At Futurespace 2026 we’ll tackle one of the most important questions facing consultants and business leaders today: what do clients really value?
This high-impact workshop will be delivered by Better Together founder Gareth Parry, who has spent more than 30 years helping people and organisations tackle complexity, build alignment and take action through practical, hands-on processes. We talk to Gareth about how he’ll guide us to think more deliberately about the client experience.
Using the wisdom in the room
Gareth’s workshop will be designed to draw out the experience, insight and practical wisdom already in the room. He’ll help you reflect on what you’ve heard across the conference, connect the ideas with your own experience and what it could mean for your own business, and explore what creates value in consulting relationships, what gets in the way and how you can respond.
With a background spanning architecture, learning design, visual facilitation, human-centred design and system transformation, Gareth brings a rare combination of structure, curiosity and practical intent. His work is grounded in the belief that better outcomes happen when people are genuinely brought into the process.
How do we create stronger partnerships over time?
In a challenging and rapidly changing market, technical expertise alone is no longer enough. Clients are looking for consultants who can understand their context, listen closely, shape better decisions and deliver work that makes a measurable difference.
Gareth’s workshop will give you space to step back from day-to-day delivery and think more deliberately about the client experience: what is working, where do relationships become difficult, and how do we create stronger partnerships over time?
“There’s an ISO standard for human-centred design. Design with an explicit understanding of your customers, their context, and the things they’re trying to do. Involve them in the design process. Test stuff with them. Change stuff based on what you see them struggling with and loving during testing.
“People often say that’s common sense but when you ask them if they follow those steps, the answer is often no. We need ways of baking human-centred design into our consulting practices.”
Gareth co-led a human-centred design practice, firstly as an independent with a team of about 30 across New Zealand and Australia, and then as part of PwC for about 12 years.
“That work was all about helping our clients understand their customers, and their experiences interacting with our clients, and then using the parts of that experience that aren’t great to make some improvements. The better the experience, the more likely people are to engage positively, the more likely they are to talk to other people about how good the experience is, and the less likely they are to complain.
“The message we pushed through that time was to really dial into your customers and their experience of what you offer, and work hard to make it better. And everything else falls into line after that.”
What you’ll take away
You’ll leave Gareth’s workshop with practical insights into what clients really value in consulting relationships and how to strengthen these partnerships.
“At conferences, people hear a lot of ideas very quickly,” he says. “Creating a workshop space and opportunities for smaller groups to chat with each other is a really powerful way of helping embed some of what people are learning, bring out some new stuff that’s a bit unexpected, and provide the inspiration to try some of those things with confidence back in the real world.”
Futurespace 2026 – lead with impact, partner with purpose, deliver with confidence
4-5 NOVEMBER 2026 // Auckland
Futurespace 2026 brings together business leaders, clients, industry experts and your peers to explore the capabilities that matter as your leadership responsibilities grow.
Register now for Futurespace 2026