V21

Mr Tony Lupton

Cabinet Secretary and representative for Prahran

Tony has represented the electoral district of Prahran in Victoria’s Legislative Assembly since 2002. He was appointed to the position of Cabinet Secretary in August 2007. As a member of Cabinet, Tony's role is to assist the Premier in setting the Cabinet Agenda and Cabinet Committee business, manage the Government’s Legislation Program, advise on issues involving Cabinet submissions and attend to Ministerial matters on behalf of the Premier. Prior to being appointed Cabinet Secretary, Tony served as Parliamentary Secretary for Industry and Innovation from December 2006. Prior to entering Parliament Mr Lupton was a self-employed barrister for 15 years, he holds the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from Monash University.

Opening Keynote - Sam Davy

Former Global Creative Director, Apple Inc

Based in Melbourne, Sam currently splits his time between working with Apple Inc, China and Crumpler. Before moving to Melbourne Sam worked as a Global Creative Director for Apple Inc in California for nearly six years, helping to build and lead the internal design and marketing group during the period of biggest growth in the company's history. During his tenure at Apple he was responsible for launching and sustaining some of the worlds most anticipated products in some of the worlds most challenging markets. If you've ever visited an Apple retail store or Apple.com, opened an iPod package or switched on your new Mac you've experienced his work. Prior to Apple Sam worked in London as a designer and creative director helping to solve problems and seize opportunities for a diverse range of companies, organizations and individuals.

Closing Keynote - Bruce Ramus

Creative Director, Ramus Illumination

Bruce has extensive experience in creating and producing advanced media experiences for theatrical and architectural environments. Bruce designed and directed international live shows and events for 28 years, including rock bands U2, R.E.M., David Bowie, Bryan Adams, David Byrne, Savage Garden, James Brown, television shows including the Academy Awards, Grammy Awards, MTV Awards and Super Bowl Halftime Shows.

Anthony Owen

National Sales Manager, Just Magazines

Anthony has 15 years of extensive experience in sales management including staff management and the development primarily in the online environment and has been involved in launching several businesses in emerging markets. His experience is predominantly in the sales and business development arena – including product development; development and management of sales teams; and marketing strategies and campaign execution. He has held senior roles with organizations like OzEmail, Softbank Interactive Marketing, Eye Corp, 24/7 Media, Sensis/Trading Post and presently hold the position of National Sales Manager at Just Magazines. Anthony has operated in publicly listed environments on several occasions.

Richard Lord

Chief Marketing Officer, Hyro

Richard has worked within the technology industry and specifically with internet related technologies since the commercial evolution of the internet in 1994. Prior to this, Richard worked in senior roles within the banking and financial services industry. Richard is the Chief Marketing Officer for the Hyro Group and is responsible for business building activities within the group. This position reflects Richard's experience within ISM Consulting where he has served as Director - Strategy and Alliances since 2001. Richard joined ISM Consulting following the merger of the business he founded in 1994, The Axis Media Group, with the then CGI Australia, to create ISM Consulting and the ISMC Group.

Amanda Brook

General Manager Mobiles and General Manager Strategic Marketing, Sensis

Amanda joined Sensis in 2004 as General Manager, Marketing. In her current role as General Manager, Strategic Marketing, Amanda’s marketing responsibilities include customer strategy, market intelligence, brand strategy, customer information management and pricing. In 2007, Amanda also assumed responsibility for Sensis’ Mobile portfolio, including Yellow™ Mobile, Whereis® Mobile, Whereis® Navigator, Sensis® Mobile, Citysearch Mobile® and Trading Post® Mobile. Before moving to Sensis, Amanda held positions as Chief Executive Officer, Sussan Retail; Chief Executive Officer, Creative Brands Pty Ltd; and Brand Leader, Priceline Pty Ltd. She has also been responsible for the roll-out of the Priceline Pharmacy franchise network and the launch of the Officeworks Superstores on behalf of Coles Myer Ltd.

David Murray

General Manager Communications Sector, IBM Corporation

David has over 18 years experience in the IT industry. David has revenue, profit and customer satisfaction responsibility for IBM’s clients in three industries: Telecommunications, Media & Entertainment, Energy & Utilities. He also leads IBM’s efforts in the emerging business areas of Digital Media and Wireless Broadband Solutions. David joined IBM in 2000 as e-Business Manager in the Telecommunications Industry and has held numerous leadership positions during his career. Previously, David was Practice Leader of IBM's Pervasive Computing division in Australia, a cross-IBM initiative that includes wireless, portals, speech technology and embedded software. Prior to joining IBM David held leadership positions at PharmaNet, a EDI company, and Camtech, a leading payment provider.

James Masini

General Manager and Executive Director, Hippo

James Masini is the founder of Hippo, creating the website as part of a Business Management Entrepreneurship undergraduate degree. Since then he has taken the concept, refined it and researched its viability in the marketplace. Beginning work at the age of 16 with Daimler Chrysler in network and technical support James has always had a business brain. In a short time he had built a stable clientele as an IT consultant. His clients range from public companies to small businesses.

