Wild Spark Mt Isa 2019

Well, I am not really sure where to start. Our very first Wild Spark event is now done and dusted and we couldn’t be happier. All our dreams came true. Wild Spark Mt Isa was a one day conference type affair with flair, held on Friday 8th March – International Women’s Day.

Wild Spark is a rural business network. It is all about connecting women in rural, regional and remote Australia, helping them be the best they can be no matter where they live. Normally when you live up here, in the middle of nowhere, you need to drive hours to town,jump on a plane and head to a major city to attend such an event. We wanted to make this accessible to all the fabulous women up here. And I reckon we did just that! The day was absolutely amazing.

We brought 110 women together from all over the north west. Women travelled from as far as Tennant Creek, Townsville, Brisbane, Julia Creek, Richmond, Cloncurry, Burketown and beyond.

We had 6 guest speakers who spoke about their journey starting their own online businesses. Our guest speakers spoke from the heart, they told us the real story, the good the bad and the ugly. We were all captivated. The day was all about helping women to connect with other like minded women, step outside their comfort zone and gain the confidence to take the next step towards their dream, what ever that may be.

From top left we have: Kirsten from Kristen & Co and Skin Boss, Kristy from Incy Interiors, Tahlia from Birdsnest, Fiona from Cloud Bookkeeping NT, Nikki from Styling You and the one and only favourite neighbour and gorgeous friend Shelly from Trek West Tailored Hiking Tours. Wow, what a line up! All of these women have helped, supported me and guided me to where I am today in some way. They are very special women.

When women help each other amazing things can happen. We all have special skills and by joining forces and giving each other a helping hand magic happens.

Now look, I love a good conference and still remember, with fondness, attending my very first Pro-Blogger Conference at the QT Hotel on the Gold Coast back in 2014. I bought the ticket before I even published this blog. I really had no idea what I was doing when it came to starting a blog and building a website so I typed “Blogging Conferences” into Google and I never looked back. It is from those ProBlogger Conferences that I have made life long friends who help me all the time and answer the gazillion questions I have when it comes to all things online and business.

2 of those ladies were guest speakers at Wild Spark Mt Isa – Nikki Parkinson and Kirsten Smith. Isn’t it just so amazing how life happens and things fall into place. Great things have happened to me since stepping out of my comfort zone back in 2014. Sure I was scared, worried people would think I was silly but I threw caution to the wind and just did it. I started that blog, I went to that conference, I introduced myself to those people.

I guess what I am trying to get at is just say yes – jump in and do what you love to do. If I didn’t say “screw it just do it” and start my blog back in 2014 I wouldn’t be where I am today. Through Miss Chardy I now have an engaged audience of like minded some from all over the world. Yes – the world. I have readers in Canada, Russia, USA, Africa, Croatia, Germany and many more countries. Who’d have thought. I had no idea where it was going to take me, I just wanted to share my story. You just have to take it one day at a time. Just keep moving forward. The time is going to go by anyway so you may as well just start. Something is better than nothing. Don’t wait for life to be perfect and until you have all of your ducks in a row – that is never going to happen. Life is messy. Gosh so many quotes, I do love a good quote! Oh and look, here is my gorgeous friend Karen from Priceless Pearls. This woman is just the best!

I have banged on about holding an event in Mt Isa for about the last 4 years. Last year I was lucky enough to be part of the WiRE Program. It was a 12 week online program that helped you work on one “big rock” within your business. Well, I didn’t actually have a business but that one big rock for me was this event that I had wanted to do. I just needed to make it happen. If it wasn’t for that 12 week program I would still be fluffing around.

I figured out a business name, registered it, bought the domain etc. I was then chatting with my good friend – Edwina – about it one day when I was down in Brisbane . She was so supportive. We are both very similar and this sort of thing really floats her boat too – bringing women together. She was helping me figure out my logo and colours and that is when I had the light bulb moment….. I need to partner up with this super smart women. We need to do this together. I was a little reluctant to ask her because I really didn’t want her to say no. I really wanted her on board. But I just asked and she said yes. YES YES YES!!!! That night we celebrated over a cheeky glass of wine at the Brookie Store and the rest is history. It has been full steam ahead since. We took this photo and said “we need to remember this moment because this is just the start”.

I couldn’t have made Wild Spark happen without Ed. She has business experience, having had her own businesses in the past. Ed has a passion for helping women and is just an all round great girl. Ed has a heart of gold and will go above and beyond for you. She makes me a better person and pushes me to step outside my comfort zone, to do those jobs that make me uncomfortable and make those phone calls that I don’t want to make. That is what building a business is all about. As Ed always says to me “if it were easy, everyone would be doing it”. So true! It is a lot of very hard work. But when you are doing something you love it doesn’t feel like work.

So back to Wild Spark Mt Isa. All our dreams came true. The event was everything I had dreamed it would be and more (I mean how could it not be, look at all the pink and spots for goodness sake). Everyone had such a great time and I hope they left feeling motivated and inspired and perhaps made a new friend or two. I know I sure did.

