Mairian Gildea DEX 2026

Connecting global teams: What works (and what doesn’t) when you design for everyone

Mairian Gildea

CSL

frontline global intranets internal communications intranet redesign personalisation user experience

Connecting global teams isn’t simple when your workforce spans offices, labs, manufacturing sites, and frontline locations where many employees don’t sit at a desk or regularly access traditional intranet tools.

In this session, Mairian will share the real-world lessons from rethinking how a global organisation connects its people through Collab, CSL’s new employee communications platform. Rather than adding more channels or tools, CSL focused on simplifying the experience: designing for both wired and unwired employees, reducing noise through targeted content, and establishing clear governance to keep communication relevant and sustainable at scale.

This is an honest account of why CSL’s previous SharePoint intranet didn’t hit the mark, what worked once CSL designed for frontline realities, and what the team would do differently if starting again.

Attendees will leave with practical, transferable ideas for connecting global teams through clarity, relevance, and inclusion – without over-engineering the solution.

The session will cover:

  • what ‘connecting global teams’ means in practice
  • what wasn’t working with CSL’s previous solution
  • the realities of designing for unwired teams including the use of AI
  • the role of governance in global connection

Mairian Gildea is an employee experience advocate working within the global Corporate & External Affairs team at CSL. She leads the internal digital platforms and channel strategy that help employees connect and find information across multiple global systems. Mairian has a Bachelor of Multimedia (Hons), a Masters of Technology, and a passion for making the complex simple.