2021 Speakers

Director of Entrepreneurship, UTS  

Murray leads to inspire and support technology-enabled entrepreneurs. Prior to building the largest community of student-launched startups at UTS, Murray was CEO of Fishburners, growing it from 100 desks of startup space, to 750 across Sydney, Brisbane and Shanghai, and supporting 508 startups during this time. He founded Startup Muster, the largest survey of Australian startups for five years, reviewing a few thousand Australian startups each year. He also founded FUELD, Westpac’s data-focused accelerator program. 

He has been a Director of the Australian Information Industry Association, Spark Festival and WorkVentures, all in support of Australian technology-enabled entrepreneurs. At just 16, he founded Ad Muncher, an ad-blocking startup that grew for 14 years, peaking at 100 million active users. He wants more Australians to understand and pursue the opportunities they have today through technology-enabled entrepreneurship, and for Australia to realise the benefits too.

  Co CEO SingularityU Australia 

Christina is Co-CEO of SingularityU Australia and Founder of UtopiaX. Christina has presented key-notes and workshops for the Singularity University including the COVID-19 Summit, Entrepreneurs Organisation, Global Summit, Front End of Innovation Conference in Boston, SingularityU Australia Summit, Vivid Ideas, Creative Innovation and Inspiring Women Leaders Digital Conference in Madrid.
 

Christina writes for several publications, hosts the SingularityU Australia Webinar series A Future By Design, the podcast Inspire for 5, and speaks on radio about creativity and innovation. She is a contributor to the award-winning Front-End Innovation blog. She is also an advocate for innovation committees, produced the annual Hunter Innovation Festival, and lectures in Business, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. She is a lifelong learner, undertaking doctorate studies in Creativity and Innovation. She is a sought-after speaker, facilitator, and program designer, creating interactive educational Xperiences driven by design thinking, purpose, engagement, and play. The programs disrupt current mindsets to Moonshot thinking, exploring what is possible, rather than what is acceptable or limited. Christina has created highly customised programs for clients including Deloitte, IAG, Employment Hero and Entrepreneurs Organisation. 

Remo is a  creative strategist, curator, connector, serial entrepreneur, retail merchant, brand builder and now co-founder and publisher of Bondi Observer. Bondi Observer features and celebrates the people, history and cultural diversity of Bondi.

Remo and his wife Melanie remain on a mission to partner with organisations and brands that demonstrated like-minded values, and whose stories and service pique the interest of the Bondi community. 

Prior to this, Remo founded the iconic REMO General Store in 1988; and co-founded the General Thinking network in 2001. He is also founding Licensee and Director for TEDxSydney, an annual flagship TEDx event that has become Australia's leading ideas forum and the gold standard for TEDx events globally. 

His most recent initiative (launching in October 2023) is REMORANDOM, a community sourced and biannually printed curation of snack-sized facts, stories and ideas designed to inform and entertain a global community of

Entrepreneur & Founder of Bondi Innovation Alliance

Ross Dawson is globally recognised as a leading futurist, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and authority on innovation and strategy. He is the Founding Chairman of the Advanced Human Technologies group of companies and Bondi Innovation Alliance and Co-Founder of Futures of Art.

Strong global demand has seen Ross speak about the future to business and government leaders in over 30 countries across six continents and lead executive education programs at top universities worldwide. He is a best-selling author of four books including the prescient Living Networks, which The New York Times credits with predicting the social networking revolution. Ross’s frequent media appearances include CNN, Bloomberg TV, SkyNews, ABC TV, Today and Sunrise shows, Washington Post and many others.

  Founder,  25fifteen 

Kim founded his first funded startup in 2002 and has gone on to work in, on and with many startups ever since. He successfully built and exited 2 tech businesses before moving on to become founder and MD of one of Australia’s first, and most successful, startup accelerators, PushStart.

After PushStart he co-founded Australia’s leading Startup Studio, 25Fifteen, where he continues to work on the art and craft of building and growing tech businesses.  
 

