Maria is one of the most passionate humans you will meet. Her life’s work and mission has been to unleash the collective voices of millions of storytellers to remind people of who they are, why they exist and where their place is within their respective communities. In early 2000, she was amongst the first to pioneer influencer marketing with a mission to bring more consciousness into advertising - the trillion dollar super highway of attention through meaningful and impactful storytelling. As the visionary and co-founder at Linqia, over the past decade, Linqia has earned its place as a leading tech enabled full service influencer marketing provider whose turnkey programs deliver measured results for over 600 enterprise and emerging brands. Prior to Linqia, Maria was part of the founding team and COO at XING, Europe’s leading business network, where she led XING’s monetization and internationalization plan exiting shortly after its IPO. Today, XING has a market cap of over $1B. At the age of 19, Maria founded her first company - a content marketing agency that grew to be one of the most respected consultancies in Australia. Additionally, Maria has been recognized as one of the leading women in technology by Forbes and is a contributor to the Forbes Agency Council. Maria's passion for Social Impact Storytelling is based on the belief that all ideas start with two things, emotional connection and inspired action. In today’s world people are alert to catalyze those emotions into action to manifest positive change. With Maria's decentralized and influence driven G.I.V.E. approach, Maria is a catalyst for ideas and the millions of people who could be impacted by them. The GIVEcode: G - Start with generosity by rewarding unconventional emotion I - Think Infinitely (without boundaries) inspiring positive reaction and possibility V - Come from a place of Vulnerability by thinking about the individual. It's about them, not us. Let them tell their story and be heard E- Infuse with Energy by supercharging your goals and igniting a positive mindset