Australia’s premier PR & communications conference

A multi-award-winning consultant, James has advised some of the world’s biggest brands on the global stage. Before joining Havas and Red Agency in Australia, he was Managing Director at international agency Grayling where he led a number of their international accounts, including BT, HSBC, Sony, Jaguar and Land Rover.

In each of the past four years he has led Red Agency to become the most awarded PR team in APAC with some of the region’s most iconic PR campaigns. During his tenure, the agency has returned thirteen Agency of the Year accolades, five Cannes Lions and a D&AD Black Pencil. In 2013, he was invited as the sole Australian PR jury member at three prestigious international marketing festivals: CLIOs, Cannes Lions and Cristal Festival.

In 2014 he was named PR Leader of the Year at Mumbrella’s CommsCon Awards. In 2008, at the age of just 28, he won the coveted PRCA’s Consultant of the Year (UK), and the same year was named International CSR Leader by PR News USA at their All Stars Awards. In 2016 he was inducted as a Fellow of the Public Relations Institute of Australia, one of the youngest ever admitted. Current clients include: Chandon, Heineken, Origin Energy, Coca-Cola, Capgemini, Origin Energy, Tourism Australia, Vivid Sydney, United Nations Foundation, Steve Waugh Foundation and Yahoo7.

Jackie Crossman is a distinguished member of the Australasian PR community by any measure – longevity, client acquisition and impact, industry service, peer recognition or awards success.

A Fellow of the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) and regular judge of PRIA’s Golden Target Awards, Mumbrella’s CommsCon Awards and B&T Women in Media and 30 Under 30, Jackie is a corporate and marketing communications specialist with extensive experience and expertise in issues and crisis management and integrated communications campaigns comprising public relations, social media and experiential activations, events and sponsorship.

Her early career was in radio and after a grounding in PR with global firm Burson-Marsteller, Crossman founded her own consultancy in New Zealand in 1988, a business that eventually became Porter Novelli New Zealand of which she was Managing Director.

Prior to forming Crossman Communications again in Australia in 2003, she was Executive Director of NISAD Schizophrenia Research based at the Garvan Institute in Sydney. Crossman Communications was acquired by Red Agency on 1 January 2016 and Jackie was appointed Sydney Principal.

The creator of the long-running Sanitarium Weet-Bix Kids Tryathlon, National Vegetarian Week and Research Australia “Thank You” Day, Jackie has counselled many of Australia’s most successful companies and won multiple awards at state, national and international level including Australian and APAC accolades for her work to rebuild trust in Malaysia Airlines following the twin tragedies in 2014.

Davitha heads up Red Agency’s dedicated specialist social division, Red Social.

Since joining Red mid 2016, Dav has spearheaded exponential growth of the agency’s social team, client base and offering – leading to a thriving and rapidly growing national team of close to twenty social media experts operating within our Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane offices.

Red Social’s goal isn’t just to be good at social, but rather to be good at business because of social. Reaching beyond tactical engagement fluff and vanity metrics, the Red Social team formulates, implements and optimises highly effective and integrated social strategies that drive tangible business outcomes for our clients.

Prior to joining Red, Dav entered the social media marketing space in its early days within the creative agency space at Saatchi & Saatchi, after which she continued her journey at specialised digital/social agencies including Channel T and REBORN.

With years of experience across strategy, content, community/crisis management, influencer marketing and paid social – Dav’s versatile agency background sees her drive the agency’s strategic ‘Merged Media’ model and mindset – aimed at delivering seamlessly integrated work that sits at the intersection of PR, Social and Experiential or is delivered with the potential of each channel in mind, delivering maximum ROI for Red’s clients.

She is AdSchool’s ‘Integrated Social Acellarator’ course writer/facilitator, a recurring UNSW ‘Masters of Marketing’ lecturer and course advisor for the first ever government accredited online social media degree in Australia, ‘Social Media College’.

Red Social’s clients include Toyota, Moet Hennessy, Reckon, SunRice, Heineken, Beko, Caravanning Queensland, NSW EPA, S-26 Toddler and Bio Oil amongst others.

Abigail is currently a reporter at the media and marketing publication Mumbrella covering both the creative and PR space. In 2016 she completed her Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) degree at RMIT University in Melbourne, majoring in politics, economies and businesses. During her three year degree Abigail completed multiple internships across different publications including Mamamia, Channel 10 and 3AW.

Prior to his move from Sydney to San Francisco, Dylan was Head of Public Affairs for Airbnb across Asia Pacific as the company more than doubled in size every year. They now have more accommodation listed on the platform than the world’s top five hotel chains combined.

With more than a billion people, a growing middle class and a surging travel market, Dylan launched the Indian and South East Asian operations for the company with co-founder Joe Gebbia and helped deliver Airbnb’s first (of many) Cannes Lions as part of their major partnership with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in 2015.

He has 15 years under his belt in media and external affairs roles in political offices, major utilities and publicly listed companies and now plays a lead role as the company expands well beyond just providing accommodation.

He’s climbed the world’s tallest freestanding mountain, dived with sharks and now lives in a Trump led nation that serves drip ‘cawwffee’ as standard fare – all with his big laugh that fills a room, love for meeting new people, chocolate and rugby.

A media professional with over 10 years experience in both print and digital journalism, public relations and corporate communications. Passions include technology, travel, business, aviation, cars and motorsports, media, tennis, and family. An enthusiastic and sociable people person with a track record of building and maintaining relationships and strengthening brands.

