Hi, I'm Stefanie (or Stef, Steffi, Stefanitza... I'll answer to anything).
Like most people these days, I’ve had a pretty wide range of experiences in my working years. Business consultant, media writer, blogger, academic, social media community manager, musician, broadcaster, knowledge manager, intranet specialist…and it goes on. But as broad as these experiences are, there is a through-line. I’m constantly drawn to finding that balance between creativity and logical systems and process. To me, that’s where really great solutions and progress happens, and it’s so inspiring when done right.
I love people and trying to understand them, especially in communal settings like workplaces. I also love love love technology and communications and how the two are intrinsically linked. I was 12 when I first used the internet, and it still fascinates me as much as it did in those early dial-up days. From its earliest incarnations, the online world was all about connecting people and creating communities. The internet and the media were both social long before ‘social media.’ Understanding how people behave online, and how different people use and consume digital media, is an ongoing passion that lies at the heart of what I do. The best digital solutions come hand-in-hand with people-focussed initiatives.
When I’m not going-on about people and technology, you’ll find me in Melbourne’s inner northern suburbs drinking great coffee, laughing with my friends, listening to comedy podcasts, classical, country and 80s-90s pop music. Or perhaps you’ll hear me on one of Melbourne’s best community radio stations or on a podcast about comic book movies.
Qualifications
I have a M.A. in Digital Media and Communications from the University of Melbourne, where I specialised in online publishing and digital convergence theory. Before that, I completed a B.A. with Honours (also at Melbourne) with majors in psychology and cultural studies. My Honours work was on digital subcultures and convergence.
Past roles
I started my professional career at Media Monitors, now iSentia. There I gained a pretty intimate knowledge of the Australian media landscape: I had to monitor TV and radio every day. I also wrote daily media summary reports for a handful of our most significant clients.
After a brief dabble in social media PR, I landed a dream job at Nous Group as a consultant. Nous is one of Australia’s best and most innovative consulting firms, and I was fortunate enough to be a part of its amazing projects and culture.
I moved into the information manager role at Nous in 2011, and then was responsible for (amongst other things) not one but two major intranet migrations and upgrades in two years: SharePoint 2007 to 2010 to 2013. Why so much change? In short, the firm was not only growing in size but in demand for more collaborative and efficient enterprise systems. We rolled out new automated workflows, data integration and a new document management process that allowed for co-authoring and integrated version control processes. It was tough at times, but ultimately so fun and rewarding to see real change in team’s workflows.
Then I spent two rewarding and challenging years as a senior consultant at Infoxchange, helping non-profit and non-government organisations use technology better.