June 10, 2010 • 2:38 pm 0

1 x 2.5 day summit | 1 x seminar | 1 x all day conference

Well, I have another crazy week of events. Still keeping track of the Creative Sydney Festival tweets and photos wishing that I could sneak into Sydney again this weekend to catch up on the finishing talks and the wrap-up party but the launch and the Creative Futures event was a lot of fun. Check out the launch night photos and also the Creative Futures photos. Looking forward to see the rest of the sets online!

Have finally sorted out my plans for next week which is a bit more organised to what I’ve been doing these days in terms of professional development events!

Australia Council of the Arts: Marketing Summit 2010

Marketing Summit 2010 focuses on issues around digital and youth marketing, branding and culturally diverse audiences.

The Summit has assembled a team of national and international experts to share their knowledge and experience and includes options for you to curate your own pathways through the program. You can actively contribute to the Summit, and with each other, through Open Slather and networking opportunities.

Download the program pdf here

Some of the speakers and corresponding that we can expect at this event:

Mark Scott, Managing Director, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Challenges and opportunities of the digital era from the national broadcaster.

Russ Meyer, Chief Strategy Officer, Landor Associates, San Francisco
How to maintain and develop brand value in the digital world of the double click.

Christine Dunstan – Moderator
Jill Colvin – Head of Marketing and Communications, Sydney Festival
Brand awareness in the digital landscape and lessons learnt from Sydney Festival’s 2010 digital campaign.

Russ Meyer – Chief Strategy Officer, Landor Associates, San Francisco
A session fuelled by delegates’ real world branding questions.

Tweets and blogs – who’s the critic now?
Fenella Kernebone – Moderator – Presenter, Art Nation, ABC – Sound Lab, Triple J
Alison Croggon – Critic and long term Blogger of Theatre Notes
Stuart Buchanan – Director of The Nest and previous Producer of The Program
Marcus Westbury – Broadcaster, Writer, Media Maker and Festival Director

Festivals and the challenge of cross artform marketing
Marcus Barker – Moderator – General Manager, Ten Day on the Island Festival, Tasmania
Teresa Walters – Marketing Director, Major Brisbane Festivals
Paul Davis – Marketing & Communications Manager, Next Wave Festival
Amanda Jackes - General Manager, Woodford Folk Festival and The Dreaming

Christine Dunstan – Moderator
Adam Penberthy – Director, Fresh Marketing
How far should you go in pursuing Gen Y and Gen Z? How long will they stay once you found them?

What’s in it for me? Implications and opportunities from the research Australian participation in the arts: more than bums on seats
Bronwyn Edinger – Moderator – General Manager, City Recital Hall Angel Place – President, APACA
Sandra Bender – Executive Director, Arts Development, Australia Council
Wayne Denning – Managing Director, Carbon Media
Stephen Champion – Centre Manager, Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre

Christine Dunstan – Moderator
John Grant from UK via Skype – Author of The Green Marketing Manifesto and Co-opportunity
Meegan Jones – Global Greening Consultant, Live Earth and Julie’s Bicycle
New opportunities to work together with practical and sustainable strategies.

Passion to pragmatism – how to translate artistic vision into marketing reality
Martin Portus – Moderator – Director, Marketing and Communications, Australia Council
Kate Champion – Artistic Director, Force Majeure in conversation with Simon Hinton – Artistic Director/CEO, Merrigong Theatre Company
Yaron Lifschitz – Artistic Director, Circa and Scott Maidment – Director, Strut & Fret – Commentators

From the ground up – creating a shared vision with audiences and stakeholders
Jo Duffy – Artistic Director, Darwin Festival
Tony Grybowski – Executive Director, Arts Organisations, Australia Council

Stuart Buchanan – Director of The Nest and previous Producer of The Program
Krissie Scudds – General Manager, The Program
The Program* is Facebook for the arts. Learn how to use The Program to market your company from one of its makers.

David Cranswick – Director, The Edge
Discover The Edge. Recently opened, The Edge is a place for experimentation and creativity, it offers the space and tools for young people to explore critical ideas, green initiatives, new design practices and media making.

Denise Montgomery – Communications Consultant, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and La Jolla Playhouse, USA.
Based on the innovative work at Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, learn how to engage culturally diverse audiences and implement effective audience development strategies.

Claire Eva – Head of Marketing and Audiences, Tate, UK
Explore how digital marketing provides new opportunities to build bridges between artists and the public, reach wider and more diverse audiences, and experiment with creative content and marketing techniques.