Michelle Hutchison is finder.com’s Global Head of Communications and a Money Expert. She is a mother of two, a guest lecturer and public speaker, and is an award-winning Public Relations pro, with more than eight years’ experience in PR, in the financial services and online comparison space. As a self-confessed data nerd, Michelle is an advocate for comparing financial products, making it her mission to help people across the world find better and improve financial literacy.

Michelle is often spotted in the media across the world as a regular contributor to blogs and interviews on TV, radio, podcasts and online press.

After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, majoring in media, Michelle began her career as a journalist on Australia’s New South Wales Central Coast, in the newsrooms of radio stations 2GO and Sea FM as well as television news on Channel Nine’s regional station, NBN News. She also worked in other media outlets including newspaper and magazine, climbing quickly to become Editor of Property Australia magazine before firing up her career in Public Relations in 2009.

A media professional with over 10 years experience in both print and digital journalism, public relations and corporate communications. Passions include technology, travel, business, aviation, cars and motorsports, media, tennis, and family. An enthusiastic and sociable people person with a track record of building and maintaining relationships and strengthening brands.

With over 30 years’ experience, Robyn Sefiani is well known in the Australian public relations profession as a specialist in strategic communications counsel and issues and crisis management. Robyn has advised some of Australia’s and the world’s leading companies on high-stakes communication with positive outcomes.

Robyn established Sefiani Communications Group in 1999 with the goal of being a world’s best practice public relations firm, providing corporate leaders with highly effective communications counsel and services to solve business challenges. Sefiani was named Mid-Size Agency of the Year at Mumbrella’s 2018 CommsCon Awards.

To broaden the Group’s service offering, in 2013 a second agency was established – Kite Communications – with a focus on consumer and challenger brands.

Prior to Sefiani, Robyn was Co-President of the Asia Pacific region of Edelman and a member of the Edelman’s global Board of Edelman.

Robyn graduated with Distinction from Charles Sturt University. She is a Fellow of both the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Public Relations Institute of Australia, and served for many years on the board of Special Olympics Australia.

Corrie McLeod founded Espresso Communications in 2004 and over the past decade has built the business into a thriving, internationally-recognised communications consulting company. Her expertise in guiding some of the world’s top brands and new market entrants alike in their cross-discipline communications initiatives is widely respected in the Australian market.

Corrie is the driving force behind a dynamic communications consultancy, uniting a tight-knit team of creative minds, media professionals and clients to deliver measurable results. She is a creative thinker and highly-skilled at collaborating with clients to develop targeted PR strategies that map specifically to business objectives and deliver high-value results.

To keep up with the ever-evolving media landscape and in recognition of the communications challenges faced by modern companies, Corrie spearheaded two new business units under the Hello Espresso brand in 2015:InnovationAus.com and One Part Idea. InnovationAus.com is a leading publication and commentator on public policy and business innovation in support of the Australian technology sector, and an invaluable parallel resource for Espresso Communications. One Part Idea delivers boutique content marketing services, partnering with brands to uncover clever insights and create powerful content to tell an engaging story.

An active participant in the media and communications sector, Corrie works closely with her industry peers and is a member of leading industry bodies including the Public Relations Industry Association (PRIA) Registered Consultancy Group.

Pete McConnell is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Commtract, Australia’s first marketplace for communications professionals. Founded in 2016 Commtract now boasts a community of 1,400 consultants and clients including half the ASX10. He has a regular column in the Australian Financial Review serialising his transition from a traditional corporate job and adventures in ‘start-up world’.

Prior to founding Commtract, Pete was Director of Corporate and Public Affairs for Woolworths Limited. His role included media relations, corporate communications, internal communications, government and industry relations and corporate social responsibility for the Woolworths Limited Group and its trading divisions. He was also a member of its Management Board. From 2010 to 2013 Pete was Chief of Staff to Barry O’Farrell, Premier of NSW. He played a pivotal role in the NSW Liberal’s historic 2011 election victory and subsequent transition to government.

Pete lives on Sydney’s Northern Beaches with his wife and two young children.

After an extensive career in journalism, David Breen joined ING in 2008 during a period of great change in the banking industry.

David oversees the company’s reputation, public relations, internal communications and sustainability.

Working to create and foster ING position as a challenger brand, David has helped ING DIRECT maintain its position as Australia’s number 1 recommended bank.

David takes an inside out approach to reputation ensuring staff engagement is high and the business and its employees are aligned in messaging and actions behind a clear purpose.

Abigail is currently a reporter at the media and marketing publication Mumbrella covering both the creative and PR space. In 2016 she completed her Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) degree at RMIT University in Melbourne, majoring in politics, economies and businesses. During her three year degree Abigail completed multiple internships across different publications including Mamamia, Channel 10 and 3AW.

Carl has been working in marketing for over 20 years. At agency, as Advertising Planner in TBWA/London, then client, as Head of Marketing at Channel Five in the UK, before returning to the realm of agency to manage the likes of Naked Australia in Sydney & Melbourne.

His experience includes a varied and vibrant mix of client, from high street lifestyle to digital retail; from entertainment to automotive.

His client side experience allowed him to see the worth that marketing can deliver in terms of net outcome, whilst his leadership of agencies has provided a fresh respect for resourcefulness and a renewed evangelism for creativity.

His most recent role as CEO of One Green Bean – Australia’s most awarded social and PR agency – has allowed him to reprise a former love for insight cracking, whilst developing a passion for ideas designed to earn their own audience and media. Alex Bogusky most definitely got it right when he said, ‘You have to play to play….’

