Engaging Conversations | Inspiring Dialogue, Empowering Communities

#20 - From Bondi to the World Embracing Ocean Conservation with Anita Kolni

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What drives someone to transform a personal passion into a movement with global impact? Join us as Anita Kolni, the visionary founder of the Ocean Lovers Festival, reveals how her commitment to ocean conservation inspired the creation of a vibrant festival that captivates and educates.

Anita's story is a testament to how an individual's love for the ocean can blossom into a platform merging ideas, art, music, and tangible actions to combat climate anxiety, particularly among younger generations. Discover how, by partnering with universities, environmental organisations, and well-known figures, Anita has crafted a community that celebrates the ocean and champions its conservation.

Navigating the complexities of funding and engaging a young audience hasn't been without challenges, but the Ocean Lovers Festival has seen significant breakthroughs. Anita shares insights on how the festival has successfully shifted from sponsorship reliance to attracting support from companies with strong environmental goals. Educational initiatives like Fish Tank, Literati, and the Ocean Smart Schools program are pivotal in inspiring future ocean advocates. Through initiatives like the Sea Science Student Expo, young people gain exposure to diverse career opportunities while facilitating a deeper connection with the environment.

Anita's vision extends beyond the festival's immediate impact, aiming for a future where humans reconnect with nature and commit to sustainable actions. With an impressive reach—40,000 attendees in Bondi and a media footprint of 34 million—the festival has a profound influence, inspiring meaningful change in the lives of its participants.

As the festival prepares to expand across Sydney in March 2025, we invite you to explore the myriad of engaging activities available, from talks hosted by ABC Radio National to insightful episodes of the Ocean Ideas podcast series. Be part of this collective effort to champion ocean conservation and make a lasting difference.

For More Info, visit www.oceanloversfestival.com

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Leon Goltsman:

Hello and welcome back to Engaging Conversations. I'm Leon Goltsman and it's great to have you here for another inspiring and action-packed episode. This show isn't just about ideas. It's about bold action, real innovation and the people making things happen. We give a voice to changemakers and dive into the breakthroughs shaping the world, starting right here in our communities. But before we get started, a big thank you to our valued sponsor, Niaz Cannoth, Principal and Lending Specialist at Invest Intelligence. Niaz is passionate about socially responsible investment strategies, particularly in disability accommodation. Your support makes conversations like these possible and we truly appreciate it.

Leon Goltsman:

Now, today's conversation is one that truly stands out. We're not just talking about environmental awareness. We're talking about real action and real impact, because, at the end of the day, big ideas are great, but it's the trailblazers who bring them to life that truly inspire us, and today's guest, Anita Kolni, founder of Ocean Lovers Festival, is one of those trailblazers. What started off as a local initiative in Bondi is now influencing councils across Australia, proving that a festival can be so much more than just an event. It can be a catalyst for real change. Anita and her team are helping corporations meet their environmental targets, but what's more important is that they're empowering everyday people children, teachers, businesses to become change makers. From underwater drones to seahorse hotels, from dissolvable fishhooks to tackling microplastic pollution, her work is as creative as it is impactful. But what I love most about this conversation, it's about legacy how one person's passion and determination can inspire generations to take responsibility for our oceans and our planet. So, without further ado, let's jump right into it.

Anita Kolni:

Hi, I'm Anita, founder of the Ocean Lovers Festival, and I live in the eastern suburbs in Sydney. So I'm a mum of four kids and I grew up enjoying all there is to love about our beautiful ocean and waterways. I'm the first person in my family born in Australia. I fell in love with, you know, just growing up by the beach, that was just the lifestyle that I ended up almost taking for granted. And as my kids grew up and I realized that, you know, if I don't do something to change this, my children and my grandchildren in particular are never going to have the opportunity to enjoy the lifestyle that I've enjoyed already.

