Christina Force

British born Christina pioneered the introduction of New Zealand’s talented photographers to the world. As founder of photo agency The Collective Force, and production company OPTNZ she secured countless large-scale global photographic assignments from around the world, in particular from South East Asia. After 17 years at the helm, she sold both companies and moved onto her next goal - to help photographers around the world rediscover their passion and promote work they love shooting to dream clients.

Based in New Zealand, Christina works with photographers and agents worldwide through folio and website editing, workshops and her unique online mentoring programs. She is also co-founder of Creative Asia Plus, the first portfolio review event in Asia promoting connections between photographers from around the world and ad agency creatives in the region.

Christina is the founder and chairperson of the NZ Agents and Producers Association, an AIPA member and speaker, a columnist for The Photographers Mail, and a guest speaker and lecturer at photography events and institutions, including Image Nation (NZ), CATC Design School (Australia), Vivid (Australia), The New York Academy of Film (USA), and CA+ (Hong Kong and Singapore).

She has been an IPA Lucie Foundation judge since 2011, and a reviewer at CA+ HK & Singapore, at New York Photo Plus, and will be a keynote speaker at Palm Springs Photo Fest in May 2019.

Christina’s mission is to help commercial photographers get paid to shoot what they love, and she specialises in sharing her 30 years of experience working with ad industry creatives around the globe, and ultimately unleashing photographers’ magic and confidence.

Billy Plummer

London born & based in Sydney, Billy entered adland straight out of art college and spent 28 years as a Creative Director for agencies in the UK, Asia Pacific and Australia.

He then changed tack, became an advertising photographer and now shoots for clients in Australia and across Asia Pacific. His background as an agency creative director means Billy fully ‘gets’ concepts, he knows how to articulate ideas, and identify genuinely surprising aspects to bring briefs to life.

It also means he understands the need for photographers to deliver ideas to agencies via their personal work and that agency creatives are always looking for new ways to visually communicate the ideas, feelings and insights behind their brand campaigns.

Billy believes that photographers have to be ideas people too.

Uniquely, he’s won numberous industry awards both as an art director (Cannes, John Caples, etc.) and as a photographer. He also taught advertising to young creatives at The Communication Council’s Award School for 4 years.

His personal work has been exhibited in Australia and Europe, including “Honey & Dust” at Northern Europe's largest photo festival, Norway‘s Nordic Light International Festival of Photography, and “Reportage Without A Cause” at Australia’s renowned documentary photography festival, Reportage.

His recent personal project, The Dreams We Have led to 3 briefs within a week of its launch. Billy recently won both Photography Gold at Midas Awards for Worlds Best Financial & Marketing and at Australia’s Award for best Photography in a Campaign.