2022 Speakers
On Friday 24th June from 7.30 pm, join your hosts Jenn Donovan and Sarah Britz online as they announce the winners of The Australian Rural Business Awards.
Also appearing as guest keynote speakers for the night will be the famous singer/songwriter Melinda Schneider and Jack Delosa from The Entourage.
Keynote Speakers
Melinda Schneider
For over two decades Melinda has been a leading light of the ‘newbreed’ of Australian Country artists both in Australia and the US. However, Melinda’s music career started way before that. In fact, 2019 marks her Ruby anniversary, 40 years in show business.
In a career which began with a stage debut at the age of three, (appearing with her mother, the legendary Mary Schneider) she has kept her family tradition alive by becoming one of Australia’s most sublime singers and popular live performers. But it is through her assured and accomplished song writing that she has really discovered her true voice. Melinda is a two time ARIA nominee and has won numerous awards, including six CMAA Golden Guitars – 2008 Top Selling Album for Stronger, 2005 Album of The Year with Family Tree, APRA Song of The Year for the song Real People and Female Vocalist of The Year in 2003 for The Story of My Life.
Melinda’s songs have been recorded by artists as diverse as John Farnham, Billy Thorpe, Jimmy Little, Olivia Newton-John and Paul Kelly. 2008 brought with it an exciting new phase in Melinda’s career, the launch of her independent record label, Be Music. Melinda released her fifth studio album Be Yourself in 2008 which earned her second ARIA nomination for Best Country Album and a special appearance on Andrew Denton’s, ‘Enough Rope’. Denton chose the title track ‘Be Yourself’, for the closing song on the final episode of the series.
Melinda was awarded her 6th CMAA Golden Guitar for Vocal Collaboration of The Year in January 2009 for her heartwarming duet ‘Still Here,’ with Paul Kelly.
Melinda’s first concept album,Melinda Does Doris –A Tribute ToDoris Daywas released July 2010 through Universal Music. It debuted at #1 on the ARIA Jazz and Blues chart and stayed at the top for 9 weeks, bursting Michael Buble’s bubble, bumping him from the top position he’d held for a combined total of 145 weeks.
In 2011, Melinda starred in her original stage show DORIS, Doris Day – So Much More Than The Girl Next Door. Co-written by Melinda and David Mitchell (of Dusty/Shout fame), this musical tribute to Melinda’s idol enjoyed sell out seasons at Brisbane’s Twelfth Night Theatre and the Adelaide Cabaret Festival and two huge weeks at Melbourne’s Her Majesty’s Theatre. DORIS opened at The Lyric Theatre, Sydney in November 2011 to rave reviews, followed by a sell-out reprise performance at the prestigious Sydney Opera House Concert Hall in April 2012.
Meanwhile, in October 2011, Melinda also released her 9th album Life Begins At 40 – The Ultimate Melinda Schneider Collection. The double CD release marked her milestone birthday and celebrated over three decades of Melinda’ssuccessful recording career.
Melinda entered another wonderful phase of her life with the birth in August 2012 of her beautiful baby boy Sullivan.
In November 2014 Melinda and Beccy Cole collaborated on their #1 charting album ‘Great Women of Country - and The Songs That Made Them’. A National major theatre tour followed in 2015, including the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall. In Oct. 2016 Melinda released Melinda Does Doris…Again – The Movie Songs and has been touring nationally with a concert version of her DORIS show ‘Melinda Does Doris’ A Tribute to Doris Day. Melinda also embarked on a sold-out capital city concert hall tour, including the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall with her tribute to Doris Day and Frank Sinatra, ‘Young at Heart’ with Tom Burlinson in 2017.
In April 2018, Melinda released a new single, ‘My Voice’. Inspired by the #MeToo and #TimesUp movement, the song is truly an anthem of our time and a cathartic, healing experience for people who have long felt isolated or silenced. Profits from MY VOICE downloads helped fund safe workplace programs.
In August 2018, Melinda embarked on a new phase of her versatile career, adding keynote speaker to her resume. Melinda sang and spoke, delivering her message of authenticity during the talk she calls ‘Be Yourself’, at An Inspirational Night with Emma Issacs (Business Chicks) and the Women in Media Conference on the Gold Coast, to a standing ovation.
December 2018 brought with it two more sold out concert hall shows at Sydney Opera House with Hear Me Roar, a celebration of women whose music changed the world.
After being spotted at one of these shows by a sponsor of the renowned event G’DAY USA LA, Melinda was invited to fly to L.A to pay tribute to Helen Reddy on Australia Day in January 2019. Melinda performed ‘I Am Australian’, ‘Delta Dawn and ‘I Am Woman’ to a star studded audience in Hollywood to rave reviews.
In 2020, Melinda became an advocate for mental health and came on board as an Ambassador for Rural Adversity Mental Health Program (RAMHP). After her own lived experience with depression and anxiety Melinda released an EP called ‘Be Gentle on Yourself’, which includes several songs about selfacceptance and self-care.
In 2021, Melinda continued her keynote speaking career, appearing at several high profile Women’s empowerment events, and toured regional areas across Australia, rolling out a series of free wellbeing keynotes and performances in selected rural communities in conjunction with RAMHP.
Jack Delosa
Prior to The Entourage, Jack co-founded MBE Group, which helped small to medium sized businesses raise money from investors. MBE enabled their clients to raise over $300m from investors and would go on to become one of Australia’s fastest growing companies.
