MC

Michael joins the conference again this year as Master of Ceremonies and looks forward to an even more creatively innovative experience than Ci2010.

After almost 30 years in the entertainment industry, there isn’t much that Michael hasn’t done. From hosting television programs to producing them, from performing in front of Prime Ministers to the man on the street, Michael applies his same level of commitment and enthusiasm.

As well as hosting conferences, dinners, award nights and the like, Michael spends much of his time as the audience warm-up for television shows. After 20 years in this role, he has helped sculpt a dishevelled crowd into an attentive audience for many programs – from the Logies, to Australian Idol. This year it’s Dancing With The Stars, Who wants to be a Millionaire, The Footy Show, Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation to name just a few.

Come prepared to be involved!

“I’ve had the pleasure of working with Michael Pope on a number of occasions and I consider him to be one of the most experienced and professional comperes, hosts, producers et al that I know. His interaction with people is fantastic and his public speaking is interesting, knowledgeable, humorous and reflects many years in the entertainment industry.” BERT NEWTON – ENTERTAINER

“We couldn’t have asked for a better conference. We worked hard through a lot of heavy sessions & Michael kept it all flowing & used great techniques to highlight key messages in the most fun & entertaining ways. His unique skills helped make our conference work to its best … a true professional, flexible & easy to work with.” RHEEM

Graphic Recorder

Gavin Blake is a world-class Graphic Facilitator with 12 years in the field. He works mainly with ASX 100 companies in Australia, and other high performing companies around the world.

Gavin combines his studies in architecture and fine arts, as well as his years as part of an elite facilitation team to create communication pieces including; visual strategies, graphic recording and ‘Quick Draw’ educational animations.

His work is designed to make content richer and increase his client’s potential by unleashing visual learning.

Gavin was Graphic Recorder in residence at the inaugural CI2010 conference in September last year. Output from last years conference can be seen here

He is delighted to be participating in CI2011.

www.feverpicture.com.au

Artist in Residence

Original portrait artist, pavement artist and cartoonist, Jessamy Gee creates her works on canvas, paper and recycled material.

Buzzing with her signature style of bright colours, wide strokes and tongue-in-cheek humour, these original artworks are widely appealing and don’t take themselves too seriously – reflecting Jessamy’s belief that art should be available to and enjoyed by everyone.

Working mainly in portraiture, Jessamy creates portraits by commission that aim to capture the essence, personality and mood of the subject and express this creatively through her works.

Exhibiting since 2005, Jessamy has taken part in numerous group and solo exhibitions, as well as study drawing and portraiture, contemporary painting techniques and art therapy at Box Hill Institute of TAFE, Victorian College of the Arts, and La Trobe University respectively.

Since 2010, Jessamy has run creative corporate workshops to enhance self-esteem, stress release, team building, communication and employee satisfaction through visual art. Clients have included General Mills Australia, NAB and Origin Energy.

Jessamy has also taken part in a variety of community-based work, in particular working with groups of young people with diverse abilities or mental illness, and strives to continue promoting equality, respect and inclusion for these groups through creative programmes

Diva in Residence & Executive Producer

Presentation:
With One Voice: connection and transformation through diversity and social inclusion (November 18, 9.00am)

Tania de Jong AM is a leading Australian soprano and social entrepreneur. She founded Creativity Australia and Creative Universe to improve wellbeing, engagement and innovation in organisations and communities. Tania presents keynote speeches globally and consults to multinational organizations on creative leadership for the 21st Century. She is Founder and Executive Producer of Creative Innovation 2010 and 2011.

She works with a range of migrants and disadvantaged communities through Creativity Australia’s innovative With One Voice choir programs to build social capital, employment pathways and community wellbeing. The With One Voice programs bring together a diverse range of people in different locations enabling individuals to find their voice. When many diverse voices come together as one voice, the outcomes can be transformational!

Tania is considered one of Australia’s most talented sopranos and has performed with the Victoria State Opera, as a soloist with a number of orchestras and has performed in over 40 countries and released 7 CDs with her group Pot-Pourri.

She is Artistic Director and Founder of entertainment booking agency and event production company Music Theatre Australia. She has a Bachelor of Law (Honours) from the University of Melbourne and is a graduate of Victorian College of the Arts.

