Perth’s creative minds invited to Think Tank v.2.0

Following on from the successful City of Perth Think Tank held in June this year, members of Perth’s creative community are invited to attend  Think Tank v.2.0, a free forum to explore how to connect with audiences in the digital age.

Taking place on 3 November, Think Tank v.2.0 will feature a panel of experts from new media industries including Quickflix Managing Director Stephen Langsford, Chris Winter from ABC, an official welcome from Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi and an overview of the upcoming X|Media|Lab event from Department of Culture and the Arts Deputy Director General Jacqui Allen.

The City of Perth is presenting the forum in partnership with the Department of Culture and the Arts, ScreenWest, Murdoch University and X|Media|Lab.

Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi said that this is an opportunity for membersof the digital and creative industries to come together and share ideas.

“The feedback from the June City of Perth Think Tank was that ourcreative industries wanted more avenues to come together, network andbuild synergies between businesses”.

“We are pleased to be presenting Think Tank again and due to thesuccess of the first event, we have moved venues to the Perth TownHall, allowing us to accommodate for twice as many people,” Ms Scaffidisaid.

Department of Culture and the Arts Director General Allanah Lucas saidthat this event was an ideal lead-in to the internationally acclaimeddigital media event X|Media|Lab that will be held in Perth in April 2011.

“X|Media|Lab is a cross platform and cross cultural event that willconnect Western Australian artists, media practitioners and publicinstitutions with international experts to propel our creative digitalcontent from concept to market,” Ms Lucas said.

Murdoch University Faculty Dean (Creative Technologies and Media)Jeremy Bean said that X|Media|Lab connects people together to solveproblems and create new pathways.

“Tertiary institutions and students have a major role in generating newideas on which businesses can be created and participating inX|Media|Lab and the Think Tank are exciting ways of contributing tothis process,” Mr Bean said.

X|Media|Lab Director Megan Elliot said that Western Australia has a dynamic digital and creative community.

“The Think Tank will be a great opportunity for Western Australians tonetwork and develop projects to submit to X|Media|Lab Perth.”

The forum will take place on Wednesday 3 November at 5.15pm followed by networking drinks from 7pm.

City of Perth Think Tank v.2.0 is a free event however participants must register to attend at rsvp@screenwest.wa.gov.au prior to Wednesday 27 October.

Participants can connect with other creative industries people via theLinkedIn group ‘Digital Media in Western Australia’ and you can followthe Twitter hashtag #perththinktank for news and updates.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Stephen Langsford

Stephen is a Western Australian businessman and entrepreneur havingfounded successful businesses in a number of high growth sectorsincluding information technology, new media and entertainment. Stephenis Founder and Executive Director of Quickflix Limited, Australia’sleading online movie rental company listed on the Australian StockExchange (ASX:QFX). Stephen will speak about connecting with audiencesvia new and traditional distribution platforms.

Kristen Vang – http://twitter.com/kvang

Kristen Vang is the Principal Strategist at Thinq Digital in Perth.Specialising in campaign ideation, content development, online PR andcommunity building, she has multi-national experience developing andimplementing digital strategy for consumer brands. Previously, she wasthe Creative Director at Attention, a social media marketing and PRagency in New York, where she devised campaigns for clients such asM·A·C Cosmetics, Aveda, Bluefly.com, Hudson Jeans and Mashable. Kristenwill be the MC for Think Tank v.2.0 and moderate the Q&A.

Tim Elleston

Having co-founded WebFeat, a leading Canadian digital agency in1997, Tim came to Australia as the Head of Retail eCommerce forBankWest, before heading up Murdoch University’s Digital Media team. Tim has worked with many Fortune 500 companies, including WalMart,Sears, Budget and BMW, developing user-centric digital marketingsolutions.  Tim is an advocate of using online behavioural analytics toreveal trends which can be used to optimise online communications. Timwill speak about the elephant in the corner called web analytics. Youprobably know you need it, and now you’ve got it, you’re not entirelysure what to do with it. Tim will help you to speak with your elephant.

Chris Winter

Chris works for the ABC’s Innovation Division, and has a longbackground in new media, digital TV, technology marketing and radio.His work has included projects to deploy ABC current and archivecontent on a number of platforms including off-deck mobile portals,Google Earth and Google Maps; and for its first two and a half years,managing ABC2. He has been a participant and mentor at variousX|Media|Labs since 2003. Chris will speak about his experiences atX|Media|Lab and provide helpful advice to assist participants withdeveloping a project to submit to XML Perth.