Dr. Sam Whiting is a 2024 Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow at RMIT University pursuing a four-year project on the crisis in the Australian music industries, with a focus on the impact of generative AI, technologies of automation, and other contemporary points of inflection for the sector. His previous research has focused on issues of capital, labour, technology, and value as they relate to the cultural economy and has included work with the University of South Australia, SA Music Development Office, City of Adelaide, Live Music Office, City of Melbourne, Monash University, and the University of Tasmania. He also wrote Small Venues: Precarity, Vibrancy and Live Music, published in 2023.

Simone is the CEO of Music Victoria, an independent, not-for-profit organisation for contemporary music in Victoria, Australia. Simone comes to Music Victoria from Theatre Network Australia, where, as general manager, she drove the sector’s COVID-19 response that centred on fundraising efforts and providing essential cash grants to those most impacted. One of her lasting legacies was the formation of a national alliance of arts industry councils to provide a national advocacy platform. She holds a Master of Arts and Cultural Management, a Bachelor of Fine Arts in technical production, and is an alumnus of the Australia Council’s Emerging Leaders Development Program and Co-convenor of the Arts Industry Council of Victoria.

Kara Ortiga is a PhD candidate at Macquarie University in Sydney. Her research focuses on new media audiences and their relationships with technology, politics, and information. Before jumping into academia, she was a journalist in the Philippines, covering culture and the arts. Her work has been published in Esquire, VICE, and CNN Philippines, among a few.