Yahoo7 has named the four budding Australian digital media talents who’ve been selected as the winners of its 2017 Digital Stars program.
Taking out the top prize from a record number of submissions are Sara Hilgendorf, QLD Ecosystem Planning Manager at Carat, Simon Conyard, NSW Digital Associate Manager at MEC, and Melissa Lum, VIC Digital Executive at Mediacom. They will soon jet off to NYC to attend Advertising Week, billed as the world’s premier event for marketing, brand, advertising and technology professionals, courtesy of Yahoo7.
Judges selected three of the winners at the throwdown finals held at Yahoo7’s Sydney HQ last night, with the fourth, Vartika Arora, VIC Campaign Engineer at Cadreon, taking out the People’s Choice award at the event.
This year’s Digital Stars prize includes return flights and accommodation in New York City for the winners, where as delegates at Advertising Week, they will rub shoulders with media giants like Arianna Huffington, Co-founder of The Huffington Post, Jayanta Jenkins, Global Group Creative Director at Twitter and Melanie Whelan, CEO of SoulCycle. They have also won a photo shoot for professional headshots, a $500 Visa gift card and mentorship opportunities with senior leaders at Yahoo7.
The Australian winners will be joined by Josh Reiri-Allen, Senior Digital Manager, from Carat’s Auckland office, who took out the New Zealand Digital Stars prize.
Photo: Bottom Left to Right (seated): Melissa Lum (winner), Stefanie Crisafi (finalist), Paul Sigaloff (Chief Revenue Officer), Lara Calder-Potts (finalist), Simon Conyard (winner).
Top Left to Right (standing): Vartika Arora (People’s Choice), Angeline Hartono (finalist), Kate Patterson (finalist), Sara Hilgendorf (winner), Andrew Lim (finalist)