Brisbane Launch Event: Building Better Businesses

Stronger: work it, make it, do it, makes us harder, better, faster, stronger, now that, that don’t kill me, can only make me stronger.

Kanye knows it, Dolly knows it, even Kenny Rogers knows it. What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, but how do we keep going when the going gets tough? How do we meet the challenge of business in today’s climate? How do you make the right decisions, building ethical businesses that have impact, all while managing to muster staying power when you’ve been knocked down, and down again.

If you are looking for an evening of 100% pure connected goodness with epic humans building impact startups and scale-ups, do not miss this event. Tickets are very limited!

Hosted by Australian Co-Founders Odette Barry (Founder of Hack Your Own PR) and Chris Edwards (Founder of Honeycombers) this event includes a cocktail, canapes and a powerful panel discussion with trailblazers: Erica Bartle, Head of Communications & Impact at Outland Denim; Rachel Burke, Designer and Artist; and Ashley Baxter, founder of Monty Compost Co.

About the panellists

Rachel Burke

Rachel Burke is a practising multidisciplinary artist, designer, and author based in Brisbane, Australia. Known for her vibrant, tactile wearable artworks and iconic tinsel creations, her work is inspired by a love for naive craft materials and transforming the mundane into the magical. She has worked on many creative collaborations with global brands including Disney, LEGO, Barbie, and ASOS and dressed many celebrities, including Harry Styles, Drew Barrymore, Kesha, and Beyonce’s kiddo Blue Ivy. She has also freelanced as a fashion stylist for Frankie Magazine and more recently as a global experiential stylist for Airbnb – activating iconic spaces like Hobbiton and the Bluey House.

Erica Bartle

Erica is a communications professional and journalist with 20 years experience in the media industry and a special interest in international development, social justice, sustainability, macroeconomics, and poverty alleviation. As head of communications and impact at The Outland Group, Erica is responsible for maintaining the core missional focus of the organisation through the stewardship of social impact and sustainability initiatives. It is also her responsibility to craft messaging and communications strategies, alongside the marketing team and CEO, to help the Outland Group maintain and differentiate its position and voice in the marketplace.

Ashley Baxter

Ashley is the founder and CEO of Monty Compost Co, a sustainability startup working to return all food and organic waste back into our soils. While studying at the University of Queensland, alongside volunteering with environmental groups, she saw the massive global issues surrounding waste, the impact potential of recycling and the role that innovative technologies could play in a solution. This inspired Monty, where they have spent over 4 years researching and developing their world-first, Australia-made smart compost monitor for tracking and managing organic waste management.

Meet the hosts

Odette Barry

Odette Barry is a storyteller who loves nothing more than helping businesses share their stories through traditional media. She is a publicist, PR mentor and founder of Odette & Co – a micro PR agency based out of Byron Bay.

Her career spans marketing and communications for Westpac, the Australian Physiotherapy Association, TAFE NSW and Women’s Fitness magazine – so she’s worked all sides of the communications domain.

Since establishing the consultancy arm of Odette & Co, she has worked with small and enterprise businesses across Australia and New Zealand spanning the technology, design, education, beauty, wellness, health and fashion sectors (to name just a few). This diverse portfolio of experience means she has a broad range of experience to support just about any communications challenge.

Odette is committed to helping her clients secure genuine and valuable coverage, and she does that with an intimate knowledge of the media landscape and trusted relationships with media outlets.

Odette is a headline-winning PR mentor, who designed and teaches the popular Hack Your Own PR program, an intimate program designed for small business owners because she knows that every business has a story to tell.

And if you’re looking to upskill and learn a little about the media industry and how to score your own headlines, look no further than Odette’s podcast where she interviews some of Australia’s best journalists, producers, editors and hosts about the commonly misunderstood publicity gig.

Chris Edwards

Chris is a serial entrepreneur having started her first business in 2008 at 28 years of age — a lifestyle media platform: Honeycombers. It is now the go-to lifestyle resource for locals, expats and tourists alike across Singapore, Hong Kong and Bali. She has also created a parenting platform called HoneyKids Asia. Collectively, there are over 1 million unique readers of Honeycombers content across South East Asia every month.

Chris started coaching entrepreneurs, and from this experience she saw the need for a community for conscious entrepreneurs, so she created Launchpad in 2022. Launchpad is an entrepreneurial community, designed to help small businesses thrive through community, peer mentoring and coaching. Launchpad today has over 450 members from across 6 countries.

Chris now runs 4 companies across 4 countries and hosts a weekly podcast called Good Business where she interviews impact-led founders. Chris spends her time split between Singapore, Hong Kong, Bali and Byron Bay, Australia, where she lives with her husband and three kids.