Denise Montgomery – Communications Consultant, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and La Jolla Playhouse, USA
Claire Eva – Head of Marketing and Audiences, Tate, UK
Informal workshop on how to implement audience development, engagement, and digital marketing strategies.

Thang Ngo – National Manager, SBS in Language
How to harness the cultural diversity in your area to build engagement and audiences.

John Galloway – General Manager, The Hyperfactory
Learn the building blocks for a mobile program. Are real time engagements such as customer alerts, news and offers critical to a successful campaign?

Dr Peter Steidl – Partner, Mindshare
What is the bigger picture? GFC? ETS? FB? PC? RT? DM?
How do arts organisations change and position effectively for the next decade?

Jeff Brookes – Regional Director, Sulake Corporation (Asia Pacific)
To engage with Gen Z do arts organisations need to become part of the online conversation?

AIMIA Queensland: The Mechanics of Mobile Marketing (#aimiaqld)

The penetration of smart phones and touch devices is only in its infancy in Australia. Despite it only being early days there are many examples of leading brands using the mobile market place to make their fortune. AIMIA Qld is proud to present The Mechanics of Mobile Marketing.

Warren Hamilton, eCommerce Manager at Virgin Blue will talk about how they have embraced the mobile checking and boarding pass platform to streamline their business and how this is the first of many revolutionary steps they will be taking in the mobile space.

Dale Rankine at Vodafone Hutchinson Australia will recommend when to build your mobile platform for device or mobile web from the telecommunications perspective.

Brett Wiskar, Director of Speedwell eBusiness Solutions, was the development partner in the delivery of the highly successful Domino’s Pizza iPhone application and will be giving us an insight, or a behind the scenes look, from the agency perspective.

Carl Poplett, Content Relationship Manager for News Digital Media, will be discussing the mobile explosion, News’ mobile platforms and the opportunities available for brands in the mobile space.

NB: Have decided to miss out on the launch reception for X Media Lab at Customs House to attend this event as I am keen to learn more about mobile marketing!

X|Media|Lab: Global Media Cultures (#xmedialab)

This is the first time that X|Media|Lab is held with Vivid Sydney which means that the beautiful Sydney Opera House will once again be dressed up as part of the Festival’s focus on light, sound, creativity and ideas. A double treat for us interstate visitors!

XMediaLab: Global Media Ideas will explore: cultural and commercial content in a global world; creative ideas and innovation in media and technology; international media business opportunities; new media and new geographies; and new platforms, applications, and content.

Industry speakers will be hailing from London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Abu Dhabi, Paris, Mumbai, Japan, Washington, Beijing, and of course, Sydney. These are founders, entrepreneurs, designers, strategists, writers, directors, innovators and more for companies including Apple, Google, the Oprah Winfrey Network, StumbleUpon, The New York Times / International Herald Tribune, Yahoo! Europe, MOB, twofour54 and more.

The last X|Media|Lab that I attended late last year involved for going about 2-3 days with only a few hours sleep so hopefully we won’t get a repeat this time around!

If wishes were horses…

I had a bit more time, a bit more energy and a little less work to catch up on I would love to check out UnConvention Brisbane on June 12 and 13, the Young People and the Arts Australia ‘Changing Habitats’ Symposium on June 8 to 10.

On the other hand if you have missed out on some of the previous X|Media|Lab and AIMIA Queensland events, writeups can be found at Media Suarez and Brisbane Creative Industries. Subsequently, I’ll be blogging, liveblogging, tweeting and twitpicing and I look forward to other people doing the same. I have set aside hashtags except for the Australia Council one – have asked Project Coordinator what the hashtag is and will update it once we know. Delegates can follow me on Twitter here and also add on Linked in here.

Filed under: Australia, Australian Interactive Media Industry Association, Brisbane, Brisbane creative industries, Conference, Events, Personal , australia council of the arts, qpac, xmedialab

May 3, 2010 • 10:55 am 2

Bluewire Media Workshop – Web Design Strategy in Brisbane

Bluewire Media (web design business based in Brisbane and Sydney) held their first workshop of the year with speakers Toby Jenkins and Adam Franklin education a mixture of business owners, managers and other entrepreneurs about the right steps concerning web strategy and also the use of social media (such as blogs and Facebook) to increase page rankings. The event was held at Iceworks, in Paddington. It’s a great part of the Brisbane – I grabbed some presents and chocolate (very expensive – $21 for several pieces but worth it) before I made my way to Iceworks after work.

