Katrina Sedgwick OAM - CEO & Director, Melbourne Arts Precinct, new $1.7 billion cultural project

Katrina Sedgwick OAM is the inaugural Director and CEO of Melbourne Arts Precinct Corporation (MAP Co), commencing the role in early April this year. She will spearhead the $1.7 billion transformation of the Melbourne Arts precinct which will include the construction of the new NGV Contemporary gallery and have responsibility for both Federation Square and a new 18,000 sq metre elevated public park that connects the Arts Centre Melbourne with the new gallery.

In taking on the MAP Co role, Katrina has stepped down as the Director & CEO of ACMI, a role she held from 2015 to April 2022. Over seven years, she led ACMI through a period of expansion and transformation, culminating in a $40m capital project that funded an architectural, technological and programmatic renewal, delivering a multiplatform museum.

Prior to ACMI, Katrina was the Head of Arts for ABC TV from 2012 – 14 where she established the ABC Arts brand.

From 2002 to 2011, Katrina was the founding Director/CEO of the biennial Adelaide Film Festival and directing the AFF Investment Fund – which supported 47 Australian productions – many of which were multi-award winning.

Katrina was a producer for the Adelaide Festival of Arts (1996, 1998 and 2000) and the artistic director of Come Out ‘99 and Adelaide Fringe 2002. She has held many committee and board roles with a wide range of creative industry and arts organisations.

In 2020, Katrina was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her services to performing arts, screen industries and visual arts administration.

Fran Sanderson - Head of Arts & Culture Innovation Lab, Nesta (National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts) (UK)

Fran heads up the Arts, Culture and Creativity team at Nesta, and also has primary responsibility for the Arts Impact Fund, a £7m initiative backed by Arts Council England, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and Nesta. Along with Seva Phillips, she advocates for social investment in arts and culture, promotes the fund, undertakes due diligence on prospective fund applicants, manages a portfolio of social investments and looks after funder relationships.

Fran went into fund management at JPMorgan following an MA in Philosophy and Maths and periodic work in charity administration and fundraising. After this, she took a career break during which she travelled around Europe and settled for a year living off-grid in Portugal with her young family. On her return, she started working at Big Society Capital as an investment director, where she worked on a wide variety of social investment deals.

Fran is also Treasurer of Cambridge House, a settlement in Walworth, South London, and works closely with UnLtd, the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs, in a non-exec capacity.

Fran is passionate about literature and creative writing, and is a member of the National Academy of Writing. She also enjoys music, theatre and dance as an enthusiastic observer. 

Peter Tullin - Co-Founder, REMIX Summits, Board Member, Museums Victoria & Grande Experiences (The Lume), Author, 'The Immersive Revolution'

Creative entrepreneur & Co-founder of REMIX Summits - further details and full bio →

Brodie McCulloch - Founder & Managing Director, Spacecubed

Brodie McCulloch is Managing Director of Spacecubed a coworking, collaboration and innovation community and space at 45 St Georges Terrace, Perth, Western Australia. 

Spacecubed enables a diverse community of over 750 entrepreneurs, innovators and change-maker’s to take their ideas to the next level. Spacecubed reduces the barriers for individuals and organisations to get their ideas to market through space, networks, mentoring, accelerators and hackathon’s. 

Spacecubed has recently partnered with Hawaiian to build FLUX as a way to continue supporting entrepreneurs as they grow their business. 

In 2014 Brodie completed a Churchill Fellowship to explore global models for supporting Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the US, Canada, UK, China and Singapore.

Brodie is passionate about building ecosystems of support and connecting with people and organisations who are interested in building the next wave of industry and entrepreneurs in Australia.

Dr. Kate Raynes-Goldie - Innovation & Disruptive Technology Specialist/Game Designer/Founder & Curator, Playup Perth

Dr. Kate Raynes-Goldie is an award-winning innovation and disruptive technology specialist, AR/MR game designer, professional speaker and tech researcher who has been helping organisations understand and harness key technology issues and trends for nearly 15 years.

Described as “leading light in innovation and technology,” Kate is always well ahead of the curve. She authored the first ever research paper on internet memes in 2003 as well as the first ever paper on “social media friending” in 2005, when Facebook was not even a year old. Her PhD, which examined privacy on Facebook which saw her interviewing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is one of the top 10 most downloaded theses of all time from the Curtin University library. Currently, Kate is a technology columnist with the Business News (WA).

Drawing on over experience making mixed reality games which have been played all over the world, including at the National Theatre (London), Toronto International Film Festival and IndieCade (San Francisco) Kate is now advising and developing in the virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality space (VR/AR/MR).

In addition to being named as one of the most influential women in games by MCV Pacific for the past two years running, Kate has won multiple international awards for her work, including the ACS Digital Disruptor ICT Professional of the Year (2016) and WAITTA Incite’s Achiever of the Year (2015/2016). She has spoken at top academic and industry conferences, including SXSW and TEDxPerth. Currently, Kate runs Games We Play, a game consultancy which she founded to create bespoke games for education and social impact. She is also teaching at Curtin University’s Business School, where she is also an Adjunct Research Fellow in the Department of Internet Studies. She is also an Affiliate Member of Professional Speakers Australia (PSA).