James Hurman is an internationally recognised entrepreneur, investor and advertising effectiveness expert.

He’s the Founder and Chair of Previously Unavailable, a creative company that partners with and backs high-growth start-ups. He’s also a co-founder of several high-profile NZ start-ups, including Tracksuit, AF Drinks and New+Improved Ventures.

James is one of the world’s better-known experts on marketing and advertising effectiveness, having won over 50 advertising effectiveness awards and been named the world’s number one strategic planning director. He’s the author of major data-driven marketing effectiveness studies, including The Effectiveness Code (2020) with Cannes Lions and WARC, and The B2B Effectiveness Code (2021) with the LinkedIn B2B Institute and WARC.

He’s also written two books on the subject, The Case for Creativity and Future Demand. He consults in this capacity to large organisations across the world, and is a senior advisor at LIONS Advisory, through which he leads creative transformation programmes for major global brands.

James is the director of the Master of Advertising Effectiveness, a global online professional development programme whose alumni includes executives from Google, Amazon, Airbnb, Disney, McDonald’s, The New York Times, Salesforce and leading advertising agency networks.

Nathalia Amadeu is a globally recognised marketing leader whose body of work has redefined how advertising is created for the social era.

As Global Brand Director for Vaseline at Unilever, she steers the brand’s global creative agenda. Under her leadership, Vaseline has become one of the world’s most awarded brands and set the benchmark for cultural relevance.

Nathalia’s portfolio includes Vaseline Verified, named Ad Age’s Social Campaign of the Year 2026. With experience spanning some of the world’s biggest brands, Nathalia is known for crafting ideas that earn attention, shape culture and drive growth.

Amanda Gordon is a brand strategist, creative leader and writer who has spent her career exploring how ideas become movements, businesses build meaning and audiences become communities.

She writes The Case for Brand, a newsletter making the case for taking brand seriously as a tool for building better businesses.

As CMO of Future Super, Amanda helped grow the ethical investment company from approximately $1 billion to $10 billion in funds under management, using community and creativity to turn investing into a vehicle for climate action. At the Sustainable Investment Exchange, she also helped deliver the world’s largest shareholder vote for a nature resolution.

Previously, Amanda led strategy at For The People, one of Australia’s most awarded independent design studios, working with financial services organisations, cultural institutions and places to build brands people could understand, participate in and care about. Her work has been recognised by D&AD and AGDA.

Zhoe Low is a marketing leader with a strong point of view on the role of brand in a performance-led world. Over the past decade, she’s taken world-class consumer brands and teams from the beginning through to global expansion.

Zhoe is best known for building July’s marketing function from day one and scaling it into a globally recognised name across DTC, retail and wholesale, with expansion into the US, UK and Asia. She also ran all global marketing at leading Pilates accessories retailer MoveActive.

Today, Zhoe works as a Fractional CMO, helping businesses put brand at the centre of their growth, expand internationally and reach new customer segments.

Sam Koslowski helped build The Daily Aus (TDA) into Australia’s largest youth news publication, reaching 2.8 million young Australians a month through its social channels, podcast and newsletters.

Sam and Co-Founder Zara Seidler set out to introduce quality journalism to young audiences and build a healthy, consistent media consumption habit. Since launching TDA in 2017, they’ve built one of the most trusted relationships with under-35s in the country.

Through TDA’s ongoing daily polling of young Australians, Sam brings a rare, evidence-based read on what’s shaping young people’s lives today.

A Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient and published author, Sam is a trusted, energetic voice for the next generation.

Maddie King is a go-to voice on content and creative, named B&T’s Rising Star and Woman of the Year in Tech for 2026. The first marketing hire and Marketing Lead at MagicBrief, an ad creative analytics platform, Maddie grew the start-up from scratch, leading to its $20m+ acquisition by Canva in 2025, where she now works in Product Marketing.

On the side, Maddie is a LinkedIn creator and creative consultant, helping brands sharpen their content and creative strategy.