Llew Jury of Reload Media (SEO specialists based in Brisbane) MC’d the workshop. After some brief networking, we got straight to work on refining our web strategy with General Manager, Toby Jenkins, by writing down some issues and problems with our current strategy. I am pretty sure I heard someone (he will remain nameless) claim that he has none but I’m sure that we all have some kinks to iron out, right?

I really like Toby’s general approach – solve the problem then find people to action it. Great piece of advice!

Some mistakes in a business’ web strategy include:

Poor planning
Technologically driven/focused. An example was the flash loading bar which is a small ‘bells and whistle’ type of feature that should be used appropriately
Do not offer a lot of information (information overload)
Do not offer very little information (lack of trust)
Poor visual design
Plain human error

In a nutshell, web design strategy should be used as a sales tool and beyond a marketing tool.

Ask Smile Artistry was used as the main case study. A problem has been solved where rather than (potential) customers arriving at this dentist physically, the decision to purchase (and subsequent action) were determined before the arrival. There was a free call function as they have detected that calls to reception had high conversion rates, trademarked certain labels for uniqueness, used realistic photographs of people rather than formal stock photography, implemented video content such as a YouTube channel and worked closely with the copywriter to incorporate the right keywords.

After Toby was Adam Franklin, Marketing Manager of Bluewire Media, focusing on how businesses and organisations can market their way to the top of Google. He asked the audience if our names/keywords in relation to our businesses are on the first page, heck even the top page, of Google and I was surprised to see very little hands up in the air (mine was).

The number one tip – stay away from assuming that SEO is for web designers and it is to be focused on when the site is being built.

Adam used Iceworks screenshots (both the site and their rankings in Google) as a case study – very suitable! He used this, along with a few other samples, to illustrate some problems which need to be actioned;

Are people linking back to you?
Are you persistent with your copy? Allow 6 to 12 months to write copy.
Encourage people to write about you (hence this blog entry guys)
Seek permission regarding content (ie a Twitter follow, a Facebook page like etc)

Adam mentioned ArticlePR.com which is a reliable article submission site – “writing content is like putting money in the bank”.

Filed under: Australian Interactive Media Industry Association, Brisbane, Conference, Events , bluewire media, copywriting, google, marketing, online marketing, reload media, seo

April 19, 2010 • 11:47 am 0

Creative³ Speaker Notes

Last week I attended the inaugural Creative³ international forum and came out of it inspired, challenged, moved into action…and about 20 pages worth of notes from the speakers. Most of these have been ‘translated’ from note form and into the following blog entries just for the creative3 and the QUT Creative Enterprise team!

Karen Walker (international fashion designer) – When you are in a creative world, inspiration can come from everywhere

Sanjoy Roy (Managing Director of Teamwork Films) – Do not devalue what you are doing

Patrick Delaney (Executive Director, Sales and Product Development, FOXTEL) – Storytelling is key, simplicity is paramount

Margaret Manning (CEO, The Reading Room) – Creativity runs throughout the whole business

Hugh Mason (Partner, Pembridge Partners) – Capital raising for creatives

Graeme Wood (Founder, Wotif) – Every business starts with a simple idea

Michael Smellie (Former Global COO Sony BMG) – The world is global and it can only become moreso

Michael Lynch (ABC B oard Member, Former COO of Southbank Centre in London) – Art is what remains when all the rest has vanished

Russel Howcroft (GPY&R Chairman, Gruen Transfer panel member) – Advancing creativity in an economic context

Adam Elliot (Academy Award Winning Director of Harvie Krumpet) – Life is not a dress rehearsal

Check out my blog entry on why storytellers make great presenters (or is it the other way around?)

About QUT Creative Enterprise Australia

QUT Creative Enterprise Australia equips emerging businesses with the skills required to make and manage their success, provides access to leading technology, office space and facilities, and connects their ‘young’ business clients with the right networks and opportunities!

Since 2003, new and start-up businesses have benefited from the range of business advisory and development programs, networking and training opportunities, research, workspace solutions, production facilities, and financial support on offer.

These business support services are focused on supporting clients through each stage of their business growth, and accelerating their capacity so they can effectively compete in the marketplace. Aiming to be internationally recognised as a successful creative industries development agency, the organisation drives creative industries enterprise, research and engagement through its services. For further details click here

Filed under: Australia, Brisbane creative industries, Conference, Entrepreneurship, Events, Professional Services, TV/Radio, Technology, creative industries , creative3, graeme wood, hugh mason, karen walker, margaret manning, michael lynch, michael smellie, patrick delaney, qut creative enterprise australia, sanjoy roy

March 31, 2010 • 1:28 pm 0

Loving the #CN2010 #DigitalBritain Social Media Setup

So much that I decided to do a snapshot of it:

Click to full view.