Adam oversees Mumbrella’s sponsored features, podcasts and videos as well as contributing editorial.

A diverse career has seen him work as a feature writer, copy editor and news reporter for more than 30 British newspapers and magazines including GQ, Esquire, The Sunday Times, The News of the World, The Sunday Mirror, Gentleman’s Journal, Cosmopolitan and NME. He’s written profiles on England footballer Paul Gascoigne, famed sailor Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and pop star Tinie Tempah.

Commercially, he has written copy for luxury clients such as The Ritz-Carlton hotels, Grenson shoes, Princess Yachts and Mr Porter as well as editing celebrity autobiographies.

A self-taught journalist, he started his career in 2005 leading York Vision to win Guardian Student Newspaper of the Year as editor while being twice nominated for Reporter of the Year.

Chris Lonergan is a career researcher with over 25 years experience, who literally worked his way up from telephone interviewer to owning a research company. Chris is a true generalist, who is at home running focus groups, interviewing executives, writing surveys or interpreting big data analytics.

Chris has hands on experience researching and understanding the minds of a broad range of Australians, including CEOs, coal miners, residents of remote indigenous communities, militant animal rights activists and ice addicts.

Chris founded Lonergan Research in 2009. Lonergan specialises in PR and Data Journalism – or using insights from research and big data to generate content for publication. Lonergan Research supports both communications agencies and end clients alike.

Josie Tutty is Mumbrella’s opinion and features editor. She’s previously written and edited in the UK for Jungle Creations and Trinity Mirror.

Bridget Jung is currently the Executive Creative Director at Ogilvy PR Australia. She has over 20 years experience with a background in design and art direction. She’s had to reinvent herself and challenge her approach to work every few years as technology has changed and consumers have evolved. Bridget has spent most of her career working in Paris and became French along the way. In Paris she was Chief Creative Officer at DigitasLBi.

Earned and social first ideas are becoming more and more central to organisational and business success which makes it an exciting time for PR. Bridget jumped at the chance to join Australia’s largest PR agency to lead a different approach to creativity that goes beyond traditional thinking. She’s thrilled to be working with talented teams across the breadth of briefs the agency works on – from consumer, to business, to corporate and to government.

Bridget enjoys red wine, cocktails and rugby, but not in that order.

Matt is passionate about innovative integrated work that works.

He co-founded Sydney hot shop Poem in 2015. The creative PR agency has had a rapid rise, with Google, British Airways, Adidas, The Athlete’s Foot, Wotif and Expedia just some of the high-profile brands already calling on their paid, owned and earned media services.

He has 15 years PR, social media and experiential experience, having previously worked on global and local campaigns at Cake and Freud Communications in London, plus One Green Bean in Sydney. His campaigns have been recognised by over a dozen awards at the likes of Cannes Lions, AWARD Awards, Mumbrella, CommsCon, Effies and Spikes Asia.

Laura has been working in PR and comms for more than 14 years. In that time she has held roles at Sainsbury’s, Freuds and now Frank – where she has worked for the past four years, firstly in the London office, now Sydney.

Her experience includes a varied mix of clients from retail to consumer tech, entertainment to financial services. She has worked on some of the UK’s biggest brands including Sainsbury’s, lastminute.com, Direct Line Group, Asda and Suntory, winning industry awards in the process.

Her most recent role as Managing Director of Frank PR, Australia has allowed her to continue to flex her creative muscle on clients such as Deliveroo and 20thCentury Fox.

Starting out as a management consultant for Accenture, Jules moved into the world of advertising in 2000, taking a job at one of London’s early digital agencies.  After moving to Australia Jules founded The Hallway in 2007 with a mission to build a full service creative agency that could be more relevant, more effective and more interesting.

Together with Creative Partner, Simon Lee, the two have grown The Hallway into one of Australia’s top independent agencies, winning awards around the world for their creativity and effectiveness.

Outside of work Jules blames his sporting background for his competitive edge. In 1993 he represented Great Britain at the world rowing championships. These days sailing has replaced rowing. He has competed in most of the world’s major ocean races including four Sydney-Hobarts.

Vivienne Kelly is the editor of Mumbrella. Throughout her career she has worked as a journalist and editor across a number of consumer and B2B finance and real estate titles. She has also spent time in public relations across the health, finance and energy sectors.

Richard Brett has over 20 years’ experience of marketing communications, brand strategy and communications agency leadership. His passions including using public relations and social media to lead integrated campaigns, outcome based measurement and using new technology to drive innovative creativity for brands.

Richard is currently CEO for Ogilvy Public Relations Australia, working across all the Ogilvy PR businesses to deliver stand out, effective campaigns for clients such as eBay, Bacardi, Netflix, Ford, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, KFC and IKEA. Richard also leads Ogilvy PR’s annual thought leadership platform ‘Futures’ which outlines forthcoming insights that will impact Australian business, government, brands and organisations. In the last two year Futures has been presented to over 60 different organisations across Australia and New Zealand.

Before becoming CEO, Richard spent four years as managing director of the brand marketing team of Ogilvy PR – Pulse Communications. During Richard’s tenure the Pulse team won or was shortlisted for over 30 awards including being named CommsCon Highly Commended Agency of the Year 2016. Previously Richard was managing director of Shine Communications in London between 2009 and 2013, and global VP of marketing communications for Samsonite between 2006 and 2009.