Anita Kolni:

Today there's so much climate anxiety with children and so much going on. So I thought what can I do? And I was coming across all these incredible ideas and solutions. I thought what better way to make people more aware and bring attention to what we can do than creating a festival where the community can connect with ideas, solutions and innovation, because there's so many great ideas out there, but there is no vehicle or platform to connect everyone, and that was basically the basis and the premise of the festival.

Leon Goltsman:

So, anita, how did you design the festival to go beyond entertainment and create real worldwide impact for ocean conservation?

Anita Kolni:

When we had our first festival in Bondi, people weren't sure if we were environmental event or if we were a sporting event. So we really had to go away and put a lot of thought into how people were going to perceive the festival. So we came up with our three pillars, which was ideas, art, music and actions for the ocean, so people would understand more what they were going to come and find. And we started working with all the universities and the Sydney Institute of Marine Science and the Maritime Museum and the Prince Albert Foundation and all these other amazing institutions and organisations got behind us and we thought we've got to find a way to connect this with the public. So the festival was a fun way to do that, and when people go out and they have fun you know people don't want to go out and be educated in their time off but if people go out and have fun and they feel inspired, then they're much more likely to create change.

Leon Goltsman:

So our goal was really to inspire and empower people, because then you're going to create a movement that starts to create change and whilst you've gone and inspired people, you designed a festival that just it doesn't just provide a place or a location for people to attend, but you've gone beyond entertainment. You know, some of the things is you've been uniting politicians, celebrities, activists. What's the key to getting such a diverse and influential people to collaborate on ocean conservation?

Anita Kolni:

Well, I think the key is that the festival has become recognised as a trusted source of knowledge and a community and grassroots movement, and that makes people from all walks of life want to participate and want to come and share what they have to share.

Anita Kolni:

So we have been very focused on checking our resources and making sure that anybody that we're working with is truly aligned with our values, so that we can, in an era of misinformation, we want to remain a trusted source of knowledge, which is what we've grown into, and so that's a really important thing where we're uniting business leaders and politicians and other people to come and feel inspired and find out about how some of the ways other businesses are doing it, because a lot of people feel, or a lot of businesses actually feel, that it's a hindrance to put sustainability and blue and green into their focus. But when you hear from other businesses that are doing it and realising that it's actually benefiting and increasing their businesses, then it can inspire, and from other businesses that are doing it and realizing that it's actually benefiting and increasing their businesses, then it can inspire and encourage other businesses to do the same.

Leon Goltsman:

So you've had high profile figures like the Bondi Rescue Lifeguards and other influential names. So how has the celebrity involvement helped spread your message and what role do you think they play in shifting public attitudes towards conservation?

Anita Kolni:

We've been very fortunate to get some really incredible people behind the festival. Even in our first year we had George Miller come and open our festival for us, which was a great win, and he's a true environmentalist and loves the ocean and having people like the Prince Albert Foundation that got involved earlier on. And Sylvia Earle, who, for people who don't know her, she's like the David Attenborough marine science and has been named first hero for the planet. And then we've got our own, valerie Taylor here in Australia, who's an absolute legend. So getting some of those people behind us in the early days has helped build our credibility as a platform. Um, it's been harder to get some real like high profile celebrities because you've got to prove yourself before they want to put your their name to it. But we have been introduced to Hugh Jackman, who unfortunately couldn't participate this year because he had a bit too much on, and he's a Bondi local when he is in Australia and I really think that's something that will help us grow the festival even more. And we have some incredible ambassadors, like Lisa Blair, who's a solo world record holder sailor who's sailed around the world and collects microplastic and does some incredible research along the way. We've actually just got Miss Earth, miss Australia, who who's joined us this year, and we're going out to a lot of new ambassadors this year. Part of that is actually that we've been a Bondi event for four years, with four cancellations because of COVID, and we're not the only ones. Everyone had to go through that difficult time, but it did make it very difficult that we'd only just delivered our first event before all that time. So being a Bondi-centric event was a fantastic stage. Bondi was like it has such a strong community feel, but it's a real international stage and it has international appeal. But from a sponsor and a supporter point of view, I think it still feels too local, even though we're doing things that are not just local. It still feels too local to get the kind of support behind us that it takes to run a movement like this.

