Hip Hop has been subject to extraordinary amounts of police attention in recent years. In NSW alone, the lyrics of drill bands have been censored, gigs closed down, artists harassed and 'rapper music' even banned (briefly) at the Royal Easter Show. Police have used laws on musicians that were originally originally created to curtail alleged terrorists and bikie gangs Musicians of colour have been especially affected. This echoes similar trends overseas, especially in the UK. Such policing limits creativity, self-expression and possibilities for entrepreneurship. This panel will look at the current situation for hip hop and drill artists, and will examine how we change this in the future.

So much about being a creative artist requires knowing and sharing parts of your authentic self. But with texting, WhatsApp, social media, YouTube, Discord, and more dominating more and more of our communication, it can be hard to know how to maintain that authenticity while still maintaining your own personal and private life (which is so much of where the creative fire comes from). In this conversation, we will discuss ways to connect authentically with your community while still preserving and replenishing your own personal resources to keep yourself healthy, happy, and ready for more.

We hear a lot about startups being launched, new ideas coming to fruition, companies raising capital and making their first few key hires… but we rarely hear about the journey from “startup” to “scale-up”. Scaling a business is not easy. Many startups get to a certain level and then struggle to grow any further. Because frankly, it requires guts. It's about knowing when something isn't working and not being afraid to rewrite your business strategy along the way to keep scaling. This is something experienced founders, Alex Zaccaria from Linktree, Mina Nada from Zoomo (formerly Bolt Bikes) and Mark Bouris from Yellow Brick Road have experienced in some way or another, and in this session, will help others with a crash course on how to scale a business. Together Zaccaria, Nada and Bouris will unpack the risks and challenges of scaling, identifying when it is time to pivot your business to grow, and the many lessons they wish they knew when beginning their scale up journeys.