CURVY Creative Women's Conference

Living icon and pioneer of the skate/surf industry — a skateboarding legend turned educator, environmental activist, accomplished artist, TED X speaker and motivational personality globally. In the 1970s, Peggy broke barriers in the world of skateboarding as the only female member of the Zephyr Skateboard team, made famous in the Sean Penn narrated film, Dogtown & Z Boys. The Z Boys crew basically created the entire skateboarding industry as we now know it. Introducing Tony Alva and Stacy Peralta who later unveiled Tony Hawk and the Bones Brigade. As the only female member of the Z Boys, Peggy has an incredibly inspiring story to tell.

Since her groundbreaking days skating with the Z-Boys, and induction into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame, Peggy went on to UCSB to study environmental biology, and also received her Bachelor of Arts in Painting at The College of Creative Studies. The theme of her art reflects the landscapes, seascapes, and marine mammals she loves. Her art is a direct reflection of her love and dedication to our oceans and its amazing creatures, most especially the whale, whose well-being seems inexorably tied to her own. She is their champion, on a quest to save them from recklessness. Forged from a warrior’s heart, her beautiful paintings reveal the splendor of nature, while challenging viewers to plunge deeper into their own consciousness, compassion and commitment. A tireless advocate for cetacean rights through her Origami Whales Project, Peggy has a deep commitment to our planet that drives her to inspire people around the world to make a difference. She inspires not only with her art, she inspires with her actions.

Peggy Oki is not only instantly recognisable to the entire action sports industry in Australia and beyond, she is widely revered across  art, culture conservation and influencer segments as a boundary-breaking pioneer of style and substance. As a living female icon, she inspires women as someone that has blazed a trail for others to follow in her footsteps. Furthermore, as she is also now in her mid sixties, Peggy also appeals to  all ages, including older generations inspired by her active lifestyle. We are thrilled to bring Peggy Oki to CURVY x Vivid Sydney 2018 for a series of special activities including a vibrant exhibition of archival skate photography, art installations, public talks and appearances, and the launch of a special concept publication in collaboration with CURVY.

Chirryl-Lee Ryan is a NYC-based, transdisciplinary designer, host of This is HCD podcast, coach, mentor, speaker and director of Experience at idean.

By merging different design disciplines, Chirryl-Lee produces radical design approaches with innovative, human-centered outcomes, ultimately resulting in positive impact and change. Chirryl-Lee’s vision is that everyone can lives better through design, and her purpose is to arm as many people as possible with the skills, tools and confidence they need to create the change they want to see in the world.

Tara Ford is the executive creative director at DDB, Sydney. She was Australia's representative at this year's Cannes Lions on the Promo & Activation jury.

Tara has worked at advertising agencies around the world including TBWA (London) and Wieden and Kennedy (Amsterdam). Over the past 4 years she has won a total of 16 lions at Cannes including a Grand Prix and 12 shortlists, across five different campaigns. This includes her GAYTM campaign for ANZ Bank which was also named the ‘Best Direct campaign in the World for 2014’ by the Big Won and #1 ‘Best of Print/Outdoor/Design for 2014’ by Creativity-online.com

Overall her work has won in excess of 200 awards, on a range of clients, both for creativity and effectiveness. They span across the disciplines of social media, promotion and activation, experiential, direct, media, PR, integrated, print, print craft, outdoor, film and design. Other awards include D&AD, Webby Awards, One Show, British Television, Midsummer Television, Creative Circle, Kinsale, Mobius, London International and New York Festivals, Caples, Clio, Locus, Spikes Asia, ADMA, AWARD and B&T.

Her experience ranges from cars, banks and politics to fashion, alcohol and gaming. Brands include PlayStation, Nike, Absolut, ANZ Bank, Medibank and Nissan to name a few.

As well as Cannes, Tara has judged and chaired various award shows including New York Festivals, AWARD Award (Aus), Adfest (Asia), AADC (Aus), Women in Media Awards (Aus), Creative Circle (UK) and the Roses Awards (UK).

She has been an active mentor to young creative talent through the Cannes 'See It Be It' and young Lions Program, RMIT student program, Miami Ad School and AWARD School.

She was also a panelist at the inaugural 3% Conference Australasia.

In between all this, Tara also squeezes in raising her four spirited boys and making art.

The Sydney Morning Herald named Ally Watson one of Australia’s nine most influential female entrepreneurs of 2017. After spending seven years working as a .NET developer across the UK and Australia her unique and refreshing insights into the life of a female in a male-dominated industry led her to co-found the highly acclaimed ‘Code Like a Girl’ in 2015. Code Like a Girl is an Australian organisation set out to inspire a new generation of girls to acquire coding as a skill through workshops and events.

