Digital Noir Presents

In this episode, Sam chats with founder and educator Nicole Dyson. We always really enjoy chatting to Nicole and hearing about the ways she is challenging education systems, inspiring young people and building a new way of learning and adapting for kids in a world that is rapidly changing. We are now in a world where the average 12 year old will have 17 jobs in their career and 50% of jobs won't even exist at the point that young people leave school. Nicole is providing new ways for students to learn, to experiment and explore. Links:Nicole DysonFuture Anything The Art Of Gathering book by Priya Parker

This week Sam chats with entrepreneur, journalist and creator of Young Blood Men's Mental Health, Callum MacPherson. Young Blood is an amazing podcast all about men's mental health, challenging stigmas and striving for a world with less suicide. They chat about Callum's past in the media, how he is building his company, meeting amazing people and sharing life-changing stories. People's attitudes towards mental health has changed a lot over the past few years, Sam and Callum chat about what this means for workplaces, teams and how to create spaces where people can be open about issues.Links: Callum MacPhersonYoung Blood Mens Mental Health

Lauren is a Social Impact Specialist. She works for the Atlassian Foundation and was here in Adelaide to run a session at Southstart. Lauren works with dynamic, creative and purpose-driven teams and leaders. She had some great insight into companies that really live their values and encourage their teams, building aligned teams of people.

In this episode I chat with Ben Colley who works for Teamgage and founded the GOOD Product community here in Adelaide. I've been keen to have Ben on the podcast for a while, he has a really interesting background and has some great experience working with startups and building diverse teams - something I was really keen to chat about.

Purpose is a bit of a buzz word at the moment but it's something that is really important to people, and more and more it is essential to think about for customers. It's something I have been going back and fourth on for for a while, often it is assumed that to make an impact, your purpose needs to be huge - something that will change the world. I am trying to reframe this, I think we can approach it more simply with smaller goals that actually still create a big impact - to do meaningful work with your team, choosing partners who align with your goals and working in a way that can help our communities.Everything we do these days says something about us, where we buy our clothes, what food we eat and especially where we work. People want to be a part of something they believe in.

At Digital Noir, we work in a creative environment and industry so creativity is kind of a given but creativity is in everyone, and in all industries. Creativity is how we approach problems, how we look at things, how we work with different skillsets to get to a common goal. So many business practices can really stifle creativity - we need to allow the time and the space for new ideas, creativity and ambiguity.

Fear is something that affects people in all walks of life. In all jobs and industries. It's an extremely strong emotion and something that can really affect our ability to perform at our best. We discuss Fear with our guests and interestingly hear it described in so many ways - all of our guests had a different take on how it can manifest in situations and ways of confronting it.

This season, each episode is a mash up of different conversations centred around a theme. This week's subject is Diversity. It's something we've been thinking about and discussing on the podcast for a while. Not just integrating diversity at a "high" level in a company, but actually looking at practicalities and some real issues faced by current and new staff. All these conversations were recorded live at SouthStart.In this episode I speak with Sally-Ann Williams - CEO at Cicada Innovations, Lauren Capelin - Principal at Starmate, Katrina Dunn - Global MD Impact Capital - Catalize, Sarah Nolet - General Partner at Tenacious Ventures

This is the first episode of our new format! This season, each episode is a mash up of a few different conversations centred around a theme. All these conversations were recorded live at SouthStart.This week's topic is The Future of Work. It's something I've been thinking about for a while.With Covid and its huge impact on all of our lives, changes to the working world really were fast tracked. As expected, we spoke a lot about pandemic and how work-life has changed, but we also got into how this can and should can be personalised - something that works really well for one person could not be right for another.In this episode I speak with Emma Weston - Founder / CEO at Agridigital, Flavia Tata Nardini Co-Founder & CEO at Fleet Space, Lauren Capelin - Principal at Startmate, Julie Trell - Chief Play Officer at Playful Purpose, Katherine Boiciuc - Associate Director at Maximus, Sarah Nolet - General Partner at Tenacious Ventures and Nicole Dyson - Founder at Future Anything.

