Hi there, nice to meet you.

I’m a strategist and storyteller, with a career spanning two decades working at the intersection of public culture, digital futures and creative communities.

Having built an early career in federal government policy and strategy, my fascination with urban culture and immersive technology led me to embrace a more creative, innovation-led pathway. I’ve never looked back.

For the past 15 years I’ve been engaged in the development of innovation strategies, storytelling tools and digital platforms designed to connect and inspire curious minds in shared spaces.

By nature interdisciplinary and partnership-led, I work by creating strong collaborations with diverse organisations, spanning state, local and federal government agencies, and with companies large and small across the built environment, arts, sustainability and technology sectors.

Ultimately, everything I do is driven by a commitment to creating inclusive, creative and sustainable places.

As a strategist, I’m inspired by the arts of co-creation, open innovation, and meaningful partnerships across public, private and community sectors.

As a citizen technologist, I’m committed to building technology tools and platforms that connect with audiences as engaged citizens, and prototype alternative futures.

And as an immersive media storyteller and practitioner, I love to create multi-sensory experiences that inspire curious minds.

A deeper dive

Here’s a snapshot of the kind of work I’ve done. I’m generally interested in collaborating around place-based innovation strategy and public culture programs. I direct creative programs through Esem Projects and I also offer independent consulting services if the match is right.

Feel free to get in touch if you’d like to start a conversation.

Strategy & Program Management

  • I’ve led strategy & consulting projects for a range of organisations across media, public policy, culture and built environment. My clients and employers have included the ABC, the Australia Council, HASSELL, Arup, Urban Growth NSW, Landcom, the Committee for Sydney, the Arts Centre of Christchurch, ACMA, and the Creative Industries Innovation Centre.

  • Strategy projects I’ve loved include the Sydney Airport Corporation’s Public Art Framework (2019), the South Australian Government’s 2019-2024 Arts Plan (led by Tony Grybowski) and the Arts Centre of Christchurch’s Digital, Creative and Curatorial Strategy for Rutherford’s Den (2016).

  • I was a smart cities subject matter expert employed by Data61 to support data-driven urban innovation programs, including the $5bn Sydney Science Park and the Greater Sydney Commission. I was also the smart cities consultant for the NSW Government’s White Bay Innovation Precinct, where I set out a framework for working with Google as an anchor tenant and establishing new data partnerships around shared value. I worked with both Data61 and CSIRO Land and Water on urban indicator frameworks for CSIRO Urban Living Labs and smart cities programs. I was a lead author on the Committee for Sydney’s #wethecity3: Towards a Smart, Data-Driven Sydney with Tim Williams (pdf here).

  • During 2020 I worked with Landcom to develop long-term arts, creative placemaking and urban resilience strategy on the Sydney Metro Northwest Places Program.

Research

  • In 2019 I published a book on Platform Urbanism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). This navigates the historical transformation of urban technologies in the early 2000s into major digital platforms, and sets out new engagement models for digital urban culture. Drop me a line if you’d like me to send you a sample.

  • I was a UK-funded postdoctoral fellow between 2013-2017 in a field I named ‘platform urbanism’ (note: not smart cities!), which has now become an established field of urban research. My research papers are published in a range of international journals and can be viewed here.

  • I’m a QUT Industry Fellow in Design and Urban Informatics. I am currently researching the application of public value frameworks to city innovation projects, in partnership with the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose.

  • My PhD addressed the emergence of ‘real time cities’ and one of the first to critically and creatively interrogate the potentials and pitfalls of data-driven urbanism. See The Death and Life of the Real-Time City: Reimagining the city of digital urbanism (Awarded 2011).

Creative Practice & Writing

  • I established Esem Projects in 2011 as a creative platform for collaboration around urban storytelling projects. After over ten years of practice, we’ve delivered innovative, cross-platform digital programs with over 40 community and creative groups. Check out Esem Projects

  • I established STORYBOX in 2020 as a different approach to outdoor media. We call it public space media. The program has supported partnership programming with organisations spanning the ABC, CSIRO, NFSA, AFTRS, SWF and Story Factory. STORYBOX brings hybrid digital storytelling and engagement models into public precincts. See STORYBOX.

  • I am regularly commissioned to write for Inside Story on a range of contemporary urban issues and ideas.

  • I’m a sound designer who creates immersive soundscapes and soundwalks (mostly now through Esem Projects).

  • I created the ABC’s first location-based content platform Sydney Sidetracks (Wayback Machine link here), as part of my PhD on sound-driven approaches to the real-time city. My PhD and associated creative assets can be found archived at my old blog Sites and Sounds

Media Policy and Technology

  • My early career was in media and telecommunications policy. I was a policy adviser to the Minister for Communications in the early 2000s, and later a fellow at the media and telecommunications think tank Network Insight, led by former ABC Chair Professor Mark Armstrong, and policy researcher at the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

  • I joined the ABC in 2004 to develop R&D programs in the early days of interactive TV, ‘data-casting’ and something called ‘broadband’. In 2011 I was recruited by the ABC to lead the first strategic pilots of the ABC’s digital emergencies platform, integrating social media, radio and television emergence broadcasts over the 2011-12 summer emergency season.