Anita Kolni:

We've been encouraged for a long time by the Australian National Maritime Museum and some of our other partners to take the festival much broader and wider, and we had been invited to take it to Dubai last year for COP28.

Anita Kolni:

We've been invited to take the festival much broader and wider, and we had been invited to take it to Dubai last year for COP28.

Anita Kolni:

We've been invited to take it to Fremantle and lots of other places, but I felt that developing an opportunity and expanding it across Sydney would be the first, the best place to start, because we have already built such a great movement here in Bondi.

Anita Kolni:

We have already built such a great movement here in Bondi. We have people coming from all over Sydney and from interstate to our Bondi event and we're actually expanding it from a four day, four or five day event in Bondi into a month focused on ocean around Sydney, which enables us to get a lot more support from Destination New South Wales and really puts us more on a global stage than ever before. So our goal is really to become a global landmark event by 2030, which is the end of the United Nations Ocean Decade, and this brings in amazing opportunities, because now not only do we have the opportunity to showcase some of the best innovation that's happening here in Australia. We'll be inviting people from overseas to come and showcase some of their best innovation that's happening here in Australia. We'll be inviting people from overseas to come and showcase some of their incredible innovation and science and solutions for the ocean and, from a partner and sponsor opportunity, it gives them the opportunity now to brand across Sydney for a whole month of March, which is a huge opportunity.

Leon Goltsman:

I can see why and how this is of state significance. How do you ensure that the festival not only thrives as an event, but also delivers measurable benefits for sponsors and partners who support it?

Anita Kolni:

I think all organisations today feel a real responsibility to not be greenwashing and to actually be doing the right thing, and we are such a great vehicle for that because we are doing that right thing. I mean our goal is to spread hope and do so by educating, increasing awareness and bringing you know, increasing ocean literacy and growing that to as many people as possible, because you cannot create behavior change if you can't influence people and make them more aware of something. If you want to create change, you need to influence people and make them more aware of something. If you want to create change, you need to make people aware of something, because people can't change what they're not aware of. So our goal is to grow awareness and educate people as much as possible on what's going on in the ocean and climate and biodiversity space in general, because the more aware you are, the more change you can make. You can't change something that you're not aware of.

Leon Goltsman:

So creating a large-scale, impact-driven event isn't without its obstacles. What has been the biggest challenges you've faced in organising the festival and what breakthroughs have kept you pushing forward?

Anita Kolni:

One of the biggest challenges is definitely funding. When you're a new start-up and in the environmental place, the ocean has less funding than any other environmental initiatives. Funnily enough, and the ocean is actually at the heart of the climate crisis. We all need the ocean to survive. Two out of every three breaths we take come from the ocean and without the ocean, there's no survival of humanity and our planet. It's a real challenge when you're a new business. You've got to prove yourself.

Anita Kolni:

We're a not-for-profit, we can. We raise donations and grants and sponsorships, and I have seen a shift in our funding from more sponsorships to companies donating through their foundations as well, because that does tick a lot of their environmental ESG boxes and things like that. So there's a big shift actually in the kind of organizations that are following us. Our principal partner, imc, is a futures trading firm from the Netherlands. They have a lot of focus on sustainability and their staff's main three interests are environment, education and community and we tick all those boxes. So it's their staff, that kind of direct, where they're going to be putting their money. It was a very important lesson for me to recognise that we give a lot of opportunities for corporate organisations to reach a lot of their targets and to involve their staff, to make them feel more engaged with what's going on in the environmental space and give them that power that they also can become change makers and advocates.

Leon Goltsman:

So you mentioned when we just started this conversation you've done this for your children and for the next generation. How does Ocean Lovers Festival engage young people and what has been the most rewarding response from the next generation?

Anita Kolni:

Our education program is one of the like my highlights of the festival, because when I see the look of the children's faces when they come to the festival, it just makes me feel like I'm making a difference.

