MFA EX 2025 Speaker Lineup

Dare to recharge: Strategies to thrive, not just survive

Olly Bridge, Health and Performance Expert

In elite sport, peak performance isn't about doing more – it's about doing the right things at the right time, and recovering like it's your job. The same should be true for today’s high-performing corporate athletes. In this high-energy session, Olly Bridge will demonstrate how to manage your internal battery, not just your calendar, so you can get more done, stay sharp under pressure and still have something left at the end of the day for the people who matter most… your inner circle.

Dare to Disconnect: is Dopamine Addiction Killing our Best Ideas?

Peita Pacey, Chief Strategy & Behaviour Change Officer, Hearts & Science
Liz Wigmore, National Managing Director, Hearts & Science

Our industry is addicted to being always on – every ping, post and push notification feeding a dopamine loop that hijacks our attention and stifles creativity. In this session, Peita and Liz will reveal how our hyper-connected habits are rewiring our brains for reactivity over originality – and explore how to strategically disconnect and reclaim deep focus.

Through the lens of behavioural science, they’ll dive into ways to redesign our industry to give our brains the space to make connections that algorithms never could.

The Green Feed: Influencing the Algorithm

Penny Shell, Chief Strategy & Product Officer, Zenith Media

Social media shapes lives – but are we shaping it responsibly? In this powerful session, Penny will examine the real and unseen impact of algorithm-fed content on teen mental health. Backed by expert research, Penny will demonstrate how we can live up to our industry purpose of We Are The Changers: curating safer, more positive social feeds for young audiences. Learn how to prioritise audience safety not just brand safety – starting with one simple action we can all take today.

Closing the Gender AI Gap: The world has a gender equality problem and artificial intelligence is making it worse

David Bielenberg, National Head of Strategy, PHD
Gemma Dawkins, National Head of Digital, PHD
Louise Cummins, Award-Winning CMO, Strategist, Reinvention & Resilience Advocate

AI is shaping our future – but it’s repeating the mistakes of the past. From crash-test dummies to voice assistants, tech has long been designed for men. Now, gender bias is being hardwired into AI systems, threatening progress in equality. This eye-opening session blends stats, stories and expert insight to expose the problem – and ignite action. Attendees will leave empowered to challenge the status quo and push for gender-inclusive design in media and tech.

The Tension of Attention

Brian Cronk, Chief Product Officer, OMD
Dr Karen Nelson Field, Founder, Amplified Intelligence
David Gray, Dramaturg & Story Strategist, Small Planet Studios

We’ve built an industry around chasing shrinking attention spans – but what if the problem isn’t the audience, it’s us? This session challenges the myth of micro-attention, showing people invest time when content earns it. From Taylor Swift’s 10-minute hit to long-form TikToks, the evidence is clear: it’s not about brevity, but value. Through data, debate, and insight, the speakers will reframe the attention question – and explore what it really takes to earn meaningful engagement.

Can neurodivergent thinking make us all better at our jobs?

Rob Frost

Media is a fast-paced business. We reward people who move quickly, juggle tasks, think laterally and thrive under pressure. But what if we’ve been overlooking some of the most naturally wired minds for this kind of work? In this thought-provoking session, Rob Frost – who is both autistic and has ADHD – will explore what neurodivergent minds can teach us about working smarter, planning better and thinking in new ways. You’ll walk away with a practical toolkit of five powerful, neurodivergent-inspired strategies to transform the way you work.

Collaborating for Inclusive Change

Katy Eng, National Head of Diverse, OMG
Elena Giannini, Business Director, Avenue C
Luisa Dalli, Strategy Director, Havas Media

Australia is diverse – but our media still isn’t. This powerful session brings together four changemakers to unpack why true inclusion remains so elusive and what it really takes to shift the dial. From working with Roy Morgan to evolve how we measure audiences to crafting inclusive campaigns, you’ll gain practical tools and real-life advice for driving meaningful change. With a live audience exercise, you’ll map out your own change agenda – and leave empowered to create media solutions that reflect all Australians.

The Stories We Tell Ourselves

Paul Watkins

In this high-energy session, adventurer Paul Watkins shares hard-won insights, practical tools and jaw-dropping tales from a career spanning all seven continents. Discover how to live life as a verb not a noun, and build confidence through curiosity and the doing of hard things. You will leave not with a forgettable checklist, but with big, challenging questions that could change the way you live and lead.

Search Everywhere: Are we getting smarter or just lazier?

Eloise Russell, Group Experience Director, Mindshare

As generative AI makes answers instant, are we getting smarter – or just more reliant? Eloise will explore the rise of AI-powered search and a curious side effect: intelligence hallucination. From digital amnesia to inflated self-confidence, she will unpack how search affects memory, creativity, and decision-making – and what we can do about it.

INSPIRATION X Melbourne

Seriously. Shut Up!

Sam Bessell, Strategy Director, Atomic 212°
Jan Janas, Senior Strategist, Atomic 212°

Most people don’t listen with the intent to understand, but the intent to reply. In an industry awash with constant disruption, our ability to truly hear each other is more compromised than ever. In this session, Sam and Jan will reveal how poor listening derails productivity, damages client relationships, and limits career growth – before arming the audience with practical, proven techniques to help them become better listeners and transform the way they work.

INSPIRATION X Melbourne

Data & Dragons

Florence Gleeson-Cook, Business Manager, Slingshot Media

Romantasy flipped the fantasy genre – and the publishing industry – on its head. Not just creatively, but commercially. It succeeded by challenging assumptions and following the data. For media planners and buyers, it’s a wake-up call: perception skews strategy, but data reveals opportunity. From Gen Z homeownership to Sydney’s real spending power, Florence will explore the blind spots we overlook and how data can set us straight.

INSPIRATION X Sydney

We sell culture in our plans. So why aren’t we better at creating it?

Caitlin Watters, Partnerships Manager, UM

Culture isn’t a vibe, it’s a strategy. Yet rising burnout and high churn rates show we’re often missing the mark. Caitlin will guide the audience through building a practical culture roadmap in real time – to help us stop freestyling culture and start designing it with intention. Because when culture works, people stick around

INSPIRATION X Sydney

Not all catfish live in rivers. Some live in your dashboards

Amartya Majumdar, Media Effectiveness Manager, iProspect

In media, we love numbers. But without context, metrics like CTRs, completion rates and ROI can catfish us – sounding impressive while hiding the truth. Amartya will reveal how our industry can stop being fooled by surface-level stats and start fishing smarter – by choosing the right data, not just more data.

INSPIRATION X Sydney

MFA EX MC

Chloe Hooper, Founder, Bare Feat & Course Facilitator, The Limitless Equation