In this episode, we speak with Craig Swann from Southstart. I love chatting with Craig. He is so passionate about building community and doing it in the most 'frictionless' way possible. We spoke a few weeks out from the 2021 Southstart Conference Emergence.

I really enjoyed my chat with Nick. He is best known as the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Linktree. If you have not heard of them I am not sure what rock you have been under! Linktree is a tech platform that connects audiences to the online ecosystems of brands, celebrities, creators and causes. I am sure many of you have it on your Instagram account as we speak. Nick is a fellow designer and has lead a really interesting career.

It was a pleasure chatting with Cormac. He was speaking at Pause Fest last year and we sat down and had a wide-ranging conversation. Storytelling is at the heart of everything Cormac does and in our chat, I discoed it has been a constant thread in his life and career, starting from, his Punk Rock roots in Ireland and taking him around the world in a variety of roles. Some key areas of the conversation were:The future of the Cannabis industry in AustraliaChanging the narrative on cannabisMedia narratives setting us apart and we how can deal with thatHow a DIY punk rock ethic can help you in businessHow to learn and grow as a modern marketerWhat is Ethical Marketing?Thanks to Pausefest for making the conversation possible and to Cormac for his time!

Alastair Simpson is a leader and mentor, serving as VP of Design at Dropbox. He loves working with multi-disciplinary teams to solve complex business and interaction design challenges. When we spoke to him, he was head of design at Atlassian, leading a cross-geo design team across a portfolio of their cloud Products and Platforms; Trello, Confluence, Platform, Design System, Ecosystem and Growth. He hails from the UK but has spent time living and working in Australia and Sydney and is a passionate advocate for design becoming more central to modern business. We spoke to him at Pausefest about design in the modern world, leadership, and finding a mentor. Enjoy!

On this weeks episode, we sat down with Trent Clews-de Castella - Co-founder of Phoria. PHORIA is a world-leading immersive tech studio that specialises in cutting-edge Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality (VR/AR/MR/XR) technology. Trent started the business with some friends from school and they have grown to a team of over 30 people in Melbourne. We met Trent as they were demoing some of their interactive experiences live from Pause fest earlier in the year. We discussed the real-world use cases of VR and AR and what the future of the space looks like. What it is like growing a business with three mates and some insights into fast growth.

This week on Humans Aren't Robots we present a fantastic conversation with the world's leading authority on sextech, Bryony Cole. Sex Tech you say? What is that? Oh, just a 30 30 dollar industry and valued at 130 billion over the next 5 years. A perfect guest for our podcast. I started the chat by asking Bryony what one of the most defining moments in her life has been and from there we tackle a number of topics including changing the narrative around sex, sex tech and what it means to be a male in 2020! A fascinating conversation, thanks Bryony!

I had such a fun time talking with Miles Orkin. Miles is a UX lead at Google and spends a lot of his time thinking about how he can empower teams. Miles started his career writing to Thrasher magazine. Which basically makes him my hero! Miles had some fantastic insights into how to create an environment in your workplace that is geared towards maximum happiness and success from teams.

I was really excited to sit down with Dom Pym who is the Co-Founder of Up Bank and software development company Ferocia. I have heard Dom speak a few times and have been a fan of Up since it launched a few years ago. If you have not come across Up, it is at the forefront of changing the way we think about bank and banking. I fell in love with their customer-centric approach and attention to small detail. Things that I love in any product, especially ones as integral to everyday life as banking. Dom has had an interesting career covering many roles and I took this opportunity to dive int his mind and uncover some gems for all of you.