Anita Kolni:

We have a growing school program. It started off with a school excursion that children came down to the festival and we had about 200 children in the first year that we did it and that launched in our second year actually, or third year, because the festival and we had about 200 children in the first year that we did it and that launched in our second year actually, or third year, because the second year we got cancelled and we had over 200 and something children that were booked to come down and last minute we got an influx of kids and we had almost 400 children that came down. I think it was 380 in the first year. Now we're at or something which is the capacity for the junior schools, but the children come down and they do amazing engaging activities, from driving underwater drones with the Maritime Museum to building seahorse hotels that they then got the coordinates that they could actually follow when they were deployed off Port Stephens to see how these hotels were actually repairing the home environment for seahorses living under the water.

Leon Goltsman:

Well, that's one way of getting kids off the screen, isn't it?

Anita Kolni:

Absolutely, and then we had some incredible speakers in and they learned about microplastic and the impacts. But then we've also launched some great initiatives for schools to do year-round, and this is something that we're really growing. So we're now in our second year of Fish Tank. Fish Tank is our total write-off of Shark Tank, where we encourage kids to share their great ideas for the ocean, and we've had some of the most inspiring ideas, from artificial upwelling to solar-powered cargo ships to dissolvable fishhooks and really, really clever ideas and we've got $10,000 in funding from partners as prize money for these incredible ideas, and we're starting to work with universities and other people to see if some of these ideas can then be developed to a next stage if they come up with great ideas. We also have another competition called Literati, which has been going for a few more years, where children make artwork out of things that could end up in the ocean and then they share their messages for the ocean. So they're actually exploring and understanding in real, in real terms, the impact of litter on the ocean, which they don't just do if someone says oh, can you pick up that piece of rubbish and put it in the bin because it's not good for the fish and they're learning to understand that. And this year I'm really excited we're launching a new program called Ocean Smart Schools, which is actually going to bring be an incursion program delivering straight to the schools workshops straight to schools. So we're partnering with physics education, who have been delivering science to schools for over 20 years, to bring these workshops straight into schools across New South Wales and Victoria and we're looking at taking that around the country.

Anita Kolni:

Another initiative that we're doing with the schools which I'm really excited about is our Sea Science Student Expo. So that's aimed at students from Year 9 to 12 to showcase some of the careers and career opportunities related to ocean, which are much broader than a lot of students would think. So they might think that it's limited to being a marine scientist, but we've had aquarists and so many different people that are in different careers come and present to the children or students, should I say, because there are so many opportunities, from accounting to technology to business. There are many, many different ways students can get involved. We had 700 students booked last year. We lost a few because it clashed with NAPLAN, unfortunately, and we've moved that this year to the Maritime Museum, who are partnering to help us deliver that event and it's going to be an amazing day on the 14th of March and that is also to make it a lot more accessible to schools across Sydney.

Leon Goltsman:

I think a lot of the teachers want to partake and learn from that as well.

Anita Kolni:

Absolutely. That's the whole point. We want to communicate with the teachers, with the students, and we hope they all come back with their families on the weekends of the festival to engage and learn more and get their families more involved. We've got some amazing like as part of our expansion this year. We're not just doing our four or five days in Bondi, we're also doing a whole weekend of activities in Darling Harbour where we'll have markets and trashing shows, a sustainable boating showcase. There's a dive show happening in, a recreational dive show happening at the icc.

Anita Kolni:

We've got imax that are going to be screening ocean documentaries throughout the whole month of march from thursdays to sundays. The fish markets are doing sustainable cooking classes with celebrity and indigenous chefs and behind the scenes sustainable tours. We're doing some indigenous harbor tours with tribal warrior and we're partnering with the department of primary industries to showcase project restore, which is a big government initiative to restore sydney harbor and the landscape of sydney harbor and also protect the fairy penguins and and the seals, so that actually that initiative. We're doing some ferry trips in Sydney Harbour where people can book online to join a ferry trip on the 5th or the 12th of March and they can take a ferry across and learn about some of the restoration projects happening in Sydney Harbour, from crayweed to living seawall tiles. Do a behind-the-scenes tour at the Sydney Institute of Marine Science in Chowder Bay and then head over to Taronga Zoo and meet with the seal experts and fairy penguins.

