Friends at Five Thirty

Join us for a fun, inspiring, and insightful evening at our last Friends at Five Thirty for 2025! This special event is designed to bring our community together and showcase the incredible talents and stories of people from within it. 

Date: Thursday, 28 August

Event Schedule:

• 5:30 - 6:00pm: Drinks and canapés
  Enjoy mingling with fellow guests over delicious drinks and canapés.

• 6:00 - 7:00pm: Speakers
  Each of our speakers will take the stage for around 15 minutes, followed by a panel Q&A. 

Speakers:

• Joanna Norris - As the managing director for Stuff Masthead Publishing and a member of the Stuff Group Executive Leadership Team, Joanna is leading a company that's aggressively transitioning from traditional media platforms, to a digital and experience focused business model.
  Joanna has worked in media for more than two decades in New Zealand, the UK and the Middle East. She has worked as a reporter, editor and media executive. She was appointed managing director in 2023, having previously held the role of chief content officer for the Stuff Group.
  She loves creativity, a good story, great New Zealand food and getting into New Zealand's high country to tramp and ski with her family.
  

• Ben Fahy – Ben has over two decades of experience as a journalist, editor and publisher and has a particular interest in business and technology. He is currently the head of partnerships at New Zealand Geographic, a freelance writer for Air New Zealand's Kia Ora magazine, and head of communications for energy think/do tank Rewiring Aotearoa. He was previously editorial director of the current affairs portfolio at Bauer Media, which included the New Zealand Listener, North & South, Metro, Home, and OurAuckland, publisher/editorial director of the Tangible Media Business Network, which focused on the start-up, marketing/media/advertising and retail sectors, and a feature writer at the Otago Daily Times.
  

• Celia Jaspers – As an experienced director in the field and on set for over three decades, there isn't much Celia hasn't seen, fixed or experienced. Spending her whole working life in the industry, from fast turnaround tv, to dramas, children's, factual and documentary, working for many networks from BBC to Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, CNN, Channel 7 Australia and all the NZ networks. She has director credits in over 1200 hours of content and is a prolific maker of content across many genres. An accomplished short film maker, her self-funded films have been selected in NZ Premiere Festival, Show me Shorts, five international Academy Award qualifying festivals, as well as over 100 international festivals, collecting 40+ awards along the way.  An executive board member of the Directors and Editors Guild of NZ, she strives to be current and active in the industry, contributing to lectures at film schools and multiple talks, whilst helping burgeoning filmmakers on their journey also. 
  

Ticket Information:

• Price: $15 per person (includes drinks and canapés)
  

A huge thank you to our Friends at Five Thirty sponsor, Sotheby's International Realty. 

We look forward to seeing you there!