Fairfax announces speakers for Digital Directions
Fairfax Digital has announced the first lot of key-note speakers for its Digital Directions conference early next year – including comedian Baratunde Thurston, Disney Mobile’s Andrew Lacy, YouView’s Anthony Rose, Al Jazeera’s Safdar Mustafa, Rajat Paharia – founder of Bunchball and Vanessa Fox – author of Marketing in the Age of Google.
The announcement:
Thursday 3 March 2011, Doltone House, Sydney
Sydney, December 7, 2010 – Following the success of Fairfax Digital’s media series (Media 2010, Media 09 and Media 08), Fairfax Digital and X Media Lab today announced Digital Directions 2011: a one-day international gathering of the world’s leading digital media executives and entrepreneurs, showcasing global best practice in digital innovation.
To be held in Sydney on 3 March 2011, the event will bring to Australia ten of the world’s most influential digital thinkers, including Andrew Lacy (Head of Studios at Disney Mobile; co-founder of iphone apps company Tapulous), Baratunde Thurston (web editor of The Onion, comedian), Anthony Rose (CTO of YouView – UK’s open internet IPTV platform), Safdar Mustafa (Al Jazeera mobile strategist), Rajat Paharia (Founder of Bunchball; world leading “gamification expert), and Vanessa Fox (author of Marketing in the Age of Google).
The event will be an unrivalled opportunity for Australia’s digital community to come together to hear about and discuss the latest advances in the international digital and media landscapes. In addition to discussing the essential media trends to watch for in 2011 and changing consumer preferences and behaviours, the conference will also focus on the burgeoning areas of mobile and iPad applications, online video, online engagement strategies and content monetization.
Announcing the event, Jack Matthews, CEO of Fairfax Digital, said: “Following the outstanding successes of the Media series, we’ve decided to broaden our horizons and to rebrand as Digital Directions in 2011. Working again with X Media Lab, the day will be a fantastic chance for Australian media executives, creatives, strategists and journalists to come together and meet others who are working at the very edge of the digital frontier. We’re pleased that this event has taken on the importance that it has on the digital industry calendar.”
As has been the case with all media series events, Digital Directions 2011 is expected to sell out, and attendees are advised to book early to secure their place. Tickets are available at www.digitaldirections.com.au
Further international keynote speakers are soon to be announced. Confirmed keynote speakers are:
Andrew Lacy – Senior Vice President and Head of Studios at Disney Mobile; co-founder of Tapulous – a highly profitable business focused on the creation of social games and apps for the iPhone and creator of the number one iPhone game, Tap Tap Revenge.
Baratunde Thurston – Comedian, author, web editor of The Onion and host of Popular Science’s “Future Of” on the Science Channel. Baratunde has been called “someone I need to know” by Barack Obama and with over 30,000 Twitter followers, he tweets very, very hard.
Anthony Rose – Chief Technology Officer of YouView, the venture creating an open IPTV platform that brings internet connectivity to the UK’s free to air platforms. Prior to YouView, Anthony was at the BBC where he was Future Media Controller, Vision & Online Media Group, responsible for the BBC iPlayer as well as realising the BBC’s plans to create a unified embedded media experience across its online properties.
Safdar Mustafa – Spearheads Al Jazeera’s mobile media strategy including utilising mobile media to broaden audience use, distribution and engagement with Al Jazeera content and applications and widgets for a range of different platforms.
Rajat Paharia – Founder of customer engagement company, Bunchball and world leading “gamification” expert. Gamification is using game-like mechanics and systems to increase participation, engagement, content creation and consumption.
Vanessa Fox – Author of Marketing in the Age of Google and creator of Google’s Webmaster Central. Vanessa is an expert in understanding customer acquisition from organic search. Her book, Marketing in the Age of Google, provides a blueprint for incorporating search strategy into organizations of all levels.
Source: Fairfax Digital press release
