Mumbrella360 to introduce industry’s first speed networking afternoon

Tim Burrowes

March 27, 2014 1:25

Mumbrella’s annual media and marketing conference Mumbrella360 is to be extended to a third day to include an afternoon of organised networking.

The move follows a successful trial of appointment-based networking at Mumbrella’s Festival of Branded Content & Entertainment late last year.

The Mumbrella360 networking will take place on Tuesday June 3, ahead of the conference on June 4 and 5.

Up to 300 networking tickets, sold on a first come, first served basis will be available.

The speed dating style afternoon will see participants able to organise up to a dozen 15-minute appointments with fellow delegates over an intensive three-hour period.

Attendees at last year’s Mumbrella360 included 29% of delegates coming from marketing roles, while the next biggest group (27%) was from agency side including media, creative, PR and digital.

A number of complimentary places for the networking sessions will also be available to marketers from Australia’s 100 top spending brands.

The networking tickets – which also include access to drinks functions on the first two nights and to the exhibition area throughout the whole event – are priced at $699. Meanwhile, the price of tickets for the two-day conference has been held at $1799 for a third year running, with an early bird discount if booked before the end of April.

Mumbrella CEO Martin Lane said: “Mumbrella360 already has the reputation of being the marketing world’s most entertaining conference, and it also offers the best learning opportunities. But we are aware that delegates need to be able to make as strong a business case as possible to justify investing in a ticket. Giving them the ability to meet new prospects and build new relationships in a formal way is one more way of helping with that.

“Not everyone enjoys walking up to strangers and introducing themselves. The networking session does the job for them.”

The first speaker session for Mumbrella360 has already been announced, with GroupM chairman John Steedman interviewing Lachlan Murdoch live on stage.

Mumbrella has also invited the industry to put forward proposals for curated sessions. The callout runs until the end of this month.

Tickets have today gone on sale for networking passes, two-day conference tickets and full three-day passes. Details are available via this link.

Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.