20 August 2018
PR and media can be valuable tools for startups to create awareness, build credibility and tell your story. The media landscape is constantly evolving both through audience preferences and a proliferation of tools and platforms which founders must navigate.
In this session, we’ll explore the PR and media landscape available to startup companies and explore some of the world-class best practices being adopted by successful startups. We’ll also hear first-hand experiences and tips from founder and media industry leaders.
LeapSheep CEO & UniSA ICC Entrepreneur in Residence Kirk Drage will explore world-leading advancements in this space.
We will also hear from three experienced panellists:
Daniel worked in education for over a decade and moved into the administrative side of educational delivery by building programs, policy and managing teams of staff at the schools where he worked.
On sabbatical from the Education Department, Daniel worked with a company called Greenedge, trying to create sustainable property developments and communities that benefitted all parties and leave behind in minimum footprint on the environment and where possible, creating self sufficient water and electrical sources for those communities.
Returning to education, Daniel worked as a part of a founding team to commence what is now one of the largest secondary schools in WA, Ashdale Secondary College. This involved rolling out the Federal Laptop for Students program, planning and purchasing of hardware and software and creating professional development opportunities to support teachers as well as classroom teaching. Daniel particularly enjoyed program creation at the school, successfully working to earn endorsement for the school for an Autism Extension Program and as a Specialist Technology School.
Upon leaving education, Daniel purchased a property inspection franchise. After successfully establishing the area of operation, Daniel was invited to start working in the management team for the franchisor as the Quality and Training Manager to help new licensees kick off their businesses. This role led to promotion to General Manager, where he oversaw the operations of this national business for several years. This included the day to day operations across the nation, managing licensees, budgets for all areas of the business, ensuring that strategic alliances were successful, and implementing full scale strategies for attracting incoming licensees and inspections services.
All of Daniel’s experiences have culminated in the opportunity to be a co-founder of SpacetoCo, the Airbnb of short-term space hire. The business works to improve local economies by connecting people with spaces in their local community. Spaces on the program are as varied as tennis courts to board rooms to wedding venues. As a successful sharing economy platform, SpacetoCo has the opportunity to change the way people think about space and allows people to access the resources that they need at the click of a button.
For nearly 26 years my time working in the media has been a rollercoaster of change and opportunity and I have loved the ride. As well as working as a journalist, I have been a journalism and digital media academic for more than twenty years. But this time in academia has always been in conjunction with roles in media liaison, marketing strategy, community engagement, digital and social media management and publishing and corporate communication for all levels of government, corporations and not-for-profits. Being a part of the media landscape has offered me, by far, the best opportunities for learning.
Globally award-winning photojournalist, Brenton Edwards, and I launched Stories Well Told in 2013 - an entrepreneurial digital media business that combines our unique thinking and approach to digital media storytelling. Stories Well Told focusses on owned media outcomes by supporting and empowering businesses and organisations, of all shapes and sizes, to tell their stories well.
In 2017 I was also appointed the Online Course Facilitator for the Bachelor of Digital Media with UniSA Online. Working with teams of academic developers and media academics we launched the program, informed by industry and incorporating engaging and innovative teaching technologies, at the beginning of this year. This role with UniSA Online allows me to combine my love of teaching, my desire to share my work experiences and my passion for digital media and the creative industries.
As a digital media researcher, academic and industry professional I am in the unique position of being able to think creatively and embrace innovative and entrepreneurial digital media opportunities. Media opportunities abound – they just look very different to those that many media and PR professionals have continued to work towards.
Michele is a farmer, regional food leader, and branding and business consultant. She led the transformation of her husband’s family farm from an unviable conventional mixed farm of 1500 acres to an award winning, ecologically, socially and financially viable, regenerative farming model delivering over 70 products of 4 grass fed species to 15 locations weekly. Michele built South Australia’s first on-farm small scale red meat abattoir and has since started manufacturing custom built units around Australia and off shore. Driven by the idealism of a fair food system while recognising the importance of branding, education and communication, Michele’s commitment to joining food producers and eaters is to ultimately bring back control of the food industry to those who grow it and those who eat it.
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