Richard has been shortlisted or received over 120 awards for his work. He has an MBA in Management from Imperial College London and has written a number of papers on marketing communications including Brandometry (2015), Brand Economics (2013) and SmartPlanning (2012).

Adam oversees Mumbrella’s sponsored features, podcasts and videos as well as contributing editorial.

A diverse career has seen him work as a feature writer, copy editor and news reporter for more than 30 British newspapers and magazines including GQ, Esquire, The Sunday Times, The News of the World, The Sunday Mirror, Gentleman’s Journal, Cosmopolitan and NME. He’s written profiles on England footballer Paul Gascoigne, famed sailor Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and pop star Tinie Tempah.

Commercially, he has written copy for luxury clients such as The Ritz-Carlton hotels, Grenson shoes, Princess Yachts and Mr Porter as well as editing celebrity autobiographies.

A self-taught journalist, he started his career in 2005 leading York Vision to win Guardian Student Newspaper of the Year as editor while being twice nominated for Reporter of the Year.

Daniel has over 10 years of retail operations experience in sales, marketing and communications. He successfully implemented one of Australia’s first video communications channels in retail and has since developed a passion for video and its holistic integration within organisations. 

In addition to leading Shootstas global marketing team, he is helping pioneer the future of video production so that brands all over the world can experience cost-effective high-quality video content.

Harvey is one of Shootsta’s leading business development managers with over 10 years experience in the media industry working with Universal Music Group and Audio Network.

Grant Baxter is Twitter Australia’s Head of Brand Strategy, responsible for leading the Brand Strategy offering in this market. Grant works with brands and media and creative agencies to help them use Twitter as a platform for innovation and creativity.

Originally from South Africa, Grant spent eight years in London before moving to Australia in 2011 to set up the SEO business for Omnicom agencies OMD and phd. Prior to joining Twitter, he lead Digital Strategy in media and creative agencies, at Resolution Media and Moon Group respectively.

You can find Grant on Twitter at @gnhbaxter.

Josie Tutty is Mumbrella’s opinion and features editor. She’s previously written and edited in the UK for Jungle Creations and Trinity Mirror.

Sarah has worked in PR and communications for two decades, across Australia, New Zealand and the UK, both in agency and client side. Currently focused on corporate and consumer communication in health care, Sarah heads up PR and Corporate Affairs for Australia’s largest not-for-profit health fund, HCF. Sarah has previously worked in the entertainment and FMCG industries, delivering big campaigns for major global brands. In the last ten years, she has driven some of Australia’s highest profile PR campaigns including the now global ‘Share A Coke’ campaign and multiple product launches across the Coca-Cola portfolio.

Stuart Wragg is an Agency Leader and Creative Director at one of Australia’s largest communications agencies, HERD MSL.

His passion is solving complex business challenges with innovative thinking, creative ideas and robust execution.

At HERD MSL Stuart helped build a talented team of communications professionals that deliver creative campaigns for some of the world’s biggest brands, including Facebook, Airbnb, Corona and ING DIRECT.

In 2017 their work for Airbnb’s marriage equality campaign, Until We All Belong was awarded 2 Cannes Lions.

In 2016 he was awarded PR Consultant (Agency) of the Year at the national CommsCon Awards.

In 2015 the work Stuart led for Airbnb was awarded the brand’s first ever Cannes Lion at the International Festival of Creativity.

With almost a decade’s experience across digital, editorial, social, PR and advertising, Mike leads the strategy and creative output for Attention+Influence – the newly formed CHE Proximity division that applies data-driven creativity to owned and earned channels. More recently, Mike has worked on AIA, AustralianSuper, Coles Liquor and Nurofen, among others. He has also worked as a freelance writer, and guest lectured at RMIT and Monash.

Craig has almost 15 years experience in Public Relations, media and digital and is the Head of Media & Digital with the Wests Tigers NRL team. In his current role he heads up one of the NRL’s leading media and digital teams. Craig has experience both in-house and in agencies and has worked on major international sporting events including two Olympic Games, an Asian Games and a Rugby Union World Cup.

A media professional with over 10 years experience in both print and digital journalism, public relations and corporate communications. Passions include technology, travel, business, aviation, cars and motorsports, media, tennis, and family. An enthusiastic and sociable people person with a track record of building and maintaining relationships and strengthening brands.

Tom Parker is a China specialist with a focus on collaboration between Australia and China to broaden our bilateral relationship. A Mandarin speaker, Tom’s long-term engagement with China has resulted in impressive networks and successful business outcomes. He has held China focused roles in The Asialink Centre, Austrade (Beijing), City of Melbourne and as writer and reporter for the ABC in both China and Australia for Radio National’s Asia Pacific Program.

Tom has managed programs and facilitated business and government partnerships in China for the City of Melbourne including raising the profile of the Melbourne-Tianjin Sister City relationship and recently leading the business delegation for the NSW Premier’s China Mission. In 2007, Tom was keynote speaker at the CPA China Summit, and regularly delivers intercultural training programs for multinational clients in Australia and China including: the Australian Football League, AMP, Intrepid Travel, Lonely Planet, Morgan Stanley, FDI and the Melbourne Football Club.

Doris is an experienced marketing and PR practitioner with over 10 years experience in Australia and China among various industries including B2B, hospitality, F&B, FMCG, fashion and lifestyle.

