Being the supreme online community nerds that we are - we're pulling together an amazing line up of national and international talent to lead discussion and share their knowledge.
Our awesome contributors:
Connie Bensen - *Virtual Presentation*
Connie Bensen is the Sr Manager for Community Strategy at Dell. She is a leading Community Strategist who has provided resources and mentorship for community managers since 2007. Her definition for the Community Manager role is linked from Wikipedia and has been referenced by many organizations. She can be found presenting at leading social media conferences around the world. In her previous role at Alterian, she authored a series of ten white papers on the ROI of Social Media. Forbes.com recognized her blog, Community Strategist, as one of the top 20 best marketing and social media blogs by women. 451 Marketing has noted her as one of the top social media strategists to watch in 2011 and she was a 2009 Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research.
Rich Millington
http://www.feverbee.comRichard Millington is an online community consultant whose clients have included: The United Nations, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, BAE Systems, Novartis, AMD
Richard has also worked with several youth entertainment brands, digital marketing agencies and non-profit organizations. Richard's blog, FeverBee, which attracts a readership of 3000 community experts, is ranked amongst the top 10 UK marketing blogs and is widely cited for its influence in helping organizations around the world improve their community efforts.
Richard is also the author of the Online Community Manifesto, arguing for a change in our approach to building communities. In addition, Richard has also worked with Seth Godin (Squidoo founder, author of the world's most popular marketing blog and twelve best-selling marketing books), on community projects.
Richard holds a First Class Honours Degree in Marketing, graduating top of his class from the University of Gloucestershire.
Jennifer Duxbury
Jennifer is the Compliance, Regulatory and Corporate Affairs Director at ninemsn. Her work includes oversight of user-generated content governance and risk management.
Jennifer began her professional life at Baker McKenzie in Melbourne. In 1998 she moved to Singapore to become General Counsel for Reuters Asis Pacific & Japan. She was a member of the senior management team for the Asia/Pacific region, responsible for managing legal affairs in 23 countries, with a staff of nine lawyers and three paralegals. The Reuters Global Legal Department was recognised for its outstanding performance by the Blue Chip Legal Awards in London, being awarded Global Legal Department of the Year (June 2001).
In 2002 Jennifer returned to Australia to work as General Counsel for Airservices Australia (air traffic control), establishing a legal compliance function and re-engineering the legal function for greater involvement in the corporation's strategic initiatives.
Jennifer taught information and communications in the Law School at Canberra University for two years, and was Acting General Counsel at Lonely Planet in 2008, where she worked closely with the community management, social media and moderation team on risk management and compliance.
Stephen Johnson is the founder of social enterprise catalyst Altitud3. He has over 15 years experience advising global brands on collaborative innovation and movement making. Stephen recently returned to Australia from SXSWi where he presented on topics ranging from forensic technology to emergent social ecosystems.
Career highlights include a coveted position on the strategic council of Live Earth in 2007, advising the United Nations on the use of social technologies to support health and water projects in developing nations, and engage360.com – a statewide campaign of the California Public Utilities Commission to mobilise ambassadors in support of smart energy living.
Bryony Cole
Bryony Cole is a blogger and digital strategist. She runs regular workshops in internet and social media trends, training employees across private, third and government sectors. Bryony is passionate about inspiring people to harness the power of social media, technology and community. She currently works for Yammer, helping enterprises transform their culture through their own social network. Bryony plays an active role in Melbourne's social media community and is a board member of The Awesome Foundation, a global micro-patronage movement.
Venessa Paech
Venessa joined her first online community in the late 80s and has been fascinated by 'cyberspaces' ever since. Currently Lead Community Manager for Community Engine, she spent several years as Community Manager for Lonely Planet (BBC Worldwide), shaping and implementing community, customer and social media strategies across platforms (including the web's oldest travel community, the Thorn Tree forum).
Previously she was global Editor of Arts Hub, an international creative community.
Venessa holds a BFA from New York University (Deans List) and an MA in Creative Media from the University of Brighton (graduating top of her class). She is a published scholar, specialising in virtual ethnography and online community exiles.
Venessa is a board member of The Awesome Foundation and a regular speaker and consultant on community building and management, social media strategy, enterprise socialisation, moderation and governance for creative, commerical and public sectors. She founded the Australian Community Managers Roundtable in 2008 and is dedicated to closing the gap between online community theory and practice. Venessa is co-founder of SWARM, with Alison Michalk.