Steve Fawkner

CEO, Infinite Interactive

Steve has been an integral part of the Video Games Industry for over a quarter of a century. Although his first game was completed in 1983, Steve's first real international success was the award-winning Warlords strategy game in 1989. The Warlords series went on to have 10 sequels and sell millions of copies. More recently, Steve's company Infinite Interactive produced the smash hit Puzzle Quest, which has appeared on every major gaming platform and won numerous Game-of-the-Year Awards. Currently, Steve is the CEO and Creative Lead at Infinite Interactive, overseeing the design of a number of games, including sequels to Puzzle Quest, along with innovative new titles. One of those new titles is Office Wars, a game prototype that was created by Infinite, in cooperation the ABC and Screen Australia, using an innovative method of design called crowdsourcing, which was organized via the ABC TV series Good Game.

Peter Yandell

Technology Director, RedTxt

Pete is a software designer and developer, and a veteran of many technology startups. He ran the tech team for Sharinga Networks, a Melbourne startup that took only two years to grow from one employee to fifty, and was eventually sold to AT&T in the U.S. He's helped turn a Melbourne University research project into a commercial network security product. He's written open-source music software for the Mac, built social networking web sites, and even built software for the Apple Newton. These days he leads the development effort at RedTxt, and occasionally consults to other startups on technology, IP, and investment strategy. He also helps run the Melbourne Ruby Users Group.

Marilyn Awad

Senior Associate, Holding Redlich

Marilyn's experience includes the protection, licensing and exploitation of intellectual property (trademarks, copyright, confidential information), advertising clearance work, and the drafting and negotiating of commercial agreements, especially in the area of intellectual property, information technology and corporate advisory work.

Karla Burt

Producer and Founding Partner, Ish Media

Karla is one of the new generation of women in media. She is the co-creator and star of the interactive comedy Girl Friday, and partner in cross platform production pioneer, Ish Media. Still barely 30-something, Karla effortlessly combines the roles of producer, performer and business woman, with the life of a Fitzroy singleton and recent mum to Gilbert, her pugalier (she's allergic to cats). The path to Ish Media and Girl Friday began with a degree in Public Relations at RMIT, followed by a stint in London working in youth marketing at internationally renowned agencies and returning to Australia to begin an audacious climb up the TV ladder. The first step was with the Australian Children's Television Foundation, led there by a strong desire to work on shows remembered fondly from her own childhood. This led to opportunities to work at the ABC, Channel 9 and Fremantle Media. Apart from a general plan to gain broad based media experience, a consistent theme has been quality entertainment and working with talent. An unashamed populist, Karla embraced the age of digital media early and signed on as marketing and distribution manager for Australia's first broadband series Jupiter Green. This began her association with interactive trail blazer Kylie Robertson, the creator of Jupiter Green and it was during this time that Girl Friday was born...Karla's never looked back or slept again.

Christy Dena

Universe Creation 101, University of Sydney

Christy is a cross-media specialist who works as a narrative and game design consultant, educator and researcher. For the past few years she has been giving presentations on the design of cross-media projects to companies and organisations such as Nokia Finland; London Film Festival; Australia Council for the Arts; Film Australia; Centre for Screen Business; Australian Film, Television and Radio School; Australian Broadcasting Corporation; ACT Filmmakers Network; Film and Television Institute; Brisbane Chapter of the International Game Developers Association and the Web Standards Group. Christy has taught digital games, pervasive games, alternate reality games, cross-media, hypertext fiction, blog fiction, bot fiction, mobile fiction design and theory to institutions in UK, The Netherlands and across Australia. Her consulting clients include Wieden + Kennedy; AlterAction, Seize the Media, Pemberton Films, Australian Literature Board, Killer Bald Men, dLux Media Arts and Instinct Entertainment.

Chloe Quigley

Founder and Director, Michi Girl

Chloe has worked in advertising and marketing for 12 years. After studying Interior Design and Fine Art at RMIT she joined J Walter Thompson, growing to manage the Sussan business for 5 years. In her role as advertising Account Director, she covered all aspects of communications from strategy planning and implementation to production and budget control. Since leaving JWT, Chloe has worked as a consultant for such clients as Sportsgirl, Sussan, Myer, BHP Billiton, Bendon, The Australian Ballet and Lane Crawford. It was during her freelance time at Fabio Ongarato Design that she met Simone and Kat, her current partners in graphic design studio Ortolan. Alongside Daniel Pollock, Chloe is a Founder and Director of Michi Girl: a successful internet fashion website with over 12,000 subscribers.

Frankie Ralston-Good

MD Naked Communications Melbourne.