Jack also co-founded The Entourage Beanstalk Factory, an organisation that develops strategy and drives performance for large organisations including Comm Bank, Westpac, AMEX, Virgin, Microsoft, News Corp, Suncorp, Hoyts, Australia Post, UTS, The University of Sydney, Monash University, and the Queensland Government.
Along the way, Jack became an investor, investing into companies spanning biotechnology, luxury real estate, finance, ecommerce, food retail, recruitment and even aviation, including one company that became what’s known in Silicon Valley as a ‘unicorn’; a business that goes from $0 to $1 billion within ten years.
In recognition of being one of the country's top entrepreneurs and investors, Jack has been listed in the AFR Young Rich List five times.
Jack’s first book, ‘UnProfessional’, was highly acclaimed, reaching best-seller status within three weeks of launching. His latest book, ‘Unwritten’ outlines the unconventional wisdom he’s become known for, to living a life on purpose and making the world a better place. Unwritten became Australia’s best-selling business book in one week.
His podcast, The Jack Delosa Podcast was listed as iTunes’ number 1 business podcast within 12 hours of launching.
Jack has personally trained, mentored and presented live to over 245,000 entrepreneurs and companies including ASX200 companies, SME’s, federal and state governments, athletes, NRL and AFL clubs, celebrities, and some of the world’s leading entrepreneurs.
In 2010 Jack contributed to the development of the curriculum for The Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship in Johannesburg, South Africa. Jack is regularly called upon by media as a spokesperson for entrepreneurship, regularly contributing to Forbes, GQ, Men’s Health, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Daily Telegraph, Australian Financial Review, Boss Magazine and news.com.au and featuring on Today Tonight, Sunrise, The Morning Show, Peter Switzer, Sky Business, as well as Channel 7, 9 and 10 News.
Jack is also the host of hit television series ‘Entrepreneurs’ on Foxtel.
Your Hosts
Jenn Donovan and Sarah Britz
Jenn Donovan, marketing thought leader, change maker, coach and mentor for small businesses, International keynote speaker, author and podcaster (Small Business Made Simple – over 150 episodes and growing!). Founder of Social Media and Marketing Australia, founder of the extremely successful community Facebook group – Buy From a Bush Business (over 350,000 members) and the Co-Founder of Social Enterprise Spend With Us – Australia’s answer to Amazon but only for rural and regional small businesses.
Jenn’s takes her clients from Invisible to Invincible and is also a community leader, and a community believer and is on a mission to ensure the lost art of Human to Human marketing and community are seeded firmly in everyone’s marketing strategy in 2021 and beyond. Jenn has spent over 12 years building businesses, from being a Property Law Specialist to a Retailer to now a mentor and momentum creator! She has built businesses through all the peaks and troughs, the booms and the busts and is now doing the doing, on the ground, helping other small businesses. Her love for marketing and social media is clear to anyone in her world and she knows that if you can get your marketing right (online and offline), and make it a priority, you can build the business of your dreams, get paid what you deserve and make a bigger difference to the world.
Jenn lives on a farm in the Riverina of NSW, Australia, with husband Ruston and their three children. Jenn has ten chooks, two peacocks, two guinea fowl, one dog and one cat and several pet lambs – she’s banned from going around the sheep in lambing season now!
Connect with Jenn on Instagram @jenndonovan and LinkedIn @jenndonovan or join her Facebook group Like Minded Business Owners – a community of people like you!
Website:
socialmediaandmarketing.com.au
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Sarah Britz is a social change maker, author and Web Designer and Developer specialising in e-commerce for small businesses. She is also the Co-Founder of Spend With Us – Buy From a Bush Business, an online shopping marketplace and community supporting hundreds of Australian rural and regional small businesses to sell online. She has worked in the digital media space for over 20 years and has a broad range of industry experience in design, inception and development. Sarah has a strong passion for helping businesses and individuals fulfil their dreams and bring their ideas to digital life. She specialises in designing websites that stand out, make an impact and get results!
Growing up in the UK, Sarah spent most of her late teens and twenties travelling and working around the world. She and her husband, Andy, emigrated to Australia in 2013. They live on a rural property on the beautiful Central Coast, NSW, the perfect place for their two young children to grow up. Sarah created Spend With Us, the first e-commerce platform that exclusively services rural and regional communities, focusing on supporting businesses impacted by bushfires and drought. During the 2019/20 bushfires, she realised that many small businesses in rural bushfire affected areas had no online presence to keep trading, sell their products, and earn an income when they couldn’t get to markets, or their bricks and mortar stores were closed. Spend With Us helped connect these bush businesses with the city and bring money back into these communities that had seen no tourism come through for months. After the bushfires and drought came COVID-19, which impacted even more small businesses.
Sarah continues to support bushfire, drought, and coronavirus impacted rural and regional Australian small businesses through her work with Spend With Us. In addition, she offers responsive website design and development services via her digital design consultancy to small businesses across Australia and the globe.
Website:
www.sarahbritz.com.au
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/britzdigitaldesign/
LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/sarahbritz/
Frequently Asked Questions About the Awards – click here
Buy From a Bush Business
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Belmondo Cavalli Polyester Cotton Quilt Cover Set Queen
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$106.95$106.95
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Nelson beaded dangles
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$20.00$12.00
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BBQ Master
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