Meet All The Mentors For The B&T Melbourne Bootcamp

If you didn’t already know, B&T Melbourne Bootcamp, presented by MediaCom, is now less than a month away (tickets are still on sale). So as we prepare to descend upon Victoria, we thought we’d introduce you to our six awesome mentors.

As well as being a great day of networking, the B&T Melbourne Bootcamp will also give you the chance to rub shoulders with and pick the brains of some leading names in our industry.

So sit back and get acquainted with our mentors.

Matthew Todd – Brand Strategy Manager, Kmart

Originally from Hobart, Matthew started his career as a graphic designer where he developed a passion for marketing and the power of creative. He later studied marketing with his first role out of university being for James Boag’s Brewery, one of Australia’s oldest and most successful brewers.

A small business but with high performance culture, Matthew credits this role with building his insight driven and customer focused approach, with subsequent roles in Melbourne at Schweppes Australia and the AFL providing more opportunities to develop technically and personally.

With broad experience across multiple industries and marketing disciplines, Matthew is a big believer that a fundamental understanding of marketing and a passion to learn can result in a very rewarding and varied career.

David Ponce de Leon – ECD, Ogilvy Melbourne

David began his career as a designer, moving into art direction and honing his craft at agencies ranging from large multinationals to small independent shops.

In the past 20 years, David has been awarded more than two hundred times on all major national and international award shows with work for brands like AAMI, adidas, Cadbury, Heinz, Mars, Metro, Nintendo, Seek, Schweppes, Suzuki, Tigerair, Whiskas, WorkSafe and the Victorian Government.

This includes multiple ‘Agency of the Year’ titles for agencies under his creative stewardship.

For the past decade, David has also been active in training the next generation of Australian creative talent through his role leading the Melbourne AWARD School program and most recently as the head of ADMA Creative School.

David believes ideas have the power to not only change brands and companies fortunes, but to change the world for the better.

You can find out more about David here.

Katherine Williams – Managing Director, MediaCom Brisbane

Katherine Williams a media professional with more than 17 years’ experience across a wide range of communications, advertising and marketing disciplines. Katherine’s particular expertise has involved managing the complex requirements of government, leading major whole-of-government advertising campaigns that delivered significant social change, managing crisis communication for natural disasters such as the Queensland floods and supporting the promotion of major public policy. She also has expertise in leading community engagement activities and managing master media contract arrangements for both campaign and non-campaign activities.

At MediaCom, Katherine applies her multi-disciplinary skills and experience with a fresh perspective, translating our many specialist capabilities into meaningful offerings for clients. She is able to provide great insights to media about client requirements, which in turn builds excellent foundations for greater valued partnerships.  A passionate social marketer by trade, Katherine is genuinely driven by opportunities to make positive long-term impacts, whether that be through behavioural change, brand awareness and engagement or culture transformation.

Sarah Wyse – Head Of Media Network, Australian Football League (AFL)

With 16 years’ experience specialising in the digital media and advertising technology sector. Sarah started her career in London at multi-media lifestyle publisher EMAP.

She has been living in Australia since 2008 taking on leadership roles at ninemsn, TVN Asia, Videology and, most recently, Fairfax-owned digital publisher Allure Media.

Sarah’s passion for driving diversity in the workplace coupled with her entrepreneurial spirit saw the launch of Australia’s first dedicated online resource, Wyse Women, to increasing the participation of women in the industry through a range of products and services centred around flexible and modern work practices.

Read our chat with Sarah here.

Georgie Jeffreys – Head of Brand, Australia & New Zealand, Uber Eats

Georgie Jeffreys is the Head of Brand for Uber Eats in Australia and New Zealand, responsible for positioning & expanding the meaning of the brand, and driving new customer and category growth.

Having joined Uber in early 2015 as one of the very first Uber Eats employees, Georgie helped to lead the company’s Australian launch and was then charged with transforming the product into an iconic brand that’s both category leading and culture shaping.

Since then, Georgie and her team have pioneered some of Uber’s most successful and high impact marketing initiatives globally, driving the Australian business from 40% to 95% brand awareness in just 12 months and helping to cement Uber Eats as the number 1 food delivery app across ANZ.

Shannon Crowe – Copywriting & Creative Direction, Shannon Crowe

Shannon is an ideas thinker, creative writer, and alfa mama. She is one of the world’s most awarded advertising copywriters, passionate university lecturers, and proudest advocates of equality within both the work and the workforce.

Since finishing up full-time work on 4^th January 2016 (and giving birth the following morning) Shannon has been working as a consulting creative director and copywriter for clients and agencies at a local, national and international level. She’s couldn’t be happier and her work has never been stronger. In fact, 2016 saw her named one of the world’s 50 most awarded copywriters, and the 2017 Cannes Lions Global Creativity Report saw that ranking rise to #8.

When she’s not mumming or making ads herself, you can find Shannon mentoring advertising up-and-comers or trying her darnedest to mould the industry into a place we all want to work.

So if you want to get up close and personal with these superstars, grab a ticket to the B&T Melbourne Bootcamp. You can buy tickets here.