Featured speakers include:
Sydney speakers
Click here to see speakers at the San Francisco event. Note that many of the speakers will be participating in both events over the video link.
Matt Barrie, CEO, Freelancer.com
Web: www.freelancer.com
Twitter: @freelancer
Matt Barrie is Chief Executive of Freelancer.com, the world’s largest micro-outsourcing website with over 1 million registered professionals from 234 countries & regions of the world. Through Freelancer.com, small businesses can quickly and cost effectively hire just about any skill set – on demand 24×7×365.
Matt is a technology entrepreneur with experience building and operating companies from concept to supplying global market leaders in network equipment, hardware, software, web services, semiconductors, telecommunications and network security. Previously he was founder and CEO of Sensory Networks Inc, the leading developer of OEM high performance network security processors, and prior to this cofounder of Dilithium Networks Inc, the global leader in converged video solutions for mobile and broadband networks with over 60% market share in media gateways in the telecoms market. Matt has first class honours in Engineering and Science, and a MSEE from Stanford University, California. For the last eight years Matt has also been an external lecturer at the Department of Electrical and Information Engineering at the University of Sydney. He is the co-author of over 20 US patent applications. In 2006, he was awarded the State Pearcey Award for contribution to the IT&T industry.
Kevin Bloch, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), CISCO
Web: www.cisco.com
Twitter: @KevinBloch
Kevin Bloch is Chief Technology Officer at Cisco. As CTO, he provides leadership of technology vision and leadership of people within Cisco to communicate and execute on that vision.
Kevin joined Cisco 8 years ago. Previously, he held positions with other telecommunications equipment manufacturers as well as with Telstra. He has held several roles in the telecommunications industry including management, strategic planning, marketing, sales, systems engineering and technology development. His
expertise covers the fields of architecture, internet technologies, narrowband and broadband access, transmission and switching.
Kevin holds a B.Sc (Computer Science) and a B.E. (Engineering Hons) from the
University of New South Wales and is the author of several notable publications and
technical reference books.
Todd Forest, Director – Content & Audience Experience, ninemsn
Web: www.ninemsn.com.au
Todd Forest was appointed ninemsn’s Director, Content & Audience Experience in August 2009. In his role, Todd manages ninemsn’s entire content team in their development of innovative and engaging digital content.
Todd has almost 20 years experience within content development and delivery, audience insights, marketing and brand building. While at sporting goods giant Nike in the mid 1990s, Todd helped devise the strategy for their initial foray into online commerce. Then during the boom years (1998-2006), he worked in various executive roles at AOL including managing Netscape.com and AIM portal (AOL Instant Messaging). He also has been the CMO at Jobfox – the leading web 2.0 job site. Jobfox has quickly emerged as a leader in the job space by allowing candidates to create professional profiles and giving the power back to the consumer.
During college, he interned under British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown while in
London. Todd completed his formal education at Dartmouth College, where he
graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Economics, and at Northwestern University -
Kellogg, where he earned his MBA with high honors.
Todd now lives on Sydney’s northern beaches with his wife and young family.
Web: www.lateraleconomics.com.au
Twitter: @nicholasgruen
Nicholas Gruen is trained in History, Statistics, Law and Economics. He is the CEO of Lateral Economics and Peach Financial.
Dr Gruen is a former ministerial advisor to Commonwealth Treasurer John Dawkins and Industry Minister John Button, was director of the BCA’s New Directions program and was twice appointed to the Productivity Commisison (then Industry Commission). He has published on a wide range of economic policy issues, been a regular columnist for the Australian Financial Review. He is a board member of Sustainability Victoria, Chairman of Online Opinion and Kaggle, a startup global portal for data competitions, and is a substantial contributor to Australia’s thriving policy blog scene.
Dr Gruen was a member of the Cutler Review into Innovation in Australia and has been involved with the Commonwealth, Victorian, South Australian, NSW and Western Australian governments in the areas of innovation in government and continuous improvement in regulation. He participated in the MAC report on innovation in Government and is the Commonwealth Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations as Thinker in Residence around their Big Ideas program.
In 2009 Dr Gruen chaired the Federal Government’s Government 2.0 Taskforce producing a report which garnered high praise from leading international experts. The Federal Government has essentially accepted its recommendations.
Brian Haverty, Editorial Director, CBS Interactive
Web: www.cbsinteractive.com.au
Twitter: @bhaverty
Brian Haverty is Editorial Director for CBS Interactive in Australia and is responsible for the company’s CNET Australia, BNET Australia, GameSpot AU, TV.com and ZDNet Australia sites.
Brian has been editing and writing on an extensive range of technology subjects for 10 years in Australia but the areas he specialises in are digital publishing and production systems. He has launched a number of print publications in Australia, including Technology & Business and C|Level, and has served as Editor-in-Chief for the Australian editions of PC Magazine and Windows Sources.