It was an absolute pleasure to meet and chat with Kate earlier this year at Pausefest. Kate has followed her curiosity and passion and found herself the director of design at NEST which is now a Google company. She studied industrial design here in Australia and had dreams of designing more human connections with computers. She started her career at Emu design in Brisbane at a time when there were only a handful of serious product agencies here in Aus. Her career has taken her to Finland working with Nokia and to the heart of silicon valley with Twitter and Amazon. We spoke about some of the differences in culture across these companies and how they let their employees flourish at work.I am really interested in the bridge between industrial design and interface design. I think back to 2000 in my final year of high school, in my design class we worked on designing mobile phones, looking at new form factors (mine looked like a slightly slimmer 5210

Welcome to Season 2 of Human's Aren't Robots. In this series of conversations we dive into the realm of creative leadership with humans from some of the worlds most successful companies. We have guests from Google, Atlassian, Nest, Phoria, The future of Sex, Up Bank and more - We touch on a wide range of topics with Creative leadership and Design as the central theme - but get into punk rock, skateboarding, sex toys and much much more. We were podcasting live from Pause Fest 2020 - just prior to COVID and the end of travelling podcasts as we knew it! We hope you enjoy this season.

Following another week of rapidly changing new stories, government updates and more uncertainty, I reached out to Jim Antonopoulos, a fellow designer and friend who's thoughts on leadership and teams I find extremely interesting and thought-provoking. Jim runs Tank, a strategic design & innovation consultancy - if you aren't already subscribed to his weekly newsletter I'd definitely recommend signing up here at marchfirst.com.au

There is A LOT of information going around at the moment, some of it helpful, some less so. I got in touch with Michael and Tim from HT Capital, clients of ours who are perfectly positioned to offer a helpful perspective to small business owners in the same position as us.We discussed the importance of small businesses really taking the time now to take a step back, look at their cashflow, pipeline (short and longer-term), different scenarios and how the situation could affect their individual business; rather than diving immediately into getting access to government stimulus packages. It's important to assess your own situation, as every business is unique. How can you shape your business to be in the best possible position in 12 months time?

We were joined at _southstart by investor and entrepreneur - Steve Baxter. Most people will know Steve from Shark Tank Australia but his career is a lot more extensive than that. He has worked with many successful companies in leading roles over the last 25 years, roles that include Founder, Director, CEO and more.We discussed the work ethic of young people and how it's changed since Steve's earlier work with start-ups; with an insight into the difference between millennials entering the workforce now vs the generation that were starting out just after the recession of the 90s.I asked Steve how he maintains his teams, he likes to keep it old school – no ping pong tables and no working from home.And of course, I had to ask Steve about his time on Shark Tank and whether, as an investor, it was beneficial. Also, touching on the Beer Pal pitch, an app we developed.A great chat with some insights into an old school work culture in a modern environment. Enjoy!

In this episode from _southstart I sat down with three incredible people: Adam McCurdie, Mark Reading and Sarah Gun. They were a part of a panel called “Social Impact: The Time is Now”, a really interesting discussion that dove into how we can align technology with humanity to tackle some of the most pressing issues that we face. We take a look into their worlds and what lies ahead for each of them.Mark is Head of the Foundation and the Australian Lead for the Pledge 1% Foundation. This foundation encourages, inspires and assists companies to pledge 1% of either their equity, profit, time or products to a chosen cause.Adam is the co-founder and director of Humanitix. A ticketing platform that allows events to make an impact as 100% of booking fees goes towards closing the education gap. They have programs helping girls go to school, scholarships available for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, and give nutritious meals to kids who need it as well as educating them on the importance of a balanced diet for a healthy body and mind.Sarah is the founder of GOGO Events, an Adelaide based company that employs those at risk of and facing homelessness. They run elaborate gala award nights, corporate celebrations, community festivals and more. They are also founding members of Carbon Neutral Adelaide, ensuring to take care of the planet by choosing local suppliers and producers.This was such a great chat and really inspired me to want to do more. I have signed our team at Digital Noir up to Pledge 1% and everyone has really got on board with this and we're having some great conversations about how we can donate our time and expertise. Watch this space!

