Australian Regional Events Alliance: meet Vanessa (aka Ness)

My kids, caravaning escapes, 1970s rock, bush walks and anything vintage, these are a few of my favourite things…  when the dog bites, when the bee… Wait – I forgot to mention wine!  

My family, caravaning, music, walking, vintage and wine.

Wine tasting, wineries, wine cocktails, wine events, wine collecting (tbh, I do drink a lot more than I “collect”), yikes, I’m starting to sound like Bubba from Forrest Gump. 

So – why do I enjoy a vino so much?  For me, it means I’m catching up with friends (or, more recently, homeschooling, but let’s not go there) and a good get-together is another one of my favourite things.  I find so much joy in the happiness of others.  And that is the reason why my career in events spans over twenty years now.  It has allowed me to do what I love, creating happy moments for people to remember. 

It was a background in marketing that landed me my first job, at Suzuki Australia. My role there (still one of my favourite to date) involved dealer conferences, motor shows and press launches, kick starting my passion for events. Then a six month road trip around our great country heightened my love of tourism (which I did actually study), but it wasn’t until I started working in the country racing industry that I saw first hand the significant impact events have on regional and rural communities, not just economically, but socially. 

My love for events and marketing just kept growing, and a desire for a little more flexibility than the traditional office job allows, enticed me to set up business, and eventually join forces with Andrew Wiebusch and Kate Kirkpatrick to form Oregional Collective. We now have an amazing team of fun loving and stupendously talented individuals helping us to deliver creative, marketing and event projects to clients across regional Victoria and beyond!  Just writing about it gives me all those super proud feels. 

Being my own boss for over 13 years now, I wouldn’t have it any other way. While events in particular, require A LOT of blood, sweat and tears, the industry is a fantastic career choice for those who love a little adrenaline, thrive off pressure, have a creative side to unleash, and need flexible working hours. 

And OK, yes, I grant you, it’s not a *great* time for the events industry right at this moment, and even I’ve questioned, on occasion, getting out of the game, but I can’t, it’s in my blood, and it’s there for good. And I know I’m not the only one.

Once all of this COVID business is done, I look forward to getting back to planning the music that’ll get people on the dance floor, the food trucks that’ll make mouths water, the entertainment to keep the kiddos out of their parents’ hair and, most importantly, how ​​we can best contribute to the prosperity of regional communities and all the businesses that the events industry supports.

So while I have your attention – I’d love to thank all of the event warriors that form team AREA.  We are made for this guys!  Let’s keep fighting the good fight for our industry and scream its’ importance from the rooftops, let’s inspire our colleagues as well as be inspired by them, and, let’s have a damn good time doing it! 

Wine-ing Off, Vanessa (Ness) Briody