Filed under: Events, Technology , digital britain, innovation

• 3:52 am 2

Future of events: extending events beyond physical and looking into the digital.

What is the future of events?

While some, or many, events require the attendees to be present many organisers are looking for ways to increase the scope and reach of an event beyond the physical attendees, location and even the set timeframe. While I don’t want to focus on tools and resources, I wanted to ask myself some of the bigger questions in terms of the future of events:

How can organisers increase the scope of the event beyond the capacity and limitations that factors such as price, venue, location, time or geographical location can restrict upon the event?
How can organisers develop a new audience (or new audiences) in ways that explore the possibilities beyond what a physical attendance is restricted to?
How can organisers continue to deliver the mission and vision of an event beyond set factors such as time, location, presentations, attendance?

While the original, simple appeal of an event lies in this straight-forward definition, “Something that happens at a given place or time”, organisers can maximise the event’s purpose beyond this definition.

For certain events, this only comes naturally such as generating repeat sales if there is a specific occurrence, events with a community-orientation, events for small niche groups. For other events, this needs to be facilitated by finding unique points within the event’s mission and vision and extending that into a plan while keeping in mind certain outcomes. I like social media in terms of the tools and resources available out there and also in its interactive, online community approach. It is also fitting in that social media plays a role of the event’s marketing strategy but it is beyond marketing. It is beyond tracking sales (ie a Facebook discount and comparing that with other promotional offers) or analytics (site traffic from social media sources).

Some notes that I have learned along the process:

Truly understand and encapsulate the event mission and vision within the process as if the event itself is an individual.
Find out what the voice is and who the audience/s are online and offline – these groups can be found in like-minded organisations, events, associations and more.
Continuously refer to (either cross-linking or face to face conversations) the event’s online social media properties.
Reward those who support the event and especially those who take on a referee role (those people who recommend your event to their own networks).
Look into other social media channels and see what types of conversations are taking place – about the event itself and the event’s mission and vision.

The journey so far has been a bit bumpy, an obstacle here and there, yes I am currently in the process of learning more and more about events.

What are your favourite events that you have found inspiring to observe whether offline or online? The type of events that expands geographical, physical, time based boundaries?

Filed under: Events , coordination, event, Management, marketing

March 29, 2010 • 12:11 pm 0

Qld Theatre Co: Waiting for Godot (Education Performance) and Let The Sunshine (Play)

As I have written earlier, I always have this thing where I don’t really put my toe in the water…I would rather much dive head straight into it and that has been the case with theatre thanks to Queensland Theatre Company. I am one of the ‘hype’ agents for Queensland Theatre Company which includes going to monthly meetings, the playbriefings, plays, and also am able to check out other areas such as their education programs, presentations etc. A couple of upcoming ones:

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

Recognised as the most significant play of the 20th century by the National Theatre of Great Britain, Waiting for Godot opens with two men waiting on a desolate road for the arrival of another man, Mr Godot. They pass the time with philosophical debate, petty arguments and game playing. Funny, sad, trivial and profound in every moment, the characters typify something about us all, as we strive to understand a world which has many more questions than answers.

Director: Joseph Mitchell
Designer: Simone Romaniuk
Cast includes: Martin Blum, Jonathan Brand, Eugene Gilfedder and Bryan Probets (pictured)

Somewhat related: Tonya Turner’s Courier Mail article, “Theatre buffs miss out”.

I haven’t attended a QTC education performance yet so looking forward to see this. An educational peformance isn’t part of their mainstream season. They have general admissions.

Let The Sunshine by David Williamson

Ageing Sydney radicals Toby and his wife Ros head north to escape scandal, only to find that their coastal refuge may contain more treacherous undercurrents than they thought.

There’s Natasha, the upwardly mobile ‘Queen Bee of Noosa’, an old schoolmate of Ros, and her brash property developer husband Ron – not to mention the potential minefield of which celebrity to invite to the next book club.

When Ros and Toby’s drop-out musician son falls in love with the high-flying lawyer daughter of Natasha and Ron, it’s on for young and old as these two decidedly odd couples attempt to reconcile themselves to the love of their very own Romeo and Juliet.

Director: Michael Gow | Designer: Robert Kemp | Composer: Peter Farnan | Lighting Designer: Ben Hughes
Cast includes: Paul Ashcroft, Robert Coleby, Rachel Gordon, Andrea Moor, Jacki Weaver, John Wood

Just want to say that I really love the branding/creative that they have done for Let The Sunshine. It is very Noosa-ville. I love the character’s faces in their promotional postcards – one of the comments made in the play briefing (started by John Wood) is that this play is not only a comedy but it is also highly character driven. Will write more of my notes from the playbriefing on BCI later on.