Adelaide local, Devin Mancuso (now based in California) has worked for Google for almost 4 years, initially as a Senior Interaction Designer and now in Design Strategy, Platforms and Ecosystems. I had a really interesting chat with him about so many different topics. We discussed how he got into the design space, recounting the exact moment he really fell in love with it (while studying computer science and business management). As well as the struggles of teaching himself UX at a time when there really wasn't a lot of information available. We talked about the importance of having a great user experience in apps, how people made decisions before designers were really a thing, and what human-centred design means to him. We also dive into how design strategy became something he wanted to pursue, and where he got a chance to do this at Google initially. He really paints a picture of the energy that people in Silicon Valley feel, and how exhausting it can sometimes be! Showing the importance of aligning yourself with what you want to do and who you want to be. This is a great chat to check out for anyone working or with an interest in the design space. Enjoy!

In our last PauseFest podcast from 2019 we chat with Ben Lee, Founder and Chief Revenue Office at Rootstrap. If you've never heard of these guys before, you should really check them out - they're known as globally-recognised digital masters and have worked with Google, Master Class and heaps of other exciting businesses. In our chat we discuss how Ben is taking a different approach to the usual 'entrepreneur thing'. He's stopped posting as much, stopped vlogging, stopped doing eternal podcasting and is focusing more on his work and his team. Ben and I also touched on the short term success that exists in the current climate; brands with so much exposure and thousands of followers can be forgotten about the next day. People's attention span is so short these days, it can be hard for businesses to stay afloat. We also got into a discussion about distributed teams, offshoring, and the importance of having as much 'in-person' time as possible. Ben also shares his insight into how the Australian start-up market is different to what he's used to in America, and what surprised him most! This was another exciting chat that I'm excited to share. Enjoy!

Sitting down with Elaine Stead again was exciting. Since our last chat, Elaine has been working with the South Australian Venture Capital Fund, doing some great things here in Adelaide. We got into the importance of having a purpose. Knowing the "why" of your business will keep you on track and focused, whether you're doing great or shit's hitting the fan. Elaine also gave us some insight to what the SAVCF are looking for when entrepreneurs and founders come to them with their ideas. As well as give us some tips on approaching and meeting with venture capitalists; what makes people stand out, how you should act and how to get on their radar. This is a great chat to listen to if you're starting a business or thinking of taking your current business to the next level! Enjoy.

It was exciting sitting down with Penny Locaso again, if you've been listening to our podcasts for a while, you'll remember we talked to her at _southstart last year. Penny founded Bkindred and calls herself a "happiness hacker". She teaches people how to slow down, think more, and make decisions to adapt, coining the term Intentional Adaptability Quotient (IAQ) - a means of measuring how skilled someone is at making an intentional change in a complex environment that's evolving at speed. We dove into the theme of penny's talk at _southstart, discussing the busy epidemic. How as a society, people are forced to cram as much stuff into their day as possible leading to bad mental health, especially anxiety. Penny spills some of her hacks for productivity and managing her work into a small portion of her day. This is an inspiring conversation that challenges people to think differently, enjoy!

As our world is taken over by more products and services than ever before, it's the job of people like Laura Ryan to ensure that these will assist and benefit people's wellbeing. I sat down to discuss this with her at PauseFest last year. Laura is the Strategy Director at Mentally Friendly, an exciting design and innovation studio with a human-centred approach.   We talked about what wellbeing (really) is and where it can come from - especially in the workplace. A feeling of wellbeing stemming from a sense of purpose, by doing something that matters to you, by being empathetic. Laura refers to herself as a designer, even though she says she can't draw, she works as part of the design team using research and strategy to help the process, rather than designing in the traditional sense.  We both believe that designers have a responsibility when it comes to marrying profit with empathy and ensuring that what they produce doesn't cause distress or concern to the user. We chatted about all this and more. Another very fitting podcast for our Humans Aren't Robots series. Enjoy.