With her charming Scottish accent, disarming wit and colourfully tattooed skin no one defies the computer programmer stereotype quite like Ally Watson. At the heart of her work is a passion to create innovative and accessible learning pathways into technology where every girl, from any background, feels included, inspired and capable.

Ally and her team's efforts in addressing the gender gap in tech have been commended numerously; receiving a Gold Disruptor award at 2016’s Australian Computer Society Awards, 2016’s B&T Women in Media Award for Technology and taking home an Education merit award at the City of Melbourne's 2017 & 2016 #TechDiversity Awards.

Cybele Malinowski has galvanised her place in the photo industry with her bright, bold and unmistakable imagery in the fashion and music industry. Her work has graced the cover of countless magazines both nationally and internationally. Cybele’s clean lines, strong graphic and geometric structure and attention to detail constantly reference back to her formal training in architecture.

After 8 years working as a photographer, Cybele returned to art school at SCA, Sydney receiving an HD for her master's series Watching You, Watching You — a filmic exploration of the relationship and mirroring process that occurs between the subject and their image within portraiture. Through placing a two way mirror between the camera and the subject, the subject is allowed to self-reflect, their image bouncing between themselves and their reflection, reiterating itself until there is a final break/release or disconnect. Like exiting a transcendental state, the subject must break their gaze, by looking away, closing their eyes, or in some cases being brought to tears.

Cybele’s Model-Maison series is a project of love and dedication that has seen Cybele shooting models in their bedrooms all over the suburbs of Sydney, LA, London, Ukraine and Shanghai. The blog is an insight into the model’s worlds, while still retaining some of the fantasy of fashion. In a collaborative sense, Cybele works closely with each model to create a series of images in and around their homes. Cybele gives the model the freedom to style themselves and they work together on creating a world somewhere between fashion and realism. Despite the proliferation of social media, models remain an endless source of fascination and Model-Maison gives the consumer a rare look into their lives. Model-Maison has been almost two years in the making, but is set to be a sought-after and unique offering in a crowded digital space.
 

At 22 years of age, Newcastle-based Sjana Elise is a social media sensation.

Sharing her love of yoga, health, food and adventure on a daily basis has led to a dedicated audience of over 1.4 million followers on Instagram. Considering herself ‘one of the luckiest people in the world’ Sjana is an entrepreneur who mixes yoga, travel, writing, modelling and photography while adventuring around the world.

Sjana’s experiences of bullying, anxiety and depression through her teen years have led her to be a huge advocate for mental health and she utilises her platform to spread positive messaging. Sjana is the essence of a sunshine loving, happy go lucky Aussie girl and encourages her audience to pursue passion, wellbeing and adventure in their every day lives.

Imogen has over 17 years of industry experience in both media and creative agencies. She started her career at the Media Palace and left as media director to join Naked Communications Sydney as head of Communications Planning. In 2010, Imogen relocated to Singapore as the managing partner of Naked Communications SEA. She joined Havas Sydney on 2014 as head of Strategy, becoming Chief Strategy Officer in 2016. In this role she led the strategy team for Havas Media group whilst simultaneously holding the position of joint executive strategy director at Havas Creative Group. At the end of last year Imogen was appointed to the role of group managing director, Havas Media Group Australia to continue and enhance the agency’s momentum, growth and vigour in the market.

Imogen has been instrumental in bringing media, creative, digital and data thinking together to form the Havas Village which has gained significant industry interest as well as new business momentum. 2017 was a year of accolades for Imogen, being named both B&T’s Strategist of the Year 2017 and Woman of the Year 2017. Campaign Asia also recognised her as one of the most powerful woman in the industry to watch, adding her name to the ‘2017 Woman to Watch’ list, and she was honoured to judge the Cannes Media Lions 2017, The Media Federation Awards, The Marketing Sciences Awards, and WARC awards for strategy. 
 

Gold Coast-based freelance artist, best known for the intricate artwork she creates onto surfboards as well as hand painted large scale wall murals.

Originally from Newcastle, Jess moved up to Byron three years ago. Not knowing a single person when she moved, it was just something she felt compelled to do and Byron was the place she wanted to be. After two years living and working on her art in Byron, she moved to the Gold Coast to further expand her business network with more creatives and continue to work on sharing her art not only within Australia but also worldwide. Her art has been sent to every corner of the world in places such as New York, California, London, Japan, Spain, New Zealand to name a few, and she is constantly working on ways to share her passion with more people around the world.

