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PACDEFF and AAvPA Combined Conference 2025
Rydges Hotel, World Square, Sydney
16-17 September, 2025
PACDEFF is the largest CRM, NTS and Aviation Human Factors Conference of its type in the world, with around 350 people attending the conference in 2023. The forum is intended as a non-profit, non-partisan opportunity for Human Factors practitioners to meet and discuss contemporary issues in the Human Factors field, with an emphasis on airline training.
PACDEFF offers a conference with a substantial array of CRM, NTS, Aviation Human Factors, and Aviation Psychology topics, which is always of interest to a wide cross-section of Human Factors, Aviation Psychology and Safety professionals, practitioners and academics.
Combined PACDEFF and AAvPA Conference, 2025
In 2025 PACDEFF will once again be welcoming the Australian Aviation Psychology Association (AAvPA), for a combined conference. PACDEFF and AAvPA have run a number of combined conferences in the past and there are many synergies and mutual interests across the two groups. The conference will allow AAvPA delegates to experience a wide range of Aviation Human Factors, and CRM/NTS topics, while PACDEFF delegates will have the opportunity to see some of the research driving greater understanding of Aviation Psychology and Human Factors challenges, across the aviation industry, as well as in other high-risk industries with similar challenges.
We expect a call for speakers for PACDEFF & AAvPA 2025 to open in February, with registrations opening in March. Please stay tuned for updates. We encourage a wide and diverse range of topics which will be of interest to our varied audience, who are largely involved in Aviation Human Factors. We also welcome speakers from outside of aviation, who can provide delegates with interesting and relevant topics, particularly where Human Factors challenges are shared across domains and industries. Please email us here with your ideas.
2024 PRINCIPAL SPONSORS
2024 MAJOR SPONSORS
PACDEFF 2025 – 16 & 17 September, 2025 Rydges Hotel World Square, Sydney
PACDEFF 2025 will be held at Rydges Hotel, World Square, Sydney, Australia over 16/17 September, 2025
The conference will comprise of two days of presentations on CRM, NTS, Aviation Human Factors, and Aviation Psychology. Presentations will include keynote addresses on Day 1 and 2, and some optional workshops on Day 2.
Please also note that the call for speakers for 2025 will open on the 1st of February 2025, however please feel free to email us with an overview of your presentation, or to submit a full abstract prior to then.
Registration for PACDEFF 2025 will open on 1st of March, 2025. Once registrations open, please select the Registration button on the right side of this page above, or via the ‘Registration Info’ tab on the Top Menu to take you to the Trybooking site which will walk you through the various options.
Provisional Registration Costs (AUD):
PACDEFF/AAvPA Early-bird rate (1 Mar-30 April) – $275
PACDEFF/AAvPA Standard rate (1 May-17 Sep) – $335
Speaker Rate – Free
Single Day Rate – $180
Conference Networking Opportunities
To facilitate opportunities for networking and the exchange of ideas outside the conference proper, two informal social events are planned for 2025. These include a free welcome drinks session in the Cider Bar, overlooking World Square, and a conference dinner to be held at Rydges.
Please note the welcome event for 2025 will be sponsored by Southpac Aerospace.
PACDEFF is one of the least expensive conferences of its type in the world. This is only possible because of the generous support of our sponsors. PACDEFF would like to thank our sponsors for their generous support for the 2024 conference and we hope that you will continue to support them.
We always appreciate the amazing contribution our sponsors make to flight safety and look forward to sharing the 2025 sponsors as they come on board.
2024 Keynote Speakers
Opening Keynote: Professor Sidney Dekker
Professor Sidney Dekker, (PhD Ohio State University, USA, 1996) is Professor and Director of the Safety Science Innovation Lab at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, and Professor in the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at Delft University in the Netherlands.
An avid piano player and pilot, he has been flying the Boeing 737 for an airline on the side. He is a trained mediator and a Chaplain.
Sidney is bestselling author of, most recently: Foundations of Safety Science;The Safety Anarchist; The End of Heaven; Just Culture; Safety Differently; The Field Guide to Understanding ‘Human Error’; Second Victim; Drift into Failure; Patient Safety; Compliance Capitalism, Do Safety Differently and his latest: Stop Blaming.
Sidney has lived and worked in seven countries across four continents and won worldwide acclaim for his ground-breaking work in human factors and safety. He coined the term ‘Safety Differently’ in 2012, which has since turned into a global movement for change. It encourages organizations to declutter their bureaucracy and provide people freedom-in-a-frame to make things go well—and to offer compassion, restoration and learning when they don’t.
He has co-directed the documentaries ‘Safety Differently,’ 2017; ‘Just Culture,’ 2018, ’The Complexity of Failure,’ 2018, and ‘Doing Safety Differently,’ 2019. Stanford has ranked Sidney among the world’s top 1% most influential scientists: his work has well over 18,000 citations and an h-index of 60. More at sidneydekker.com
Pip Spence, CEO and DAS, CASA
Before joining CASA, Pip was the Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Secretary for the Arts at the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts. Before that she was the Deputy Secretary for Transport. In this role, Pip was responsible for aviation and airport policy and program matters.
Pip has held senior leadership roles across the Australian Public Service. This includes:
- Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
- the then Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.
In that role Pip was closely involved in establishing the National Broadband Network and the associated reform of telecommunications regulations.
Pip commenced her career in the Department of Transport and Communications, where she worked in a number of aviation-related areas. This included working in the office of the Minister for Transport.
Pip has a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Tasmania and a Graduate Diploma in Economics from the Australian National University.
Matt Hall – Founder, Matt Hall Racing
Matt Hall is a Red Bull Air Race world champion and former Royal Australian Air Force top gun fighter pilot. Matt placed third in his world championship racing debut in 2009 and since accumulated seven wins and 25 podiums, making him the most successful Air Race pilot in the modern era. Matt retired from the Royal Australian Air Force as a wing commander and combat veteran of Iraq with USAF medals for heroism under fire in his F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet, supporting troops on the ground.
Nicole Ashcroft, Uber Safety
Nicole Ashcroft
Nicole is Head of Safety at Uber ANZ, and is committed to building solutions to improve safety outcomes for women and vulnerable people.
For the last twenty years, Nicole has worked across a range of industries in a health and safety remit, including construction, mining, rail, defense and technology.
Her role at Uber includes overseeing the prevention of serious incidents as a result of person to person interactions and road safety accidents. This includes developing safety policies and processes, and implementing innovations that support the safety of every Uber app user.
She balances Uber’s value of “Standing for Safety” with spending time with her two young children and volunteering with the Coogee Surf Life Saving Club.
