Sport Event AI
| Wednesday, May 13, 2026 |
| 11:35 AM - 12:05 PM |
Details
This session brings together leaders from two of Australia’s most recognisable global events — the Australian Open and the Melbourne Cup Carnival — to show how AI can be embedded across a high-volume event ecosystem with hundreds of thousands of visitors moving through it each day. The session focuses on AI as an integration layer across the full event journey: smarter ticketing and entry flows, real-time crowd monitoring and movement optimisation, personalised wayfinding and information services, predictive resourcing for staffing and transport, enhanced safety and risk detection, frictionless payments and hospitality, and hyper-relevant content and offers delivered at the right moment. The purpose is to demonstrate how AI can intersect with a major event at dozens of touchpoints to make the experience more seamless for fans and more efficient, responsive and commercially effective for event operators — without losing the atmosphere and human energy that makes these events iconic.
Speaker
Paul Bonacci
Head of Digital and Content
Victoria Racing Club
Speaker
Biography
Paul Bonacci is a Melbourne-based digital, content and transformation leader, currently serving as Head of Digital and Content at the Victoria Racing Club. With more than 20 years’ experience across digital strategy, product, technology and content, he has led large-scale transformation programs that connect customer experience, data, commercial outcomes and innovation. His current focus is on the practical impact of AI — particularly how it is reshaping digital discovery, changing the way people interact with brands, and forcing organisations to rethink content, search, data and conversion in an AI-mediated world. In the early stages of deeper strategic research in this space, Paul brings a grounded, executive perspective on what this shift means for brands right now.
Alan Sharvin
Chief Technology Officer
Tennis Australia
Speaker
Biography
