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The Playhouse
Civic Square
London Circuit
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, 2600
Australia

Antonio Mozqueira

Senior Manager

Antonio is a Senior Manager in Climate Change Policy in the ACT Government who has been responsible for developing and delivering policy to mitigate and adapt to the warming and drying climate. Originally from Mexico, Antonio has a degree in Oceanography and an MSc in Bioresources from Mie University in Japan. He has worked in diverse fields such as marine fisheries, aquaculture, marine science program management, and as the Director of the Office of the Chief Scientist for Australia. Antonio's passion is in bringing people together to work in the science, policy and community engagement interface.

Catherine Rickwood

CEO and Founder

Dr Catherine Rickwood is one of Australia’s leading experts on the topic of longer lifespans, and founder and CEO of consultancy and advisory firm Three Sisters Group. An active speaker and blogger on issues affecting our ageing population, Catherine believes age stereotypes, ageism, and generational labels divide and limit our individual and collective futures as we succumb to outdated ideas associated with retirement. Catherine works with organisations around the country to co-design and create innovative approaches to business strategies including: human resource management; new product development; and, service delivery. She has recently co-authored a book chapter on 'Women & Ageing’, and is regularly turned to for comment by the media, including ABC’s Radio National, The Sydney Morning Herald, and SBS. Catherine is also an Academic Mentor on the Master of Management (CEMS) program at the University of Sydney. She plans to live a full and active life to 100 and beyond.

Charles Massy

Regenerative Agriculture Expert, Farmer and Author

Charles gained a BSc in Zoology at ANU (1976), before going farming and developing a prominent Merino sheep stud business (Severn Park). He still manages the family’s grazing property in NSW while teaching at universities and consulting in the fields of Merino breeding and landscape design. He has chaired and served as a Director on a number of national and international review panels and boards of business, research organisations and statutory wool bodies, involving garment manufacture, wool marketing, R&D, molecular genetics and genomics. Charlie’s concern about land degradation and the Anthropocene crisis led to him completing a PhD in Human Ecology (ANU) in 2012. This resulted in his new book, Call of the Reed Warbler: A New Agriculture – A New Earth (UQP Sept. 2017) concerning the emergence of a regenerative agriculture in Australia and cause for hope

Chris Ryan

Stand up comic

Chris Ryan's laconic take on everything from romance to passive aggressive co-workers has got her spots on Canberra Comedy Festival Galas, the Sydney Comedy Festival Showcase, the Sydney Comedy Store and Enmore Comedy Club. She's performed in group shows at the Sydney and Melbourne Comedy Festivals and debuts her solo show Grey Matter at Sydney Fringe Comedy in 2018.

Dean Parkin

Independent Consultant and Human Rights Activist

An experienced independent management consultant, Dean has worked across the public, corporate, not-for-profit and political sectors. He has advised a range of clients on strategy, engagement and co-design, including the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Palladium, Coles, the Referendum Council and Jawun. In addition to extensive experience in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs, he has commercial experience both in Australia and the UK. Dean is from the Quandamooka peoples from Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) in Queensland. He was involved in the negotiations leading to a Native Title determination in 2011 and continues to work with his community on this journey. Dean has a Bachelor of Arts (Politics and Journalism) from the University of Queensland.

Ed Reading

DJ and music producer

Erin-Claire Barrow

Artist, Author and Activist

Erin-Claire Barrow is an artist and illustrator originally from the Adelaide Hills in South Australia. She paints in watercolours to create whimsical scenes, storybook illustrations, and bring to life some of the strange creatures of fairy tales and folklore. Erin-Claire is always on the lookout for ways to combine her passions for art and social justice and is particularly interested in how art can be used to raise awareness of human rights issues.

Gemma Thomson

CEO and Founder

Gemma is a holistic problem solver. She brings her experience together with a passion for research and unites people with the world they live in. She takes traditional methods, modern science, and combines them with a creative perspective to come up with real solutions people can put to use everyday. Gemma believes in the environment and ecosystems, especially their ability to sustain themselves, and support us. From here she challenges some of the most common assumptions of everyday life, finding more logical ways of dealing with the things we thought we had solved - like dealing with our dogs’ poop.

