practical insights into how leading organisations are embedding diversity as a strategic advantage.
- Understand current workforce trends shaping opportunities for women in Defence.
- Walk away with real-world strategies that deliver cultural and commercial outcomes.
Get Involved
Join WorkSec and Defence Connect at The Progress Report Luncheon 2026 and be part of shaping a more inclusive, capable, and collaborative defence workforce.
Date: Thursday, 26 March 2026
Location: Doltone House, Darling Island
To learn more about the event, the agenda, and the speaker line-up – or to secure your ticket – visit the official event website. Don’t forget to use the code WORKSEC to receive a discount.
- Event Details & Tickets: The Progress Report Luncheon 2026
