07/09/2026
🌟SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT - Mel Shortland- Power 🌟
From Paddock to Profile: Owning Your Digital Identity
Your personal brand already exists, whether you’re actively managing it or not.
In this practical and interactive workshop, Mel Shortland-Power explores how people working in agriculture can build an authentic digital identity without feeling like they need to become an influencer.
You’ll learn how to tell your story, build trust online and use practical AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude to make managing your digital presence simpler, faster and, importantly, genuinely YOU.
In agriculture, reputation has always mattered. What’s changed is where that reputation now lives.
Your customers, community, industry peers and potential employees can form an impression of you long before they ever meet you. So how do you build a digital presence that represents who you really are without turning your life into a constant content machine?
In this 45-minute interactive workshop, Mel Shortland-Power will unpack personal branding, authenticity and storytelling in a way that’s practical and relevant to people working in agriculture.
Mel will demonstrate how AI tools including ChatGPT and Claude can help you clarify your message, create content and manage your personal brand without losing your own voice.
One brave volunteer will even jump into the HOT SEAT, where Mel will demonstrate live how effective prompting can turn your own knowledge, experience and personality into useful, authentic content.
The session will also tackle the harder side of being visible online: social licence, criticism and negativity, and how to decide what deserves a response and what deserves absolutely none of your energy.
You’ll leave with practical tools you can use immediately to take greater control of your digital identity and tell your own story, rather than allowing the internet to tell it for you.
Melanie Shortland
