The 2018 My Open Kitchen Gathering
What was it all about?
The main point of this event was to get a bunch of farmers, food producers and small businesses together to share ideas and inspiration about how we can all use social media to better tell our stories and build communities around what we do. Plus of course, spend a weekend with awesome, like minded people talking about food, taking photos and learning from each other. Starting with welcome drinks on Friday night we move on to Saturday with a full day of talks, panel discussions, feasting and networking and then finish up on Sunday with a choice of eight mini-workshops.
Speakers and panelists
Our keynote speaker was Sara Tasker of Me and Orla and the podcast Hashtag Authentic and truly were just so thrilled to be bringing this lovely and clever ‘queen of Instagram’ out from the UK specially for this event – whoop boom bang. Sara is one of the most inspiring people we’ve come across in this on-line world, and one of the most generous with her considerable knowledge of how to navigate it with good grace, humour and skill.
And alongside Sara, we had the following stellar line up of panelists speaking on the day;
Luisa Brimble – Photographer, creative big gun, collaboration queen, ray of sunlight and publisher of Wild Cookbook with Sarah Glover.
Annabelle Hickson – A writer who takes photos, often of flowers, columnist for Country Style magazine, Lives on a pecan farm in Australia. Creator of simple, beautiful foraged flower and foliage installations (just wait till you see what’s she’s doing to our Gathering venue!) and blogger at one of our favourite places to hang online The Dailys.
Tamsin Carvan – Food writer, social media natural and host of Tamsin’s Table; long table lunches and hands on seasonal cooking classes celebrating the produce Tamsin and her partner produce on their Poowong East property in Gippsland, Victoria.
Pip Brett – Pip is the powerhouse behind Orange’s concept store The Sonic (our venue for welcome drinks on the 18th). She runs the Instagram account for her two businesses (both housed in the Sonic) @jumbledonline and @igloustore nd is a social media gun. Pip has LOADS to share about building communities around what you do.
Barbara Sweeney – Creator of the wonderful Food and Words festival and events/talks series, food writer of our dreams, contributor to Country Style magazine. Barbara is a woman of many talents – she writes about food, farmers and artisan producers, is a restaurant reviewer, judges regional food competitions and is also a talking cookbook.
Michelle Crawford – Tasmanian based food stylist, author, cook, recipe writer and inhabitant of one of the loveliest kitchens on Instagram. Blogging beautifully at Hugo and Elsa.
Penny Hanan – Penny (who also happens to be Sophie’s sister-in-law!) runs a business called 1803 Artisan Deer Design. She uses bi-products from our farm (leather, antler etc) and in collaboration with talented Australian artisans across Australia, produces a range of truly special products. She’s all about transparency, integrity and making beautiful, unique products. And she tells this story on social media to a super engaged community.
Megan Trousdale – Shopkeeper at 125-year-old Odgers & McClelland Exchange Stores Nundle NSW. National magazine writer since 1997. Growing & cooking food on 8-acres. Megan is one of our favourite country creatives and super generous with her experience and passion for running regional businesses online.
Fiona Walmsley, Fiona and her family run Buena Vista Farm on the NSW South Coast. She is a fantastic example of how social media can help producers and farmers built communities around what they do and also runs workshops and cooking classes from the farm too. We are so thrilled she will be speaking at our Gathering and know that everyone will learn LOTS from this clever clogs.
Skye Manson, Skye is a journalist and the co-host of the My Open Kitchen Podcast. She lives on her family farm in Grenfell NSW and is all about about storytelling, stationary, flowers, celebrating farm life and podcasting!
When and where did this thing happen?
Friday 18, Saturday 19 and Sunday 20th May.
Will it happen again?
Yes but I’m not sure when. At this stage I’m looking at holding this event every two years but will keep you posted via the newsletter!