Previously, Maddie founded and ran a headscarf business for cancer survivors after being diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer at 19, and has held marketing roles across TikTok, Unilever and Mamamia.

Tully Walter is a futurist, trend forecaster and Senior Strategist at WGSN, the global authority on consumer trend forecasting.

She has influenced consumer strategy for some of the world’s leading brands, including McDonald’s, Pinterest, Kmart, Mars and Carlton United Breweries.

Recognised as a thought leader on consumer shifts, Tully has been quoted in Vogue, ABC, the Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald, Inside Retail and Broadsheet.

Rachel leads the social media team at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency. For more than a decade, she has worked across the public and not-for-profit sectors, helping brands harness social media to build trust with the communities they serve.

She is passionate about helping teams navigate an increasingly complex social media landscape through creative, audience-led and evidence-based strategies that meet business needs.

Some recent professional highlights include helping start a Deuxmoi rumour involving Leonardo DiCaprio and the Australian Lungfish, and becoming an expert at finding celebrities’ Australian animal doppelgangers.

Lachlan and Austin Macfarlane are talented Brisbane-Based VFX/CGI Directors whose work spans multiple platforms and disciplines.

Since starting their filmmaking journey in primary school, Lachlan and Austin have transformed from young visionaries into award-winning filmmakers.

With their unique blend of comedy, action and stunning VFX, the Macfarlane Brothers were awarded ‘Best Comedy and Entertainment Creator’ and ‘Most Influential Creator’ by the 2023 Australian Influencer Marketing Council Awards. They have also represented Australia at Cannes after winning the Cannes Young Lions Film category.

They have since amassed hundreds of millions of views across their social media platforms, travelled the world working with brands such as Google, Warner Bros, Sony Pictures and Amazon Prime, and worked in post-production on for ten feature films.

With more than 20 years of experience across technology, telecommunications, retail and banking, Danielle Zikman has led growth and transformation across both B2B and B2C markets.

As Director of Marketing for LinkedIn Talent Solutions across APAC, she’s at the forefront of AI innovation, specialising in customer-centric marketing, team transformation and innovative go-to-market strategies.

Alice Harris leads marketing at On The House, a digital out-of-home company providing free period products for women through vending machines that double as digital billboards. Now live across 55 locations in four Australian cities, the ad-funded network gives brands a way to reach audiences in high-traffic bathrooms. Alice leads brand strategy, GTM and content across its consumer and B2B channels while managing a freelance team of PR, design, video and web talent.

Alice previously spent two years as Social Media Manager at Kic, growing the app’s TikTok channel to 1.4 million average organic views and running a UK growth campaign that added 34,000 followers in two weeks. She’s also worked with Cocobella, Converse, Kmart and Aware Super through Praytell Agency, and flew to Tanzania to document an immersion trip for non-profit Forever Projects, where they climbed Mt Kilimanjaro.

Through her own consultancy, On The Pulse Creative, Alice continues to work with values-aligned brands on content and brand strategy.

Lilly Caldwell is throwing out the traditional charity playbook.

At Children’s Hospital Foundation, she leads the not-for-profit’s public presence through next-gen relationship building, from its Ambassador program to hopeful storytelling and participatory brand experiences that turn audiences into active participants rather than passive donors.

A firm believer in the power of community, Lilly is also Co-Founder of Bring Back After Work Drinks, hosting after-hours events for Brisbane’s marketers, advertisers and creators where work and play collide.

Whether she’s building brand loyalty or Brisbane’s marketing community, Lilly holds true to the principle that genuine connection matters more than a big budget.

Liz Burger is a brand and communications leader with nearly 20 years in professional services, and a firm believer that B2B brands can be both credible and interesting.

At Grant Thornton Australia, she leads brand strategy, sponsorship and design, and oversees the firm’s partnership with Olympian Jess Fox, the first brand ambassador campaign in Australian accounting. Before that, she led an 18-month national rebrand that repositioned the firm as a challenger in a market dominated by the Big 4.

Her work spans brand and campaign strategy and brand-led content, and she’s part of a team of early adopters of AI within the marketing function.

