Venessa Paech is an internationally recognised online community strategist with over 30 years experience building community online. She works closely with industry, government and researchers to grow the reach and impact of digital community management practice in APAC, consults privately for clients looking to build or grow community against strategic goals, and is a popular speaker and educator.

She has worked as community manager, consultant and strategist for a wide range of businesses and organisations, including Lonely Planet, REA Group, Envato, Australian Federal Government, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia Post and many more.

In 2009 Venessa founded the Australian Community Manager Roundtables and in 2011 this grew into Swarm Conference – the annual conference for community professionals in ANZ. In 2023 she founded a new global conference for humans that moderate – All Things in Moderation.

Venessa co-founded Australian Community Managers (ACM), the research and training organisation for community and moderation professionals in Australia, produces the annual State of Community Management Report benchmarking trends in the sector and co-developed the Australian Community Management Code of Ethics to help humans build healthier digital cultures.

A popular speaker, writer and media commentator on our digital social lives, Venessa teaches community management for leading universities and is currently researching Artificial Intelligence and online communities (University of Sydney, PhD Cand.).