Named by Digital Media magazine as one of the 40 biggest players in Australia's digital age, Dawson graduated from Bristol University with a B.Sc (Hons) and from Macquarie University with a Grad. Dip in Applied Finance.
Dawson regularly gives keynote addresses on digital media futures and his 'Future of Media Reports' have a readership in the tens of thousands.
According to Richard Susskind writing in The Times, Dawson's first book, ''Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships'', was a bestseller, resulting in a second edition in 2005.
The New York Times credits Dawson with predicting the growth of social media in 2002 in his book ''Living Networks''. The BBC credits him with being a "leading futurist" and with having "predicted the social networking revolution" in 2002.