Back on the 28th November 2018 I was lucky enough to be invited along to attend the National Press Club Luncheon down in Canberra. No biggie. Just a quick trip really. I am not sure where December went and how it is the 10th of January already but I thought it was high time I told you about my little adventure. Gosh it was fun.
Back in November, my lovely neighbour Shelly – from Trek West Hiking – called me and said “what are you doing on the 28th November” I checked my planner and I didn’t have anything on so she said “good, we are going to Canberra”….. “um, ok, sure Yes…” I said yes because as Richard Branson says “Say yes and figure it out later”. Always say yes. When you say yes amazing things happen and doors will open for you. Oh and I mean who am I to say no to a trip away with my good friend Shell even though I didn’t really know what it was all about? Shell sent me the details on the luncheon and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw who the guest speakers were….
Naomi Simpson from Red Balloon, Olivia Ruello from Business Chicks and Mikaela Jade from Indigital.
I don’t think I have been to Canberra since our year 6 excursion circa 1990.
Now getting to Canberra isn’t the easiest thing to do when you live way up here. It would involve driving to town, overnighting in Mt Isa, flying to Brisbane and then switching planes and flying to Canberra. One night in Canberra and then back again. Lets just say it is a long way to go for lunch but I was so there Jackie O.
Of course there was a little bit of rain around the day before (of course there was) I was due to drive to town. Rain doesn’t mix well with our 165km of dirt road that we have to travel over just to get to the highway. I just need to mention that we are in a pretty bad way up here and things are very dry, very very dry, we are still waiting for the wet season from January 2018 to come, but it seems every time I want to drive out of here there is a tiny bit of rain that puts a stop to it. Not enough rain to do any good in the paddocks, just to stop me driving.
Thank goodness for our neighbours, to the south, who are also owned by the same company we work for. Their lovely pilot – Dave – headed up and flew me to Mt Isa. I was so grateful and really happy when I got to town. The lengths we go to get to Canberra!
Next morning it was off to Canberra which was going to take me all day. First stop Brisbane and then I finally arrived in Canberra to my friend Shelly around 5pm. Yay!!
My gorgeous Sister-In-Law – Caroline – had told me about a wonderful Japanese restaurant that they had been to – Akiba. I was open to all suggestions because I didn’t have a clue where we were going to eat. She told us to book because it was really popular. So we did and boy were we happy campers. We arrived a little early so went across the mall to a bar called Kokomo’s – we were told they would take care of us and make great cocktails. Tick. We were there faster than you can say “we will have a Cosmopolitan please”.
We met our other lovely friend – Wendy – there. Wendy is from a station outside of Camooweal (our local) and is also the Federal President of ICPA (Isolated Children’s Parents Association) so spends a lot of time in Canberra. Wendy is amazing and does so much to better the lives of remote families.
We had the most delicious meal at Akiba! I don’t think I have had Japanese before. Gosh it was good, I can’t speak highly enough about that restaurant and the fabulous service. Caroline was right telling us to book because that place was packed – always a good sign.
Next morning we were up and at it getting our pretty on for the National Press Club Luncheon. I did have a little incident when we left the hotel. It was raining and I slipped over – IN MY WHITE PANTS. Not the ideal start. Of course I threw a little tanty (and really hurt my knee) but Shelly slapped me into line and off we went. I needed a quick costume change…. so had to find a shop really quickly. Shell waited in the Mall with our luggage and I headed of in search of a shop – any shop – to find a white pair of pants. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a Birdsnest pop up shop. I ducked in and came out all clean.
The lovely Lyn (from NBN) was collecting us and took us on a whirlwind trip to meet some new people before our luncheon. It was like speed dating but fabulous! It was so wonderful to meet Georgie Somerset (AgForce President) as I have been chatting with her online for quite some time, so it was great to meet her in real life.
Then it was onto the National Press Club, can you even believe it? I was so excited.
The theme for the luncheon was Enterprising Women – all about how the internet has opened all sorts of doors for women to start businesses – no matter where they live.
I would be nothing without the NBN. I wouldn’t be able to blog or start new ventures like Wild Spark. Wild Spark is all about connecting rural, regional and remote women, helping them be the best they can be no matter where they live. Without great internet we certainly wouldn’t be able to do this. Miss Chardy, Wild Spark and Trek West really do encompass what this luncheon was all about – Enterprising Women, connecting women.
It was so wonderful to listen to Naomi Simpson, Olivia Ruello and Mikaela Jade speak as a panel. I still couldn’t believe I was there.
Of course afterwards I made it my mission to meet Olivia – CEO of Business Chicks.
I mean it was meant to be that I attended this luncheon because I just finished reading Winging It by Emma Isaacs who is the founder of Business Chicks. The reason I wanted to make Wild Spark a reality is to bring the kind of events that Business Chicks holds to rural, regional and remote women. I have always wanted to attend one of the many Business Chicks events, but it is just so hard because they are all held in Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne and it is just unaccessible and too expensive for a quick trip down there.
Back when I started my blog in 2014 our internet wasn’t that flash. We had NBN but didn’t have a whole lot of data. So I would be up at 4:30am to write my blog posts so I could use our “off peak” data, because after 7am the connection was very unreliable. Then the NBN introduced Sky Muster. This was a game changer. There is now larger data packages that you can select and the connection is much faster and very reliable. I haven’t had any problems.
It still blows my mind that I can be out here in the middle of nowhere and connect with people all over the world. Ed and I have started our own business – Wild Spark and it doesn’t matter that she lives in Brisbane and I live up here because: Internet. It seems that I have a better internet connection up here – thanks to NBN – than she does in Brookfield Brisbane – isn’t that crazy!
I met some more wonderful people who work for NBN Co. It is great to share our story with them, of who we are and where we live and what the NBN means to us.
After the luncheon is was time to fly back to Brisbane… our flights were a little delayed so Lynnie and I managed to fit in a sneaky little Chardy at the airport. Gosh she is good fun, such a mover and shaker and always willing to help out and give advice. Lyn is the Media Advisor for NBN.
In other exciting news NBN will be launching the new Skymuster Plus which will be an even better service that the normal Skymuster, this is very exciting. If you would like to know what that is all about please read THIS blog post. You can also read all about it over at NBN.
So there you have it. My goodness, if you have made it down here give yourself a pat on the back and a massive thanks for sticking with me.
Hi Dan – I did watch the episode on iView a few hours before the time expired! I did see you there! Thanks for the update!