THRIVE Project is incredibly grateful to Rowan Blizzard and Vivian Dabre for their inspirational presentations during the November 2025 Thrivability Matters Webinar. This webinar focused on THRIVE Project’s November theme – Science & Technology: Energy & Material Flows. Our presenters captivated us as they shared their extensive knowledge regarding this theme, as they discussed how science and technology can help us meet our ever-increasing energy needs, ensuring that societies can break free from finite energy sources, and gain reliable access to clean and renewable energy.
Here are the highlights from our webinar!
About the November 2025 Speakers
Rowan Blizzard grew up in small rural communities and was encouraged to question the status quo in a farming setting. With very practical skills and a yearning for better practices, Rowan moved into North Queensland, Australia, in the early 1990s.
In his professional life he was highly involved in the community first responses to Cyclone Larry and Cyclone Yasi. During this time, he developed awareness around some of the impractical and remote systems that in effect rule our lives.
While representing manufacturers and suppliers across the North Queensland region, Rowan started to seek out like-minded professionals to set about demonstrating and making changes for better housing outcomes. In this role, Rowan began to formulate the Innovation House framework.
Vivian Dabre is a senior data science leader with deep expertise in Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), AI product strategy, and machine learning, dedicated to driving real-world business transformation.
With a strong technical foundation and leadership experience across industries such as construction, mining, utilities, and government bodies including the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). Mr. Dabre leads end-to-end AI solution delivery, from innovation and architecture design to stakeholder engagement and ROI evaluation.
Passionate about the intersection of technology and strategy, he excels in aligning AI initiatives with organisational goals, enabling cross-functional collaboration, and ensuring ethical, scalable deployment of AI technologies.
He is particularly interested in advancing the responsible use of Generative AI, and fostering environments where technical and business teams can co-create impactful, data-driven outcomes.
Summary of the November 2025 Webinar
As an organisation, THRIVE Project endeavours to guide humanity towards a more thrivable future. We had the privilege of hosting these speakers as guest presenters for our webinar.
ROWAN BLIZZARD –
“Thinking About Sufficient Resources: Modern Energy”
In a compelling presentation, Rowan Blizzard explored the issue of consumerism and its impacts on people and communities, particularly how societies often prioritise consumption and resource gathering over considering their needs and what is sufficient to meet them – resulting in significant harms to both people and the planet.
An issue he highlights is the tendency for infrastructure and products to be designed around high demands which are only met within narrow stretches of time, and cater to the needs of a small subset of the populace rather than everyone.
Thinking about sufficient resources (instead of gathering as much as possible) should improve people’s lives immeasurably, providing greater connections with loved ones, and less anxiety around the consumption of products by focusing on the needs that they truly desire.
By focusing on their actual needs rather than focusing on maximum consumption, people and communities can quickly realign their thinking to use resources and technology more effectively. While still developing the next necessary thing, it is important to focus on needs beyond profitable sales.
VIVIAN DABRE –
“How AI can help communities thrive”
The second speaker, Vivian Dabre discussed AI – often seen as a futuristic or technical concept, its real power lies in helping people and communities make smarter, more sustainable choices.
To this end, he demonstrates how AI, especially emerging generative AI, can turn complex data into simple, actionable insights that support better decision-making in areas that matter most to communities: sustainability, climate resilience, and wellbeing.
Drawing from real-world experience in construction and environmental projects, the session highlights how AI can assist in designing greener infrastructure, predicting and preparing for natural disasters like floods or bushfires, and improving the efficiency of everyday systems such as waste management and transport. This serves to demonstrate how rather than replacing humans, AI can serve as a creative partner, helping councils, organisations, and citizens work together toward shared sustainability goals.
The presentation also provides a clear understanding of what AI really is, how it can be applied to local challenges, and how people and technology can collaborate to build resilient, thriving communities, with the aim of affirming AI not as a threat, but as a tool for positive, people-centred change.
Moving Forward from November 2025
The November 2025 Thrivability Matters Webinar showcased insights from Rowan Blizzard and Vivian Dabre. If you missed the live event or the Q&A session, you can view the recordings on our YouTube channel.
If you’re interested in joining us after the November 2025 Thrivability Matters Webinar, there are plenty of ways to get involved. You can follow us on social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. Additionally, you could subscribe to our YouTube, listen to our podcasts, join our workshops, sign up for our newsletter, stay up to date with our articles, attend our free webinars, or even join us as a volunteer to make an even greater impact on the world.
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