Coming Soon

Hello all,

While waiting to check out of my hotel in Yogyakarta I have updated Ian Pidd's bio below. Now you can read again what an amazing speaker he will be.

Be back in Australia Monday and then I will begin putting the final touches on the Dream Big Conference.

I've learnt some lessons on running conferences here in Indonesia. But I don't know where I am going to find a hundred embroidered water bottle covers? Or thirty punks?

John Harvie - Fourth Speaker

General Manager Deni Play on the Plains Festival Ltd

John is in his fifth year as General Manager of the Deni Play on the Plains Festival Ltd which presents the hugely successful, Deni Ute Muster annually in October at Deniliquin in the Southern Riverina region of New South Wales.

Whilst John has over thirty years of experience in executive management, this has been in the export food manufacturing industry. His role at Deniliquin with the Deni Ute Muster is his first experience in the event management field.

John believes his contribution to the event has been to provide a clear strategic focus, build a sound business foundation and to introduce a solid planning regime.

John also believes in working closely with all stakeholders including sponsors, artists and over 1000 volunteers to ensure that everyone associated with the event continues to have a degree of ownership and pride in the success of the event.

He will provide a valuable insight into strategies employed in maintaining the popularity and success of a major regional event.

More about the Speakers - Anna Loewendahl

Melbourne’s Anna Loewendahl has created theatre in both Australia and internationally, usually with a social agenda. She trained in England, and India (Kerala). She has also worked in Zimbabwe, exploring AIDS, gender & politics with Amakhosi Theatre, Bulawayo, in 1995. She has travelled the world extensively making theatre in communities. In 2009 she received an Asia-Link scholarship to travel to Yogyakarta in Indonesia to work with puppet group Paper Moon, making work in markets, hospitals and community spaces. In 2010, with the aid of a Punctum Inhabit grant she travelled to Mexico to work with Canada's Dragon Dance Theatre.

Anna is co-director and Artistic Director TransVision Arts  (TVA) –, founded in 2006 and Artistic Director and co-producer of Thieves Theatre. TVA is a company dedicated to interrogating social issues through theatre. Anna is highly skilled in Augusta Boal’s forum theatre methods. She has worked across regional Victoria and in New Zealand on issues such as body image, financial literacy, binge drinking, coping with drought, and alcohol and violence (as part of the Dunedin Fringe). She will soon participate in Leeton Shire Council’s Bidgee Binge project, using forum theatre to address the issue of binge drinking in the Riverina, NSW.

Anna has extensive experience working with Festivals, having experience with the Nati Frinj festival, Art Is ... Festival, Awakenings, the Royal Melbourne Children's Hospital's Festival of Healthy Living and the Dunedin Fringe Festival, amongst others.

Registration address - believe the Hype

http://dreambigconf.eventbrite.com.au/

Great discounts for volunteers and artists.

Our Speakers

Ian Pidd

Ian Pidd is a freelance director of theatre and events. He is currently the Artistic Director
of Junction Festival in Launceston, after directing the festival for the first time as part of
the National Regional Arts Conference held in Launceston in August 2010. He was co-
Artistic Director of SAC 35 celebrating the anniversary of the Salamanca Arts Centre in
Hobart. He was for four years Artistic Director of the acclaimed Back to Back Theatre
with whom his productions included Boom Town, the Green Room nominated Minds Eye
and a number of award winning short films. Ian is currently involved in the creation of a
new work with Men Of Steel, premiering at the Malthouse in 2013.


Ian was Creative Director of the Moomba Festival in 1998. From then as Performance
Director of Snuff Puppets Ian created large-scale performances in Japan, Singapore,
Brazil, Europe and in many parts of Australia. His collaborative Snuff Puppet productions
Forest and The Cow Show toured throughout Europe and Asia. In January 2005 Ian
directed the Snuff Puppet opening performance for the World Social Forum in Brazil.
Nyet Net’s Picnic, a large performance with a group of senior indigenous artists, opened
the ASSITEJ festival in Adelaide.


Ian is Programming Artistic Director of The Village, a festival of gorgeous short works
which has an annual incarnation in Melbourne, and celebrated seasons in regional
Victoria and Tasmania, including as part of the last 7 Falls Festivals in Lorne (VIC) and
Marion Bay (TAS). Ian was Chair of the Melbourne Fringe Festival from 1997 to 2002. In
1998 Ian was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to undertake work with theatre companies
and festivals in New York and Europe.


Ian has directed a number of large-scale CCD projects including Material World (an
installation for Fed Square made in collaboration with asylum seekers), The Bonegilla
Experience (a multi art form festival with mature migrants) and co-directed with Jessica
Wilson The Western Ring Cycle (a series of bus-theatre-works created with diverse
communities in Melbourne’s West.)


Ian was until recently a member of the Performing Arts Committee of Asialink, and has
undertaken a number of creative projects in the region. He has directed a series of
projects based in Yogyakarta, including events for the Yogya festival and a major project
with Indonesian Architect Eko Prawoto. He recently completed a post-graduate research
project at the Centre For Creative Arts at Melbourne University based on this work in
Yogyakarta.

Joey Ruigrok van der Werven

Joey is an Australian freelance designer and inventor of sets, structures, rigging and contraptions for theatre. His designs are always an intrinsic part of the narrative. They are more than just a backdrop with which the performers need to interact.

Prior to moving to Australia in 1996 he was key artist and technical manager of Dogtroep, one of Europe’s renowned, site-specific theatre companies.

In Australia Joey has designed and built for Stalker, Marrugeku, Legs on the Wall, Gravity Feed, Kantanka and Urban Theatre Productions.

Incidental productions for which he was co-writer and designer/engineer are: ‘Dream Masons’ on the façade of Salamanca Arts Centre in Hobart, Tasmania; he directed his own site specific show ‘Volta’, a designer driven event in the foyer of ‘Carriage Works’, Sydney; he designed and directed 'the Lunchbox', an opera in Hobart for IHOS; and he co-wrote and designed 'FireWater', a large scale water spectacle in the harbour of Sydney as part of the first Vivid festival.

In 2009 he received a Theatre board Fellowship. This year Joey designed the Perth International Arts Festival's impressive new contemporary music hub, the Festival Gardens, leading a team of WA visual artists.

Joey also leads workshops in the designing and making of performing objects and installations, and he teaches methodology to performance makers for self-devised, site and community specific visual theatre.

Stay tuned, more to come ...

Dream Big Conference