On the community side he was an early director at renowned co-working and digital community  Fishburners, founded the Sydney Tech and Sydney FinTech Startups, both of which grew to thousands of members and were pivotal in the formation of their respective communities and was a co-founder of TechSydney, the peak body for the tech industry in Sydney.  

  Stone & Chalk 

Cheryl is the National Head of Community & Comms at Stone & Chalk, an Impact Network catalysing commercial success for Founders in emerging tech sectors. She is an active angel investor, a mentor for young entrepreneurs, and a strategic advisor for several startups.

She advises City of Sydney’s Tech Startups Action Plan and is passionate about supporting the growth of the local ecosystem. 

Having hosted over 400 interviews with high-profile founders, investors, and industry experts in Canada, the US & Australia, she also founded the Vancouver Chapter of Startup Grind and was Director for Sydney’s Startup Grind Chapter for over a year. Early in her career, she held key marketing management roles at Gauge Mobile (acquired by Juice Mobile), and iCompass Technologies where she was responsible for new channel revenue growth of 200% YOY. She has worked in startup ecosystems in Canada, Europe, the US, and Australia helping startups succeed and is passionate to continue helping more succeed. 

She has also been GM for NSW at the Australian Computer Society and CEO of StartCon and hosted some of Australia’s largest startup events featuring Uber, Pinterest, and SurveyMonkey, including a startup pitch competition in Asia Pacific with a $1M prize. Through this, she has helped over 1000 startups secure funding, customers, or key partners.

Sydney Start-up Hub

Michelle Long is the Associate Director of the Sydney Startup Hub, one of the largest innovation spaces of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. Accommodating up to 1,800 people across 11 floors, the Sydney Startup Hub provides startups with access to mentoring, networking and investment and brings together leading incubators, accelerators and innovation programs in one central location.

In this role, Michelle provides high-level advice relating to the Hub and its operations. She manages key stakeholders and tenants, and designs and implements programs which are aimed to strengthen and support the ecosystem and make NSW the most effective place to grow a startup.

Prior, Michelle held leading operational roles with the ABC, including as the National Manager for Business Partnerships and Corporate Social Responsibility. Michelle is an expert at improving organisational performance through implementing strategic business processes and targeted workplace strategies. Michelle holds a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of Canberra.

 Growth Activists 

Rosanna is an Advisor & Managing Partner of purpose-led strategy consultancy The Growth Activists. Her experience includes 16 years internationally in global leadership roles at Nike and Levi's, and C-Suite roles in Australia delivering private equity exits for brands like Jurlique and Sheridan. 

Rosanna’s practice areas include growth strategy, innovation and responsible business. Rosanna is an accredited B Consultant which entails helping businesses activate social and environmental impact by becoming B Corps. Rosanna is also an AICD qualified board Chair for NFP Stretch-A-Family, an advisor to two female founded start-ups, and a passionate champion of diversity and stakeholder capitalism .

 No Moss 

Steven is the Co-Founder of No Moss, a multi-disciplinary consultancy delivering agility transformation, product innovation, and empathy-led technology development to a diverse range of companies, from one-person startups to the ASX20. 

Steven lives and breathes agile, and has trained, evangelised, coached and directed Agile across a wide range of industries, both domestically and internationally. He is the Current Chief Purpose Officer at No Moss Co, and his personal mission is to make work more human.

Steven co-designs organisations for empathy and agility; emphasising a more human purpose to work. His self-described super-powers are personal grit and endless energy; and he thrives in contexts where leaders desire change and share his agenda of growing people, building purpose and creating environments for incredible business outcomes. 

 Stagekings  

 Jeremy Fleming is Managing Director of Stagekings, who have been delivering temporary event structures over the last 6 years. His company has built stages and sets like the Opening Ceremony at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, the set for Ninja Warrior, the replica Edinburgh Castle at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Sydney, Shakespeare’s Pop-up Globe Theatre in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth and Ultra Music Festival.

Since Friday 13th March 2020 Jeremy has been navigating Stagekings through a significant industry downturn driven by Covid-19. Facing the prospect of losing everything, he saw an opportunity in the supply chain and pivoted Stagekings to manufacture work from home office furniture, to fill a market gap. This kept Stagekings in business, reemployed staff, and an additional 70 to help manufacture over 30,000 pieces of IsoKing furniture. 

