Hannah Suarez

Creative and digital content industries

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 , , ,

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 , , , , , , ,

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 , , , , , , , , , ,

Creative Sydney | AIMIA Mobile Advertising Guidelines | X Media Lab | More…

Filed under: Australian Interactive Media Industry Association, Brisbane creative industries, Conference, Design, Events, Mobile, Technology

Semi-Permanent Brisbane 2009 (Punter POV)

First of all, here are a couple of blogs that I found which was written by the attendees themselves:
Brisbane Semi-Permanent Review by Moonsail Design
A Semi-Permanent Experience by Camille
Bruises are Semi-Permanent too: the Brisbane conference by Definatalie
Semi-Permanent Brisbane 2009 by Miss Nicole Jensen
Web Design: The Forgotten Art by Feedia
Semi-Permanent 2009 Brisbane Wrap-up by Paul Jaques

Ooh, someone decided to scan in their notes and posted it on FlickR

I decided to provide a few points that I got out of each presentations.  These points, I feel could be applied in what I do (not necessarily related to image making as well) and others.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Australia, Brisbane creative industries, Conference, Design, Images, Print, Profiles, Typography

Snippets!

  • Founder/Editor of BCI (Brisbane Creative Industriess)
  • Founder/Editor for Start-ups: MCI and SCI (Melbourne and Sydney versions of above)
  • I love attending various events.
  • Blogger in my site at Media Suarez
  • Brisbane Festival - Online Marketing Coordinator
  • Involved in various other consultancy work - mainly in the areas of digital PR, event coordination, online content, web editing, social media, mobile. It was all exciting and worthwhile work :)
  • Love what I do!

Australia Creative Industries

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We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time" - T S Eliot

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This is a personal blog. Entries written in this blog are my own views only and does not represent the views of entities that I am involved in. Please keep in mind that my personal opinions expressed in this blog (and in comments related to the entries) may change. Thank you.