Below are the confirmed speakers for our 2019 Wine Media Conference to be held in the Hunter Valley, NSW, Australia. Check back frequently for updates!
Bruce Schoenfeld – Opening Keynote
Contributing Writer, World of Fine Wine
For over 30 years, Bruce Schoenfeld’s frank and informative journalism has appeared in many of the most respected publications that cover wine. For years a contributing editor at Wine Spectator, he spent a decade as the wine editor of Travel + Leisure. He has written for Gourmet, Saveur, Food & Wine and Wine & Spirits, as well as WIRED and National Geographic Traveler, and he contributes several long pieces annually to The World of Fine Wine. He has published two books and won two Emmy Awards, and he also regularly writes about sports for ESPN, The New York Times Magazine, and other publications. At home in the Rocky Mountain foothills, he plays basketball, drinks Barolo, and spends as much time as possible with his wife and two sons.
Max Allen – Closing Keynote
Wine and Drinks Writer
Max Allen has been writing about wine and drinks for more than 25 years. He is a columnist for the Australian Financial Review, Gourmet Traveller Magazine, Gourmet Traveller WINE and jancisrobinson.com. In 2011 Max’s book The Future Makers: Australian Wines for the 21st Century was named Best International Wine Book at the Louis Roederer Wine Writers Awards in London. In 2013 Max was awarded a State Library of Victoria Creative Fellowship; in 2016, he was inducted as a Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival for his contribution to gastronomic culture; in 2018, he was named Wine Communicator of the Year. He is currently working on his next book, a cultural history of drinking in Australia.
Damien Ferreira-Gomes, Senior Industry Manager
Travel at Google
Damien is a data-oriented and highly effective Digital Sales Marketing Leader with more than 10 years of expertise in meeting sales targets through the definition and execution of customer centric plans and strategies. He is currently managing the top 4/5 Travel Advertisers in AU/NZ and works collaboratively with a team to drive growth with new and existing customers. He builds and fosters long-term relationships with regional client decision makers, as well as their agency counterparts, to be able to build and carry out long-term digital strategies and optimize their advertising growth.
Damien helps to generate business plans to define business strategies and tactics, and support clients with the creation of global/regional large scale advertising programs, (e.g. global sponsorship campaigns, cross-market product launch or brand campaigns) and develops scalable and leading-edge solutions for clients in order to optimize their advertising investments and maximize use of Google products (e.g. Search, Video, Display, Mobile, etc.) across all platforms.
Liz Barrett, Owner
Liz Barrett Communications and What’s In That Bottle
Liz Barrett is a creative, connected marketing and communications professional with an unquenchable wine and food obsession. With 20 years of experience, most recently as head of PR and communications for a major luxury wine company, she now runs her own marketing communications practice with an emphasis on food and beverage. She’s worked both sides of the fence, for agencies and corporate/in-house. She knows corporate, consumer and trade marketing and PR and uses marketplace insights to carve out ownable niches for products, people and organizations. The goal: create relevant brand positions and stories that resonate with target audiences. Liz blogs on wine at What’s in That Bottle and co-hosts Name That Wine on YouTube.
Trish Barry, Chief Strategist
Mastermind Consulting
Trish Barry is a passionate communicator, who is wholly engrossed in the world of marketing and all that comes with it. She holds 15 years of marketing strategy and business experience under her belt, working with and for high-profile companies such as Macquarie Bank, The White Agency, Anderson Consulting, Southcorp Wines and Foster’s Australia.
In 2008, after the birth of her first child, Mastermind Consulting was born and Trish has employed her love of strategy to help transform many smaller businesses and connect brands directly with consumers, often via social media and digital mediums.
Trish is an active member of Wine Communicators of Australia having been on the committee for many years and is an Associate Member of the Australian Marketing Institute (AMI). She thoroughly enjoyed being selected as one of 15 participants in the 2012 WFA Future Leaders Course and currently is the Alumni Co-ordinator for the group. Trish was a finalist in 2017 and 2018 in Wine Communicators of Australia, Digital Marketer of the year.
PJ Charteris
Charteris Wines and Chair of Judges, Royal Ag Society of NSW
With a national reputation as a skilled presenter and educator, 2019 will be PJ Charteris’ second year in the position of Chair of Judges for the KPMG Sydney Royal Wine Show. He follows in the footsteps of industry heavyweights such as Samantha Connew, Iain Riggs, James Halliday, Brian Croser, and Len Evans. He brings a wealth of knowledge of Australian wine, understanding the great regional and sub regional diversity of the industry, as well as an trained palate having being involved in the judging show system for over 20 years across several regional and state Shows. PJ also runs Charteris Wine Consulting as well as his own small label Charteris Wines in New Zealand.
Polly Hammond, Founder and Managing Director
5Forests
Pairing a love of behavioural economics with wine marketing and digital innovation, Polly spend her days helping wineries grow beyond the confines of traditional sales channels. Together with a team of designers, developers, content writers, and social media whiz kids, 5Forests empowers wine businesses to understand their digital data and make best use of the web, social media, and rapidly evolving trends to turn fans into brand advocates.