In less than 12 months, Stagekings has donated over $80,000 to charity, including Support Act - the Heart and Hand of Australian Music, through the sales of the desks.

 The Blu Hotel

Will is an entrepreneur with a passion to succeed. As a youngster, he began selling farmed eggs to neighbours and then moved on to selling leather jackets from France and silk from India. 

By the age of 20, he established nightclubs venues in Adelaide, Revolution and Baja after graduating with a Bachelor of Accounting from University SA. Soon after at just 23, he introduced bungy Jumping to Europe, his second commercial operation in Northern Hemisphere and first in Greece by 1993. Within 7 years, he then expanded it to Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and Australia. His taste for Europe resulted in co-establishing Starbeach, possibly the first day club in the world and the biggest in Europe. By this time, Will’s experience only strengthened, as he then went on to establish W.E.T (Water Entertainment Group) in Cancun, Mexico and grew the operational arm across 38 sites in Mexico, USA and Canada.

Will was also founder of MAD PIZZA group in Sydney, restaurants in South Australia, Jet Flamingo Villas in Bondi, Italo house in Bondi and THE BLUE Hotel in Bondi.

 Smylee

Skye is the CEO of Smylee, a technology company that has created a unique event management app to encourage people to connect in-person. Skye has extensive experience as a Business Consultant and Program Manager, partnering with CEO’s, Executives and Entrepreneurs, creating strategic plans that brings most complex business ideas to life.

Prior, she focused on delivering innovative insurance and finance projects to multinational companies in Sydney, London and Dubai. Having executed large programs targeting operational cost reductions; system enhancements and new technology solutions, allowing businesses to sustain their market leadership positions and increase profitability.

Skye has been a keynote speaker at numerous seminars, conferences and executive forums offering her insights on innovation, business culture, safety and leadership, gaining recognition through several government awards for her programs delivering operational excellence in the workplace. She holds a Diplomas in Agile Project Management, General Insurance, CISI Certification, Masters of Marketing from Sydney University and is completing her MBA through the Australian Business Institute. 

 VRM Performance Coaching

Veronica is a high-performance coach and speaker for the startup and professional services industries. She empowers her clients to achieve their audacious goals and reach their full potential using evidence-based, solution-focused tools and techniques. 

With prior experience as a technology lawyer and advisor at Google and Baker McKenzie, Veronica brings a unique blend of professional expertise and performance coaching to help her clients lead successful careers without compromising their personal lives and wellbeing.

Veronica is also a NSW Committee Member for the Pinnacle Foundation and recipient of multiple awards for her service to the community, including being named a Finalist for the Out For Australia Role Model of the Year award, Veronica is passionate about making a positive impact and supporting underrepresented LGBTIQA+ individuals.

 Wotso

Tim is Joint Managing Director for newly listed WOTSO Property (ASX: WOT) and its manager BlackWall Limited (ASX: BSF). WOTSO is Australia’s largest suburban flexible workspace provider and was started in 2014. It has over 4,000 members across 18 locations in Australia focusing on small to medium enterprises. It is putting workspaces close to where people live and is seeing a shift in work practices since the onset of COVID. 

With over 20 years of experience in the financial services and property industries, Tim has been with the BlackWall Group for 13 years following positions with Deloitte and Lend Lease. He helped found WOTSO in 2014 and is passionate about making the workspace decision for businesses an easy and flexible one.

A Bondi local, he is an avid sportsman and life member of the Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club based at Waverley Oval. 

  Pangaea Minds 

Peta is an Education Futurist. She is committed to using existing and emerging technologies to connect teachers and students for collaboration on a Global scale. We need global citizenship and global leadership to overcome the challenges our planet and our species is grappling with. 

With over 20 plus years of experience as a Teacher, Researcher and Designer, Peta is now focused on facilitating, educators and their students to embrace the rapid development of immersive technologies for ongoing and long-term partnerships in team-teaching and student collaboration. Pangaea Minds is a pathway to give the next generation a better chance.