Unplugged ‘25 Recap

Unplugged '25 Recap

Read on for a recap of Unplugged ’25, feedback on the day was overwhelmingly positive. There are also more detailed articles about two Unplugged ‘25 sessions: 

• It really is a tsunami of change by ComplyWith’s Chief Operating Officer, Jackie Grimes
• Introducing ComplyWith’s new corrective actions by ComplyWith’s Chief Technology and Product Officer, Andrew Cox.  

A big shout-out to our two fantastic MCs for the day, Kaleb and Kev from our Customer Experience team.  

Morning sessions at Unplugged ’25

The morning sessions at Unplugged tend to focus on practical upskilling and sharing what new tech enhancements are coming. We kicked off with 3 quick-fire upskilling sessions, followed by a session by Andrew Cox introducing the new Corrective Actions. 

Linking 

Kev Pestaño and Jackie Grimes led a quick show and tell on how to easily link your legal compliance obligations to: 

1. Internal policies, processes and other resources - for example: linking your health and safety policy and processes to your health and safety legal compliance obligations  
2. Notes that give your people additional helpful information relevant to legal compliance obligations – for example: who your organisation’s Privacy Officer is an how to contact them should be attached to all your Privacy Act obligations  

Law change notifications  

Kaleb Nielsen shared insights on why setting up law change notifications is an important building block of good legal compliance, then showed us all how easy it is to set up tailored law change notifications in your ComplyWith tool.  

Lessons from the coalface of compliance

Steph Randle led an informative session sharing tips on how to keep your ComplyWith legal compliance survey aligned with the reality of your organisation – advocating for a ‘tidy as you go’ approach.  

Introducing the new Corrective Actions  

Andrew Cox delivered an in-depth session introducing ComplyWith’s new Corrective Actions feature, which will be rolled out in early 2026.  

To find out more about the new Corrective Actions and what Andrew covered in his session, please see this article: Introducing ComplyWith’s new corrective actions

Afternoon sessions at Unplugged ‘ 25 

Tech update and roadmap ahead

Andrew Cox shared details of tech enhancements released during 2025, and then revealed what new tech goodness we’ll be working on after the new Corrective Actions are released in early 2025, including:  

• Re-engineering the process for people to request that a legal compliance obligation be reallocated
• Creating a new workflow for when an organisation needs to take action as a result of a law change - for example, where internal policies need to be updated so that they are correctly aligned with the new legal requirements
• Looking at opportunities to make managing changes to Users easier  

Is it just me, or is the pace of law change increasing?

An informative presentation by Jackie Grimes about how the pace of law change has increased in recent years. To read more about what Jackie covered, please go to this article: It really is a tsunami of change

Shared customer stories

We were very grateful to two ComplyWith customer heroes who stepped up at the last minute to share insights into how they are using ComplyWith to lift the bar on good legal compliance at their organisations:  

• Georgia Allen from ChristchurchNZ shared how they use their ComplyWith content to run workshops with their people to help ensure everyone understands their key legal obligations.
• Janet Ashcroft from Otago Regional Council shared how legal compliance awareness is integrated into their induction process - including using their Obligations Register to show new hires the legal obligations relevant to their role. 

Legislative compliance and obligations to Māori and Te Tiriti o Waitangi 

Claire Beleski led an engaging and informative session: Demystifying compliance - An introduction to the interface of legislative compliance and obligations to Māori and Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

While this topic could easily lend itself to a whole day of sessions, Claire was able to give us a high-level introduction to this unique legal landscape, followed by useful practical examples. This session received really great feedback from our Unplugged audience. 

Employment law update  

Guest speaker and leading employment law barrister, Steph Dyhrberg, gave an entertaining presentation on the many employment law changes we’ve seen this year, together with insights into what’s coming.  

How to better engage with your senior leaders and governance about legal compliance

ComplyWith’s Founder and Leader, David Woodnorth, fresh from giving a presentation earlier in the day to a group of Audit and Risk Committee chairs, shared tips and insights on what leadership and governance are looking for from legal compliance in their organisations and how to engage with them and deliver continuous improvement in this area.  

Keynote speaker - Dr Paul Wood - Better never stops  

The Unplugged ’25 day was rounded out with an informative and high-energy keynote talk by bestselling author and speaker, Dr Paul Wood.  

Dr Paul shared insights and experiences from his work and his inspiring personal journey from delinquent to Doctor of Psychology. 

Thanks again to all those who attended. We’re already planning for Unplugged ’26, which will mark two big milestones: our 10th Unplugged and ComplyWith’s 20th anniversary, so we’ll be pulling out all the stops to make it the most awesome Unplugged yet.