Jackson Thomas

Pharmacist, Academic Scientist and Senior Lecturer

Dr Jackson Thomas (BPharm, MPharmSc, PhD) is a pharmacist, senior lecturer and academic scientist at the University of Canberra. He is also a consultant to pharmaceutical manufacturers, biotech companies, and the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). Jackson’s clinical and research interest is in indigenous child health, particularly skin infections in Australian Indigenous children. As a result of his research achievements, he was given the 2015 ACT Tall Poppy of the Year Award and most recently, the 2018 University of Canberra (Faculty of Health) Research impact award.

John Sautelle

Leadership Consultant and Author

John is passionate about supporting people to live more connected lives, both within themselves and in their relationships. He is the author of “Choose Your Stories, Change Your Life” which details the developmental change process he has evolved over the past 18 years drawing on the latest research in psychology, neuroscience and adult development. In his professional work around the world John helps create confident, future-fit leaders and teams capable of navigating an increasingly complex world. John helps senior leaders tap into heart, body, mind and spirit to grow themselves and their impact in sustainable and life-giving ways. He lives with his partner Anne in Canberra. With four children and two grandchildren, he is energised by family, lifelong learning, fly fishing and creating a better world for future generations.

Jolly Jacob

Photographer

Jolly is a Canberra-based portrait photographer who takes what she calls legacy portraits, ie portraits that are beautiful enough to be hung on walls and cherished for the lifetime and then passed on to future generations as a legacy. Because once you are gone, your portraits will become priceless. She believes that portraits are not just ink on paper. They have the potential to reshape identity, self-image and relationships.

Kanesan Nathan

Co-Founder, the Embassy of Kindness

In between a career in the Arts, Kanesan has been perfecting the art of play and the art of mobile photography on his successful Instagram project @legojacker. After several years he felt the need to find and create more kindness on social media. @TheEmbassyofKindness was started in Melbourne in 2016 by Kan@legojacker and Amal@toffyinc. The idea was simple. Document the life-affirming and transformative power of kindness by starting start up conversations with strangers and inspiring them to reflect on the kindness in their own life. Countless interviews later, they were invited by the Sydney Opera House to bring the Embassy of Kindness to the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, and their work was featured by @Instagram and seen by millions of people around the world. Kanesan is continuing @theembassyofkindess in Canberra, the city of embassies and working to turn this inspiring approach into a permanent space.

Katie Senior

Dancer, Actress and Athlete

Liz Lea

Dancer, Choreographer

Liz Lea is a performer, choreographer and producer based in NSW and Canberra after 20 years in Europe, touring internationally. Her speciality is working with classical Indian dance and martial arts. She has worked with Ranjabati Sircar, Mavin Khoo, the Royal Opera House and English Bach Festival and been commissioned in India, UK, Australia, South Africa, Singapore and USA. Under her company, Liz Lea Dance, she has created and toured a dozen shows including ‘120 Birds’, ‘Magnificus Magnificus’ inspired by the red tailed black cockatoo for Indigenous dancer Tammi Gissell and ‘Kapture’, inspired by the South African freedom fighter, Ahmed Kathrada. Named as the 2017 ACT City News Artist of the Year Liz was also awarded a 2017 Australian Dance Award for her direction of Great Sport! for Canberra Dance Theatre.

Megan Gilmour

Social Innovation Entrepreneur

Megan Gilmour is a social innovation entrepreneur, whose career includes roles in government, the private sector and community organisations. Megan has worked on complex social and economic development operations in over 24 countries. She is Chair and co-founder of MissingSchool, an advocacy organisation working to keep seriously sick kids connected to their schools and the creator and director of a national telepresence robot pilot doing just that. She co-authored an Australian-first report on that subject which received a Prime Minister’s statement of support in 2015. As a 2016 Churchill Fellow, Megan studied overseas models of education for sick kids in Finland, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom and Canada. Her work is passionately driven by her experience as a mother to a young son who survived a life-threatening illness.

