Don't miss Australia's Premier Professional Services Event
Driving the Change
How Marketing & BD can set the Agenda for Firm Growth and Renewal.
Artificial intelligence, corporate ethics, hybrid work and so much more.
It’s all changing the way we work each and every day.
For marketers, sales leaders, business developers and communicators, the big question is whether these new attitudes and technologies help or hinder our core pursuit – driving change within our firms and across our markets.
If you are a B2B professional in any sector, whether it’s accounting, legal, engineering, property and architecture, technology, management or elsewhere, the 2023 ICON APAC Conference will help you navigate the new landscape and provide the knowledge you must have to set the agenda for your firm’s growth and renewal.
And of course, the conference will be followed by the famous ICON APAC Cocktail Party where you can meet, greet and kick up your heels with friends and colleagues.
We hope you can join us to celebrate 30 years of ICON APAC supporting B2B marketers in Australia and the Asia Pacific.
For more details on Agenda and conference speakers, click here.
Conference Keynote Speaker Details:
Topic: The AI Tsunami: How Professional Services brands can retain control in the age of machine learning.
Melissa Donnelly, Director, Affinity Communications
In her 30-plus year career, Melissa Donnelly has launched, reignited and triaged global brands, as well as brands that are rock stars in their own industries. She knows that when CEO's are scaling for growth they need a powerful brand vehicle and show-stopping communications.
Melissa's portfolio encompasses global enterprises, such as MTV, ESPN and Telstra; along with NFPs and NGOs; plus high-growth ventures in the professional services, technology, telecommunications and mining services sectors.
Topic: The Great Debate: Should Marketers have sales targets? Revenue Marketing in focus
Andy McFarlane, Managing Principal - Asia Pacific, Inflexion Group
Andy is an accomplished senior executive with a deep B2B commercial and international marketing skillset. He has a strong track record of delivering results through a pragmatic and people centric approach with extensive global experience across the technology and professional services sectors. Andy is currently the Managing Principal for Inflexion Group in Asia Pacific.
Warwick Absolon, Account Director, Business Align & Connect PwC
Warwick connects with tech companies with a purpose of helping them grow. He is working very closely with both marketing and BD teams to better strengthen their offering.
He is a qualified and experienced business leader who has lead diverse corporate teams to solve company-wide problems. Companies he has worked with includes AECOM and EY.
He has managed and succeeded in running multi-faceted projects within large and diverse organisations, resolving multi-year tax audits in Canada, removing dormant legal entities in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, and driving a higher use of a contingent workforce.
Nicola Lambie, Group Head Business Solutions, Findex
Nicola is a visionary financial services sales and marketing professional, dedicated to transforming the financial well-being of today’s client, and our clients of the future. With extensive experience as a sales and service leader spanning two decades across ASX200 companies such as VISA International and Suncorp, as well as innovative challenger brands Findex and Great Southern Bank, Nicola has consistently demonstrated her ability to lead strategic growth and transformation projects that position companies for future success.
Currently Group Head of New Business Solutions at Findex, Australasia’s largest integrated financial services company, Nicola leads a team of sales professionals charged with delivering new business growth opportunities to accounting and wealth management partners, using data-driven insights and segment based value propositions. She is passionate about the alignment between sales and marketing and the use of revenue based targets.
Kim Robertson, Head of Marketing, Corporate Traveller, Flight Centre Travel Group
A transformational, award-winning, and commercially astute marketing leader with over 20 years of experience in growing brands. A creator of leading B2B and B2C go-to-market strategies, leading global teams, building brands, and driving revenue growth. A strategic planner with a strong focus on optimising marketing performance, impact, and efficiency across tech and services industries.
Miling Harpur, General Manager, Sales & Commercial, Corporate Traveller, Flight Centre Travel Group
I am a People Leader, with 15 years experience in Sales, Leadership and Business Management. My core values are health and learning and my colleagues tell me I am driven and positive.
I believe business plays a part in helping shape people’s personal development and I love nothing more than when I hear of people in my team making life changes to be healthier, happier or more grounded.