Annalie Killian, Director of Innovation, AMP
Web: www.amp.com.au
Twitter: @maverickwoman
Annalie is Catalyst for Magic at AMP. A serial intrapreneur, she thrives on driving business innovation and large-scale transformational change. She deliberately employs social media to nurture an open, collaborative and innovative culture at AMP. Her 10 years experience as founder of the Social Responsibility Programme at BHP Billiton has proven invaluable grounding in grasping the eco-system of community within which corporations operate, and she integrates that experience with her current role in innovating through emerging technologies.
Alec Lynch, Managing Director, DesignCrowd
Web: www.designcrowd.com
Twitter: @aleclynch
Alec Lynch is the founder of DesignCrowd (www.designcrowd.com) – a leading design crowdsourcing marketplace for logo, web and graphic design crowdsourcing. Here’s how DesignCrowd works: Businesses (from Sydney to San Jose) can crowdsource graphic design by posting a project on DesignCrowd requesting anything from a logo to a website to a t-shirt design. Designers (from New York to New Delhi) then submit scores of ideas and designs – an average project. DesignCrowd (launched in 2008) provides customers with risk-free creativity and was one of the first online marketplaces of its kind worldwide.
In 2009, DesignCrowd raised capital from a group of private ‘angel’ investors. DesignCrowd has grown 797% in 12 months since investment and has been featured by Mashable, The Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald, Smart Company and B&T magazine.
Alec holds a Bachelor of Information Technology from the University of Technology Sydney and previously worked at Booz & Co as a management consultant. Alec is a thought leader in crowdsourcing and has been a guest speaker on the topic at Sydney University’s Economics Faculty, CeBIT, The Insight Exchange and NSW Government Small Business events.
Mark Scott, Managing Director, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
Web: www.abc.net
Twitter: @abcmarkscott
Appointed Managing Director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for a five-year term from July 5, 2006. Under his leadership, the ABC has dramatically expanded its services and its reach, with an annual budget approaching $1 billion.
Operating on the principle that media organisations must adapt or die in an era of massive technological change, Mr Scott has transformed the structure and operation of the ABC.
Television now provides a multi-channel service, extending to HD and the new Children’s Channel, ABC3; Radio has moved into the Digital age with a suite of new digital channels to complement its national and local coverage; and ABC on-line is proving to be a market leader with its authoritative and innovative content.
In News, at a time when many of our competitors are contracting, the ABC is forging ahead with bold and exciting new ventures and launched its forth channel, ABC News 24, in July 2010.
Internationally, the ABC has secured new audiences for Radio Australia and Australia Network, flagged an ambitious new strategy vision and expanded its international project work through partnerships with agencies like AusAid.
The managing director has championed the shift inside the ABC from a process-based culture to one that emphasises the values of Respect, Integrity, Collegiality and Innovation.
Mark Scott was named Media Person of the Year in 2008 and made the Financial Review respected “Power” list in 2009. In 2009, he also garnered international attention with a series of agenda-setting speeches including the Latrobe University Annual Media Lecture, the A.N. Smith Memorial Lecture, the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association Lecture and Macquarie University’s Bruce Allen Lecture.
Before joining the ABC, Mr Scott served 12 years in a variety of editorial and executive positions with Fairfax Media, Editorial Director of the Fairfax newspaper and magazine division and Editor-in-Chief of Metropolitan, Regional and Community newspapers. Mark Scott holds a Bachelor of Arts, Diploma in Education, and Master of Arts from the University of Sydney and a Masters degree in Public Administration from Harvard University.
San Francisco speakers
Lukas Biewald, CEO, CrowdFlower
Web: www.crowdflower.com
Twitter: @l2k
Lukas Biewald is CEO of CrowdFlower, which he co-founded in 2007.
Prior to that, he was a Senior Scientist and Manager within the Ranking and Management Team at Powerset, Inc., a natural language search technology company later acquired by Microsoft. Lukas has also
led the Search Relevance Team for Yahoo! Japan. He graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. in Mathematics and an M.S. in Computer Science. He is also an expert-level Go player.
Ross Dawson, Chairman, Future Exploration Network
Web: www.futureexploration.net
Twitter: @rossdawson
Ross Dawson is globally recognized as a leading futurist, keynote speaker, entrepreneur and authority on business strategy. He is Founding Chairman of four companies, including the leading future research and strategy firm Future Exploration Network.
Strong demand sees Ross speak frequently at major conferences and company internal events around the world. He is a best-selling author of books including the prescient Living Networks, which foresaw the social networking revolution, as well as Trends in the Living Networks, ranked as one of the top business blogs in the world.
Ross’s frequent media appearances include CNN, Bloomberg TV, SkyNews, ABC TV, Today and Sunrise shows, Washington Post and many others.
