A little while ago, we went searching for Canberra’s most fascinating women – not only those with a high profile, but the unsung heroines and the untold stories.

The idea was to bring together a group of local women with a broad range of experiences and backgrounds to talk about life, career, love, Canberra, family…and everything in between, at a fabulous private dinner party that we would record and write about for HerCanberra. The response was nothing short of overwhelming, and it was an incredibly hard job to narrow the list down to just nine guests (with me rounding out the 10, as facilitator for the evening).

We knew our city was home to some inspirational women, but we were blown away by some of the nominations…so much so, that we’ll be contacting many of the nominees who we couldn’t squeeze into the dinner to tell their stories on HerCanberra over the next few months. So, thank you to everyone who submitted nominations – they won’t go to waste!

The Guests

So, who’s coming to dinner?

From the impressive swathe of nominations, we’ve selected nine fascinating women of diverse backgrounds, ages and careers. The dinner party is comprised of (pictured from top to bottom, left to right):

Gai Brodtmann: Member for Canberra

Sarina del Fuego: RAW Canberra Showcase Director, and Short + Sweet Cabaret Canberra Producer & Director

Rachel Evagelou: Owner of Handmade Canberra, winner of the Start Up Category of the ACT Telstra Business Awards

Deborah Hill: Founding member of the Canberra Roller Derby League; and Registrar, Exhibitions and Loans at the National Library of Australia

Vicky Kidd-Gallichan: Fashion designer and owner of couture label, Rockstars and Royalty

Patricia Mackey: Principal Public Advocate for the ACT Government

Carmel McGregor: Deputy Secretary, Department of Defence

Rosanna Stevens: Founder of Scissors Paper Pen, a literary collective giving young, emerging and new writers professional development and publishing opportunities.

Rachelle Towart: CEO of the Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre.

Oh, and there’s me as facilitator, but I’m not counted in the fascinating bunch!

The evening

We have secured Sarah Bowman of Chalk Design’s award-winning private kitchen in which to hold the dinner, which will be catered by renowned local private chefs, Foodish. Vanessa Scanes, head chef at Loading Zone, will be creating a four-course menu from quality local produce supplied by Fyshwick Fresh Food Markets. Craft ACT will supply beautiful handcrafted servingware from some of Canberra’s top designers.

Local video production company, Positive Influence, will be professionally recording the conversation and the very lovely Beata English will also be photographing the dinner.

We’ll be keeping you informed of the discussion via social media – so make sure you’re following us on Facebook and Twitter. If you have a question for one of our guests, send it through these channels and we’ll do our best to weave it into the conversation.

In the days after the dinner, you’ll be able to read about what was discussed and see the beautiful images of what is sure to be an elegant evening. We’ll also be sharing the stories from the evening in a series of “Canberra’s Most Fascinating Women” webisodes to be hosted on the site over the coming months.

This is just the beginning of a series of written and video articles aimed at giving our amazing local women the attention they deserve.

Stay tuned for this coming Thursday night, 14 November, when we bring together these absolutely fascinating ladies for a evening of equally fascinating conversation.

Image of Deborah Hill by Steven Craddock; image of Vicky Kidd-Gallichan by Jiawa Liu