Saira Manns

PR & Social Media Specialist

Appearing at 9.00-10.00AM

Deep Dive

SESSION DETAILS

Destination Unknown: Exploring Career Maps Instead of Climbing Ladders
What if careers aren’t ladders to climb, but maps to explore? With friction and uncertainty everywhere, let’s rethink traditional ideas of career progression, growth and success. Prepare to create a more intentional, values-led ‘choose your own adventure’ career map that’s all you.

Saira Manns is a communications specialist who blends creativity, curiosity, and compassion to help people make sense of complex information. You may recognise Saira from her previous work at Greyhound Australia (including some seriously unserious map explainers on TikTok). Since then, she’s now landed her dream role at Queensland Police Service and applies her skills in a fast-paced emergency services environment.

With almost two decades of experience, Saira’s career has taken her on a journey across the not-for-profit, corporate, and government sectors, including stops at Australia Zoo, Surf Life Saving Queensland, University of the Sunshine Coast, and the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre. She’s also worked as a freelance editor, contributed to a small publishing collective, and has dabbled in everything from podcasting and graphic design to photography and videography.

Following her popular presentation at State of Social ’25, Saira was recently published in the Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing with her article “Maps, memes, and meteorological mayhem: humanising disaster communication in the social media age”.*

*(TBC pending peer review)