Conferences, panels and conversations

Past - previous talks

October 2025 - Optimal UX Insider - What is the point of information architecture in the age of search? Watch the video.

April 2025 - We are Content Strategy and Design - How to measure your content better. View the slides or watch the video.

September 2024 - Australian Government Digital Profession Forum - AI and content - what works and what doesn’t.

March 2024 - NZ - Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment - Answering the question - why is IA so hard to get right. Check out the slides

October 2023 - Web Directions Summit - Content stream curation and MC and panel with Sally Bagshaw.

October 2023 - Optimal Workshop lunch and learn - Using categorisation systems to choose your best IA approach.

October 2023 - Wellington content strategy meetup - Answering the question - why is IA so hard to get right. Check out the slides

August 2023 - UX Australia - Chat GPT for your content - what works and what doesn’t. Check out the slides

April 2023 - LGA Communications Conference 2023 - Bringing content strategy to your council’s digital practice.

An overview of content strategy, from planning, managing and measuring content.

March 2023 - Utterly Content - Content capabilities for your web team.

Learn about the skills and competencies that a web and content team need in order to be successful. Check out the slides.

December 2022 - Web Directions Summit - Content stream curation and MC with Sally Bagshaw.

December 2022 - Web Directions Summit - A content measurement model

Measuring content is harder than it seems. You spend a huge amount of time-making content, but how do you know it is actually working?I shared a model to help you break down the elements of content measurement and improving your content game.

December 2022 - Web Directions Summit - Panel: Increasing the status of content

Content is viewed as a low status commodity. This panel explored this through the lenses of gender, power and politics.

June 2022 - Sydney content strategy meetup - Mapping content competencies

This model is designed to help senior leaders and hiring managers carve up content capabilities in medium to large web teams. This allows for better promotion and hiring pathways. Learn more about web content capabilities.

March 2022 - Utterly Content - Artificial intelligence and content strategy

Everyone is talking about artificial intelligence and how it can make our jobs, lives and communities better. But can it help us communicate better?

August 2021 - UX Australia - Artificial intelligence and content strategy

Everyone is talking about artificial intelligence and how it can make our jobs, lives and communities better. But can it help us communicate better?

2021 May - ABC digital industry talks - Storytelling in the age of artificial intelligence”.

Humans are creatures of stories. We love listening to them, we love telling them. We embellish, we polish, and we retell the best stories over and over again. We have woven stories into song, stone, knotted rope, tree bark, paper and now zeros and ones. So let's take a good hard look at how tech interacts with our storytelling

2020 October - Utterly Content Conference - Hosting and panel facilitation

2020 October - Button Conference - Hosting and panel facilitation

2020 September - CSIRO Symposium: The Future of Meetings - Communication in tech neutral

It was always a myth that great communication happened around the water cooler, spontaneously with no preparation. Don’t let video conference fatigue force you to buy into that myth.

2020 May - Sydney content Strategy meetup - Bust the seven BIG digital content problems

Over the past 15 years working as a content strategist I have discovered that there are seven core problems that prevent organisations nail their content experience. In this talk, you will hear what those problems are, with concrete examples of how you can start to tackle them. Slides

2019 November - Write the Docs Sydney - Craft awesome documentation IA

Wayfinding and orientation are key to people's ability to understand and trust content. In this talk, Elle Geraghty will share a framework for creating awesome information architecture using case studies and highlighting where things can go wrong.

2019 August - UX Australia - Bust the seven BIG digital content problems

Over the past 15 years working as a content strategist I have discovered that there are seven core problems that prevent organisations nail their content experience. In this talk, you will hear what those problems are, with concrete examples of how you can start to tackle them. Slides

2019 March Melbourne content strategy meetup - the Content Canvas

Balancing the needs of business and users in a fast-paced content production environment can be tricky. The content canvas is a tool Elle Geraghty devised at Atlassian to help keep these critical considerations at the top of mind. With heritage in Netlife’s Core Model and Alex Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas, the content canvas helps you create the best content in a world with limited resources and big expectations. Slides

2019 March Commonwealth Bank of Australia - the Content Canvas

A customised iteration of the Content Canvas workshop for the CBA digital team. Get your customised presentation or workshop now.

2019 Feb Brisbane content strategy meetup - the Content Canvas

Balancing the needs of business and users in a fast-paced content production environment can be tricky. The content canvas is a tool Elle Geraghty devised at Atlassian to help keep these critical considerations at the top of mind. With heritage in Netlife’s Core Model and Alex Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas, the content canvas helps you create the best content in a world with limited resources and big expectations. Slides

2018 August IXDA - Why content matters

Content is the key reason anyone visits, engages with, shares, navigates, reads, plays with and returns to your digital offering. Learn why it is so important to get content right, plus tips for setting up a super effective content strategy. Slides

2018 June Sydney Content Strategy meetup - crafting great information architecture

Wayfinding and orientation are key to people's ability to understand and trust content. In this talk, Elle Geraghty will share a framework for creating awesome information architecture using case studies and highlighting where things can go wrong. A not to be missed event. Slides

2018 Feb Write the docs Sydney - crafting great information architecture

Wayfinding and orientation are key to people's ability to understand and trust documentation. In this talk, Elle Geraghty will share a framework for creating awesome information architecture using case studies and highlighting where things can go wrong. A not to be missed event.  Watch a video of the presentation.