As a Shanghainese living in Melbourne, Doris has worked on a series of Sino-Australian events including Australia-China Business Week 2012 & 2013, China Digital Conference 2013, Ideas of Digital Conference 2014, Media and VIP Launch of Alipay and Taobao eCommerce Channel in Australia. Doris also worked with Tmall, Taobao and WeChat in Australia on the strategy planning and content development for several projects.

Before moving to Australia, Doris worked in Shanghai for over five years providing consultancy to international companies and brands on their China communications strategies both online and below the line. With a passion in digital marketing, Doris was involved in the planning and execution of digital campaigns for brands including Guinness, Abercrombie & Fitch, Ted Baker, Hotel Indigo and The Villa in the China market.

Doris holds a Masters degree in Global Media Communications from The University of Melbourne, a Bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from Fudan University, and a CIM Diploma in Digital Marketing. She is also a NAATI certified translator of English to Chinese.

Paul has been lucky to be on the frontline of the world’s digital transformation as a writer, speaker and consultant helping businesses and communities adapt to a rapidly changing world.

As a freelance writer on digital disruption and technological change, Paul has been a paid contributor to The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, Diginomica, Business Spectator, the Sydney Morning Herald, Crikey, Startup Smart and Communications Day along with being a regular guest on nationally syndicated radio programs.

In his speaking engagements, he’s been Master of Ceremonies for events such as The City of Sydney’s Lets Talk Business program, Small Business September and the Association for Data driven Marketing and Advertising’s (ADMA) Global Forum.

Along with MCing events, he’s presented keynotes, workshops and sat on panels for a wide range of business and community events. He has also provided media training services through Reputation Australia.

Over the past ten years, Paul has been helping organisations with their digital strategies. Clients have ranged from small businesses to Google, Microsoft, Vodafone, Xero, MYOB and various government agencies.

In 2011, publisher John Wiley & Sons released his book “The e-Business Guide: Seven Steps to Online Success” that showed entrepreneurs and small business owners how they could implement a digital strategy in a weekend for under $100. This was his seventh book on technology and business.

Before moving into communications, Paul worked with the NSW state government’s Department of Industry & Investment in developing the Digital Sydney initiative along with the creation of the state’s Digital Economy strategy.

Prior to joining the NSW Government, he founded an IT support business that his team grew into a national organisation that helped thousands of business and home technology users get more value from their computer system. Before that, he was working in construction engineering in Australia, the UK and East Asia.

Russ fell into digital advertising in 2000 as a web designer, joining London start-up Agency Republic as an interactive Art Director.

In 2007 Russ moved to Sydney to work on global movie websites for New Line Cinema. He’s since helped save dogs for Pedigree, make giant burgers for Macca’s and create meaningful interactive experiences for SKYY Vodka, amongst others.

He’s creatively helped the agency unlock achievements at Cannes, D&AD, One Show Interactive, Spikes Asia, Webby’s, even a digital Emmy, along with many local awards.

Russ has judged AWARD, Adfest, IAB and D&AD international awards as well as speaking at SXSW and judging Cannes Mobile Lions.

As General Manager of Eleven, Fiona has led some of the agency’s bravest and most awarded work including ANZ GAYTMs, Krispy Kreme American Classics, M.J. Bale Unsuitable Journey and Gatorade Bolt Rate.

Fiona has an innate understanding of how to create culture and craft hero campaigns that cut through locally and globally.

With nearly 15 years’ experience in the industry, Fiona has held senior positions in London and Sydney working on brands such as British Airways, P&G, Campari Group and Tourism New Zealand.

Zoe is a journalist currently working at Mumbrella as a reporter. She assists the editors in reporting on news related to the media, publishing and marketing sectors, more specifically media owners.

Zoe has previously covered the advertising agency beat.

She has worked overseas, writing for an international newspaper in Seoul, and did a major in Italian studies at university.

At Sling & Stone, Tahlia builds and manages brand campaigns that walk the line between B2B and consumer communication. She is fascinated by the relationship of technology to narrative form and the future potential of digital storytelling. This shines through in the campaigns she executes for the likes of Domain, Twitter, Guzman y Gomez, and the City of Wellington. Tahlia was also a Commscon Best New PR Talent of the Year finalist in 2017.

Tahlia joined Sling & Stone after several years in London, where she worked on large-scale consumer campaigns for brands including the BBC and Crystal Head Vodka, as well as focused community campaigns for brands like Lights of Soho Gallery and the Wordsworth Trust.

Jasmine is a PR Officer in the Marketing and Communications Division at Cancer Council NSW. She holds a Bachelor of Communication and Media Studies (Dean’s Scholar) in Journalism and Professional Writing from the University of Wollongong, class of 2015. She’s passionate about public health and the Not-For–Profit sector and joined Cancer Council NSW in February 2016 as a Marketing and Events Volunteer. In September 2016 she joined the Marketing and Communications Division as the Brand, Marketing and Communication’s Assistant. The role involved working closely with and assisting the in-house PR Team to conduct media outreach, stakeholder management and media evaluation across the organisation’s strategic areas of cancer research, prevention, support, advocacy and fundraising as well as providing administrative support to other areas of the organisation. In November 2017 she joined the PR Team at Cancer Council NSW in a full time capacity and currently leads on PR campaigns for the organisation’s Cancer Support Services Division.

Jayde Galvin brings a unique skill-set to One Green Bean having a strong publicity background from working in the UK, before settling into Sydney. As a Senior Account Executive, Jayde works on a variety of retainer and project-based accounts across FMCG, consumer and technology sectors; with experience on accounts including Red Bull, Uber, HMD Global and NBN Co.