Kristy Johnson, Writer
Daily Mail Australia
Kristy is a journalist and writer, covering lifestyle and entertainment. Prior to her role at Daily Mail Australia, Kristy worked for the LifeStyle Channels in editorial content, and contributed to NW, OK! and TV Soap magazines.
Kristy is a regular at New York Fashion Week and international red carpets, and has interviewed celebrities including Eva Longoria, Christina Aguilera, Kim Kardashian and Elle Macpherson. Kristy was also named the second most prolific journalist for 2018, in Australian metro media.
Drew Lambert
The Wine Wankers
Drew Lambert is one half of the social media duo, The Wine Wankers. Despite their name, Conrad Grah and Drew are definitely the ‘anti wine wanker brigade’, aiming to make wine more accessible by taking the pretentiousness (real or perceived) out of the wine fraternity. While the Wine Wankers’ social media presence was established in 2014, Drew has been writing about wine in an approachable and fun manner for more than 20 years.
Devin Parr, Owner
Devin Parr & Associates
Devin Parr has over 15 years of experience in PR and marketing, specializing in wine. She is the Founder and Managing Partner of Devin Parr & Associates, LLC, a PR, marketing and content agency in the beverage, travel and tourism space. She holds a WSET Level 3 certification and is a WSET Diploma candidate, and has been named one of Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40 Tastemakers.
In addition to representing up-and-coming brands and emerging wine regions like Temecula Valley Southern California Wine Country, Devin has run several wine stores in New York City, focusing on small-production, personality-driven wines. A move to Los Angeles landed her at Bottlenotes, where she oversaw national food and wine programs like the multi-city restaurant week for wine, “Taste Around Town,” and popular wine tasting event series “Around the World in 80 Sips,” and contributed editorial content to “The Daily Sip” e-newsletter, earning her stripes alongside tech and wine veterans Alyssa Rapp and Karen MacNeil. She co-founded Champagne and Hotdogs, a wine events and consulting business, and writes a blog called “Tasty Juice, Please,” which hilariously documents her misadventures in wine and parenting. She also regularly contributes to wine and lifestyle publications, including WineCountry.com, NapaValley.com, Sonoma.com, The Plum, Wine Industry Advisor and others.
Dr. Julie McIntyre, Senior Lecturer of History
University of Newcastle
Dr Julie McIntyre is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Newcastle (UON), Hunter Valley NSW. Julie is a descendant of winegrowers from the Mudgee region of NSW. She has been researching winegrowing as a thread in settler Australian history for two decades including her PhD from the University of Sydney, conferred in 2009. Her books, First Vintage: Wine in Colonial New South Wales (2012) and Hunter Wine: A History (with John Germov, 2018) were each shortlisted for NSW Premier’s History Awards and received wine industry acclaim. Most recently the OIV (International Organisation of the Vine & Wine) honored Hunter Wine with a Special Mention in the History category of its 2019 book awards. She is a 2019-20 Fulbright Scholar at the University of California, Davis, researching American-Australian knowledge formation and exchange in grape and wine science. This new project is focused on the work of Harold Olmo. Julie leads the Wine Studies Research Network at UON and is an associate editor of the Journal of Wine Research. Her next book is a global history of Australia for Princeton University Press.
Liz Riley, Owner
Vitibit
Liz Riley is an independent viticulturist consultant based in the Hunter Valley, NSW. She has 25 years of experience in the Wine Industry, and worked for Southcorp Wines (now TWE) in the area of grape quality before becoming an independent consultant in 2000. She currently works primarily in the Hunter but has a client base that extends to other NSW/ACT Regions such as Orange, Hilltops, Tumbarumba and Canberra.
Liz is a Roseworthy graduate, Australian Nuffield Scholar and was the ASVO’s Viticulturist of the Year in 2017. She is current a specialist qualifications director for the Australian Wine Research Institute, the Chair of R&D/VP for the NSW Wine Industry Association and has recently been appointed to the National Wine Biosecurity Committee. Liz likes to drink Riesling and explores alternative varieties.
Scott Seward, Co-founder
Right Hook Digital
Scott Seward is the Co-Founder of Right Hook Digital, an eCommerce Growth Agency that focuses on driving high-ROI revenue and growth through paid advertising, conversion optimisation and maximising customer life-time value.
With nearly 10 years experience in the Digital Marketing and eCommerce Industry, Scott has worked client side, run his own brand and now has helps accelerate client growth through his fast-growing agency, Right Hook Digital, which was named in Anthill’s 2018 Top 100 Coolest Companies Awards. He’s a specialist in paid acquisition strategies and on the cutting edge of what is working today across the industry.
Christina Tulloch, CEO
Tulloch Wines
Christina Tulloch, great granddaughter of the original founder of Tulloch Wines, is the fourth generation of the family to be involved in the business in her capacity as CEO. Christina is an active member of the Australian Wine industry, having held various roles on national and regional bodies. She received the award for Rising Star of the Year at the inaugural Hunter Valley Wine Industry Awards, where Tulloch also won the award for Cellar Door of the Year and presented at the Annual Wine Industry Outlook Conference in 2008. In 2007 Christina was selected for the second intake for the prestigious, Australian Wine Industry Future Leaders Program. In 2014 Tulloch was once again recognised as Cellar Door of the Year.