Michael Liu

Musician

Classically trained but never contained, Mr. Michael (aka Michael Liu) has made quite the mark as a violinist and DJ. Defecting from tradition, Michael insists that the violin is more than just an orchestral instrument but a musical chameleon capable of breaking genre barriers. Michael has collaborated with vocalists, instrumentalists, DJs and producers throughout the ACT region. In 2013, he was awarded RAW Canberra Musician of the Year. He has played at many of major ACT events including Enlighten, Floriade, and Art, Not Apart as well as collaborating with organisations such as Australian Dance Party, Canberra Symphony Orchestra, and Canberra International Music Festival.

Mickey Sulit

Singer songwriter

Mickey Sulit is a 20-year-old solo singer-songwriter from Canberra, Australia. Her genre is a mixture of Indie-pop and a hint of jazz. She has created a name for herself through exposure in various festivals like Wanderland Music & Arts Festival (Manila, Philippines) and major events across Canberra and in the NSW region. She’s released her debut EP, Like You Do in 2017. Mickey was featured on the popular radio station Hit104.7 and has supported The Voice Australia, Amber Nichols as well as Mark Bautista’s Australian tour. Mickey normally performs solo but every now and then, she gets together with her band to keep her company on bigger stages.

Paul Buckley

Prison Reform Advocate

Combining a curiosity for how the world works with a passion for people and leadership, Paul is in his final 18 months of a double degree in Mechanical Engineering and Business Management and Leadership, He is also currently employed as a technical advisor for a defence services and supplies company. Paul graduated year 12 in 2007 and prior to commencing office training in 2011, enlisted as a soldier in the Army. As an Infantry Soldier in the 3rd Battalion Royal Australian Regiment (Para), Paul severely injured his back during a parachute landing, which had lasting effects on his life, leaving him with PTSD and physical injuries. At 24 the last thing he ever imagined was going to prison but sometimes in life the most unexpected things happen.

Penny Elsley

Founder, The Welcome Dinner Project and Activist

Penny Elsley believes something as simple as a shared meal can change the world. Almost six years ago, after embarking on a two year “quest” across the globe to discover what the world really needs, Penny founded the non-profit organisation joiningthedots. Her quest continues right here in Australia, as she inspires the connections the world needs – connections to our self, our community and our place. She is achieving this in an extraordinary way through initiating The Welcome Dinner Project, which has ignited a social movement, including over 6000 Welcome Dinner hosts and participants since the first dinner 5 years ago and volunteer teams in every State and territory, numbering close to 400 people. At Welcome Dinners, strangers become friends over shared pot-luck meals and the isolation of newly arrived Australians is overcome in a fun and powerful way.

Shanna Whan

Founder, Social Change Activist,

Shanna is an Agri Futures NSW/ACT 2018 Rural Woman of the year Finalist and a recovered alcoholic.This brave lady has chosen to take her survival story to the public speaking and blogging platform through her social media platform ‘’Sober in the Country’’ and as a result, has been affecting real change in what she calls the ‘casual alcoholism culture’ of rural Australia. Shanna’s bringing unprecedented insight and discussion to an area that has previously been a no-go zone. She’s also challenging how we deal with addiction in rural areas. Shanna’s goal is to secure funding and take the platform national, to reach our most isolated and vulnerable community and farming members.

Tasneem Memon

CEO and Machine Learning Advisor

Dr. Tasneem Memon looks forward to an AI-enabled future that is human-centric and unbiased, and is working towards creating it. She has been building AI & Cognition enabled solutions for the past 12 years, with a focus on cognitive bias mitigation in decision systems. Building on the foundations of computer science, cognitive science, psychology, and business models, she has developed human-centric algorithms and decision support models to bring competitive advantage to enterprises. She strongly believes in individualized education based on each student's talents, passions, strengths and personality. To this end, she has founded the startup, PathFinder, to develop a cognition-based Individualised Education System for school students. Tasneem is also the CEO at Cognidius Solutions, a Knowledge Management Officer at the Australian Defence Force Academy and Machine Learning Advisor for The Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group, the Australian Defence Force.