As part of her role, Jayde acts as a hybrid consultant sitting across the PR and Social teams to help ensure work is integrated and succinct across earned, owned and borrowed channels through digital amplification; seeing her work closely with the Digital, Strategy and Co-maker teams.

Key highlights of Jayde’s career to date include Milan Fashion Week where she played an instrumental role in securing UK key media and influencer attendance for the Etro Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter collections for both men and women from 2014 – 2016, and the Uber Sam campaign that involved Jayde managing partnerships, talent and media outreach to secure editorial coverage in support of the new promotion.

Jesse Muir is an Account Coordinator at FleishmanHillard. Working in the consumer practice, he assists the team across travel, tech and lifestyle accounts working on media pitching, writing and analysis. In the last six months he has helped launch a wearable tech collection for Neutrogena, host two media conferences in two days for Carnival Cruise Lines and host the launch of Fitbit’s first smartwatch. A graduate of Communication and Media studies from the University of Wollongong, Jesse got into PR because of his desire to influence and inspire people through the power of earned media. Outside of work, he’s an avid vintage car enthusiast and wishes he could play the drums.

Lynnette has worked in the Australian PR industry her entire career in a number of different incarnations and is passionate about the industry and the people who make it what it is. She joined Edelman in mid-2015 initially as Talent Director looking after the company’s recruitment needs before moving to HR Director in July this year. She is responsible for all HR and people/culture responsibilities for Edelman’s Sydney and Melbourne offices. In addition, she also runs Lynnette Edmonds Consulting where she works with companies and individuals requiring expertise across recruitment, mentoring, training and career counselling.

Lynnette’s career first started, however, as a PR consultant and for the 12 years that followed she worked at a number of leading Sydney-based agencies on global consumer brands including Nike, adidas, Unilever and Sanitarium. Following that she embarked on a sea change and set up successful specialist recruitment agency, PR People, working with leading agencies and businesses offering recruitment and talent management strategies and solutions across all sectors.

Following a psychology degree with a decade in marketing and strategy, Susie joined Guardian Australia’s content partnership team Guardian Labs in 2014 to help brands create partnerships which authentically connect with the Guardian’s audience.  As a Board Member for the Banksia Foundation, she is passionate about helping brands achieve success demonstrating that they share readers’ core values and by communicating their commitment to better business.

As the Guardian’s Brand Partnerships Director, Susie creates content & event partnerships, with global brands like Philips, local giants like Optus and purpose driven brands such as Powershop.  She has seen the success of brands in the UK & US who have evolved their brand messaging to show their positive impact and is keen to help Australian brands benefit from bringing this thinking into their businesses.

Andrew Cornell is the Founding Managing Editor of BlueNotes, ANZ ‘s multi-awarding winning forum for business and economic news, opinion and analysis.

Cornell himself is a multi-award winning journalist, most recently the 2014 Citi Award for Economics writing. He was the 2010 Walkley Award winner for commentary and analysis for a series on how Australia’s financial system survived the financial crisis and is a multiple Walkley finalist. Cornell won the Citigroup/Columbia University Award for Excellence in Business Journalism for analysis of Japan’s economy.

Cornell was formerly Associate Editor, Senior Writer and Columnist with the Australian Financial Review and the Senior Staff Writer for the AFR’s award winning monthly magazine. He is a Former North Asia Bureau Chief based in Tokyo for the AFR.

In wider writing, Cornell was the inaugural editor of NewSouthPress’s “Best Business Writing” anthology. He has written and contributed to several books including the Japan Australia Foundation-sponsored report “Australia and Japan: Beyond the Mainstream”.

Cornell’s career in journalism spans three decades, including 20 years at the AFR. He started his business reporting career in 1987 at the Sun News Pictorial. He also spent five years as a film reviewer for the Herald and Weekly Times. Cornell has a BA (Hons) in Medieval Literature and BSc (Genetics) from Melbourne University.

Fiona King is a director of Go Collaborate, a business that specialises in connecting and engaging audiences by bringing together expert collaborators to provide business solutions through insights, strategy, ideas, content creation, and multi-platform distribution to create work that works.

Fi is recognised as a leader in creating new brands and re-invigorating existing ones. With a deep belief that despite an evolving and challenging landscape, brand success is anchored in great strategy that is built from the understanding of how to engage and reach audiences with strong creative ideas in multi-platform environments.

Her extensive experience has seen her direct the launches of Australia’s leading brands and increase the profile of international brands in Australia and NZ. By harnessing the power of data, technology and ideas Fi delivered the high profile Rebel Wilson campaign to launch Stan in Australia, and recently created a successful consumer direct content campaign to build awareness for Travel Portland in the Oceania market, curating the ultimate collaboration with The Bondi Hipsters, Future Film Makers of America (“Portlandia” Production crew), and Flight Centre.

Fi has worked and consulted to leading media and lifestyle brands including Foxtel, Nine Entertainment Company, 20th Century Fox, ACP, Pacific Magazines, Hamilton Island, Sephora, Missguided, Travel Portland, Australian Museum and the ABC.

Matt is Founder and Director of strategic consultancy Fromm and creative network CoCircle.