Leon Goltsman:

That's getting a completely different perspective of what Sydney has to offer. There's a lot of heart that goes behind Ocean Lovers Festival, but there's also serious science backing the movement. How do you integrate scientific research into the festival and what discoveries or solutions have been shared that give you hope for the ocean's future festival and what discoveries or solutions have been shared that give you hope for the ocean's future.

Anita Kolni:

So, as a festival, we aim not to replicate what anyone is doing, but to be a platform for all the incredible scientists and innovation and technology that's happening in the ocean space. So we are fortunate enough to meet with some incredible innovators. We've met early on in our days at the festival with people like Tim Silverwood, who was one of the co-founders of Take Three for the Sea and now is doing Ocean Impact Organisation, which is Australia's first ocean accelerator program for start-ups. And we have discovered some incredible ideas like Seabin that started off by two local Australian surfers clean rubbish out of the out of harbors and now it's become a really they've actually created it's like a data collection um that I can't even go into all the details. It's just such a clever idea. You'll have to look more into it and you can meet them at the festival we might have to put that in the show notes as well absolutely.

Anita Kolni:

Uh, you can put a link to see bin uh. Then there's also uh halbot, which is a new technology that's been created out of some uh young technology and um scientists out of sydney uni that have created these amazing underwater drones to clean clean the bottom of boats, because the bottom of boats create a lot of pollution in the harbour and it also creates the boats drag more, so actually they have to use more fuel and things like that. So they've showcased at some of our festivals and to our students and we bring them into every opportunity. All the people that we meet through the festival we bring into other opportunities. So whenever we see an opportunity to connect people, we do, and one of the biggest things that we found with the festival is that it's a real connector. We've connected some incredible organizations uh through our day.

Anita Kolni:

At our first festival we had the gamay rangers, which is our first new south wales sea r Rangers Indigenous Sea Rangers that came to our festival in their first year and they met with the beautiful team at Sydney Institute of Marine Science and the University of New South Wales and now they're collaborating on projects across Sydney Harbour doing restoration with seaweed and the crayweed and the living seawall tiles and training their young rangers at the University of New South Wales, and our beautiful ambassador, vanessa Perotta, who developed the Snotbot technology, where they actually go and collect snot from whales and dolphins to monitor their health, which was actually pioneered off Bondi Beach. She's actually gotten some scholarships for the new female ranger team that's coming out next week. We've had Sea Shepherd that's collaborated with CSIRO and University of New South Wales. So all these incredible collaborations are accelerating the impact at which we can help be a vehicle to accelerate change for the ocean, positive impact for the ocean.

Leon Goltsman:

And all this positive change just makes us realise that the ocean doesn't just belong to one place, it's a global entity. So naturally, the question arises do you see the Ocean Lovers Festival model expanding internationally, and what would it take to make that vision a reality?

Anita Kolni:

I do see the festival going a lot of places. Vision a reality. I do see the festival going a lot of places. My goal at this stage is to really make sure we establish a very strong festival here in Sydney and we actually have the Sunshine Coast Council flying over for the festival this March because they're interested in bringing it over to the Sunshine Coast and other places in Queensland. We have been over to Fremantle and WA is very interested in hosting a festival as well. We have been invited to take it overseas as well, but my goal is really to establish this model here in Sydney so that we can package it up in a way that we can deliver it to as many places as possible and yes, that does include overseas.

Leon Goltsman:

So, with all your goals of taking it overseas and deliver it to as many places as possible and yes, that does include overseas. So, with all your goals of taking it overseas, it's clear that the festival is more than just one event. It's about the future. Anita, what legacy do you hope Ocean Lovers leaves behind, not just for your children, but for the world?