Oh and guess what. As if it couldn’t get any better …. on the Thursday night I had some surprise visitors arrive. My sister – Toni, Mum – DD, Aunty Theresie and Aunty Annie. I couldn’t believe my eyes. They walked into the Isa Hotel when we were all getting ready to have dinner.

Let me tell you there were Wild Sparks everywhere that night. Toni and Aunty Theresie had flown up from NSW (Mudgee and Gilgandra) and Mum and Aunty Annie from Adelaide. You see Mum, Dad, Aunty Annie and Uncle Terry are in the middle of a caravanning trip along the Murray. So they left the blokes in Murray Bridge and flew all the way up for our event. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t think anything could top my surprise 40th but things just keep getting better. My 40’s are off to a very good start indeed. Thanks so much for making such a massive effort to come up. I had not seen my sister in over a year and it has been about 8 months since I saw my Mum and Aunties. I was so excited to be able to introduce them to all the fabulous women in my life, my Brisbane friends, my blogging friends and my friends up here. It was amazing. They got to really be a part of my world for a few days.

Ok I am going to stop banging on. I think you get the gist… we just had the BEST WEEKEND EVER!! So much fun. Did I mention it was fun?

Afterwards the gorgeous Elisha and Annabelle from Cattlesales put on the most fabulous networking drinks…

And then we all headed over to the Red Earth Cocktail Bar. Oh my goodness, my heart was so full it nearly burst. The things I have to do to get my friends away from horses, camp drafts and dust and out of their jeans and boots! The struggle is real.

We are so thankful to all of our sponsors.

Mt Isa Fruniture & Bedding so generously allowed us to go into their store, choose anything we wanted for our stage/room design. They then delivered and also collected everything. They also donated a gorgeous cowhide chair as a lucky door prize.

From the very beginning Birdsnest have been such a major support. They were on board from the moment I told them about my concept. Tahlia travelled all the way up from Cooma and did such a fantastic presentation. They also sent up Daniel – their Videographer and we are just so grateful. Can’t wait to see what he snapped on the day. Each guest also took home a goody bag thanks to Birdsnest. There were certainly lots of goodies inside too!

Therapy Solutions – Occupational Therapists – from Brisbane were a major support. Elissa travelled all the way up for the event. Not only did she sponsor our day but she worked her butt off for 2 days also. Thanks so much Elissa!

Oh and don’t even get me started on Amanda from Sunday Cowgirl, Kelli & Gina. We would have been absolutely screwed without these amazing ladies. Amanda totally saved the day as our back up (or should I say main) IT/Technician. She sorted out all of our technical problems. We cannot thank you enough. Kelli & Gina also travelled up from Brisbane and didn’t stop working the whole time. But by golly we also had some fun!

Our banking partners and also one of our sponsors is Rabobank Cloncurry. Merril & Tracy joined us for the day.

Another much valued sponsor was Off the Track Training. Unfortunately Joy couldn’t be with us but she still made an appearance. Joy did a little video for us and had us all up and moving.

Worn Out West so kindly popped a gift voucher in each goody bag for the ladies to take away. Hannah has been so supportive of this event concept and has helped me and guided me for the past 4 years. Thanks so much Hannah! There is is on the right (Leigh, on the left, travelled all the way over from Tennant Creek Station)…

Thanks so much to Leonie Winks Photography for being our official photographer, the pics are fantastic. There’s Leonie – on the right.

Wild Spark Mt Isa is now going to be an annual event. It is a thing. This is just the start. We will be holding other events in different locations. So if you think Wild Spark is just what your community needs please let us know. We are all about connecting rural, regional and remote Australia. We have plans in the pipeline for events in Brisbane (Brookfield), Sydney and Dubbo. Our City events are all about bridging the gap, connecting city and country women. Stay tuned for dates, we are thinking early October at this stage. Dates will be confirmed very shortly.

NBNCo, Therapy Solutions and Vanderfield Chinchilla so very generously bought tickets so we could offer ladies who have been affected by the dreadful flooding in the North West a day out, on them. This was just so wonderful and the ladies really appreciated the offer, they had a wonderful day out and a chance to leave the horror that faces them at home for a day. Thanks so much for coming along ladies, I think it is just what you needed! You are certainly all made of very strong stuff.

Of course none of what we do would even be possible if it weren’t for NBNCo and Skymuster. It has allowed women like me the opportunity to start a business even though town is 5 hours away. The internet sure does keep us connected, I am not sure I would survive up here without it.

Where to from here. Well, like I said, this is just the beginning. We now need to concentrate on building our website and sort out future events. See – don’t wait until everything is perfect, if we had have waited until we had built the website and everything was super perfect our Mt Isa event would never have happened.

Wow… seriously if you have made it right down here please give yourself a massive pat on the back. Thanks for sticking with us. If you were at our inaugural Wild Spark event in Mt Isa – thanks so much, we hope you had a wonderful time. We sure did! Stay tuned, we will be locking in a date for Wild Spark Mt Isa 2020 in the next week.