He launched Fromm and CoCircle in the belief that a co-operative model of distributed and autonomous specialists is the future of a new way of doing business. A future that is decentralised, distributed, collaborative and, therefore, a whole lot more effective for the world we’re currently living in (and the tomorrow we’re rocketing into). Prior to launching Fromm and CoCircle, Matt was Head of Digital Strategy for six and half years at One Green Bean, Australia’s most awarded PR agency over that period. In the space of a few years, he nurtured the One Green Bean social media team from a department of one to one of the largest in Australia.

Always looking to evolve at the speed of change, Matt developed and launched One Green Bean’s influencer co-creation platform, Crowd Atlas (now called CoMaker) as a unique approach to influencer marketing and the emerging Creator Economy.

An award-winning communications strategist with over 20 years industry experience across Advertising, Direct Marketing, PR, Digital and Social, and at agencies such as Omon, Saatchi & Saatchi, Weiden + Kennedy and Holler, Matt has advised some of the world’s biggest brands on their social, content and communications strategies. He has an entrepreneurial approach to strategy and communications and thrives on finding new ways of working while developing elegant solutions with clients.

Matt is also a Fellow and contributor to the Centre For Sustainability Leadership.

Simone Bevan has nine years of global integrated marketing experience.  As Head of Integrated Media, she is currently responsible for Magnum & Co’s influencer marketing, creative and PR offering. Simone has successfully spearheaded the launch of Magnum & Co’s influencer marketing offering, Magnetic in May 2017. Since then Magnetic has been successfully implemented across a number of clients including VOSS, Converse, Australia Post and Suncorp.

Taryn Williams is the award winning CEO & Founder of theright.fit and WINK Models. A former model, Taryn has built a reputation as one of Australia’s most popular entrepreneurs and digital influencers, and has proven herself to be a game changer and one not shy to press the disrupt button.

Taryn has over sixteen years experience in the world of modelling, advertising and media, and launched her first business Wink Models in 2007, a response to the inefficiencies in working conditions for models and the lack of flexibility and quality service offered to clients. Ten years later, the agency 
has flourished into a national business, named in Anthill’s Top 100 Cool companies, and represents over 650 talent with turnover in the millions. Taryn has handed over the day-to-day management of WINK to allow her to focus on the growth of her second business theright.fit with international expansion on the horizon in 2018.

Taryn launched theright.fit in 2016, a two-sided marketplace for creative talent, making it easy, efficient and cost effective for brands to directly book talent for advertising campaigns, influencer marketing executions and events. Theright.fit has over 6,500 talent on the platform including models, influencers, makeup artists, photographers, producers and athletes, and guarantees payment for all of them within 48 hours. Theright.fit is backed by one of Australia’s leading venture capital firms, Airtree Ventures, along with other leading international strategic partners and funds.

Taryn is on the Board of the Association for Data-driven Marketing & Advertising (ADMA) association Digital + Technology Collective and has been recognised as a finalist and winner at numerous business awards including Women’s Agenda Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year, Australian Institute of Management, My Business, SmartCompany Hot 30 under 30 and Women in Media.

Geoff Ikin joined Tourism Australia in September 2015 as General Manager, Global Media, PR and Social based in Sydney.

His team are responsible for bringing together Tourism Australia’s Global Media and Social strategy, international public relations approach and major events, key broadcast opportunities, advocacy and the International Media Hosting Program.

Geoff has over 15 years’ experience across Media, Advertising, PR, Events and Agency Management, previously working for IMG/Rugby World Cup, Sydney and Athens Olympics, David Jones and more recently the Westpac Group.

Liz Anderson is a Communications and PR Specialist who has dedicated her career to helping brands drive meaningful conversations with their customers. After almost a decade working in PR both locally and internationally, Liz is focused on understanding what drives customer intent and how brands can harness the art of storytelling to relevantly engage their audience.

Before joining THE ICONIC as Head of PR, Liz worked for award-winning agency, Adhesive PR, where she spearheaded the development of its ‘Influencer Division’ in late 2013 knowing that influencer marketing would become a driving force for brand campaigns. During her career agency side, Liz led accounts for global brands including Coca-Cola, Spotify, Sony and Vodafone gaining invaluable experience developing holistic and creative marketing strategies.

A country girl at heart, Liz grew up in the Hunter Valley with her thoroughbred-breeding family and holds a BA Communication (PR and Journalism) from the University of Newcastle.

Abigail is currently a reporter at the media and marketing publication Mumbrella covering both the creative and PR space. In 2016 she completed her Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) degree at RMIT University in Melbourne, majoring in politics, economies and businesses. During her three year degree Abigail completed multiple internships across different publications including Mamamia, Channel 10 and 3AW.

Robbie is lucky. Extremely lucky. That’s because he’s Director of Marketing & Communications at Mona, so he’s responsible for making mischief and money for over 40 creatively driven brands – from the museum and its festivals, to a brewery, a winery, and even a New Orleans hacking school. Most fortuitously of all, he now gets to help shape the plans for Mona’s $350m of new developments, including a 172-room 5 star hotel (HOMO), the world’s fanciest health spa (SPAM), a billionaire’s-only casino (MONACO) and the Burning Man of caravan parks (HOBO). And all of these new additions to the Mona ecosystem will, of course, be gloriously form over function. Prior to joining Mona, Robbie was an ad guy, and spent 17 years faking his way around the world as a creative director for the likes of Saatchi & Saatchi, BBDO, Y&R and DDB. He has over 60 global advertising awards to his name, including the prestigious title of Most Complained About Campaign in Australia – for Devondale, which ironically won him Mumbrella’s campaign of the year in 2013. Robbie’s marketing philosophy? No one cares. So make them.

