PatChats

Rex Betar is embodied courage. Born premature with immense physical challenges are enough to limit many. Rex also faced huge environmental challenges. He taught himself to walk at age 12 deying doctors. Had a sucessful amaterur wrestling career in his teens up against able bodied athletes. The first member of his family to complete high school at 18. In 2015 Rex completed his 4th degree, and graduated from the University of Oxford. If you ever think you can’t listen to Rex. He’ll change your mind and heart. Rex is presently Head of strategy at Network Ten and a powerful advicate for disability

Teresa Keating loved to run when growing up in Dublin and has harnessed that energy in the Irish Australian community. Everyone who is anyone knows Teresa with long tenures and immense contribution on the Lansdowne Club Board, as Executive of the Irish Funds, as Manager of the IDA. Few know of the journey from Dublin to working with the most influential people in Irish and Australian businesses and govenments. This conversation follows the joys and challenges of meeting life as it is and discovering your own confidence and power along the way. Enjoy

Ellen Gunning must run on rocket fuel. She talks a mile a minute as she tells stories, writes books, runs a PR agency and teaches it. Ellen understands the importance of effective communication. 25 years earns a lot of experience, stories and Ellen’s passion is to empower others to create an impact in others lives.

Damian Ennis trained as an architect and is now working as a large infrastructure project manageer. It’s Damian’s curiosity of worlds he yet doesn’t know that is so engaging. He hails from an innovative town in County Limerick and has applied this innovative appraoch to his career and life.

Not everyone has had a film made about their life but that’s just for starters. Mary was the youngest person to gold at the Chelsea Flower Show and designs wonderful gardens. She wrote a book called Garden Awakening to encourage us into conversation with our natural world and has recently started a movement called lets build an ark. Mary is on a mission to give land back to nature. She’s more than a climate change activist. She is an impassioned voice to make us aware of the immense damage of biodiversity and habitat loss and how small actions can make a huge difference to how we see ourselves, our relationship with our planet and everything else. You’ll love listening to Mary. It’s a lively exchange that certainly inspired me into action.

Alan Costello holds the rare honour of representing both Mayo and Sligo at All levels of Intercounty football before taking a look at life Down Under and has not looked back up to the Northern Hemisphere since. After two weeks in construction he decided his business training was a better use of his time, energy and gifts and worked in sales for Setanta Sports and eBay. When his boss left eBay in 2015 he was offered his job but instead decided to follow him and joined a small start up named Afterpay as one of its earliest employees (#3). It has grown up to be among the ASX 100 businesses with a presence in ANZ, UK, USA. Their 2018 annual report shows a growth from $29 million to $143 million. Come and listen to Alan and hear the story and the challenge change from being in a start up that grows up.

Fadi Chalouhy shared the status of those born out of wedlock before 1987 in Ireland. He was stateless. A few months ago when he became the first stateless person to be granted Permanent Residency in Australia. Globally more than 12 million people are stateless. It means you are not recognised as having rights int he place you were born: that's no healthcare, no education, no bank account, now job and certainly no right to vote or a passport. Fadi's father a Syrian never registered his birth to his Lebanese mother before he abandoned both 6 months after Fadi's birth. This is a remarkable story of triumph in the face of adversity and of how the hand of fate can take care of us while it also deals seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Here's Fadi's story

Eamon Eastwood my co-founder of PatChats is the founder of TasteIreland. TasteIreland was born to fulfill the Irish food homesickness in Australia. It started with Taytos and has grown to a coterie of 100 brand and stocked in 250+ Woolworth stores. Now when you have an idea you have no real clue what is actually involved no matter how logical it looks. Eamon will take us on his adventure of logistics and distribution all in the name of you feeling that taste of home. You'll love your Taytos 100 times more. Better still make a cup of Barry's tea to accompany you as you listen. Here's Eamon's story

Conor Lyne is our youngest speaker thus far and also our first and likely only skier :-) given Ireland and skiing rarely happen in the same sentence. Born in the UK to Irish parents and raised in Utah (hence the skiing). His childhood was spent skiing in winter and summers on the west coast of Ireland. His dream of skiing in the Olympics meant endless days of training since the tender age of 11. He fulfilled his dream of competing for Ireland in the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia with a broken shoulder. Accomplishing his own dream drove him to be curious about the dreams of others. Over the summer of 2017, he travelled to 21 countries to found Wander Faces, a photography project aimed at deconstructing stereotypes of people around the world. His goal is 100 countries before he is 30. He's already at 52 Here's Conor's story

Claire Mc Carthy is a fundraiser for a children's charity. At the time of the talk she was working at Bear Cottage a beautiful charity in Manly, Sydney that takes care of the child and entire family of children in palliative care. Tragic stories are everyday fare which touch hearts in a way that people are compelled to help as they should be. Claire is no stranger to tragedy herself and talks about how to use stories in your work. We are the conundrum and the creation of the stories we tell ourselves. What stories are you telling others and what stories are you telling yourself. If you change your story could it change anything or everything. Here's Claire and her story

Ciaran Cannon has been in public life since 2004. He is the Fine Gael TD for Galway was chosen as one of Galway people of the year in 2002. He holds the new appointment of Minister for the Diaspora and International Development which sits in the portfolio of the Department of Foreign Affairs. He has the He has a passion for education and has been appointed a UNICEF global champion for education. Ciaran is also a cyclist, father, husband, musician and more.Claire Mc Carthy is the Director Of Philanthropy for the Prince's Trust. She was the fundraising manager at Bear Cottage in Manly for 6 years. Claire has a passion for fundraising and like any good Cork woman knows facing any challenge needs a shift in perspective and a new angle. Claire approaches fundraising through storytelling.

Fostering Irish Culture - Martin Mc Evoy, Professor Ronan McDonald, Martha McEvoy, Ned Sheehy

Galvanising community to have interests and concerns represented - Julien O'Connell, Marty Kavanagh

Building Ireland's Reputation - Carl Walsh, Helen Waldron and Philip O'Sullivan

Experience of Being Irish Overseas - Billy Cantwell and Fidelma Breen

Billy Cantwell was just 23 when he founded the Irish Echo, Australia’s Irish newspaper. The masthead celebrates 30 years in print this year. Over three decades, the Meath-born father-of-three has borne witness to massive changes in the Australian Irish dynamic, the diaspora and the media itself. He has built a reputation as a dynamic editor, publisher and entrepreneur. Billy recently departed News Corp after three and half years as editor of the North Shore Times, one of only two Australian newspapers founded by Rupert Murdoch himself. He is currently focused on plotting a digital future for the Irish Echo as well as scoping other other innovative publishing projects. He passionately believes in the importance of community journalism and thinks hyper-local news may hold the key to building a sustainable media model. Billy is also a vocal advocate for the Irish abroad and believes Ireland needs to rethink its relationship with the diaspora. He wants to explore new ways to connect emigrants around Australia and the world through compelling content.

A discussion with Tony Lynch about starting your own business.

Brian McGeough on technology, the cloud, internet of things and much more.

Kevin Clancy talks all things, from problem solving to stereotypes in an interactive session.

Kingsley Aiken discusses the benefits of travel and working abroad.

Niall Clerkin leads a discussion on the best practices to get yourself a promotion.