Jess loves the ocean, whether its physically being in the water, surfing or swimming, or just being around it walking on all the beautiful beach paths we have around the coast. Jess says she loves how when she is around the ocean she almost loses all concept of time, not stressed or worrying about anything. That's also how she feels when drawing and that's why she loves combining the two by drawing onto boards. Some people meditate, Jess draws or spends time around the ocean.

Jess says she just wants to continue doing what she loves doing, traveling and meeting creative, passionate and inspiring people that are also following their passion. That’s something that really drives and motivates her, and if along the way it can help inspire someone else to follow their passion, then that’s even better.

By the age of ten, Fuchsia had already visited 30 countries and knew how to say ‘I'm a vegetarian’ in 12 languages.

After school she ran away to the jungles of Costa Rica, spending 18 months living in harmony with sloths and toucans, where she worked as a river guide, helping troubled youth rewild and rebuild their self esteem. It was here she discovered the true power of adventure — to help us grow and develop as individuals.

Fuchsia has degrees in international marketing and the experience economy. Having spent the last decade juggling marketing and mountains, Fuchsia finally found her calling as co-founder of the Adventure Junky app - Earth’s Sustainable Travel Game.

With literally billions of travellers circling the planet every year, Fuchsia is on a mission to influence the future of travel. Using her business as a force for good — to inspire us to protect the people and places we love to visit.

Growing up on the coast, Brinkley’s initial fascination with the sea was cultivated as a child, since then, everything in her life has revolved around her devotion to the ocean and her passion for wildlife....

Taught to surf by her parents at age 4, Brinkley surfed competitively until the age of 18. The elegant natural footer whose style has been described as “gutsy, and elegant”, realised that the professional contest circuit was not the road for her and went on to study at Flinders University.

Going on to achieve a bachelor's degree in marine biology, followed by an impressive resume of volunteer work, diving, and boating qualifications to go alongside, she has, over the years represented marine and wildlife conservation on a global level, and inspired many to follow in her footsteps.

Brinkley explores her passions for the underwater world, waves, and wildlife around the world, while bringing awareness to conservation efforts, that are helping to preserve not just the ocean, but all ecosystems.

Having founded her own registered charity and environmental non-profit organisation Balu Blue Foundation, in late 2016, Brinkley now has a main focus on building the conservation projects within the organisation, including the inspiring story of #BunjiTheKangaroo, creating #TwoSongsSanctuary, a private orphan native animal rescue based on Eyre Peninsula, South Australia, and also a marine debris campaign #ClearTides, spreading awareness for plastic pollution internationally.

Since arriving in Australia as a refugee at the age of six, Sasha has been seeking a life well lived on a higher level. Sasha is co-curator of women's creative events platform CURVY, founder of BREATHE Wellness Events and co-founder of eco yoga product company, Whalesong. Sasha is currently co-authoring a children's book for Peggy Oki.

Sasha also specialises in holistic wellness coaching, holistic nutrition, energy healing, spiritual guidance and transpersonal art therapy.

Amanda Alba has worked in the financial services industry for over 20 years and is passionate about helping people. Amanda is especially passionate about helping women increase their wealth and gain financial independence so that they are prepared and able to live comfortably across all life stages.

She has worked over this time helping many people who did not realise they could become an investor, through companies such as 1st Investor.com, publicly listed companies such as Divine Homes, Delfin, Lend Lease and recently Positive Real Estate (PRE).

Amanda has a proven track record over the last 20 years and has assisted many women to find their best financial path. She has joined the line-up at CURVY Sydney to share her knowledge with creative women so that they can make the right decisions now and reach their future financial dreams.

Amanda’s mantra and favourite quote, something that she lives by and commits herself to in helping people is: “Create the highest, grandest vision for your life. Then let every step move you in that direction.”

We are thrilled to have Amanda part of CURVY 2018 at Vivid Ideas.
 

Rebecca was one of the early team members of R/GA Sydney, where she joined as client services director in 2013 and was instrumental in its rapid growth. 

After a stint as managing director of successful local independent Cummins & Partners, she returned to R/GA Sydney to take the helm in 2016 where she’s now spearheading new business and relationships, and driving digital transformation for clients.
 
Prior to R/GA, Rebecca led a number of blue-chip accounts at M&C Saatchi/ Mark for over five years. As a trusted strategic partner, she delivered award-winning, transformational work for Google, News Ltd, Nestle and Qantas Frequent Flyer, before bringing Australia’s largest account The Commonwealth Bank to the agency and ushering in their highly successful repositioning. 