Anita Kolni:

I think we live in a time where people have forgotten how important it is for us to be, that we need to live in symbiosis with nature. We cannot survive without our ocean, we cannot survive without nature, and every other species on this planet seems to remember that and it seems to be an instinct for them. But I think we've lost that instinct and I think we need to re-find and re-fall in love with our connection to our planet and our connection to our environment, because if we really want to create change, we need to be spreading awareness, making lifestyle changes to collectively have a big impact, and that means that we all need to make our personal changes. But that's not going to happen unless people really feel a need, and that is refinding that connection with the environment, to start with.

Leon Goltsman:

You are creating that need and you are creating that awareness. Congratulations and well done. You know you've come a long way and you still, and this is just the beginning. Now, people often leave events feeling inspired, but inspiration alone doesn't save the ocean, does it?

Anita Kolni:

No, we all need to take action. Inspiration alone will not solve the problem. Everybody has to take action. From changing your habits at home. Using less plastic, composting um, voting with your dollar when you go to the shops, changing your super fund and changing your bank are probably the biggest things that you could do, because it takes 10 minutes on the phone to make those changes and then you are literally every day, without even trying, making positive changes for the environment.

Leon Goltsman:

So what's one simple but powerful action that you wish everyone would take after attending the festival?

Anita Kolni:

When people come to the festival, we want them to feel inspired and empowered to walk away and make change, and we actually did a survey last year and over 75% of people that come to the festival walked away saying that they wanted to make changes in their life. So that, for me, is a huge success.

Leon Goltsman:

How many people does the Ocean Lovers impact?

Anita Kolni:

Our events impact so many people in so many different ways. Just in Bondi alone last year, we had 40,000 people come down over the festival weekend period and we're expecting over 100,000 this year with the expanded Sydney Festival. Our media combined media reach last year was 34 million through all our different avenues and we had we've had over 5 000 students now engage in our school programs over the last couple of years and we've had a direct impact on 12 of the 17 sustainable development goals from the united nations sustainable development goals and we and we're very excited. Actually we did a survey last year and we had 86% of people that attended the festival that said the experience encouraged them to make changes in their life. 70% felt more optimistic from attending the event, which I think is a really important statistic, and 64% said that they left the event feeling better informed about how they can actually help protect the ocean. And a really exciting one was 80% said they're coming back again this year.

Leon Goltsman:

So you are making the impact that you had set out to do, absolutely so, looking back, what has been the most emotional or meaningful moment for you in this whole journey?

Anita Kolni:

Watching the festival grow. It's like watching a child grow. It's been quite amazing and the challenges that we've had to make it grow through you know a very tumultuous time on our planet generally has been very rewarding, I have to say, and from my personal perspective. I've gone from being a stay-at-home mum to feeling like I can change the world, and that's and and that's what I'm doing, and I'm watching this festival grow like a child into something that's going to take on a life of its own and hopefully inspire and empower people for generations to come.

Leon Goltsman:

Anita, you certainly are doing that, and I'm sure that many listeners out there would like to get involved one way or another, whether it's a corporate or anyone in our community. So the question is, if people did want to get involved or find out more information, what would they need to do?

Anita Kolni:

I'd start by saying visit oceanloversfestivalcom. Go and check out our incredible program for 2025, because there is seriously something for everyone. Make sure to follow our socials, because that will keep you up to date with all the latest news and if you're interested in backing us, please get in contact with me. My details are on the website. You can send through an inquiry and I will get back to you personally. We have raised more funds than ever before, going out to expand the festival from five days in Bondi to a whole month across Sydney, but we still do need as much support as we can get to deliver the best program and the best festival yet.

Leon Goltsman:

You did mention March. What day specifically, or particularly in March?

