A CATO Lab · Sydney 2027
You don't have the full picture. The board still has to decide.
What do you ask next?
A 1.5-day, in-person capability-building Lab for Directors and Executives who sit at, report to, or are moving toward the board table. Led by Dr Peter Crow.
Fill in the form and we will send further details on payment and the event.
1.5 days
In person, Sydney
7 sessions
One facilitator, one room
1 case
One continuous boardroom case
1 crisis
Live simulation, real pressure
14 CPD
Hours on completion
Curated
Small cohort, comparable seniority
Why Boardcraft
Every board is a team of people who come together to consider information and, hopefully, make great decisions. It is easier said than done. The papers rarely tell the whole story. Management's recommendation arrives with assumptions already built in. Every Director around the table reads the same information differently, and there is rarely enough time to fully resolve that before a decision is needed — and personalities and hierarchy shape which questions get asked, and which don't.
The judgement that matters is knowing when to probe, when to challenge, and when the board has enough to decide. For the Executives in the room, it's knowing how to give the board what it needs — without trying to manage the board itself.
Boardcraft exists to sharpen judgement in exactly those conditions. Over one and a half days, a small, selected group of senior people works directly with Dr Peter Crow to build the judgement that separates an average board from a high-performing one.
Real-world expertise, structured for delivery.
The room
Boardcraft is deliberately curated. Cohorts are kept small and comparable in seniority, so the discussion is candid and the peer value is real.
At the board table
Working with the board
The distinction
Knowledge transfer is the easy part. Conventional education teaches what boards should do. Boardcraft is built around what you actually do when you're in the room: how you frame a decision, ask the question that matters, read the dynamics, hold a position under challenge, and act when a crisis lands on the table.
This is not a course. It is a working room: real frameworks, real cases, real pressure, and a level of peer candour that only a curated senior group makes possible. You leave with sharper judgement — not just fuller notes.
Built in the final session, so what you learn turns into what you do next.
A live crisis simulation, worked through with the people either side of you.
A small room of comparable seniority, held under the Chatham House rule.
Awarded on completion of the full 1.5 days.
The Working Room
Boardcraft isn't built around presentations. Across the full 1.5 days, participants work through a single continuous boardroom case: interrogating the information they're given, deciding what actually matters, and identifying what's still missing. They ask the next question. They test assumptions — their own and each other's. They challenge, and are challenged in return.
As the case develops, so does the pressure. New information arrives. Circumstances shift. A crisis reaches the boardroom, and the room has to respond — in real time, with the people sitting either side of them.
This is where judgement is built: not by hearing what a good board should do, but by having to decide, under the same incomplete conditions a real board faces.
The programme
Day One
Thursday 25 February
| 8:30–9:00am | Arrival, coffee, registration |
| 9:00–10:30am | S1 · Today's reality — the board's job in a turbulent environment; purpose and teamwork |
| 10:30–10:45am | Break |
| 10:45am–12:15pm | S2 · Driving high performance — the frameworks, and the great questions that focus a board on what matters |
| 12:15–1:00pm | Lunch |
| 1:00–2:30pm | S3 · Boardroom dynamics — behaviour and [dys]function; the board–executive relationship (core focus for Executives reporting to boards) |
| 2:30–2:45pm | Break |
| 2:45–4:30pm | S4 · Into practice — boardroom case study, Part 1 |
| 4:30–6:00pm | Break / freshen up |
| 6:00–7:30pm | Programme dinner — facilitated "boardroom table" conversation, Chatham House rule |
Day Two
Friday 26 February
| 8:30–9:00am | Coffee |
| 9:00–10:30am | S5 · Staying ahead — strategy and strategic leadership; sustaining performance; risk and remedy |
| 10:30–10:45am | Break |
| 10:45am–12:15pm | S6 · Crisis in the boardroom — live crisis simulation |
| 12:15–1:00pm | Lunch |
| 1:00–2:15pm | S7 · The fiduciary dimension & synthesis — stakeholders, sustainability, accountability; personal board-action plans |
| 2:15–2:30pm | Close — commitments, next steps, farewell |
| 2:30pm | Conclusion |
Seven sessions. One case. One crisis. A small room.
Sydney · Thursday 25 – Friday 26 February 2027
Programme lead
Dr Peter Crow is an accredited director and chair, with an extensive record advising boards, chairs, institutional investors and governments across five continents. He holds a doctorate in corporate governance and strategy and is a chartered member of the Institute of Directors. He lives in New Zealand and works globally.
One facilitator. One continuous room. One and a half days.
In their own words
Behind Boardcraft
An expert-led advisory and execution platform.
CATO connects organisations with proven practitioners to solve complex business challenges. Real-world expertise, structured for execution — delivered through advisory, expert access, executive education, specialist delivery and retained advisory support.
Unlike traditional consulting models that often rely on generic frameworks or large teams, CATO gives leaders access to practical expertise through flexible engagement models, designed for organisations that need clarity, judgement, capability and execution support without unnecessary complexity.
