Hit podcast host and media personality Abbie Chatfield is set to take the mainstage at Cairns Crocodiles, presented by Pinterest, joining award-winning journalist Osman Faruqi and Walkley Award–winning broadcaster Jan Fran, for a conversation about the changing power dynamics of modern media.
Chatfield, the host of the hugely popular podcast It’s A Lot with Abbie Chatfield, has become one of Australia’s most influential independent media voices.
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Since launching in 2020, Chatfield’s podcast has grown into a culturally influential platform for young Australians, blending candid conversations, social commentary and high-profile guests. The show is fast approaching 40 million downloads and reached a peak of 1.2 million listens in a single month in 2025.
She will take to the mainstage on Thursday 14 May for ‘The Great Media Breakaway’, a session exploring the growing shift of talent stepping away from traditional institutions to build audiences and platforms on their own terms.
Joining Chatfield is Jan Fran, Walkley Award–winning journalist and co-founder of Ette Media, known for her sharp social commentary and years hosting major television programs including The Feed, The Project—or the Woke Nightly Gibberfest as it’s known in The Australian’s Media Diary column—and ABC’s Question Everything.
Fran’s Ette Media co-founder Antoinette Lattouf also delivered an exclusive keynote at Cairns Crocodiles last year, a major coup for the festival.
Also on the panel is Osman Faruqi, award-winning journalist, former culture editor of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, and co-host of the independent podcast Lamestream, which examines how media shapes news, culture and politics.
“We’re in a moment where the media landscape is shifting rapidly, and these are three voices right at the centre of that change,” said Pippa Chambers, content director of Cairns Crocodiles.
“Hearing how they’re building audiences, navigating scrutiny and life in the public eye and working with brands while maintaining authenticity is exactly the kind of insight our audience wants right now.”
See: Cairns Crocodiles Spotlights A Powerhouse Line-Up Of Women Speakers
With the event fast approaching, Cairns Crocodiles continues to roll out an impressive line-up of speakers and sessions. Just yesterday, the festival revealed that a trio of top Asia-Pacific IKEA marketers will take the stage to unpack how one of the world’s most recognisable brands balances global consistency with local cultural insight across very different markets.
Other major names joining the programme include actor and director Taika Waititi, former global Nike strategist at Wieden+Kennedy and co-founder of creative studio Alien Baby with Idris Elba, Paula Bloodworth, Sir Martin Sorrell, Adam Smith, the acclaimed visual director behind The Chemical Brothers’ legendary live shows and music videos, Young Australian of the Year, Nedd Brockmann, United Nations chief marketing officer David Ohana, Hakuhodo global ECD Morihiko Hasebe, The Imperfects’ Hugh Van Cuylenburg & Ryan Sheltonmore, and more – see them all here.
Across the three-day programme (May 12-14), topics will span the new rules of brand building, growing in an attention recession, winning with Chinese audiences, defining marketing’s next era, protecting artists’ rights in an AI world and why creativity needs different brains.
Over at Hemingway’s presented by News Australia (our content track in a brewery), there’s a slew of fabulous speakers including Jane Evans, founder, author, keynote speaker, matriarch, futurist and myth buster and Tina Provis, senior influencer specialist at Havas Red and TV Personality talking about Asian representation remains limited and often misunderstood. Things will also take a more mischievous turn on day two with a live stand-up session hosted by Friends of Rhonda founder Jules Stretch appearing as Mum the Drag Queen herself! Alongside industry creatives and comedians they’ll be some roasting — and ruthlessly tearing apart — their own work. Keep an eye out for the full agenda!
