International Women's Day: The Future of Media

Celebrate International Women’s Day 2025 with Women In Media NSW at our first event of the year!

Hosted by Val Morgan Digital, this year’s theme, Future of Media, sets the stage for an unforgettable evening, with our first esteemed speakers: Alicia Vrajlal, founder of Draw Your Box, an award-winning news media company covering issues related to South Asians in Australia and beyond. She is also Editorial & Partnerships lead at women’s media company, Missing Perspectives, Kylie Washington, General Manager and Creative Director at BBC Studios ANZ and Taryn Williams, multi-award winning CEO and one of Australia’s most prolific entrepreneurs at the intersection of talent, media, and technology. Hosted by WIM Co-Convenor and Supervising Producer, Dominique Spanos. 

When: Wednesday, 5th March 2025
Where: Val Morgan Offices, Level 50, 608 George Street, Sydney, 2000
Time: 5:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Price: $45, including a drink on arrival and light snacks.

We’re beyond excited to present exceptional speakers, ready to inspire and ignite your imagination as we work towards the Future of Media.

Spread the word and invite everyone you know in media! Allies of all genders are welcome, and all leaders ready to support gender equity—whether creators, storytellers, or innovators—are especially encouraged to attend. Everyone is welcome! Stay tuned for more details.

Don’t miss this empowering celebration of women and the future of media.

WiM supports those in need, should you wish to attend and require financial assistance, please email nsw@womeninmedia.com.au

BIOGRAPHIES

Alicia Vrajlal is the founder of Draw Your Box, an award-winning news media company covering issues related to South Asians in Australia and beyond. She is also Editorial & Partnerships lead at women’s media company, Missing Perspectives. Alicia was previously Senior Culture Editor at Refinery29 Australia and Editor at HuffPost Australia.
Described by Rolling Stone magazine as “one of the country’s most prolific culture commentators”, Alicia’s commitment to diverse news media has cemented her status in the industry as a respected thought leader.

Kylie Washington is BBC Studios ANZ’s General Manager and Creative Director of Production, responsible for exploiting BBC Studios’ extensive format catalogue and driving the creation of new intellectual property in the Australian market.  Her local slate includes The Office Australia for Amazon Prime, Top Gear Australia for Paramount+/10, The Great Australian Bake Off for Foxtel, Dancing With The Stars for Seven Mastermind for SBS, Weakest Link for Nine, and original series Return To Paradise for ABC and Ray Martin: The Last Goodbye for SBS.

Under Kylie, the business has grown materially over the past five years and is a go-to producer for broadcasters and streamers. In 2024, BBC Studios acquired Melbourne-based scripted production company Werner, producer of The Newsreader and Surviving Summer.

Kylie has a wealth of experience adapting international formats for the Australian and Asian markets, as well as developing and overseeing formatted factual entertainment. Her previous roles include Director of Unscripted at Matchbox Pictures where she delivered a slate of titles including Real Housewives of Melbourne and Sydney, Room 101, original format Formal Wars and original entertainment series Everyone’s A Critic, as well as setting up the Matchbox Asia business which delivered content across all of NBCU’s channels within Asia.

Taryn Williams is a multi-award winning founder and CEO, and over the course of 20+ years has earned a reputation as one of Australia’s most prolific entrepreneurs at the intersection of talent, media, and technology. 

Her latest project is #Gifted, a shopify plug-in enabling brands to manage their influencer contra gifting at scale, and is already being used by some of Australia’s biggest brands including Accor Hotels, PE Nation, Estee Lauder, and Panasonic. Co-founded with early-stage Canva and Atlassian employee, James Dumay,  this SaaS business launched in 2023 in Australia and will launch internationally in later this year.

A former model, at just 21 Taryn founded WINK Models, which grew to become one of Australia's most successful commercial modelling agencies, and which she still owns. In 2016 she launched online talent-brand matching and booking marketplace for models, actors, influencers, makeup artists, photographers, and videographers, theright.fit, followed by a full service influencer marketing agency, The Influencers.

After raising venture capital with leading VC Firm Airtree Ventures, along with other strategic partners and international funds, theright.fit grew to have over 17,000 talent and 11,000 clients making thousands of bookings a month across APAC, enabling Taryn to successfully exit both businesses to international acquirers in 2023. 

Taryn is a sought-after commentator on tech, entrepreneurship, and business and is a Board Director of Next25, Digital + Technology Collective, board advisor to All G Foods, Lamborghini FAB, and host of the Vodafone Business Web Series and Podcast. 

She has appeared extensively in the media and is a speaker of choice for leading conferences including Vivid Sydney, Online Retailer, Business Chicks, ADMA Global Forum, The Collective Hub’s Kick Start Smart, and Mumbrella (B2B, Luxury and 360). She is also a seasoned keynote speaker on topics spanning digital disruption, personal branding, and social media strategy for the likes of Commonwealth Bank, Western Australian Tourism, and Diageo.

Taryn works with a number of global brands as an influencer and ambassador, including La Prairie, HP, and the Art Series Hotels. In 2019 she was chosen to be one of the global faces of Max Factor and featured in their global television and print campaign alongside Czech model and philanthropist, Petra Nemcova. 

Among numerous awards and accolades – 2018 Mumbrella Award for Innovation, 2017 B&T Women in Media Tech Leader, B&T Hot 30 under 30, and SmartCompany 30 under 30 to name a few – Taryn has also been named as a finalist for leading national awards including Female Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Women's Agenda Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year, and AIM Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

In recognition of her continued success not only as a global influencer and industry disruptor, but as a founder and CEO, she was recently named in B&T’s Women in Media Power List for the third consecutive year.