Ben Pettingill, Blind Professional Speaker and Adrenaline Junkie

 Ben Pettingill sees life in a different way to most. At age 16, Ben lost 98% of his eyesight overnight to a rare genetic syndrome, Lebers Hereditary Optic Neuropathy. This sudden traumatic event turned his world upside down, redefined everything he knew and crushed all his childhood dreams in an instant. Yet it was also the beginning of him seeing life with a whole new view. Ben grew up in country Victoria, Australia. After completing High School, he went on to University to study Business. It was during his studies that Ben realised his passion is to inspire everyone to see the world with a whole new view. This is what Ben calls True and Limitless Vision. Ben has a very unique lifestyle which includes motorbike riding, water skiing and traveling extensively by himself despite only having 2% vision. Ben is also the only legally blind person in the world to have competed, untethered, in the internationally recognised Spartan Obstacle Course Race. Ben’s ability to capture the imagination of any audience is exciting and transformational and his stories must be seen and heard by all. Ben unpacks his message with enthusiasm and humour. He uses his experiences and the solutions he has developed to make a long lasting, positive impact on his audience. Ben’s greatest passion is adding value through empowering people to discover True and Limitless Vision.

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Don Elgin, Motivation Facilitator

They don’t come any livelier than the boy from the bush! Raised in the NSW town of Tocumwal, Don start in life wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. Born without the lower portion of his left leg, his fingers fused together and needing open heart surgery at 3 years of age he was certainly up against the odds from the start. But that was no barrier for this boy who would make his first Australian team at 18 years of age, become a World Champion and – a staggering 20 years later – represent Australia at the Commonwealth Games.

Don represented Australia in the athletics at four World Championships, three Paralympic Games and two World Cups before retiring in 2008.  Not one to shy away from a challenge, Don came out of retirement and made a successful comeback to compete in the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.  He is one of the longest serving scholarship holders at the Victorian Institute of Sport. Don competed in the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games, where he won bronze in the Pentathlon. Two years later he finished with a Silver medal at the 2002 IPC World Championships. At the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games he became a triple Paralympic medallist winning one Silver and two Bronze.

Don is the founder and director of StarAmp Global, a boutique management Company representing some of Australia’s finest amputee talent. Put simply” I really wanted to ensure that other athletes with similar challenges I faced got the support and encouragement they needed to give them their best chance of success”. That vision has led to Don representing several current, and future, World and Paralympic champions.

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Bryan Jeffrey, Director, MOAT: Mental Health Services

Associate Professor Loretta Sheppard
National Professional Practice Coordinator in Occupational Therapy
School of Allied Health, Australian Catholic University

Loretta is an occupational therapist with many years’ experience working with adolescents and young adults with disabilities. She has worked and researched in work readiness, self-determination, and everyday living skills in adolescents and young adults with disabilities and has a particular occupational interest in the life transition phases for young people with disabilities.

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Manager, National Ticket to Work, National Disability Services, Canberra