I strive to be an agent for positive change and I do this by enabling real conversations and modelling the behaviour I expect of others.
I create high performance cultures based on ownership, accountability and belief. I surround myself with good people and believe in the power of a team.
I help businesses thrive through an executive mindset and a genuine curiosity about the combination of factors that drive performance. I am fascinated by business and love piecing together how success is formed in every organisation I work with.
Facilitator - Mona Lolas, Global Sales & Marketing Executive
Mona Lolas is an accomplished Global Sales and Marketing Executive with over 25 years of experience in High Tech and Consulting. As an industry veteran who is passionate about technology and Partnership, Mona has deep expertise in B2B technology marketing and sales leadership. She has in-depth knowledge of marketing disciplines including strategy and planning, channel/partner marketing, Partner programs, indirect sales leadership, and analyst relations.
Prior to moving into consulting, Mona held senior executive positions with market-leading organizations including Forrester, Autodesk, Gartner, Symantec, Intel Security, IBM, Optus, and Telstra. She served as a Board Director at AMI, Australian Marketing Institute, and is currently a Board Member of ICON APAC. Named Revenue Marketing: Ones to Watch 2023
Topic: Panel | Ethics, Trust and the Management of Professional Services Brands
Sonya Beyers, Consultant, Advisor & Educator
Sonya Beyers is Managing Director of Governance by Design, a leading consultancy and advisory firm guiding boards to evaluate the governance, processes and legal frameworks in their organisation, redefine the director-board relationship and foster leadership from the boardroom.
Sonya develops bespoke governance solutions and has built a reputation for providing client-focused, high quality advisory and education services based on open, respectful discussion and clear, measurable goals. She also leverages her expertise as a qualified solicitor and experience across corporate and non-profit sectors to help directors gain focus, troubleshoot a range of issues and optimise organisational performance.
Kathryn Britt, Senior Client Manager, BBS Communications
Kathryn is a Senior Client Manager for BBS Communications, an award-winning, independent consultancy operating across Australia and APAC for more than 30 years.
She has three decades of experience in corporate communications, media relations and journalism, across a wide variety of sectors including professional services, financial services, SME/start-up and not-for-profit.
One of her first PR roles was as Media and Communications Manager with Deloitte back in the days when the Big Four were the Big Six, and this experience fired her special interest in the professional services sector.
Lucy Griffin, Brand, Marketing, Communications Business Partner - Clients & Markets, Aurecon
Lucy is a global brand, marketing and communications professional with 20 years of experience working for and partnering with private, publicly listed, government and not-for-profit organisations. A strategic, engaging and creative leader with a track record in developing and executing global campaigns that advance an organisation’s strategy and lead to new opportunities with clients and customers.
She has extensive experience working with senior business leaders to create and deliver clear, consistent and compelling campaigns that increase brand permission, support revenue growth and engage people inside and outside an organisation.
Topic: Reigniting CRM use and optimising effectiveness
Katherine Gilbey, Director, KG Consulting
Katherine is an experienced Marketing & Business Development professional, specialising in law firm marketing for more than a decade. Working exclusively in law throughout her career, she has worked in and with more than 30 different law firms, including top tier and global firms in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Starting KG Consulting Co. in 2022, Katherine now works with law firms throughout Australia to help them identify their most profitable target markets and execute strategies to win, grow and retain the clients and referrers within them.
Andrew Asher, CRM & Client Insights Specialist
Andrew brings two decades of hands-on experience delivering different types of IT projects including all things CRM. He has worked as an independent consultant across many different types of organisations with much of this being for professional services firms.
Often brought into kick-start things where misunderstandings and operational difficulties had become roadblocks in getting meaningful information to the relevant audience, he has been there as well when results were literally plucked off a screen after simple changes were made.
Tennille Roache, InterAction Client Advisor- Asia Pacific, LexisNexis
Tennille has worked in marketing for professional service organizations for over 20 years in various roles, including event management, digital communications, and operations. For the last 12 years, she has focused specifically on CRM, working with business development executives to align the database to business planning, key account programs, and marketing strategies. Tennille also specializes in repositioning misunderstood (or failed) systems by reviewing the configuration and building a change management project to position the tool successfully with business development teams and partnerships.
