WiV ANZ
(Australia & New Zealand)
About Women in Voice ANZ
Welcome to the Australian & New Zealand (ANZ) Chapter of Women In Voice. The WiV ANZ chapter was founded by a group of highly experienced and passionate women from across the Tasman looking to expand their networks and talk about all the exciting things happening down here in Voice.
Our mission is simple, we want to connect with, build and support an inclusive community of talented humans who work or aspire to work in and with, this exciting technology.
Through online meet-ups, fireside chats and networking events (COVID safe) we are looking forward to welcoming new members, fostering connections and generally having fun.
Core Team:
- Australia: Lesley Chambers, Kathryn Sadler, Jeanna Manifold
- New Zealand: Kirrily Denny, Nikki McLay, Jennie Stenhouse
Join Women in Voice ANZ!
Become an official member of Women in Voice!
The new WiV Global Membership is an upgraded experience to join our Women in Voice chapter and the global WiV community.
- Use the link below to register for a global Women in Voice membership
- When asked whether you are interested in being part of a local chapter, check our chapter's box
- We will reach out soon to welcome you!
Social Media
Follow Women in Voice ANZ on Twitter:
Drop Us A Line
Would you like to find out more? Speak at an event or just say hi! Feel free to send us an email at: anz@womeninvoice.org
Get to know the WiV ANZ core team!
Lesley Chambers
Based in Sydney, Australia Lesley’s background is in talent management and audio post production. She has worked as a Theatrical and Voice-over Agent at some of Australia’s top acting and voice agencies, and as an Audio Post Producer/Voice Casting Professional across several of Australia’s leading sound post houses. Founder of voice casting agency, The Casting Chambers Lesley strongly believes having a brand voice is paramount, particularly as we move towards a future with voice technology at the fore. Her ultimate goal is to make sure every brand finds their unique brand voice.
Outside of work, Lesley can be found at the theatre, at the bar or at home arguing with her 2 Siamese cats over who is boss.
Kirrily Denny
Kirrily is a multi-skilled Creative Director and Leader in Conversational AI Design approaching technology from a creative perspective. At Soul Machines, she played a pivotal role in shaping digital interactions by creating compelling conversational experiences for state-of-the-art Digital People.
Her career has covered conversation design, creative direction, award-winning campaigns and television production for prestigious global companies including Soul Machines, Mediaworks, Television New Zealand, Nickelodeon Australia and National Geographic Channel Europe.
When not working, she loves rambling along empty beaches and come nightfall, watching a good movie with a single malt whisky in hand!
Nikki McLay
Nikki is a multi-tasking creative with a background in fine art, design, technology and writing. For the past 20 years she has worked between these disciplines collaborating on projects with artists, museums, design studios and technologists finally finding her niche as co-founder and Head of Partnerships at IVOW.ai, a pioneering startup that combines deeply inclusive data with traditional storytelling to create more culturally intelligent AI. Their current project is a conversational storytelling assistant called Sina. In 2019 Nikki co-founded the AIGrrls network in Washington D.C. She has spoken at the United Nations AI for Good Summit in Geneva, the Women in AI Global Summit 2020 and various tech and design workshops. Outside of work she has a soft spot for old things, good people and drinking wine on the beach (weather permitting).
Kathryn Sadler
Kathryn is a Senior Conversation Designer with a background in languages and linguistics, and over 20 years’ experience working in technology–of which 15 years have been in conversational AI and voice tech. She has led conversation design of IVRs, smart speaker applications and chatbots, and user experience design of web and mobile applications while working with global consultancies, SaaS and professional services companies, major Australian media companies, and startups of varying size and maturity.
Originally from the UK, Kathryn lives on Sydney’s Northern Beaches with her husband and their two black rescue cats. Outside work, she’s generally outdoors and loves ocean swimming, trail running, and splitboarding. She’s also a keen craft beer aficionado.
Jennie Stenhouse
All though often wearing a multitude of hats Jennie is a Developer at heart. Her happy place is exploring emerging tech solutions and creating tools that delight in everyday life, empowering others to do their best work and find creative solutions to all sorts of problems. Jennie works as a developer advocate for Neosensory.
Jennie is passionate about the ways that we can use voice technology to develop experiences that enable and amplify. At the moment she is exploring context/situational awareness in voice combined with flawless multimodality (more than just voice+ screen) can lead to new ways of interaction through our data experiences, with the machines in our lives and with each other.
Jeanna Manifold
Jeanna Manifold is The Head of The Studio, Brisbane – SCA’s commercial creative services unit. With 20 years’ experience across various media agencies and radio networks, Jeanna has consulted to major brands such as Flight Centre, Jaguar Land Rover, Air BNB and United Airlines. She now specialises in paid media strategy, cross-platform integration, and amplification. In 2020, along with the team at TalkVia, Jeanna was awarded a Webby Award for Last Seen – a voice-activated, immersive art experience.