Frankie has been asking why and how in all matters marcomms for the last fifteen years for clients ranging from the BBC to Dulux via Warner Records and 7-Eleven. She is fascinated by the distinction between channels that are great for communication and those that are great for brands to communicate in. ven when brands do cross the threshold how should they manage the transition from advertiser to content provider whilst keeping an eye on business objectives. Simply put, instead of asking could we, let’s think about whether we should be.

Matt Houltham

Partner, Publicis Digital

Matt has led digital marketing operations in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. His experience encompasses all facets of digital marketing including media strategy, creative services, search engine marketing, CRM, mobile & social media. He founded ZenithOptimedia’s digital media unit in 2002 and built it into one of Australia’s largest & most awarded digital businesses. In 2006 he launched Publicis Digital, the groupe’s full service digital marketing agency, which services clients including Nike, Tourism Victoria, Cadbury and Hertz. Matt is actively involved in key industry bodies (AIMIA, AFA, MFA), judges various industry awards and is a regular conference speaker and commentator in the press.

Kate Richardson

General Manager, Stickywood

Kate has more than twelve years experience in entertainment related marketing and communications. In 2007, Kate was employed as the Director of Entertainment at Naked Communications and recently became the General Manager of Stickywood, a brand entertainment consultancy launched by Naked and Brand New Media. Prior to this, Kate was the Director of Content & Integration at Universal McCann where she led the team responsible for branded content initiatives, sponsorship strategies, and activation plans for clients including Johnson and Johnson, Unilever and Coca-Cola. Kate has also held senior marketing roles with creative arts organisations including Sydney Festival and Sydney Opera House. She has degrees in Communications and International Relations, and is a graduate of the Sydney Leadership program. You can read her musings on brand entertainment at

Brad Giblin

Project Management for Film Victoria’s Digital Media Fund

Brad’s been trying to find the middle ground between IT and creativity for the last 11 years. Originally supporting and developing business systems, he moved away from the purist application of IT and into education where he supported the research of the Faculty of Arts at Deakin University. During this period Brad contributed toward several major research projects and brought Podcasting, Web Standards, Graphic Design, Animation Labs and a Motion Capture Studio to the Faculty. When not creating websites, radio or online video, Brad conducts assessment and project management for Film Victoria’s Digital Media Fund. This role supports the key source of state government investment into digital media, and funds professional content and technology platforms across online, mobile and game console platforms. Current projects include a focus on cross platform development skills for film and TV practitioners and developing further relationships with international online broadcasters.

Ben Barnett

Consultant, Nous Group

Ben is a consultant at The Nous Group, a values-based management consultancy. His project experience includes being the lead consultant on the largest and most recent review of the film, television and games industries in Victoria. Ben also worked closely with the Australian Cultural Ministers Council to develop a National Cultural Strategy. Prior to joining The Nous Group, Ben worked for Lindsay Tanner, Minister for Finance and Deregulation, and also spent time teaching politics at University College Dublin in Ireland. Whilst in Ireland, Ben also spent time at a technology transfer centre in Dublin, where he was exposed to a variety of issues pertaining to seed funding and ongoing business support for entrepreneurial activities. Ben has previously served on The University of Melbourne’s University Council and Theatre Board, and currently sits on the Board of SYN Media, Australia’s leading youth media organisation, and the peak national organisation for young writers, Express Media. Ben has published on topics relating to Australian culture and entrepreneurialism.

Ruwan Weerasooriya

Founder and CEO, CafeScreen

Ruwan is the founder and CEO of Digital Out of Home media company CafeScreen. CafeScreen operates a network of digital signs and free WiFi Internet hotspots in CBD cafes targeting high value and elusive CBD business professionals. In establishing its digital signage network the company has also built Australia's largest network of free WiFi Internet hotspots. With a management background specialising in start-up technology ventures, Ruwan established one of Western Australia's first commercial ISPs in 1994, selling the business in late 1995. He then went on to found a web development company Method + Madness which was sold in 1999 to SMS Management and Technology (formerly Sausage Software). Following this he established business incubator and Internet Professional Services operation Huge Digital, which has funded and serviced a number of startups including CafeScreen.

Wolf Cocklin

Snr Developer for Strategic Development, ABC Innovation

Wolf joined the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in 2001 as a developer within the Education department. Since then he has worked on a wide variety of projects from educational games for pre-schoolers to some of the early ITV prototypes. He built the first Hypertextualized video within the ABC for the Broadband edition of current affairs program Four Corners. In 2007 Wolf came up with the initial concept for a desktop application to aggregate ABC content - including news headlines, podcasts, vodcasts, audio and video streams, and weather forecast information. This concept was developed and released as 'ABC Now' and has since reached over 100,000 downloads. For the last year Wolf has been establishing a framework for the ABC to use and interact with its audience via Twitter. The significance of this service was recently demonstrated during the Victorian bushfire emergency, when the ABC's @774Melbourne Twitter account formed an integral part of their emergency broadcast service.