Sitting down at SouthStart with Alex Moss over some wine sparked an exciting conversation. She is the CEO and Head designer of Canaria Technologies, a cutting edge tech company that brings together the space, mining and medicine industries into one little wearable that can monitor and track the wearers vital signs. Alex has not always worked in this space though, she comes from a fashion, design, and art background. After reflection, she decided she wanted to do something different. Something that would make a difference. For nine months, she taught herself medical device engineering in a garage and in 2016 won the NASA Hackathon Best Use of Hardware. This hardware has been altered since then, making it more appropriate for use in the mining industry. We got to discuss where the inspiration for the device came from and how she managed to keep her idea alive for long enough to see it launch. She also tells us what she has in store for the future of the company. This is a chat I'm excited to share, enjoy.

In this episode from _southstart, I sat down with Dan Levy who I've known for a while now. His business, More Space For Light, uses design thinking methods to find problems within companies and find ways to solve them. They look at customer/user experience, strategy and consultation, with specialisation in design sprints and workshop programs. Dan gives us a rundown of how the whole process works and how implementing these strategies can be beneficial to a business. We were also lucky enough to hear the beautiful story behind his company's name, and how it inspired a mantra that Dan stands behind. Hopefully, I can have another exciting chat with Dan soon. Enjoy.

At South Start 2019, I got to sit down in our podcasting tent and chat with Dr Jemma Green. We found out exactly how Jemma went from working mainstream finance in a bank to finding a passion in sustainability. Jemma is the executive chairman at Power Ledger where renewable energy is at the forefront of their mission. Through the utilisation of blockchain, Power Ledger have enabled peer-to-peer trading of excess solar electricity. We discuss the importance of disruptive innovation in terms of leading to big change and exactly how her tech works. With the current nature of the climate, looking towards sustainable methods is a rising importance. This is a great listen for anyone interested in making a change to solar energy or for those interested in Power Ledgers operations. Enjoy!

I finally got the chance to chat with Amelie Veale from Be The Drop, another awesome Adelaide based podcast. In this episode, we talk about branding, culture, customer services, and get meta about podcasting. We also discuss the way podcasting has grown for both of us. This was a really exciting chat and a great listen for anyone thinking of starting their own podcast, enjoy!

At Pause Fest, I got the chance to sit down with Stephanie Winkler. She is currently the Head of Insights for VICE, previously in the Senior Digital Strategist role. Stephanie also does a lot of work with General Assembly, an organisation that takes young people and equips them with skills in marketing, coding, UX and Design, and more. We talked about how content and relationships at VICE have been bettered using data. As well as touching on how VICE do their best to take refreshing approaches to their work, accommodating the need for new exciting content that their audience craves. I hope I get to talk with Stephanie next year at Pause Fest 2020.

I am excited to share this chat with you all. Lou Wiess is the CMO At Shutterstock. If you have ever worked in or around a creative role, you would have heard of them. They are the worlds most abundant source of stock assets. Lou knows his shit! Having been involved in the world of digital marketing for the lifespan of the modern web. Speaking to Lou, you get the impression he has been ahead of a few curves and has racked up an impressive wealth of experience in his field. We touched on some of this history and then took a dive into the current state of stock content and where Shutterstock want to take it. We also spoke about how you can leverage content to create viral campaigns. He was a pleasure to chat with, and I could have gone on for a lot longer. Hopefully, I can catch him for a beer in New York over Christmas.

Sam was joined at Pause Fest by Sam Gledhill and Marcus Nance from the Movember Foundation. Together they discuss how a charity can become such a success and what the future of mental health support holds.

When I first heard that someone was doing 'cool stuff' on the Popeye, my ears pricked up. For those of you not here in Adelaide, the Popeye is a historic cruise boat that motors up and down our humble Torrens River. Many of us would have fond memories as kids going for a ride or spotting it while walking the bank or visiting the zoo. Bianca Shuman has recently taken over the wheel from her dad; she is in her twenties and has a new vision for the Popeye. I was excited to sit down with her and discuss the complexities of inheriting a business, changing the popular perception and also looking ahead to the future and helping to shape what might be! A great listen for anyone starting in business or interested in what it might take to get something fresh and innovative off the ground!