Liz is a word nerd, a data geek and a technology enthusiast who still thinks the best B2B work starts with something true.

Mikala Spark has spent 25 years in corporate communications and publicity, with a career spanning professional services, television, entertainment and consumer technology.

For the past five years, she has built the communications function at Grant Thornton Australia, leading media relations, broadcast content, issues management and a broad range of internal and external campaigns.

Previously, Mikala spent 13 years at Foxtel and worked with global consumer technology brands including Sony and Microsoft. Today, she brings that consumer storytelling instinct to B2B, approaching technical subject matter the way a newsroom approaches a story by finding the human angle, making it timely and connecting it with the right audience.

That approach has helped grow Grant Thornton’s share of voice on key issues and strengthen its reputation in a crowded professional services market.

Anthony works to change the way organisations think about neurodiversity in the workplace.

At Australian Spatial Analytics, an award-winning not-for-profit social enterprise, he helps tell the story of how autistic Australians can bring valuable cognitive strengths such as pattern recognition, sustained focus and attention to detail to Australia’s growing demand for data skills.

With autistic people facing a 34% unemployment rate in Australia, Anthony is focused on showing organisations how they can create more neuroinclusive workplaces. His work has helped earn ASA multiple media features and recognition as a finalist in the Communications category at the 2025 World Sustainability Awards.

His ultimate marketing strategy is to make ASA obsolete by helping create a world where every organisation adopts neuroinclusive practices.

Tim Vetter began his career in journalism before moving into marketing and PR, but his approach is still grounded in the power of authentic storytelling, no matter the medium.

At TerryWhite Chemmart, he brings the brand to life across digital, social and print by showcasing the pharmacists and teams behind Australia’s largest community pharmacy network.

Tim is most interested in the space between channels, where brand, PR, social and the in-store experience come together to tell one interconnected story.

Lexi Vorias has built a career around finding the story, shaping the message and protecting reputation.

With more than a decade of experience across newsrooms, media relations, corporate communications, content and marketing, her work spans proactive PR, issues and crisis communications, executive profiling, brand storytelling and integrated campaigns across media, health and purpose-led organisations.

At TerryWhite Chemmart, Lexi leads national external communications and PR across one of Australia’s largest community pharmacy networks. Working with pharmacists, pharmacy owners and teams across more than 630 community pharmacies, she focuses on making a national brand feel human by finding the people, expertise and stories that earn attention and build trust.

Her approach is simple: the strongest stories don’t start with what a brand wants to say. They start with understanding what people will actually care about.

Zach Mander is passionate about creative and clever ideas. A multimedia creator and radio announcer, he’s hosted national shows on Australia’s biggest radio stations across the Hit and KIIS networks.

Zach’s short-form videos have attracted more than 400,000 followers on social media, including TikTok and Instagram. He’s known for his hot takes on topic like parenting, being in your 30s, vegetarianism, gardening, and starting Bluey conspiracy theories.

Zach has created content with a range of brands, including Lego, Koala, Airbnb, KFC and the BBC.

David Coupland has worked widely across the media landscape for more than 10 years. He is Co Founder and Strategy Director at Born, one of Australia’s fastest growing independent creative agencies, named B&T’s Independent Agency of the Year in 2025 and Mumbrella’s Emerging Agency of The Year in 2024.

David believes the world’s best brands are built on great stories, not marketing theatre, and has helped shape work for organisations including Beyond Bank, Discovery Parks, Dymocks and Yo-Chi.

He writes and speaks regularly on storytelling, brand strategy and building a more progressive agency model.

Josh Bailey’s social media career has taken him through the full arc of how platforms work, the challenges brands face, and what audiences actually want.

He started at Apple’s media agency, learning how the world’s biggest brands shape perception online. That led him to TikTok, where he spent three years working with over 300 brands on their content strategy.

Today, Josh runs CoCo, a social media consulting practice built on one belief: organic content, backed by the right system, is the most compounding growth asset a brand can own.

