The future is here already - are we all ready? Survive & Thrive believes that it’s up to us to take charge of the disruption and fast-paced change living in the FutureNOW brings and our line-up of local and international speakers will explore just that.

• Marianne Doczi, future thinker and commentator
• Dr Ralph Kerle, Global Strategic Innovation specialist
• Emmy Award winning Cate McQuillan, transmedia storyteller for digital natives.
• Alex Hillman, founder of one of the first co-working spaces globally - Indy Hall

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Marianne Doczi has a long history of being ahead of the curve, starting a government department’s innovation fund in 1995,  commissioning self-help software in 1997, running the Government’s e-commerce summit in 2000, and democratising concepts of innovation in 2007.  Through a mix of analysis and anecdote she helps people see how the future is already happening - what it might mean. Her 2006 insight work, Tuning Into Our Times - how culture, commerce, connectivity and China were converging to change our world, is still current. Indeed even more so with the rise of social commerce, and the emergence of share/mesh/make communities.

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Named as one of IBM's 100 Global Creative Leaders in 2011, Dr Ralph Kerle is an internationally respected thought leader, innovation consultant, writer & designer of executive programmes on leadership, creativity and innovation and creator of the Management Innovation Index, an analytic that benchmarks and measures innovation. His commercial experience includes consulting on strategic innovation planning and implementation in global top 500 companies, designing and delivering creativity and innovation workshops.

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From her home base in the Northern Rivers Region of NSW, Emmy Award winning Cate McQuillan and her partner Hewey Eustace are mememe productions, creating 'out there' children's programming for a new generation of content seekers. With a myriad of skills and interests, her greatest assets are her approach and attitude and ability to generate ideas, motivate, inspire and see the 'big picture'.

Their mission is to produce relevant, cutting edge, musicentric transmedia storytelling for digital natives. They are the creators and Australian producers of the ‘eco- hit’ dirtgirlworld.

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Alex Hillman cofounded one of the first and longest standing coworking spaces, named Indy Hall (short for “Independents Hall”), in 2006 and has gone on to use it as a model for assisting in the building and growth of countless communities around the world since then. As a consultant, he is focused on helping buil communities that are hyper-connected, highly productive, and selfsustaining. Alex’s insights and techniques were part of the community building roadmap for Las Vegas’s celebrated Downtown Project.

Alex has been cited as an expert on coworking & community building by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Business Journal, WIRED magazine, Philadelphia magazine, and others.

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Survive & Thrive is New Zealands smart-thinking event for creators, innovators, and anyone keen to use design and arts-led practice to build resilience in their career, business or organisation.

This year, Survive & Thrive runs for TWO days and will be held on 13-14 September, at AUT University's Sir Paul Reeves Building. A rich mix of inspiring world-class speakers, practical workshops, networking, one-on-one mentoring, and independent sessions led by sector organisations, makes this an unmissable professional and enterprise development event.

For more on Survive & Thrive, the programme and tickets go here

The official hashtag for the event is #survivethrive [for Twitter and other media].

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