Ben joined Sportsbet in 2011 as Communications Manager to build out Sportsbet’s public profile outside of the Victorian market.

Now the Head of Communications and Social Content at Sportsbet, Ben is responsible for external communications and driving brand awareness through media channels as well as leading one of Australia’s premier social media teams to create engaging content for Sportsbet’s 1 million+ social audience.

Ben is behind some of Sportsbet’s most iconic publicity ‘stunts’, category leading marketing initiatives and award winning social content.

Sportsbet is Australia’s biggest online wagering company.

Prior to Sportsbet, Ben worked at ANZ Stadium, Sydney FC and Basketball Australia in various PR and communications roles.

Ben resides in Sydney, New South Wales with his partner and daughter.

Kasi Reynolds is Head of Consumer at Sling & Stone, a PR agency that works exclusively with challengers, disrupters and innovators. Kasi advises and leads strategic campaigns for the likes of Uber, Nest, Twitter, Slack, Stripe, Domain, Zillow, Goose Island and more. Prior to Sling & Stone she was in Macquarie Group’s Corporate Communications team.

Matt Overington heads up communications for online furniture company, Koala. He has a background in technical journalism and experience in marketing communications agencies (including Hill+Knowlton Strategies and Edelman-owned Zeno Group). Matt spent five years in Seoul, running LG Electronics’ global agency relationship on behalf of WPP, before returning to Australia and ultimately following his passion to work for a startup.

Vivienne Kelly is the editor of Mumbrella. Throughout her career she has worked as a journalist and editor across a number of consumer and B2B finance and real estate titles. She has also spent time in public relations across the health, finance and energy sectors.

Ava has spent more than 27 years in global public relations working with many international and local brands across Australia, Asia Pacific, Europe and South Africa to help liberate their potential through effective communications.

Ava began her career in Brisbane before her love of adventure took her to London and then South Africa where she developed a strong understanding of the technology sector and expertise in corporate communication.

Ava returned to Australia in an agency business management role and has spent more than 18 years of her career managing agencies in Australia and across Asia Pacific. Currently as the Managing Director of Weber Shandwick, Ava leads her local team to produce innovative work and ensures client satisfaction.

Prior to joining Weber Shandwick, Ava was in a global role driving the digital transformation and talent development programs of a multinational firm.

With family and friends now scattered all over the world, Ava is a massive advocate for the connective power of social media and the behavioural transformation it is bringing to all sectors of society.

Cameron has over 13 years’ experience as a creative communications specialist. He joined Weber Shandwick in 2014 and leads the growth of the agency’s strategic and creative services practice by enhancing service offerings and agency capabilities across digital, strategy, creative, social, content, paid media, measurement and production.

His focus is creative strategy and innovation across the firms specialties, including consumer, technology, healthcare, corporate and digital. Cameron leads a digital & creative services team of integration specialists that fuse online & offline across full funnel marketing services.

During his time with Weber Shandwick, Cameron has worked with Accor Hotels, Adidas, ALDI, Facebook, Instagram, Nespresso, Mastercard, Taronga, Ocean Spray, Honeywell, Hyatt Regency, Abbott, AstraZeneca, Sanofi, American Airlines, Nutricia, among other agency clients.

Josie Tutty is Mumbrella’s opinion and features editor. She’s previously written and edited in the UK for Jungle Creations and Trinity Mirror.

Karina Keisler joined nbn in 2014 and leads all aspects of media relations, social media, government relations, employee communications and Corporate Social Responsibility. Karina also has responsibility for nbn Local which focuses on national industry stakeholders and regional and remote engagement.

With proven experience leading sophisticated Corporate Affairs functions, Karina has acquired more than 20 years’ knowledge in the industry, advising some of Australia’s highest profile CEOs, including at Telstra and Vodafone. Karina specialises in managing communication strategies for complex organisations and reputation recovery.

Paul has been lucky to be on the frontline of the world’s digital transformation as a writer, speaker and consultant helping businesses and communities adapt to a rapidly changing world.

As a freelance writer on digital disruption and technological change, Paul has been a paid contributor to The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, Diginomica, Business Spectator, the Sydney Morning Herald, Crikey, Startup Smart and Communications Day along with being a regular guest on nationally syndicated radio programs.

In his speaking engagements, he’s been Master of Ceremonies for events such as The City of Sydney’s Lets Talk Business program, Small Business September and the Association for Data driven Marketing and Advertising’s (ADMA) Global Forum.

Along with MCing events, he’s presented keynotes, workshops and sat on panels for a wide range of business and community events. He has also provided media training services through Reputation Australia.

Over the past ten years, Paul has been helping organisations with their digital strategies. Clients have ranged from small businesses to Google, Microsoft, Vodafone, Xero, MYOB and various government agencies.

In 2011, publisher John Wiley & Sons released his book “The e-Business Guide: Seven Steps to Online Success” that showed entrepreneurs and small business owners how they could implement a digital strategy in a weekend for under $100. This was his seventh book on technology and business.

Before moving into communications, Paul worked with the NSW state government’s Department of Industry & Investment in developing the Digital Sydney initiative along with the creation of the state’s Digital Economy strategy.

Prior to joining the NSW Government, he founded an IT support business that his team grew into a national organisation that helped thousands of business and home technology users get more value from their computer system. Before that, he was working in construction engineering in Australia, the UK and East Asia.