Anita Kolni:

We have events happening throughout the month and across six precincts in Sydney. So, like I said, check our calendar and you will find something to do with your family or with people that you know, with your loved ones, but there's two focal weekends. One will be the weekend in Darling Harbour on the 15th and 16th of March and the other one is our big Bondi Festival, which is going to be from the 22nd and 23rd of March. In the whole of Bondi and surrounds, we have an incredible talks program which is actually part of our year round engagement with people as well. Now it's called the Ocean Lovers Talks. We have ABC Radio National coming to host three of them this year and they came last year as well. Three of them this year and they came last year as well.

Anita Kolni:

But we have such an incredible lineup of experts talking about everything from alternatives to shark nets to sustainable seafood, to I can't even tell you how many amazing topics. So make sure you get online and check out that incredible program and if you don't get a chance to come down to the festival, that's actually all going to be available through our podcast series, ocean Ideas, which you can find through our website or on Spotify and YouTube. We're also launching the Sydney Coast Hope Spot Marine BioBlitz this year, which will give everyone in the community an opportunity to become a citizen scientist any time during the month of March. All you've got to do is check out the Marine BioBlitz on our website, download the iNaturalist app and head down to the waterways and snap away and get some photos of any creatures you see in the rock pools under the water, whether you're snorkelling or doing a beach walk.

Anita Kolni:

Anyone can participate and all those findings will be analysed by scientists to actually create a bit of a baseline of what species and how healthy is our harbour? What's missing? Sometimes we have new species coming down because of the warmer waters that end up here from Queensland that aren't normally meant to be here. Some of those are good, some of those are bad, but you can all participate in this event, which is going to be our first year. It's the inaugural bio blitz, but we are going to be doing that on an annual basis. So if anyone wants to participate in the marine bio blitz, it's actually on anywhere in the hawksbury shelf marine bio region. If you're living anywhere between newcastle and woolongong and within sydney harbour, we'd love to encourage you. Best place to find the link is to go to theoceanloversfestivalcom and look up the Marine BioBlitz and you can find all the details on how to participate.

Leon Goltsman:

So for all the Lake Macquarie and listeners and Central Coast and Sutherland that can partake as well.

Anita Kolni:

Everybody can partake, as long as you're near the water, or even if you're not living near the water, head down to the water and make sure to download the app and you will be helping us create a baseline of what beautiful creatures or not so beautiful creatures live in our beautiful Sydney Harbour and surrounds.

Leon Goltsman:

Anita, thank you so much always a pleasure, and thank you for being on this program. Thank you so much for Always a pleasure and thank you for being on this program. Thank you so much for speaking with us and keep up the great work. Thank you so much for having me, leon. And that's a wrap on another incredible episode of Engaging Conversations. What a journey this has been.

Leon Goltsman:

Anita Kolni has given a powerful insight into what it truly means to take action to protect our environment, drive change and inspire others to do the same. And, one of the biggest takeaways change happens when people come together, and that's exactly what the Ocean Lovers Festival is all about. Bigger than a movement, it's a way for people to reconnect with the ocean, the environment and each other, and it's working, with over 80% of attendees left feeling inspired to make meaningful changes in their lives. This is a huge success for Anita and her team, for the sponsors, the partners, the councils getting involved and for everyone who believes in a healthier planet. Most importantly, it's a huge win for future generations who will inherit this world. Now, that's something worth celebrating!

Leon Goltsman:

So oceanloversfestival.!

Leon Goltsman:

What started in Bondi is now spreading across Sydney, with Queensland and Western Australia looking to bring it to their communities too, and last year alone, the festival reached 34 million people across media the impact undeniable. So if this conversation has sparked something in you, now's the time to get involved. The festival runs all month across Sydney, so check out oceanloversfestivalcom to see what's on and how you can be a part of it. Bring your friends, your family, your colleagues. There's something in it for everyone and if you're like most people who've been, you'll walk away knowing it was absolutely worth it. A huge thank you to our audience, guests, sponsors and the amazing team that makes this podcast happen. I'm Leon Goltsman. Until next time, stay safe, stay inspired and let's keep making a difference together.

People on this episode

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Leon Goltsman

Host
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Anita Kolni

Guest