Upstairs @ The Leveson Hotel, 46 Leveson Street, North Melbourne

Are you ready to deal with Bad Behaviour Online?

We're on the Internet -> Check

Embraced Social Media -> Check

Built a Community  -> Check

So why am I getting sued and abused?

The internet is not just full of naughty Nigerian's and Viagra vendors, its full libellous locals, crazy contractors, spiteful staff, hosting platforms that will assure you they will "do no evil" and garden variety arseholes. As more and more of Australian business is done online, the issues are becoming very real, despite the responsibilities still being a little cloudy.

So we've put together an expert panel to address the main question, plus having a look at:

• What are the common types of bad behaviour?
• How can competitors shaft your SEO results?
  
• When are you responsible for libel occurring, and when will you get sued?
• What if privacy is breached on your watch?
• What if you're actually spamming?
• What if your members are being harvested?
• What if your content is being harvested? 
• What actions can you take to protect yourself?
• What if your community platform is gaining more than you are?
• How far does your responsibility extend? 
• What are the precedents? 
• What are the Australian stories of of bad behaviour?

And what are the practical solutions?

Panellists
Gerhard Moll - Principal, Argus Lawyers
James Thomson - Editor, Smart Company
Julia Cornwell McKean - Manager Anti-Spam Team, Australian Communications and Media Authority
Andrew Knibbe - Marketing Manager, Flippa
Tim Hanlon - CEO, GizMag

Moderator
Brendan Lewis - Chairman, The Churchill Club

Note there will be "No spin, no hype, and definitely no Powerpoint".   Ticket price includes drinks, canapés and a copy of the notes from the evening.

PANELLIST BIOGRAPHIES

Gerhard Moll

Gerhard has been working as a commercial lawyer with technology and intellectual property focused companies, and companies actively raising finance, for over fifteen years. In that time he also founded and became managing director of an online business information service which counted Telstra and ANZ amongst its clients and was highly profitable in a challenging commercial environment.  Prior to Argus Lawyers Gerhard has worked with a number of major Melbourne law firms, and for the last eight years held the position of partner in the corporate/commercial divisions of those firms.

JamesThomson

James Thomson is the publisher of LeadingCompany as well as being the editor of SmartCompany and the publisher of StartupSmart and Property Observer. Previously, James was a senior editor at news and commentary website Business Spectator. Prior to that, James was editor of BRW's Rich 200, Young Rich and Executive Rich editions. James specialises in wealthy entrepreneurs and business strategy.

Julia Cornwell McKean
Described by the media as the Australian Government’s ‘Chief Spam-Buster’,  Julia Cornwell McKean has managed the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s (the ACMA’s)  Anti-Spam team for nearly four years.

Julia is responsible for the execution of the Australian Government’s multi-layered strategy for combating spam.  She has been involved in numerous enforcement outcomes, including the negotiation of more than 12 enforceable undertakings and 2 successful Federal Court prosecutions resulting in penalties exceeding $24 million.

Julia’s latest contribution to the fight against spam has been the ACMA’s campaign:  ‘Successful e-marketing; It’s about reputation.’  Julia initiated the campaign when she began to notice that spam reports to the ACMA were indicating that some Australian businesses were beginning to use electronic marketing  as a type of numbers game with little regard to (or perhaps ignorance of) spam laws - not dissimilar to the ‘traditional’ pharmaceutical spammers.  Through an e-marketing blog the ACMA provides industry with real examples of consumer complaints in an effort to make them understand how being labelled a spammer can impact on their reputation.

In 2011, Julia gave speeches at the Professional Ebay Sellers Association Internet Conference and the Australian Compliance Institute’s annual conference.  Julia also gave the key note speech for the 8th annual Collaboration, Electronic Messaging, Anti-Abuse and Spam Conference and represented the ACMA at the OECD in Paris.  

Julia holds the Honours Degree of a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts from Monash University.  Julia anticipates completing a PhD in Musicology later this year.  

Andrew Knibbe

Andrew Knibbe is the Marketing Manager at Flippa.com - the world's larget marketplace for buying and selling websites. Over $30M in websites are bought and sold on Flippa every year across a community of over 200,000 buyers and sellers from around the world. Andrew has substantial online product development and marketing experience having previously held senior product management roles at Carsales.com and YellowPages.com.au.

Tim Hanlon

One of the first crop of digital natives, Tim wanted to be a video game developer until he saw the content management system that was powering Gizmag. After co-writing its replacement, he went on to wear every hat at the company before accepting the MD position in mid-2010. Gizmag is currently one of the top 2,500 most read sites on the English-speaking web, averaging over 2.5 million unique visitors per month.

Brendan Lewis

Brendan Lewis is the Chair of the Churchill Club, a serial Entrepreneur and is the founder of the revenue growth consulting business, Flinders Pacific. He is considered one of the best networked and commercially insightful people in Melbourne with clients that include a variety of professional services organisations, innovators and foreign governments. He has substantial experience around Australia, in South East Asia, Europe and North America. His background includes experience in ICT, Engineering, Biotech, Corporate Finance, the Military plus a stint running an Advertising Agency.