A celebration - Bring Your Own... American

It is so magical when everything comes together, and that’s exactly what happened in #NYC last week, when we organised #BYOA - Bring Your Own American!

We’ve hosted this event for many years, and after a hiatus we brought it back last week, with special thanks to Julie Bishop John Berry and the American Australian Association .

BYOA was originally envisioned during one of the Australian Foreign Minister’s visits to the United States in 2015. We worked with the US Consul General and local Australians, including Pete M. to develop an event recognising a section of the Australian community living in NYC. 

BYOA brings together Australians from across different industries - those engaged in media, the arts, science, tech, innovation, film, production, foreign policy - who are building their careers and successes in the United States - and making Australia proud. 

The BYOA invites each Australian to bring their own ‘American’ - someone who has been pivotal to their success by enabling or supporting them to get their start in the United States. This could be a business partner, associate, friend, mentor, sponsor, or partner!

That’s exactly what we saw in the room last week - an opportunity to celebrate our collaboration, international capability and friendship.

Together we are great innovators, creators and visionaries, and each and every person is building the economic and cultural prosperity of our nations, and our shared ecosystems. 

So with that, a huge thank you to everyone for making this happen -

Julie Bishop - an exceptional foreign minister, continuous promoter of the rules based international order, and a creator of the bilateral and multilateral relationships globally, that need to exist to support this collaboration. Thank you Julie for sharing your insights - from geopolitical challenges, your career highlights and the importance of having a #sponsor - someone to be your advocate. 

Guests were left with a powerful call to action:

"Find someone in your life or organisation to sponsor, or find someone to sponsor you. Everyone needs a sponsor, someone to be your advocate."

An especially big thanks to John Berry  and the American Australian Association team for hosting including Libbi Swan .

Samantha Schoen - thank you very much for your support of the event, and for your contributions Morgan Stanley and for your contributions to the Australia-American relationship.

A big thanks to Meggie Palmer - an incredible host and exemplar of an Aussie pivoting and making it  NYC! You bring out the best in people and support women so tremendously.

Pete M. the co-visionary of BYOA - thanks for your support and for continuing to back the relationship and bring out the more untold and amazing parts of the relationship. 

Ronnie Flynn and Dylan Hales from the Flower Shop - thank you for your generosity and showcasing your new venue #SilverLiningLounge and for also being part of the original BYOA. We can't wait to see you go from strength to strength with the new partnership with Tao Group Hospitality

Sarah McLellan Mee , creator of #CharBites for the truly Aussie grazing table.

A shout to James Carouso who attended as my ‘American’ - Jim served with John Berry in the US Embassy in Canberra, and then as Charge d’affaires from 2016-2019, and continues to be significant advocate and contributor to strength of the bilateral relationship.

And finally to everyone who attended, with thanks for all that you do! Lauren H. #SamanthaWills Edward Campbell Abby Frank Georgina Speakman Nelson Aspen Cassandra Kelly AM Brook Hendricks Max Gwynn #bambinorthwoodblyth Helen Zhang Zjantelle Cammisa Markel Karina Soltyszewski, FCPA Raymond Bonner and many more!