Larry Dignan, Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet
Web: www.zdnet.com
Twitter: @ldignan
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet’s sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He’s a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.
Alex Edelstein, Founder & CEO, ClowdCrowd
Web: www.cloudcrowd.com
Twitter: @alexed1
Alex Edelstein is the founder and CEO of CloudCrowd, a widesourcing platform with more than 50,000 registered workers. Prior to founding CloudCrowdheld, Alex held executive roles at Cloudmark and Inktomi, and worked at Netscape, where he product managed the early versions of Netscape Navigator. Before that, he worked at Microsoft, playing a key design role in the Microsoft Exchange email system and what ultimately would become Microsoft Outlook. Alex has a BA Degree from Harvard University, and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley. He serves on the board of Kiva.org, a non-profit facilitating micro-lending in developing countries.
Mat Fogarty, Founder and CEO, Crowdcast
Web: www.crowdcast.com
Twitter: @matfog
Mat is the Founder and CEO of Crowdcast, the leader in Collective Intelligence for Risk Management. Crowdcast is venture backed and serves major corporations by crowd-sourcing key internal metrics. Prior to founding Crowdcast, he was the Director of Corporate Financial Planning at Electronic Arts where he pioneered the use of prediction markets.
Previously, Mat held leadership roles in FP&A at Unilever. Mat has been featured on the cover of Inc Magazine as a member of the New Entrepreneurial Elite, he is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and holds a BS in Management Science from the London School of
Economics and an MBA from UC Berkeley.
Burt Herman, Co-founder & CEO, Storify
Web: www.storify.com
Twitter: @burtherman
Burt Herman is co-founder and CEO of Storify, a platform for creating stories from social media, and founder of Hacks/Hackers, a worldwide organization bringing together journalists and technologists.
Herman previously reported for a dozen years from around the world for The Associated Press. Among other assignments, he was bureau chief in Korea and founded a bureau covering the five countries of former Soviet Central Asia. Herman was a 2008-9 Knight journalism fellow at Stanford University.
Web: www.odesk.com
Twitter: @garyswart
Gary Swart brings a deep understanding of the intersections between economy, globalization and Internet technology, along with a passion for helping small businesses succeed, to his position as CEO at oDesk. Under Gary’s leadership, oDesk has become the largest and fastest-growing online employment platform available today. Previously, as the VP of Worldwide Sales for Intellibank, he was responsible for building the sales organization, and Gary’s enthusiasm for small businesses was born during his tenure as a Business Unit Executive for IBM’s Rational Software Product Group, where he led Small and Medium Business sales for the Americas. Gary came to Rational through its merger with Pure Software, where he held sales, management and leadership positions.
Gary holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Maryland.
John Winsor, CEO, Victors & Spoils
Web: www.victorsandspoils.com
Twitter: @jtwinsor
John Winsor is a leading strategic marketing and product innovation thinker especially known for his work in collaboration, co-creation and crowdsourcing. He is also a respected author of Baked In: The Power of Aligning Marketing and Product Innovation, Spark: Be more Innovative through Co-Creation and Beyond the Brand: Why Engaging the Right Customers is Essential to Winning in Business. His next book, Flipped: How Bottom-Up Co-creation is Replacing Top-Down Innovation, will be released in April 2010. Recently, Baked-In was named as an award winner in the Marketing category for the 800-CEO-Read 2009 Business Book Awards.
Currently, he is the CEO of Victors & Spoils, the world’s first creative (ad) agency built on crowdsourcing principles. V&S provides businesses with a better way to solve their marketing, advertising and product-design problems by engaging the world’s most talented creatives. Victors & Spoils launched two months ago, and has been one of the most talked about agency launches of the last decade. Several international media outlets have covered the launch, including Stuart Elliot wrote in the New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/business/media/29adco.html?_r=1
Before V&S, Winsor was the VP/Executive Director of Strategy and Innovation at Crispin, Porter + Bogusky helping the company become the most awarded advertising agency in the world for the last two years. In 2007, Winsor sold his company, Radar Communications, to CP+B. He founded Radar in 1998 with Nike as its first client. Using strategy and academic-based market intelligence tools, Winsor helped some of the country’s most progressive companies learn from key voices in their communities through methods he gleaned from his years as a journalist. Prior to founding Radar, Winsor built a magazine publishing company devoted to sports such as mountain biking, in-line skating, and extreme skiing. In 1990, he acquired the rights to publish a then-struggling magazine, Women’s Sports & Fitness. Within three years he turned the magazine around and launched several other highly profitable titles and events including The Gravity Games, selling the business to Conde Nast in 1998.
He also writes a well-known blog, John Winsor, www.johnwinsor.com, and is a regular speaker at marketing and business conferences.
