Gary Hayes has been working as a Cross-Media Producer and Multimedia Editor professionally since 1994 when he was Senior Development Producer for eight years at BBC (UK) Broadcast Interactive developing advanced TV and online games.
Gary is currently the Director of AFTRS Laboratory for Advanced Media Production and also Australia's most prominent Social Virtual World producer, designer and builder as Head of Virtual Worlds at UK Based The Project Factory. Gary has recently consulted to many broadcasters including US's CBS, NBC, ABC Australia, Channel 9, SBS and has produced and presented conferences in the US and UK on the intersection of new media, film, tv and games.
He has keynoted and presented at over two hundred major international conferences and written several consultancy papers including The Business of Virtual Worlds, US Interactive TV Advertising and a report for the UK Department of Trade and Industry on Personal Video Enablers for the UK media industry.
Gary is also a regular presenter at major events including SPAA, Kanz Summit, Cross-Media Storytelling, Asia Pacific Online, LAMP workshops and seminars, Ad-tech, Ce-Bit, ACMA, NAB, Ad and Marketing Summit, Mobile Content Australasia, Broadband and Beyond and many universities in Australia. For the past three years he has been a judge on the International Interactive Emmy Awards, features regularly on industry issues on radio and podcasts and adjudicates for Screen Australia digital strands.