2017 Aug UX Australia - Using imagination and reading to build empathy

As designers and content strategists we often disagree about what empathy means and can get it mixed up with sympathy. This talk presented a definition of empathy linked to imagination. And imagination is a muscle made bigger by practise, the best kind of practise ever ... reading! Slides Audio

2017 Aug Ladies that UX - How to do international UX

Conducting user research in a language and culture that is not your own comes with a unique set of challenges. Elle shared tips and tricks for nailing international user research with examples from a research project she conducted across four countries and languages. Slides

2017 Jan Sydney Content Strategy meetup - The content canvas

Balancing the needs of business and users in a fast-paced content production environment can be tricky. The content canvas is a tool Elle Geraghty devised at Atlassian to help keep these critical considerations at the top of mind. With heritage in Netlife’s Core Model and Alex Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas, the content canvas helps you create the best content in a world with limited resources and big expectations. Slides

2016 Oct CSForum - The content canvas

Balancing the needs of business and users in a fast-paced content production environment can be tricky. The content canvas is a tool Elle Geraghty devised at Atlassian to help keep these critical considerations at the top of mind. With heritage in Netlife’s Core Model and Alex Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas, the content canvas helps you create the best content in a world with limited resources and big expectations. Slides

2016 Sept  Ladies that UX - Sydney - How content strategy and design overlap

Content strategy and design naturally overlap and compliment each other. Elle shared three stories about content strategy and design in partnership and how important it is to make content strategy an essential part of your practice. Slides

2016 June Sydney Content Strategy Meetup - How to test your IA

Tips and tricks for testing information architecture using Treejack plus a walk through of the refreshed Atlassian Voicify cards - designed to create awesome in-product copy or microcopy. 

2016 June - IXDA Panel discussion - Content, Code and Culture

Successful startups and SMEs know that content is king, and understand that coding is no longer the exclusive domain of computer scientists. They also invest time and money into building an enviable company culture. But how can your business practically give effect to these three pillars: content, code and culture?  Video

2015 Dec Content strategy meetup - content strategy world cafe

I developed five knowledge cafe tables with the following topics: 

• Selling content strategy - what do you see as the best way to describe what you do?

• Valuing content strategy - how do you price what you do? what is it worth?

• Addressing user needs - how do you balance user needs and business goals?

• Tools - CMS and other tools - what is working really well?

• Professional development - how are you learning more about Content Strategy?

2015 Nov  UX Australia Melbourne redux - Human skills for content strategy and design

Working in partnership with Karina Smith, we interviewed ten leading designers and content strategists from around the world to develop a set of ‘soft’ skills competencies, a mechanism for participants to measure their current competency and tips and advice for closing the gap. Slides

2015 Nov UX Australia - Human skills for content strategy and design

Working in partnership with Karina Smith, we interviewed ten leading designers and content strategists from around the world to develop a set of ‘soft’ skills competencies, a mechanism for participants to measure their current competency and tips and advice for closing the gap. Slides

2015 Oct IXDA/ Sydney Uni panel - Design as disrupter with IXDA and Sydney Uni

The Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning Thursday Night Lecture Series and the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) Sydney presents a special panel discussion on design as disruptor. An welcome opportunity to talk design, culture and technology with leaders in their fields. Video

2015 July Panel - XXUX - Human skills for success

I joined three other panellists from different backgrounds to talk about the human skills needed to excel in our work. So you can wireframe, user test, write specs, concept design and engage stakeholders, is that the full toolkit of skills you need? The short answer is no. You also need a whole suite of human or soft skills.

2015 May ConfabMN - Why content strategy meetups rock!

This talk outlines the many fabulous benefits of running a content strategy meetup and why attending meetups and other forms of professional development are so important. Slides

2014 June Sydney Content Strategy meetup - Confab share

I shared some of the highlights from one the world's biggest and best content strategy conferences Confab Minneapolis 2104, focussing on the content modelling workshop I attended.

2013 Aug  UX Australia - Digital sustainability

So often digital and online projects are a set and forget affair. There is an enormous amount of effort put into the design and pre-launch, but like a baby after its birth, a digital project needs ongoing love, attention and regular feeding to fulfil its potential into adolescence and adulthood. Slides

2013 July Sydney Content Strategy meetup - intro to content strategy

This introduction to content strategy gave an overview and definition plus a discussion of various applications. This included the split between strategy and editorial, how to position content strategy in a business, where content strategy fits/meshes with other online design and strategy disciplines, and how to articulate the value of content strategy - especially to a naive audience. 

2012 May  Intranets 2012 - Rolling out a new intranet to 120,000 people

Overview of DEC insight, the NSW Department of Education's audience targeted, personalised staff portal. Slides

2011 Aug  UX Australia - UX for content makers

Helping online authors make great content using UX principles.  Slides

2011 May  Intranets 2011
Three success stories from using Yammer at the Department of Eduction and Training. I managed a community of over ten thousand Yammer users, guiding and nurturing their learning and sharing.