I had been podcasting all morning at this point, and Mykel arrived with Anna and suggested he buy a round of beers. The perfect start to a conversation, in my opinion. I had not met Anna before but quickly learnt she does incredible work in the fields of human rights, social work and public policy and had been travelling around Australia in a pop-top combi for several years listening to the stories of First Nations Australians. What followed was a great yarn that touches on the heart of why we wanted to update our name (to humans aren't robots).  Both Anna and Mykel spoke so fluently about some of the challenges that face us as modern humans and the disconnect we often find ourselves in. I particularly loved the concept of Dadirri that Anna brought up - which is an indigenous term for 'deep listening' - something we should all practice more often! I hope you enjoy the chat and please check out both Anna and Mykels work, two shining positive rays of light in a sometimes gloomy world.

I sat down with Craig Swann who is once again the driving force behind Southstart here in Adelaide. Craig is no stranger to our podcast, in fact this is his third chat with us! We will be joining him and his team at the event this year, podcasting live and helping to share some of the incredible ideas! The theme of this year is very much in line with our new re-brand on the podcast - Convergence: Humans - Impact - Technology! Craig discussed the reasoning behind this and what we can expect from the conference convergence!

We're kicking off our new podcast name with a very fitting guest - Stephen Gates! Human's aren't Robots: The people behind the digital. Coming at you from PauseFest, Stephen is currently the head design evangelist at Invision - a company most of us in the creative fields will have heard of (and love). His role, essentially involves going into companies (they partner with 97% of the worlds Fortune 100 brands) to elevate the business impact of design through education, coaching and thought leadership. The Crazy One Podcast: http://thecrazy1.com/

Craig Brown is the CEO of software engineering company, Everest Engineering. Craig is also the founder of LAST Conferences which focus on Lean Agile Systems. LAST Conferences take place in cities around Australia and are curated by local practitioners. To find a conference, follow the prompts at: https://www.lastconference.com/ Read Sam's review of a LAST conference he attended: https://www.digital-noir.com/last-conference-adelaide-review/ Or you can follow the conference or Craig Brown: Twitter: @LASTconf @brown_note LinkedIn: Craig Brown https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigwbrown/ Website: https://everest.engineering/#/

We sat down with Jacqui live from Pausefest to chat about her experience with Sidekicker, a business she co-founded at the age of 22.  Sidekicker is a technology platform that lets businesses hire temporary staff, or as they call them, Sidekicks. Backed by SEEK and with offices in every major city across Australia and New Zealand, they employ 10,000 Sidekickers, connecting them with businesses seeking temporary and casual staff across hospitality, events, office admin, promotions and warehousing.

Sam is joined by Grant Munro, self made entrepreneur and founder of Flashstock. They chat about the scalability of a company, and the importance of providing relevant content to your clients. Grant has created custom content for the likes of Blackberry and Budweiser, and eventually had his company acquired by Shutterstock! A good listen for anybody who works in a service business. Grant Munro: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grantmunro/ Shutterstock: https://custom.shutterstock.com/

Paolo is a user experience designer and leader with a serious CV to his name. He has been instrumental both as a designer and leader of people in companies such as Microsoft, Mercedes and Netflix. He is currently at Google as the director of UX in the YouTube Ads team. Paolo spoke at Pause Fest earlier in the year about 'The 5 P's' - a practical framework that he has put together for leading teams, which we talked about in our chat. As well as this, we discussed his insights on what it takes to lead an innovative team and the state of UX design in 2019. You can find him online at www.i4design.com and @wildchicken. If you're interested in learning more about opportunities at Google, you can check out www.design.google for more information.

This week on Digial Noir Presents, we're joined by Aarron Walter - VP of Design Education at InVision. Aarron draws upon 15 years of experience running product teams and teaching design to help companies enact design best practices. He emphasises that design isn't something to be applied to an end product in hopes of making it pretty, but a problem solving process.

