IABC Asia Pacific reveals keynote speaker for its Brisbane conference

Michelle D’Heureux has taken up a promotion at Johnson & Johnson as Director, Communications & Public Affairs ANZ. She initially joined the team in 2022 as Senior Manager, Communication & Public Affairs.

Michelle has previously held a number of comms roles within the pharmaceutical, property, and food manufacturing sectors.

Lisa Harmer has been brought in as Media and Government Relations Lead at CEDA - Committee for Economic Development of Australia. She was previously GM of Communications and External Relations at Powering Skills Organisation. Prior to this, Lisa held in-house roles within the mental health and NFP spaces. 

CoInside (pronounced: coincide), a diagnosis-first marketing strategy and go-to-market (GTM) consultancy, has launched in Singapore. Founded by Vanessa Ng, former Head of Marketing at Lendela, and Szecindyo (Chin) Chewandi, former Head of Marcomms and Chief of Staff candidate at holding group Golden Equator, they bring experience across growth strategy, commercial communications, and go-to-market execution in both startup and institutional contexts.

The consultancy works with businesses experiencing growth challenges and go-to-market needs, but have yet to determine whether they need a hire, an agency, or something else entirely. The consultancy operates three service lines, including commercial narrative to support businesses in sharpening their commercial story for clearer positioning and quicker sales closures, as well as growth and distribution, and revenue expansion.

Vanessa said, “It's easy to mistake activity for progress. We've seen businesses spend months executing beautifully on the wrong problem. By the time they realise it, they've lost more than money - they've also lost time. The first brief is rarely the real brief and the diagnostic work of finding what's underneath it isn't glamorous. But it's the difference between marketing that looks good and marketing that actually works."

Chin added, “When the thinking isn't clear, the instinct is to say more, so the messages get longer, and no one remembers them. We call it polished confusion. Our job is to help them get the thinking right first so that everything sharpens with it; people understand the product faster, deals move, and the team stops pulling in different directions.”