Professor Susan Luckman is an interdisciplinary cultural studies scholar whose work is concerned with the intersections of creativity, place, making and technology. Her research particularly explores these connections in relation to work in the cultural and creative industries. She has been a Chief Investigator on 6 ARC and 4 EU awarded projects. Current projects include the ARC Discovery grants ‘The Value of Craft Skills to the Future of Manufacturing in Australia’ which is identifying how the craft skills required to sustain and grow skilled Australian production can be maintained and extended, as well as 'Artisanal Making and the Future of Small-Scale Local Production' (with Michelle Phillipov) which aims to identify the consumer identities, decision-making and sustainable artisanal production models underpinning contemporary demand for locally made goods.

Leigh Robb is the Curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of South Australia. With twenty years of experience in the arts, Robb's previous roles include Curator at PICA - Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Associate Director at Thomas Dane Gallery, London, and Head of Internship Program at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice. Leigh is the curator of the '2020 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Monster Theatres'. Recent curated exhibitions include 'Chiharu Shiota: Absence Embodied' (2018) and 'Versus Rodin: bodies across space and time' (2017) at the Art Gallery of South Australia. Leigh is an adjunct lecturer at the University of Adelaide; a Board member of Art Monthly Australasia and ACE Open, and the Fremantle Biennale.

Over the course of the last fifteen years Emma Fey has brought her corporate experience to bear in the arts, driving an ambitious development agenda for the Art Gallery of South Australia and now as CEO of Guildhouse. Since 2017, Emma has led a period of effective advocacy and increased engagement with the artistic community and audiences; growing cultural, corporate and government partnerships, and increasing capacity through philanthropy and social enterprise. Emma holds a Graduate Diploma in Art History from the University of Adelaide and a Bachelor of Management (Marketing) from the University of South Australia.She is a previous board member of No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability and is currently co-Deputy Chair of Community Bridging Services, South Australia’s leading Disability Service Provider.

Nina Keath leads the City of Onkaparinga Council’s sustainability team, working to address climate change impacts via the Resilient South Program (www.resilientsouth.com). Nina spent her early career as an academic at Melbourne’s Monash University studying the ingredients required for transitioning organisations and communities towards more sustainable practices. Since returning to her hometown of Willunga, she has relished the opportunity to apply social theory and watch it work in the real world. She believes that connected and empowered communities are resilient communities and so, outside of work, she contributes to a range of community building activities and currently chairs community think-tank, Ideas on the Fleurieu (www.ideasonthefleurieu.com) with the simple goal of connecting good people with good ideas.

Des Fowles is a Clarendon resident, now a senior citizen, and grateful to live on Kaurna land. His predisposition is to think deeply about issues and distill them into the most fundamental elements that might explain root cause and Des relies more on intuition and observation than text books. Career wise, much of his time has been involved in things relating to the discipline of Urban & Regional Planning, which evolved into more strategic and interdisciplinary roles. On a broader level, Des seeks answers to problems like climate change and social equity, but preferably by working back to root cause and seeking redirection at this level. Des considers that the art or science of “economics” is too often used as a mask for negative motivations like greed and exploitation, and seeks ways to re-frame our economic model to properly respect the environment and promote fairness in a social setting.

Professor Craig Batty is an award-winning educator, researcher and supervisor in the areas of screenwriting, creative writing and screen production. He is also an expert in creative practice research methodologies. Craig is currently Dean of Research for UniSA Creative, where he oversees the academic unit's research strategy and performance, including Higher Degrees by Research, as well as research engagement and impact. Craig is also Deputy Chair and Research Lead for the Australasian Association of Writing Programs (AAWP), and sits on the Australian Screen Production Education and Research Association (ASPERA) Research Sub-Committee. He is also currently editor of the Journal of Screenwriting, and co-editor of Media Practice and Education.

Amy is a visual communicator, working on behalf of culture and kind organisations. She excels in listening and is a great probe in unearthing the unsaid — used then meaningfully to discover the motivations of organisations. This becomes the foundation to high-level creative thinking, implemented into guidelines and design assets to empower any business, their people and culture. The wider contribution of Amy’s work is for the evolution of people working together, and a commitment to co-working with the environment. Presently she works as a designer at Svelte Studios, and as a creative lead at Milpond.

Distinguished Professor Larissa Hjorth is a socially-engaged artist and digital ethnographer. Hjorth has two decades experience working in interdisciplinary, collaborative, playful and socially innovative digital media methods to explore intergenerational relationships in cross-cultural contexts. Hjorth has explored the socio-cultural dimensions of mobile media in many contexts such as Japan, South Korea, China and Australia. Hjorth has published over 100 publications on the topic—recent publications include Haunting Hands (with Cumiskey, Oxford Uni Press), Understanding Social Media (with Hinton, 2nd Edition, Sage), Creative Practice Ethnographies (with Harris, Jungnickel and Coombs, Rowman & Little) and Ambient Play (with Richardson, MIT Press).