A seasoned marketing executive, Shrey Kheterpal leads the thriving Asia Pacific Consulting team at VaynerMedia, which he built in early 2024. VaynerMedia combines deep strategic rigour with hands-on execution across creative, media, creators, influencers, and platforms, providing real-time insights on what actually works.

Shrey’s key responsibilities include client leadership and CMO consulting, team development, business strategy and development, financial growth and culture stewardship.

Previously, Shrey was the Head of Public Relations for Netflix in Southeast Asia, and played a key role in marketing Korean content worldwide. He also spent over a decade at WPP’s Burson in leadership roles across India, China and the US.

Shrey has more than two decades of experience spanning media, entertainment, technology, consumer brands, hospitality and fan experience. Other clients and brands he has worked with include PepsiCo, Google, Unilever, Ford Motor Company, Disney, Adidas and YouTube.

Travis Hunt is the Founder and Creative Director of Explanimate! and IPER, a video production and animation studio that helps brands tell stories people actually want to watch. With a background in storytelling, cinematography, and a knack for turning complex ideas into engaging content, Travis has worked with clients of all sizes – from household names to scrappy startups – helping them cut through the noise with compelling visuals and sharp messaging.

For nearly two decades, he’s been at the forefront of motion design and content creation, blending creativity with strategy to produce work that not only looks good but gets results. Having collaborated with major brands and government organisations, Travis understands the challenges of storytelling at scale, whether it’s crafting an engaging explainer video or building an organisation-wide content strategy.

Passionate about authenticity and creativity (and allergic to boring content), Travis thrives on finding fresh, effective ways to connect brands with their audiences. Whether it’s through animation, live-action or a mix of both, he’s always looking for new ways to push the boundaries of storytelling.

As Managing Director at Bespoken, Sarah Morgan is all about strategies that deliver. With a career spanning media management, crisis comms and corporate engagement, Sarah has worked with clients across sectors to build communications strategies that move the needle.

Sarah brings the perfect mix of sharp strategy and calm leadership, guiding organisations through complex challenges while keeping an eye on evidence-based results. She knows what it takes to create communications that resonate with audiences and stand up under pressure.

Dan Higson has spent a lifetime immersed in music and more than 25 years specialising in sonic branding.

As co-founder of Smith & Western, he leads a team creating bespoke sonic identities and soundtracks for global clients, helping brands strengthen the way they express themselves through music and sound.

His work brings together deep industry experience with a belief in the power of sound to shape brand identity.

Nick West has spent decades exploring how sound can shape the way people recognise, remember and connect with brands.

Since co-founding acclaimed sound studio Smith & Western in 2010, he’s helped create sonic identities for renowned brands in Australia and around the world, bringing together brand strategy, composition and sound design.

His work is grounded in the idea that sound isn’t an afterthought, but a powerful part of how a brand expresses its personality.

With more than a decade of experience in media across publishing, branded content and agency strategy, Laura Henry’s career has been shaped less by a masterplan and more by curiosity. She’ll happily tell you that she didn’t exactly plan her way to where she is now.

Having worked within both media partners and media agencies, Laura brings a well-rounded perspective that understands both sides of the fence. She’s passionate about media’s ability to influence culture for the better, and equally passionate about treating the humans who make it happen with kindness and care.

She likes to keep it real, authentic and (usually) vulnerable. And when it comes to her work, she loves to mix method with a bit of madness.

Lucinda Bayly has spent her career trying to make the room feel different for the women walking into it after her. She started out at boardroom tables where she was the youngest person and rarely felt she belonged. Then she built BAYLY PR and BPR Talent into the agency she wished had existed.

Today, Lucinda represents a roster of creators and a client list boasting names like Bared Footwear, Gail Sorronda, Indooroopilly Shopping Centre, MCM House, CoolCabanas and more.

Lucinda is one of Brisbane’s most influential voices on where communications is heading. She hosts PR and marketing podcast PR/etty Average and can never say no to sharing her unpopular opinions on a panel. 

Her position on the content industry is simple: there’s a seat at the table for everyone… let’s just keep making the table bigger.