How do you build successful businesses while creating meaningful impact? How can companies foster inclusive cultures during periods of growth?

In this episode of Impact Talks at UTS panelists share their journeys and offer insights on navigating the complexities of entrepreneurship, advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion and responding to current societal shifts.

Speakers

Famey Williams (Githabul), Chief Executive, Aboriginal Housing Office. Famey has over 18 years’ experience working with Aboriginal communities across NSW Government and non-profit sectors, her community and culture serve as a barometer in her roles and she looks to bring that lens to all her interactions professionally.

Gunjan Wadhwa, Co-founder of Astra Health AI. Gunjan has over 10 years of experience across the Technology, Financial Services, Consulting, and Healthcare industries. At Astra Health AI, their mission is to transform the healthcare experience with the power of AI for the better. They are passionate about making it more streamlined and centred around patients.

Heather Thomson, Chief Operating Officer, Global Sisters. Heather’s 25-year professional career has been dedicated to social and economic justice for women. At Global Sisters, she works to scale impact, supporting thousands of women to reach their full economic potential & create a ripple effect of change in their family, community and society.

Adama Kamara, Founder of Just Shea, a skincare brand that uses African botanicals in its formulations and draws deeply from her West African heritage. She has a social background in social services and is a member of the organizing committee for the Africultures Festival, Australia's largest African arts and cultural festival. She is also the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Refugee Council of Australia.

Gabriella Maselli McGrail, Director & Producer, Maselli Film. Gabriella's filmmaking approach empowers creatives through collaboration, reflecting her dynamic career and commitment to championing women.

The panel is chaired by Dr Claire Wright, lecturer and business historian at the UTS Business School teaching and researching Australian corporate networks, governance and diversity in leadership.

Impact Talks at UTS is produced by UTS Impact Studios, with sound engineering by Alison Zhuang.

Kidfluencers are social media influencers with accounts managed by adults.

This global trend casts children as brand ambassadors but with their ‘everyday life’ as the show.

• What's the risk of harm to kid influencers?
• Can children consent to their private life being readily available online?
• How do we draw the line between play and labour?
• What is 'playbour'?
• When a guardian controls the 'talent', how do children access income?
• If you're a guardian of a kidfluencer, or a parent sharing content about your kids, what practical things can protect their privacy on social media?

Speakers

Dr Genevieve Wilkinson, senior lecturer in the Faculty of Law, University of Technology Sydney.

Kate Delmo, Head of Discipline for Strategic Communication in the School of Communication, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Technology Sydney.

Stephanie Scicchitano, PR expert from Born Bred Talent

Chantel Mila Ibbotson, content creator

This episode was recorded at UTS House as part of SXSW Sydney 2024.

UTS House at SXSW Sydney 2024 explored future trends and emerging technology from leading academics and industry experts in a series of interviews and panel discussions across the week.

Impact Talks at UTS is produced by UTS Impact Studios, with sound engineering by Alison Zhuang.

For the first time, a new report quantifies the employment and educational impacts of domestic violence on Australian women.

Professor Anne Summers AO’s new report, The Cost of domestic violence to women’s employment and education, quantifies the financial impact on women for the first time.

This report builds on her groundbreaking previous report, The Choice: Violence or Poverty.

Professor Summers presented the grim findings that show the experience of domestic violence is responsible for women’s lower labour force participation rate, and for students dropping out of university without completing their degrees. Both have significant implications for women’s longer-term financial well-being.

In this session, Professor Summers and Jess Hill discussed the implications of these findings for women’s progress towards full equality, and what they mean for our continuing struggle to reduce domestic violence.

This event was hosted by the UTS Business School and Centre for Social Justice & Inclusion. Watch a video recording of the event.

Speakers

Anne Summers AO is currently Professor of Domestic and Family Violence at the University of Technology of Sydney Business School. She has been awarded substantial funding by the Paul Ramsay Foundation and UTS to continue her innovative data-based research into domestic violence in Australia. Her report, The Choice: Violence or Poverty (2022), used previously unpublished ABS data to reveal the far greater prevalence of domestic violence than was previously known, and especially the shockingly high incidence among women who have become single mothers as a result. The report influenced the federal government to make changes in the 2023 federal budget to the payment system for single mothers, enabling these mothers to remain on the Parenting Payment until their youngest child reaches the age of 14.

Previously, Anne has advised Prime Ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, run the Office of the Status of Women, been Canberra Bureau Chief for the Australian Financial Review newspaper, been editor-in-chief of America’s leading feminist magazine Ms., editor of Good Weekend, chair of the Board of Greenpeace International and a Trustee of the Powerhouse Museum. She was appointed an officer of the Order of Australia for her services to journalism and to women in 1989; had her image on a postage stamp as an Australian Legend in 2011 and in 2017 was inducted into the Australian Media Hall of Fame.

Jess Hill has become one of Australia's most recognised and respected thinkers on gendered violence. In addition to her broadcast work - two highly acclaimed docuseries on SBS, a Quarterly Essay titled The Reckoning, and a podcast series on coercive control titled The Trap - she has spoken at almost 400 events to diverse audiences across the country. Her work has received multiple awards, including two Walkley Awards, an Amnesty International Award and the Stella Prize in 2020. In 2023, she was named the marie claire Changemaker of the Year and in 2024, she was awarded the NSW Premier’s Woman of Excellence.

Credits

Sound engineering by Alison Zhuang.

Impact Talks at UTS is produced by Impact Studios.