Her numerous awards include “Outstanding Individual Contribution to Australian Culture”, Churchill Fellowship, a Melbourne Award and Ernst and Young Australian Social Entrepreneur of the Year. She founded The Song Room which has provided access to creative learning for over 250,000 disadvantaged Australian children. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2008 for service to the arts as a performer and entrepreneur and through the establishment and development of music and arts enrichment programs for schools and communities. She was inducted into the AGSE Entrepreneurs Hall of Fame at Swinburne University and named Brainlink Woman of Achievement 2009.

In her spare time, Tania is working on The Pianist and The Diva and ECHO – a new music theatre work with Stefan Cassomenos.

Tania de Jong AM’s videos

Composer in Residence

Melbourne pianist, conductor and composer Stefan Cassomenos studied with Margarita Krupina, Stephen McIntyre, Ian Munro, and Michael Kieran Harvey. Stefan has appeared as a soloist in St Petersburg, Tallinn, Warsaw, Krakow, Athens, Rome, Milan, Amsterdam, London, Bangkok, and Tokyo. His 2007 London debut was described, in a Musical Opinion review by John Amis, as ‘alive, passionate, and dramatic… as if the pianist’s life depended on it. This was a prodigious London debut by a formidable talent.’

Stefan has performed concerti as a soloist with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Youth Orchestra, Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria and many others. Stefan completed his studies at the University of Melbourne and ANAM. In 2008, he was awarded travel scholarships by the Youth Music Foundation at the British School in Rome, and as their Oxford Scholar participating in the Philomusica Piano Festival at Oxford University. In 2009, he was a prize-winner at Trieste International Chamber Music Competition and Melbourne Asia-Pacific Chamber Music Competition. Stefan’s 2011 engagements include concertos with orchestras, solo performances throughout Australia and recitals as a member

of Duo Axis with cellist Michael Dahlenburg and The Pianist and The Diva with Tania de Jong.

Stefan was Artistic Director of the 2007 Melba Festival and Melbourne’s Piano Landmarks festival 2009-10. Stefan is Conductor of the Percy Grainger Youth Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Chamber Strings of Melbourne. He is Founding Director of Creativity Australia’s ‘Our Community Sings’ With One Voice Choir in Ashburton. This year Stefan has been invited to be part of the Symphony Australia Conductor Development Program working with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

Stefan’s compositions have been performed by the Symphony Orchestras of Melbourne and Adelaide, and his compositions are commissioned and performed regularly. Stefan was named Composer-in-Residence for Creative Universe’s Creative Innovation 2010, culminating in the premiere of his third Piano Concerto The Art of Thought at the Melbourne Recital Centre. He has recently been awarded the Lyrebird Music Society Commission for 2012.

Stefan is generously supported by Kawai Australia, Music Theatre Australia and the Youth Music Foundation of Australia.

Poet in Residence

Philip Salom is a contemporary Australian poet whose books have attracted national and international acclaim. So far he has published ten collections of poetry and two novels, notable for their originality and expansiveness and for surprising differences from title to title. His book Sky Poems won the British Airways Commonwealth Poetry Prize for the overall Best Book of Poetry in the British Commonwealth. His book The Well Mouth features poems, voices, portraits and an underlying narrative in prose; in 2006 it was named a Book of the Year by the Sydney Morning Herald and the Adelaide Review. His recent book Keepers is a hybrid verse-novel set in a Creative Arts School, the first of a trilogy with The Keeper of Fish and Keeping Carter – both written through heteronymic authors Salom has created.

His two novels are Toccata and Rain, shortlisted for the ALS Gold Medal and the WA Premiers Prize for Fiction, and Playback, which won the WA Premiers Prize for Fiction. He has read as a guest poet in America, Canada, Britain, the Republics of Serbia and Macedonia, Italy, Singapore and New Zealand. In 2008 he resigned from the University of Melbourne to write full-time.

Other awards include the Western Australian Premiers Prize (twice for Poetry and once for Fiction) and the prestigious Newcastle Poetry Prize (in 1996 and again in 2000). In 2003 he was recognised with the Christopher Brennan Prize awarded for a publishing career “of sustained quality and distinction”