The ASTRA Women in TV Breakfast is the only annual event of its kind in the TV and media industry. The Breakfast will be held at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, Parkside Ballroom, Darling Harbour from 7.45am until 9.30am, prior to the commencement of the ASTRA Conference.
Speakers include Colleen Fahey Rush, Executive Vice President and Chief Research Officer for Viacom Media Networks (VMN), who is headlining the Women in TV Breakfast; Shaynna Blaze from Selling Houses Australia and one of Australia’s most well known interior designers; Marina Go, the publishing director of Crikey, SmartCompany, Women’s Agenda and Property Observer. Sports broadcaster Tracey Homes will MC the event. Read bios.
Shaynna Blaze is one of the most recognised faces on TV as the presenter of one of subscription television’s most successful shows, Selling Houses Australia. She is also a judge on The Block All Stars currently airing on Channel 9. In addition to her TV roles, Shaynna is a well known interior designer and expert on home makeovers who has created stunning interiors in residential and commercial spaces for over 20 years. Shaynna has been a finalist in Interior Design Awards in Australia and her designs have been featured globally in design magazines and publications such as ‘1000 Global Interiors’.
Marina Go is the publishing director of Private Media where she manages the strategy and P&L for the company’s digital brands. With a career spanning 25 years of consumer media, Marina was appointed editor of Dolly magazine at the age of 23. Since then her roles have included Managing Editor of Cosmopolitan, launch Editor of Australian Good Taste, Editor-in-chief of ELLE Australia, Editor of weekend newspaper insert magazine Sunday Life and Editor of Fashion for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers. Her management positions have included Group Publisher of EMAP Australia and Associate Publisher of Fairfax Lifestyle Media.
Tracey Holmes is one of the globe’s most respected sports broadcasters and interviewers. She was Australia’s first female host of a national sports program – Grandstand – on the ABC back in the early 90s. She has also worked for CNN International, SBS Australia, Fox Sports, Dubai Eye and the world’s biggest TV network, China Central Television based in Beijing. She has anchored, reported and commentated from many of the world’s biggest events including nine Olympic games. Tracey is a broadcast mentor for the IOC’s Young Reporter Program and is currently researching a PhD in the geopolitics of sport.
Colleen Fahey Rush, Executive Vice President and Chief Research Officer for Viacom Media Networks (VMN) will headline the 2013 ASTRA Women in TV Breakfast, as part of the 2013 ASTRA Conference on 14 March. Rush is instrumental in ushering in the research that shapes strategies from programming to social media across a bouquet of channels that includes MTV, which, 30 years on is still a cultural phenomenon committed to understanding viewers and youth audiences worldwide. Rush leads VMN’s Strategic Insights and Research group, and provides guidance and support to research teams across the company's portfolio of brands, including MTV, Nickelodeon, COMEDY CENTRAL, VH1, CMT, Logo, SPIKE, and TV Land. A respected industry expert, Rush has presented VMN’s research and insights at The White House, on Capitol Hill and to multinational marketers such as Unilever and IBM.
Rush champion’s innovation in research both inside and outside VMN. She is chairman for the Board of the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) and the executive committee for the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM). Through her involvement with these industry bodies and her role at VMN, Rush uses research to underpin the importance of monetising content in digital environments. In 2010, Rush was named to Ad Age’s list of Media Mavens, and in 2009 was recognized by Working Mother Magazine as a Working Mother of the Year.
Rush was instrumental in leading Viacom Media Networks landmark study "The Next Normal: An Unprecedented Look at Millennials Worldwide" (2012), which provides the first truly global portrait of this highly influential generation. Spanning every continent in the world, the study shares insights into the attitudes, values, aspirations and perspectives of young people (ages 9-30) from 24 countries.
The Breakfast will be held at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, Parkside Ballroom, Darling Harbour from 7.45am, prior to the commencement of the Conference on 14 March. Read more
Register online for the Women in TV Breakfast