A man of the world, of many languages and possessed of rare drive and ambition, Patrick left home at age 18 and the Netherlands at 21 to find his true calling. A quick study, sponge for knowledge, natural-born leader and team motivator, his on-the-job training with a mobile phone operator swiftly led to his working as an engineer helming telecom projects in the US, UK, Sweden, Germany and Israel—all before he turned 25. Next he learned German to earn his Master’s in Management, then switched to product management and business development. The decision to keep following his passion drew him to study Neuro-Linguistic Programming and to found insightz. Today, as a brain optimiser for students & professionals, he is dedicated to creating the circumstances whereby they can learn to unlock their own potential, triumph over psychological barriers, become better communicators and happier people.
How to find and follow your passions, play to your strengths, connect the dots and truly grow as an individual and as a communicator are goals we all share and that Patrick Veenhoff set out to accomplish for himself. His success served as the impetus behind the creation of insightz, his new company. Patrick is dedicated to working with students and professionals using principles grounded in Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Through workshops and one-on-one coaching, he shows clients how to recognize and harness their innate gifts so they can more easily connect with themselves and others. In the process, they will discover new and more powerful ways of expressing themselves and exploiting communication channels of all kinds, based on the idea that the better you communicate, the better the world will respond to you and your message.

Pedro Duarte, Head of Mobile Marketing in Real Madrid, has a degree in industrial engineering and an MBA from the ICADE-Comillas University. After working as sales engineer in some private companies, he became Media Manager in Carat-Aegis Media managing the media budgets of some of the most important New Media companies in Europe. After this, he moved to Buongiorno, the world’s number one mobile entertainment company. Here, Pedro Duarte managed the mobile marketing strategy of the Group for Spain and Latin America. In 2007, Pedro signed for Real Madrid, to lead the newly created mobile marketing/New Media department. In this department Pedro has developed a very important work, in terms of worlwide distribution of mobile content and creation of the mobile community of Real Madrid. He usually assists to new media events and conferences as speaker and moderator and is Founder of it’s own company, focused in new media consultancy (mobile and internet) for third parties and organisations. He is also invited professor in some Business Schools in Madrid, as MIB and CESMA.

Bio to follow.

Emily is a creative and lateral thinker with senior management skills and over 14 years experience in multi platform content creation, project management and content strategy in the Australian and international media and entertainment industries. Armed with a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Writing and Media Studies she began her career as a music journalist working on titles such as Q, Mojo and Kerrang! magazines and their online counterparts. After spending ten years working in the UK as a content specialist, delivering multiplatform strategies for BBC, Orange Mobile, AOL UK, EMAP and ITV, Emily returned to Australia in the role of Interactive Content Director at Austereo. At Austereo she develops, researches, scopes and executes the interactive content and social media marketing strategy in line with business objectives and brand strategy. Emily has been instrumental in implementing change management within the radio business in order to embrace new technology and content delivery platforms.

Robert Wong is founder and CEO of CC Media, a digital publishing business helping retailers reach millions of consumers through Australia’s leading web portals and multi-channel networks.

In 2010 Rob oversaw CC Media launch the iNC Network , Australia’s largest retail advertising network, which distributes retail catalogues to 3.2 million people across more than 4,000 websites per month including Ninemsn, Yahoo!7, Austereo and bestrecipes.com.au. Its flagship brand Catalogue Central is Australia’s premier online catalogue site, which was launched by Rob and the CC Media team in 2006. An avid environmental crusader and industry expert on digital marketing, Rob saw a niche and created Catalogue Central. In doing so, he would not only reduce the 240,000 tonnes of paper used for junk mail in Australia each year, but would also offer a cost effective online marketing tool that delivers a strong return on investment.

He successfully translated catalogues to an online format the enables retailers to showcase hundreds of products at once while delivering tailored messages to customers based on identified preferences. Through Catalogue Central Rob also acquired superior marketing analytics that offers retailers meaningful insight into consumer data, research and user demographics.

Through its network of more than 4,000 partner websites, the iNC Network now enables retailers to reach more than 3.2 million customers each month and has more than 300,000 active subscribers. Its flagship website Catalogue Central continues on a strong growth trajectory as Australia’s only truly performance-based digital catalogue website.

Rob’s background in the digital space is extensive. Holding a Bachelor of Business from Monash University and an MBA from Mt Eliza Business School, he has gone on to use his marketing prowess with an impressive list of clients including ANZ, Australia Post, Myer, Foxtel, Optus, Citibank, Mitsubishi Motors Australia and Primus Telecom.

Rob is also the chairman of the AIMIA (Vic) Retail Industry Group.

One of Australia’s outstanding female entrepreneurs, Naomi Simson is the founder and CEO of fast growth online gifting retailer RedBalloon, which has made the BRW Fast lists six years in a row. Naomi is an employee engagement advocate, and she practices what she preaches in her own business. RedBalloon has been named as one of only six Hewitt Best Employers in Australia and New Zealand for 2009 and awarded an engagement scorecard of over 90% two years in a row – the average in Australian businesses is 55%. RedBalloon has also been nominated by BRW as being in the top ten Best Places to Work in Australia behind the likes of Google. Naomi has received several accolades in recent years, she won the Business category of the 2010 Women of Style Awards, the National Telstra Business Womens Award for innovation and she was one of four finalist in the 2009 Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year awards. The ultimate gift one can give is the gift of time spent with others. In 2009, Naomi was asked to participate in the Secret Millionaire Australia series, which involved her volunteering in a number of different charitable organisations. Naomi writes a blog naomisimson.com, which is listed in the top 15 of Australia’s Best Business Blogs and she also writes for Smart Company.