At LexisNexis, she primarily works with law firms to help align client development and to go to market strategies with their CRM technology to streamline processes so all business and client intelligence engagement data can be combined to successfully report client growth, value-add, and return on investment.
Facilitator - Vivienne Corcoran, Director, Marketing Logic
Vivienne has been an enthusiastic member and presenter for APSMA and now ICON since back in the days when there were 8 large accounting firms! She started her working life with actuaries and has since held marketing and strategy director roles for accountants, engineers, IP and IT firms, and lawyers, working and presenting all over Australasia and throughout UK and Asia.
Along the way Vivienne spent 15 years in brand strategy, developing and rolling out brands for B2B and B2C brands such as Telstra, ANZ and NEC. In the last 10 plus years Vivienne has developed a real passion for the voice of the client. She has interviewed 000s of clients and developed and delivered client feedback programs. She lectures in practice development and marketing for the College of Law in their Masters program and is the author of “Growing Your Professional Practice”. More recently Vivienne has taken this passion into working on a PhD in client feedback with Edinburgh Business School.
Topic: CxO Panel | Getting a Business Case over the line
Bernadette Stirling, Chief Client Officer, HPX Group
Bernadette is Chief Client Officer for HPX Group, the parent company of law firm Hamilton Locke and in-house style professional services firm, Source. Bernadette has spent the bulk of her career in professional services marketing for legal and consulting organisations, focused on creating market growth and delivering innovation by understanding and adapting to what clients need. She has a genuine passion for doing things differently and ensuring her team is developing the right skills to navigate the evolving landscape of professional services marketing and BD.
Andrew Bevan, Head of Pursuits, APAC, JLL
Andy is the Asia Pacific Head of Pursuits at JLL, and leads a high-performance team of pitching and sales enablement specialists. The team applies its winning end-to-end pitching methodology to equip, enrich and enable JLL’s business teams to win more. By being able to demonstrate to the business a strong ROI track record, the team has grown from two to 50 members in just five years. Today, Pursuits plays a pivotal role in driving JLL’s regional and country-level growth agenda.
Andy has worked in professional services roles (legal and real estate) across his career, working within marketing, business development and sales. He is passionate about strengthening connectivity, fostering camaraderie, and nurturing a shared sense of purpose across his geographically dispersed team.
Naomi Lynn, Director, Business Development, BDO
Naomi Lynn is the Director of Business Development at BDO in Australia. She is a dynamic business professional with a diverse marketing and BD skillset in a B2B environment. With a dynamic skillset and a 20-year career in Marketing, Communications, Lead Generation and Business Development, she has the ability to adapt and look for new ways to get results.
She loves to facilitate innovative initiatives that drive connectivity of like-minded businesses, and people, to achieve commercial results. In her current role she is responsible for designing and activating the firm's business development strategy to ensure client and firm success. This role includes strategic account management, client acquisition, business collaboration, BD resource alignment, facilitation of L&OD programs, and innovation initiatives to drive a client-centric culture at BDO. She is a true business driver with demonstrated capabilities that add value and create opportunities for commercial results.
Robyn Grattidge, Director of Business Development, Zoos Victoria
Robyn is a commercially astute senior executive with significant experience in marketing and business development across diverse industries, including the visitor economy, retail, and education sectors.
As Director of Business Development at Zoos Victoria, Robyn oversees strategic development initiatives for visitors, membership, philanthropy, commercial activities and sponsorship. A passionate leader, skilled in collaborating with internal and external stakeholders to deliver business growth.
Topic: CMO | Panel: The Future of Work
Katie Rosser, Founder, Seldon Rosser
Co-founder of Seldon Rosser, Katie brings over 15 years’ experience advising senior leaders on vital hiring decisions and professional services marketing & BD experts on strategic career choices, across the Asia-Pacific region. Committed to staying at the forefront of the Future of Work, she enjoys advising senior leaders on optimal team structures and emerging trends as well as working with professionals seeking career changes which will position them well in teams of the future.
