eMotion Video Training & Production was honoured to be named the inaugural Cairns Business Women’s Club Collaboration of the Year. It was an incredibly proud moment for Founder and Director Suzie Cray.
Early Media Pioneers
Breaking into broadcast in the early 1990s was not for the faint-hearted. Suzie Cray began her television career in Rockhampton as WIN Television’s youngest ever regional director, aged just 19. At a time when media roles were strictly divided, Suzie was already crossing disciplines: directing, operating cameras, and learning the craft from the ground up in a regional newsroom with limited resources and high expectations. It was the kind of environment that built instincts fast.
Suzie was part of the Sky News Australia team from its first day of broadcasting in 1996, working inside the first newsroom in Australia to use computers to edit video. As the broadcaster grew to deliver news 24 hours a day, Suzie began training producers and journalists to edit their own stories. Her technical expertise, leadership, and talent for video editing took her around the world, training teams at companies including Disney and MTV, across countries such as Egypt, Japan, and the UK. She went on to work at all major commercial networks before joining the ABC in Cairns.
Rapid Change in the Media Industry Leads to Innovation
Suzie has seen technology and the newsgathering model change vastly over three decades in the industry. By the time she left the edit suite behind, she’d gone from cutting tape in regional newsrooms to training broadcast teams on fully digital systems across some of the world’s biggest media organisations. The shift was seismic, and Suzie was at the centre of it. She swapped the heavy camera gear for the classroom, sharing video skills with communities across Far North Queensland as an ABC Open Producer, and never looked back.
With the explosion of social media and the advent of smartphones, Suzie saw an opportunity to put video storytelling in the hands of people themselves. Where individuals and organisations would once have had to rely on media coverage or hire a film crew to create a compelling video, this could now be done with the tool already in their pocket: a smartphone.
eMotion Video Training & Production evolved out of a need to make video skills more accessible to people in remote and regional areas.
Smartphone Video Workshop Launched in Cairns
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The first smartphone video workshop was an immediate hit with small business owners and communications professionals who needed to generate engaging content as part of an effective marketing and social media strategy.
When eMotion Video Training and Production launched in Cairns in late 2019, founder Suzie Cray had no idea she would have to pivot within months, as the global COVID-19 pandemic upended normal life. With public gatherings restricted, she switched to delivering live video training online, proving that practical smartphone video skills could be taught effectively anywhere in Australia.
Since officially registering eMotion Video as a business in 2020, Suzie has delivered smartphone video training workshops to clients as far away as Tasmania and the Northern Territory, training more than 2,500 participants across Australia. Her clients include government organisations, not-for-profits, Indigenous organisations, libraries, and corporate teams. She has also produced high quality videos and animations for organisations ranging from small businesses to universities and State and Federal Government departments.
Committed to the Community
Giving back to the community has always been a strong driver for eMotion Video Training and Production. Founder Suzie Cray was honoured with an Australia Day Achievement Award for her contribution producing training videos for the State Emergency Service (SES) during COVID-19, and has served as a dedicated SES volunteer for more than 12 years, responding to natural disasters across Far North Queensland.
Beyond emergency services, Suzie is a sought-after guest speaker and panellist, contributing expert insight on AI in the creative industries, video production, and digital storytelling at events across Australia. She also delivers podcasting courses, helping organisations and individuals find their voice and build audiences through audio content.
Suzie regularly volunteers as a mentor and guest presenter, sharing her expertise in smartphone video production, content creation, and visual storytelling to empower individuals, community organisations, and businesses across regional and remote Australia.
CBWC Award Win
After being named finalists in the 2022 Cairns Chamber Commerce Business Excellence Awards for Innovation, winning the Cairns Business Women’s Club’s Inaugural Collaboration of the Year Award was the icing on the cake for the media veterans.
“The winners of this award inspired the judges by demonstrating a well-rounded approach to collaborative commercial success by capitalising on each other’s strengths, they were truly in sync.”
Suzie was humbled to see so many video workshop and video production clients cheering her on at the Awards ceremony, a testament to the relationships built through years of practical, hands-on training across Australia.
Suzie genuinely loves what she does, and eMotion Video Training and Production continues to reach all corners of Australia, delivering smartphone video training, video production, and podcasting courses to ensure everyone, regardless of where they live, has the chance to own and share their story.
