10 things that make Neil #Proud

1. He launched and scaled international news startup Storyful in Australia. 

2. Neil created the ABC's first enterprise-wide social media strategy. 

3. He directed Foxtel’s online and mobile coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games and the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games. Foxtel were the official online, mobile and subscription television broadcaster. The events were the most comprehensive in Australian history with over 1600 hours of coverage, with each moment streamed live online and on mobile.

4. Neil wrote a discussion paper on social media risk at the ABC and how to mitigate it. The paper led to immediate policy reform and even prompted the Managing Director to change his Twitter handle.

5. Neil introduced real-time reporting at the ABC. He created a solution that allowed anyone in the business to understand how content was performing on social media. This enabled content makers and management to make data-driven decisions and measure the impact of their work.

6. Neil overhauled the social video strategy at ABC News. He helped develop it from pumping a raw feed into YouTube to Australia’s most viewed news channel. “People power frees man trapped by Perth train,” a video unearthed through social media, edited for the platform and watched by 14.5 million viewers and counting is a great example of this strategy at work.

7. He approved and pioneered the use of new platforms at the ABC like Vine and Snapchat. In the first year on Vine, ABC News received 2.1 million loops. Vines from the G20 Summit (925,000), Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke speaking about fallen cricketer Phillip Hughes (220,000) and a hailstorm in Queensland (95,000) were the most viewed events. That was until the Sydney Siege. Two vines shared on the day were watched almost 4 million times in less than 24 hours.

8. Under Neil’s leadership, the ABC Australia Facebook Page had an average engagement rate 900 per cent higher than the industry average. The ABC News page also performed so well other media organisations began to report that the success must have been the result of advertising.

9. He presented at Storyology 2014 with some of the greatest minds in the media. The line-up including Aron Pilhofer of The Guardian, Neal Mann of The Wall Street Journal, Ben Smith, editor-in-chief at BuzzFeed and Walkley Award winners Sarah Ferguson and Laurie Oakes.

10. Neil wrote a novel. He refers to it lovingly as his ‘beautiful mess.' One day he plans to share it with the world.