Maria Rampa, Brand, Marketing, Communications Business Partner - Clients & Markets, Aurecon
Maria Rampa is a marketing and communications senior executive with 25+ years’ experience in the public and private sectors and professional services globally. She has delivered strategy and campaigns across multiple markets including property, mining, tourism, energy, arts, not-for-profit, education, health and data & telco in Australia, New Zealand, Asia, EMEA and South America.
Maria is currently the Brand, Marketing and Communications Business Partner for engineering, design and advisory firm, Aurecon, responsible for developing and delivering marketing and communications across their international built environment business.
John Kimlin, Associate Partner & Oceania Business Development Leader for Government and Health, Ernst & Young
John is the leader of EY’s Government Business Development teams across Oceania based in Brisbane and brings over 30 years’ of business and IT experience along with another 10 years in engineering surveying. He brings a wealth of experience, specifically in the Queensland Public Sector and exemplar relationships that span Cabinet, Directors Generals through to Administrative staff in Queensland. As he’s made his way through his career his relationships have expanded Australia wide to along include the Federal Government.
Chris Blakeley, BD Director, Herbert Smith Freehills
Chris has over 20 years’ experience, in the UK and Australia, advising law firms on their BD and marketing. Chris currently has responsibility for driving HSF’s Clients & Markets Strategy in Australia, with a focus on stronger multi-faceted client relationships and distinct client experience.
Chris has diverse experience in the sector having worked across Practices, Sectors and as a Client Relationship Manager. He is a member of HSF’s Australian Executive and also a member of the Global BD Leadership team.
Fraser McNaughton, Chief Marketing Officer, Grant Thornton & President of ICON APAC
Fraser McNaughton is the Chief Marketing Officer at Grant Thornton Australia. Based in Sydney he leads a national team of highly experienced and enthusiastic marketing, sales, and communications professionals, together, responsible for defining and delivering Grant Thornton’s go to market vision, strategy, and objectives. Fraser is also the National Industry Leader, where he is responsible for the development and implementation of Grant Thornton’s national industry strategy.
Fraser is an experienced and intuitive marketing and sales professional who, as a member of Grant Thornton’s executive team, has a particular passion for improving client interactions as a driver of better client experiences and the foundation to brand loyalty and sustainable revenue growth. He has over 30 years’ experience and a proven record of achievement in the professional services, financial markets, insurance, and digital media industries.
Topic: Workshop | Storytelling
Lisa Nixon, Managing Director, BBS Communications
Lisa is a former journalist, now a highly regarded communications strategist, with more than 30 years’ experience advising senior executives on matters of reputation, strategic communication and crisis management.
She has a particular interest in B2B communication and advises professional services firms on brand and services marketing, internal communication and media engagement across accounting, law, engineering, architecture and design and project management.
Keynote | Is your firm a best kept secret? The relationship between client services and brand by beaton benchmarks.
David Goener, Partner, Beaton
David has been a partner at Beaton for 10 years, working with clients to apply the strategic insights derived from our suite of information and research products.
Drawing on extensive senior leadership experience in professional services firms, he consults to legal, built and natural environment, accounting and financial services firms.
Event Details:
Wednesday, 1 November 2023
8:30am - 5:00pm (Registration starts at 8:30am for a 9:00am conference start)
Ashurst, Level 38, Riverside Centre, 123 Eagle Street
Brisbane, QLD 4000
Followed by cocktail party
Wednesday, 1 November 2023
6:00pm - 9:00pm
Babylon, 145 Eagle Street
Brisbane, QLD 4000
Pricing:
Members (Full day conference & cocktail party): $500
Non-Members (Full day conference & cocktail party): $650
Members (Cocktail party only): $55
Non-Members (Cocktail party only): $75
Registration details:
By registering here, you give your consent to your contact details being shared with our ICON APAC Conference major sponsor. Please email events@iconapac.com if you do not want your contact details shared.
ICON thanks our Conference Sponsors
ICON thanks our 'Future Talent' sponsor
ICON thanks our Conference Supporters