We were really excited to chat with Charlie at Pausefest this year, we have been longtime fans of Bellroy and was really interested to hear more about the behind the scenes at the company. At the time of this conversation, Charlie was the head of flourishing at Bellroy. Helping their team and customer to 'flourish' in life is one of the guiding principles of the business and Charlie had some really interesting insights into how a fast-growing, dynamic organisation can fulfil such a weighty goal. For more info on Pausefest head to www.pausefest.com.au Bellroy - www.bellroy.com.au To hear more podcasts - www.digital-noir.com/digital-noir-presents-podcast/

String built a loyal following on Meerkat and after its death moved across to Snapchat to build an audience to big up the powers of video for personal and business branding. She is great at it. She knows that consistency is key and 'showing up' at the same time every day / week to deliver scheduled, high impact content 'Live' is a brilliant way to build a tribe. That makes sense right? Since those Snapchat days string has moved across other platforms, she was given early access to LinkedIn video and made a HUGE impact on the platform. using the skills she had honed on other platforms, she showed that having a unique voice, personality and style really cuts through, no matter what the audience.

We first met Julia as a part of the 2018 Telstra Business Awards. She was heading up the PR team and we were blown away with the quality of communications around the whole awards and events. We were lucky enough to sit down with her whilst we were podcasting LIVE from Pausefest 2019. We chatted about what it means to be a marketer in 2019, how small business can benefit from PR and the importance of strategy in telling stories. Julia has 10 years experience delivering strategic communications and public relations for some of Australia's largest and most recognisable brands, including Telstra, ExxonMobil, Commonwealth Bank, Western Union and AGL. She understands - and is passionate about sharing - how PR, marketing and communications sit within the broader context of a business and their role in driving the health of a brand, and therefore long-term commercial success You can find more about Julie and Echomakers @ https://www.echomakers.com.au/ She also has her own podcast - https://www.echomakers.com.au/podcast

This week, Christo and I sat down with Phillip Dautell - Tonsley Precinct Director, to trade ideas on the need for expanding co-working spaces, Adelaide as a leading city, Office morale and creating self-sustaining communities in larger cities. The Tonsley Innovation District is driving change and realising the future. It's a tight, focused, vibrant and dynamic development environment, drawing on the best and brightest in one of the world's most liveable cities — Adelaide.

Last week, Sam went down to Plant 4 to hang out with Jessie Spiby, Founder and Taylor Peplow Ball from My Grandma Ben. My Grandma Ben is not your average store/eatery. They have a real passion for sustainability and striving to be more eco-friendly in everything they do, especially their business practices. We had a chat about the importance of community, gardening, preserving food and a whole lot more. You can find My Grandma Ben open from Wednesday to Sunday for late breakfast and lunch and dinner Wednesdays and Fridays at Plant 4 Bowden. More info here: https://mygrandmaben.com/ https://www.facebook.com/my.grandma.ben https://www.instagram.com/my.grandma.ben/ Thanks for your time Taylor and Jessie! You can find more about us @ https://www.digital-noir.com/digital-noir-presents-podcast/ https://www.facebook.com/digitalnoirpresents

This week on Digital Noir Presents, Sam & Nick chat with Elaine Stead, Managing Director of Venture Capital at Blue Sky Alternative Investments to discuss the finance industry and the critical humans factor in business. We touch on Australia's budget spending, ideas and problem solving, and the mental health of business leaders over a bottle of red.

Sadly we did not manage to sit down with Rachael O'Meara at Pause Fest this year but lucky for us she gave up some of her time to jump on Skype and have a chat with Sam. Rachael is the author of Pause. A book which outlines how to create intentional shifts in behaviour to help you lead a more meaningful and satisfying life. It teaches you how to harness the power of giving yourself a break! This is something that we spend a lot of time thinking about here in the studio, so it was fantastic to dive in and find out more from Rachael.