Filed under: Brisbane, Events , david williamson, joseph mitchell, let the sunshine, queensland theatre company, waiting for godot

March 16, 2010 • 1:42 pm 0

Qld Theatre Company: Thom Pain

After I watched Queensland Theatre Company’s production of Thom Pain, I almost didn’t want to go see Bulmer’s Best of Edinburgh Fringe at the Brisbane Comedy Festival*, and you know, open myself up to an entirely new different experience. I think that for Thom Pain to be experienced at its best, one should dedicate just a whole night of it but then again that might be an introvert in me speaking.

Thom Pain, performed by Jason Klarwein, is a one man show. Underneath the spotlights was a lone, black suited, be-speckled, well-combed man by himself – vulnerable to his thoughts that he shares with the audience and with how the audience reacts to him. I heard someone whispering behind me “You know, this is quiet boring. And he’s not even that good looking.” There is a group somewhere in the crowd that laughed eagerly at his jokes. Some sat back, legs crossed, maybe puzzling over the dialogue. On my row several seats to my left I saw a young man leaning forwards, in great interest , over these public deliberations. Myself? This was a fairly, intense personal experience for me. And it was good thing as well. As I walked outside the new studio entrance, I felt very…different. It was like the time/s when I have deliberately cocooned myself out of the outside world for a long time…and on the day when I decided to go beyond and outside, it was like the feeling of that first day. Being a bit mysterious now, you say? Well, it is a very personal response for me.

I might see this again. I kind of would, just to see what Thom Pain will be like with a different audience. But I will probably leave it at that.

*By the way, Bulmers Best of Edinburgh Fringe Festival was great! Possibly the funniest show I have been to at BCF.

Filed under: Events, Personal , brisbane comedy festival, bulmers best of edinburgh festival, Jason Klarwein, jon halpin, queensland theatre company, thom pain

March 8, 2010 • 5:35 am 0

Portable Content presents: REFINERY29 event

Piera Gelardi and Philippe von Borries are behind one of New York’s most forward-thinking online fashion publication REFINERY29. Launched in 2005, the daily fashion blog attracts close to a million visitors per month and is transforming the way in which fashion is delivered, reported on and consumed online.

The two speakers will make appearances in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane alongside other guests and will share their thoughts on fashion-based social media, trends in online retail and new directions in fashion reporting and business followed by hospitality provided by our partners.

I have a feeling that this is going to sell out in Brisbane.

Brisbane – Friday 12th of March, The Edge State Library of Queensland – 3pm

Filed under: Brisbane, Brisbane creative industries, Events , fashion, portable content, refinery29

March 1, 2010 • 2:27 pm 0

TEDxBrisbane this Saturday!

Was going to go to the AIMIA Awards…til I realised that there’s Ignite Brisbane the night before and a full day of TEDxBrisbane the day after!

I love the speaker list. Lots of interesting creative industries including Sheldon of Bigfish.tv. Last time I saw him speak was at the Brisbane Advertising and Design Club and he was definitely one of the highlights of the night.

For those who are not in the know about TEDx here’s a bit of info on their site:

Our event is called TEDxBrisbane, where x=independently organised TED event. At the TEDxBrisbane event, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organised.

If you read my blog and run into me definitely say HI!

Filed under: Brisbane, Events , TED

January 27, 2010 • 2:00 pm 0

Speaking at Ignite Brisbane: Information and Communication Technology Industries

The inaugural Ignite Brisbane, as part of Global Ignite Week, will be on Thursday March 4 at the Queensland College of Art and will focus on the Information and Communication Technology Industries.

What Is Ignite?

If you had five minutes on stage what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds? Around the world geeks have been putting together Ignite nights to show their answers.

Ignite was started in Seattle in 2006 by Brady Forrest and Bre Pettis. Since then 100s of 5 minute talks have been given across the world. There are thriving Ignite communities in Seattle, Portland, Paris, and NYC.

This community site is sponsored by O’Reilly.

Click here for more information about the event and about the speakers. Register here.

Have something creative, innovative, interesting to share? Their speaker proposals are still open and you can submit a proposal by February 9. For interested speakers, here are some of my thoughts on what makes a good public speaker.

Filed under: Australia, Brisbane, Events, Personal, Technology , Ignite brisbane, ignite worldwide, Information and Communication Technology Industries, queensland college of art, speaking

Hannah Suarez