Mate Maker co. reposted this
As a priority of Q3 and Q4 of 2024, I'm excited to be spending more time on LinkedIn. I'm new around here, so any feedback / guidance will be greatly appreciated. I have a lot to share with you all & a great professional community, so I'm looking forward to connecting extremely talented people I've been fortunate enough to come across in my 16 year career. A project I've been putting a lot of energy into and harvesting in the US is 'Aussie Christmas in LA'. It's one day a year that brings together amazing Australians, Americans and other international friends who are based in the US. We treat them all to a carefully curated day & evening of Aussie culture. What started as a small idea in 2020 (due to the pandemic, expats living outside of Aus found it very hard and expensive to return to home around Christmas) has grown to new heights each year. This year we celebrate our 4th year and I'm delighted to announce we'll be hosting it on the iconic Santa Monica Pier Corporation on July 27. In 2020 I was attending an event in San Diego with a friend of mine & fellow Australian, Jessica Staats, who I had dealt with on a personal & professional level for the past 8 years. Jess used to bring music artists onto the Saturday morning music TV show, 'The Loop' (which I hosted for 8 years on Network 10), while she worked at Universal Music Group in Australia. Driving back to LA from this event, I pitched the idea of creating an Aussie Christmas in LA day, which would allow us to bring all our American and Australian contacts and friends into a room and do a pretend Aussie style summer sit down lunch, while raising some money for the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. Jess loved it & immediately became my event partner. My Aus manager Nick Fordham was a huge supporter and suggested we reach out to Tourism Australia, so we did, they loved the idea and became our 1st partner. For year 1 (2020) 110 people dined in for a 4-course Aussie style elevated lunch at West Hollywood's E.P. & L.P. plus 50 more joined us for a rooftop after party. Grant Smillie moved mountains to help us pull it off during the trying times of the pandemic. Our 2nd & 3rd year saw us grow from 130 to 190 ppl at the lunch, and 300 to 450 at the rooftop party, switching between venues Grandmaster Recorders and E.P. & L.P. with Grant & Stuart Duckworth. I'd love to thank all the brands who have supported us so far Penfolds, Four Pillars Gin,Mate Maker co.,Skyduster Beer,Skwosh,Tequila Mandala,CottonOn,Qantas,DISSH,Australian Consulate-General in Los Angeles, United States of America,Westholme Wagyu Pty Limited,Old Harbor Distilling Company,City National Bank,DREWS Clothing,Bluestone Lane, ACLA couldn't happen without Georgia Harman,Chris Allison,Tiffany Rowe,Nicole Foster,Monty Koludrovic,Katie Ford,Skye d'Almeida,Dan Kenny,Linda Duncombe OAM,Oronzo Miccoli,Dara Munnis,Hunter March,Angus Young, CA