4th Private Markets Summit
14 May 2026
The Langham, Sydney
Agenda
09.00-09.10 // Welcome and conference opening
09.10-09.50 // Standing out in a shifting private markets landscape
Private markets continue to attract significant allocations from institutional investors, with retail participation also accelerating. However, there are marked differences in how different asset owners and asset managers access and engage with private assets.
While some asset owners are internalising capabilities, others are seeking deeper, more strategic partnerships with external managers. On the asset management side, consolidation remains a defining trend, yet competitive approaches vary widely across firms, reflecting differences in scale, specialisation and value proposition.
This session will explore how the competitive landscape in private markets is evolving, what different asset owners and managers are doing to differentiate themselves and how GP/LP relationships are changing in response to these dynamics.
09.50-10.30 // Private credit: the risk perspective
Private credit has evolved from a niche strategy to a mainstream asset class, but data coverage and quality remain patchy. At the same time, warnings about ‘cockroaches’ reflect broader concerns of potential issues in this space.
This session will discuss how firms can ensure they adequately assess risk, structure deals, and benchmark performance across a fragmented market:
- Identifying risks in private credit: lessons from recent bankruptcies.
- Making the most of data held in loan agreements to understand true exposures, identify concentration risks and monitor terms that affect valuation or cashflow.
- Regional differences: Australia vs the rest of the world.
10.30-11.00 // Refreshments and networking
11.00-11.40 // Evaluating opportunities in secondaries and continuation funds
Secondaries and continuation vehicles are on a marked rise. While there are genuine opportunities, there are also concerns that recent sluggish exit markets have forced GPs to keep companies private for longer.
This session will discuss the role that these vehicles play in the private market toolkit, particularly with early signs of exit markets improving:
- Assessing opportunities in secondaries and continuation funds.
- Fee, valuation and performance implications when holding onto assets longer than intended.
11.40-12.20 // Paving the way for the next era of automation
As private markets expand and automation progresses, investment managers are facing a strategic crossroad. Should future capabilities be built internally; delegated to specialised partners, or redesigned around AI-driven workflows?
This session explores how technology is reshaping partnerships, operating models and the very definition of ‘core capability’ in private markets:
- Comparing costs and benefits of in-house, outsourced and AI-enabled models.
- AI as an outsourcing disruptor: implications for fund administration, reporting, valuations and data operations.
- Hybrid models: best of all or spaghetti junction?
- Talent implications: skilling up for technology-enabled private markets.
12.20-12.40 // Audience roundtable discussion: The present state of the technology market – what works, where are the gaps, and how are market participants solving for those gaps?
12.40-13.40 // Lunch & networking
13.40-14.20 // Oiling the machine: boosting resilience and efficiency
This session will discuss operational resilience in private markets. It will consider common blind spots and discuss the types of technology that investment firms are employing to implement processes that are efficient, can easily be scaled and that can stand up to scrutiny:
- Efficiently monitoring exposures, valuations and liquidity.
- Workflow automation and digital operations.
- Use of RPA for subscription docs, capital calls, reconciliations and fee and waterfall calculations.
- AI-driven document parsing.
- Blockchain – are prospects for transparency and settlement realistic?
14.20-15.00 // AI and integrity: managing the risk of misguided insights
The integration of AI into private asset analytics is accelerating, yet the output is only as robust as the data that underpins it, which in private markets, can be patchy. Incomplete or inconsistent datasets heighten the risk of false confidence, model drift and misinformed decision-making.
This session will discuss how AI can be used safely in private markets:
- Establishing governance frameworks to validate AI inputs and outputs.
- Detecting and mitigating bias and error propagation.
- Ensuring model transparency and accountability within regulatory expectations.
15.00-15.30 // Refreshments and networking
15.30-16.10 // Managing conflicts of interest in private markets
As private market portfolios increase in complexity, any potential conflicts of interest may become harder to identify and manage. Regulators have taken notice, identifying conflicts of interest as a key risk in private markets and have therefore strengthened expectations around governance and oversight.
This session will discuss how investors and managers are navigating these challenges and complying with new regulations across increasingly interconnected investment structures:
- Identifying conflicts arising across capital structures, funds and co-investment arrangements.
- Implementing oversight and governance frameworks to manage and monitor conflicts effectively.
- Applying RG 181 on managing conflicts of interest in practice.
16.10-16.45 // From deal to dashboard: enterprise performance management in practice
As private allocations grow, so does the challenge of managing the performance of these assets across the enterprise. From fund performance and revenue forecasting, to treasury, liquidity and cashflow management; distribution and market execution; workforce and technology planning.
This case study will demonstrate how integrating data, systems and processes across the organisation can deliver tangible performance benefits to private market asset managers and asset owners alike.
16.45-18.00 // Conference close: networking reception, drinks and canapés