Is Data Killing Creativity? Debating the Role of Intuition, Experience & Technology in Creative Practice

Jane Caro will MC the panel debate, “Is Data Killing Creativity?" She has a low boredom threshold and so wears many hats; including author, novelist, lecturer, mentor, social commentator, columnist, workshop facilitator, speaker, broadcaster and award winning advertising writer.

Today, she runs her own communications consultancy and lectures in Advertising Creative at The School of Communication Arts at UWS.

She has published five books and is a weekly regular on Channel 7 Weekend Sunrise and Mornings on Channel 9. She has appeared frequently on ABC’s Q&A, Sunrise, The Project, The Drum and Playbox. She has also appeared as a regular panellist on the ABC’s top-rating show on advertising “The Gruen Transfer.” She is a regular on radio and has filled in as host for RN’s iconic “Life Matters”.

She remains in high demand by advertising agencies as a freelance writer and her advertising work has won many national and international advertising awards including Cannes, AWARD, London International, ATV, Asia Pacific, One Show, Mobius, Kinsale, and Caxton.

She is the only woman to have been Chair of Judges of AWARD (Australasian Writers and Art Directors Association) and both Adelaide and Brisbane Art Directors Awards.

She has a BA in English Literature from Macquarie University. She writes a regular column in Mt Magazine and contributes articles and oped’s regularly to The SMH, The Drum, The Conversation, Mamamia, The Hoopla and New Matilda. She mentors young businesspeople through McCarthy Mentoring. She is on the Boards of Bell Shakespeare and the NSW Public Education Foundation. She is also the mother of two daughters, a wife, a beef producer and a timber grower.

Luke is the Executive Creative Director for MJW in Sydney – part of the Japanese global Hakuhodo marketing network.

Since moving to Adland he’s blown up a car for road safety, started pub conversations for Monteith's beer, and set a Guinness World Record for Virgin Money. He’s managed creative departments for agencies and networks such as Saatchi & Saatchi, Clemenger BBDO and Belgiovane Williams Mackay.

Dr Fiona Kerr is a specialist in systems and neural complexity at the University of Adelaide. She is also a ‘science communicator’, presenting on how to apply neuroscience to leadership and creativity, and has directed FK Consulting for 25 years advising on organisational transformation in public, private and tertiary sectors.

Fiona is an advisor to governments in Australia and Europe on creative bureaucracy and fostering innovative ecosystems, and she also works with companies on leadership, ideation, and increasing cognitive creative capacity and flourishment. Fiona is currently writing the “organisational neuroscience airport book”, and later this year she will be in Quebec researching how some particular differences in leaders brains affect aspects of the way in which they build and lead companies, as well as working with Cirque du Soleil on their fascinating creative ideation process.

Oliver Freeman is a publisher and writer as well as director of The Neville Freeman Agency, which he co-founded with Richard Neville in 2002. In 2003 he was appointed Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Business at the University of Technology in Sydney.

Oliver is acknowledged as having done more for the uptake of scenario planning in Australia and is also an internet entrepreneur – co-founding www.ebooks.com in 1998; www.leagle.com  in 2005 www.homepagedaily in 2006 and www.larrikinpost.com in 2012.

Oliver has MAs from the University of Oxford and the University of Essex. He is past chairman of the Copyright Agency Limited, Viscopy and UNSW Press. He served as a director of The Australian Business Foundation from 2002-2008. He is past Vice President of the Australian Publishers Association and, now, Vice President of the action-focused think tank Reinvent Australia (www.reinventaustralia.net.au)

In 2012 Oliver’s book FutureVision Scenarios for the World in 2040, co-authored with Richard Watson, was published by Scribe in Melbourne and in the UK in July 2013. He is currently writing his first novel.

Dr Chelsea Wise has a PhD in Marketing (Consumer Behaviour and Choice Modelling) and brings more than 12 years of research and consumer marketing experience to both academia and practice. A former lecturer at UTS, Dr Wise founded the university’s Behavioural Marketing Lab, a centre dedicated to state-of-the-art research with a focus on consumer neuroscience and eye-tracking projects. She has led global research projects, partnering with universities worldwide, and has published several peer-reviewed journal articles on consumer confusion and decision making. 

As well as her strong academic credentials, Dr Wise has experience applying her deep research knowledge in commercial contexts to improve the consumer product experience and business outcomes. She has previously worked at Quantium, GALKAL and OMD Australia. In her role at Quantium, Chelsea was Client Lead for customer analytics at Woolworths Supermarkets, leading the use of loyalty data to support commercial priorities. In her current role as Head of Behavioural Science at Pureprofile, Dr Wise plays a key role in developing research-based products that offer new behavioural and motivational consumer insights for businesses. She also leads a landmark global longitudinal study – The Values Project – partnering with leading academics worldwide.