Rebecca has had a rapid rise in the industry which also included being awarded Young Direct Marketer of the Year (ADMA) and a Top 30 Under 30 Nomination, and more recently being named a ‘Woman to Watch’ by Campaign Asia in their annual list.

Simone Macks is a Senior Account Manager for Xero, the global small business platform. Since joining the Xero team in 2015, Simone has supported accounting firms transition their small business clients to cloud accounting products.

Previously a practicing accountant, Simone brings over a decade of experience working with hundreds of small businesses to manage their finances. Currently running two ‘side hustle’ businesses herself and being a mum, she understands first hand the challenges of owning a business and juggling competing priorities.

Simone is passionate about empowering entrepreneurs with the right information to make wise decisions that help their business thrive.

Simone will join the Future Finance panel from 1:00 – 2:30pm, together with a line-up of leading women that will provide invaluable advice on how to maximise the commercial aspects of your creative career.

Special thanks to xero @xero #dobeautifulbusiness 

With over fifteen years experience in the world of modelling, fashion, events and advertising, Taryn has proven herself to be a game changer in the industry and one not shy to press the disrupt button.

A former model and event producer, Taryn founded WINK Models in 2007, because she wanted to improve the existing landscape with an agency that provided clients with a higher quality service while providing a fair and supportive environment for talent. In 2016 WINK has flourished into a national business with over 650 talent and turnover in the millions. In 2015 Anthill named the company in its Top 100 coolest Australian companies.

In true disruptive style, Taryn is again innovating the industry, launching her tech startup, theright.fit in late 2015. TheRight.Fit is disrupting the advertising, fashion and modelling industry by connecting skilled freelancers and talent directly with clients and removing hidden commissions and bias. The online platform offers a diverse selection of models, social influencers, actors, photographers, stylists, make up artists and more, making it easy for brands with tight deadlines and budgets to search, book and pay for the right talent all in one seamless transaction. It has also this month secured $750,000 in seed funding from Airtree Ventures.

Taryn has received numerous accolades including being named a Finalist in the 2016 B&T Women in Media awards, 2015 Female Entrepreneur Awards, B&T Hot 30 under 30 and SmartCompany 30 under 30.

Taryn will join the Future Finance panel from 1:00 – 2:30pm, together with a line-up of leading women that will provide invaluable advice on how to maximise the commercial aspects of your creative career.

Special thanks to xero @xero #dobeautifulbusiness

Growing up with immigrant parents, Christine vividly remembers remembers spending hours playing in the toy store because they couldn't afford to buy any. Every last dollar was saved for a rainy day and the 'future' in her household. Her teens and early 20s were spent head buried in books to fulfil her parents' dreams to earn the highest income possible.

Now, Christine embraces money as a facilitator for her dream life and is not afraid to spend it. As a personal financial coach, she helps others build wealth and live their best lives. She believes it's not about how much you earn or have, it's how you use it to fulfil desires like travel, starting a business, or taking a few months off work to explore your creative side.

She is also a weightlifter and has her own strength and conditioning gym, SAW Athletic. 

Christine will join the Future Finance panel from 1:00 – 2:30pm, together with a line-up of leading women that will provide invaluable advice on how to maximise the commercial aspects of your creative career.

Special thanks to xero @xero #dobeautifulbusiness

Bianca Hartge-Hazelman is an entrepreneur, journalist and women’s money advocate helping women and business break the cycle of financial inequity that exists in Australia.
Bianca has had a longstanding career covering business and finance for some of Australia’s largest media companies. Her work has enriched publications – such as the Australian Financial Review and the Sydney Morning Herald, as well as programs – including Channel Nine’s Financial Review Sunday program. Over a 16-year period, she has also worked for ABC Radio, ABC’s Stateline, Sky News, The Weather Channel, WIN News and the Finance News Network in Sydney.

Inspired by the desire to help women make better money decisions, Bianca created Financy, a blog dedicated to improving women’s money matters and empowering women towards financial independence.

In March 2017 Bianca also launched the Financy Women’s Index, Australia’s only economic index that tracks the working life progress of Australian’s.  The Index has attracted widespread media attention. Since then, Financy has continued to grow as a space that reports on the economic progress of women as well as a place that collaborates with experts and bloggers on all things women and money.

Bianca holds a Communications Degree, Master’s Degree in Journalism and Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance.

Special thanks to xero @xero #dobeautifulbusiness