Boardcraft is a CATO Lab: one of the ways CATO puts that expertise in front of the Directors and Executives who need it most.
Expert-led advisory & execution
Experienced leaders who have led, delivered and solved real business problems.
Advisory and delivery, expert access, executive briefings, online education and retained support.
Practical expertise, available when it is needed.
The venue
Venue to be confirmedBoardcraft Sydney runs on Thursday 25 and Friday 26 February 2027. The venue is still to be confirmed. Everyone who requests a place will hear as soon as it is, along with arrival details.
Practical details
Investment
Pricing to be confirmedShared with venue details
Includes all seven sessions across the 1.5 days, arrival coffee, catering and refreshments throughout, and the Day One programme dinner.
Places are limited to a small cohort. Request a place now and we will contact you with pricing, payment and venue details as soon as they are confirmed.
Request a PlaceFit & format
Boardcraft is built for people who already sit at, report to, or are actively moving toward the board table — Directors, C-suite Executives, Senior Executives who report directly to boards, founders, family-business leaders, and those preparing for governance roles.
Because the cohort is deliberately kept small and comparable in seniority, Boardcraft is not designed as an entry-level introduction to governance for those without direct board or executive experience — the value of the room depends on the seniority and candour of everyone in it.
Boardcraft is not a lecture-style governance course. It is a working room built around one continuous case and one crisis scenario, run by a single facilitator across the full 1.5 days — not a rotating panel of speakers.
The emphasis throughout is on changing what you do in the boardroom: how you frame a decision, ask the question that matters, and hold your position under challenge — not on adding to your notes.
Boardcraft is not
It is
Trust & the room
Boardcraft runs under the Chatham House rule — what is said in the room stays in the room.
Participant identities are never published without consent, and no example shared in the Lab is used outside it.
Questions
Boardcraft is a 1.5-day, in-person capability-building Lab for Directors and Executives, led by Dr Peter Crow. It runs in Sydney on Thursday 25 and Friday 26 February 2027, with a small, curated cohort.
Current company Directors, aspiring Directors with significant executive experience, board committee members, C-suite Executives, Senior Executives who report directly to boards, founders of growing companies, family-business leaders, and senior professionals preparing for governance roles.
No. Boardcraft is built for people who sit at the board table, report directly to boards, work closely with boards, or are credibly moving toward governance roles — not only current Directors.
Boardcraft is not designed as an introduction to governance. The cohort is deliberately kept small and comparable in seniority, and the value of the room depends on the experience and candour of everyone in it.
Not in the conventional sense. Boardcraft is capability-building rather than training — it is built to change what participants do in the room: how they frame a decision, ask the questions that matter, and hold a position under challenge.
Participants strengthen their judgement when information is incomplete, the questions that expose what actually matters, board–executive dynamics, strategic oversight without drifting into management, constructive challenge and productive disagreement, decision-making under pressure, and confidence and clarity when the stakes are high.
Dr Peter Crow, CMInstD, is an accredited director and chair who has served on private, PE-controlled, and family-business boards, and advised boards, chairs, institutional investors, and governments. He holds a doctorate in corporate governance and strategy and is a chartered member of the Institute of Directors.
It runs across 1.5 days in person, built around seven disciplined sessions, one continuous boardroom case study, and one crisis scenario, plus a facilitated programme dinner on the evening of Day One.
Participants work through a single continuous boardroom case across the 1.5 days, testing assumptions, asking questions, and making decisions as new information and a crisis scenario develop.
Boardcraft Sydney is held in Sydney, Australia, on Thursday 25 and Friday 26 February 2027. The venue is still to be confirmed; everyone who requests a place will be told as soon as it is.
Pricing for Boardcraft Sydney is still to be confirmed. Participation includes all seven sessions across the 1.5 days, arrival coffee, catering and refreshment breaks on both days, and the Day One programme dinner.
Venue and pricing are being finalised. Everyone who requests a place via the form on this page will be contacted as soon as they are confirmed.
Yes. Session 3, on boardroom dynamics and the board–executive relationship, is a core focus specifically for Executives who report to boards, alongside Directors and other senior participants.
A small, comparable-seniority cohort is what makes the discussion candid and the peer value real — Boardcraft is deliberately curated rather than run at scale.
Boardcraft is run as a single continuous working room with one facilitator, one case study, and one crisis scenario across 1.5 days, rather than a series of lectures or a rotating speaker panel. The emphasis is on changing behaviour in the boardroom, not adding to a folder of notes.
Places are limited to a small cohort. Request a place via the form on this page or by emailing info@catoltd.com.
Our team will contact you personally with further details on payment and the event, including your payment link, venue and arrival information.
Request your place
Boardcraft Sydney is limited to a small cohort, on Thursday 25 and Friday 26 February 2027. If you sit at, report to, or are moving toward the board table, request a place below.
Tell us a little about your role — our team will follow up with you personally.
Prefer email? Request a place directly at info@catoltd.com.
Your request has been sent to CATO. Our team will be in touch shortly with further details on payment and the event.
Prefer email? Request a place directly at info@catoltd.com.