Hosting: BookUp

The Australian Publishers Association hosts an annual industry conference and I was thrilled to be invited to MC the day at the State Library of NSW (which was also live streamed to participants around the country) on August 7th 2025.

The opening address was from The Hon Tony Burke MP who spoke about the formation of Writing Australia and the Albanese Government's vision for books, reading and publishing.

The keynote address was from filmmaker/screenwriter/producer Robert Connolly (Force of Nature, The Slap, The Dry). He spoke powerfully about how different publishing and film industries can learn from each other.

There were panels on when AI might be useful (and when it’s not), on the state of children’s book publishing, the future of Australian non-fiction, how formats are evolving, how to better reach readers (using insights from the Understanding Australian Readers report), a keynote from & interview with author Winnie Dunn and connecting audiences with authors.

It was a rich, inspiring day of ideas; hearing from people in every corner of the publishing industry.