Human Brochure weekend – a review by Jane

If you’ve ever wondered what 48 hours in Canberra with me as your (eating) tour guide looks like, this is it. Before the Human Brochure weekend began, I gave you a sneak peek of what I expected our experience to look like. I’ll let my best friend, guest human and superb writer Jane take you on that 48 hour ride:

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Human Brochure weekend

Wow. It’s finally here. The 101 Local Humans endeavour was announced in March, with the ‘Humans’ (as we tend to call ourselves) notified in late April. From May we began a whirlwind experience learning all things Canberra, from food and beer and wine, to cultural experiences, to outdoorsy and kid-friendly things. I’ve been doing this blog for a long while now, and I’m happy to say that what I call the ‘training period’ reinforced all the good things I knew about (and just how good they are), opened my eyes to new experiences, and – most importantly – helped me to continue to scratch the surface.

Because the real Canberra is about what doesn’t immediately confront your senses. It’s about tapping into something beneath what you immediately see and hear and feel.

I’m part of the 101 Humans so I’m biased, of course. But my view is what ACT Tourism is trying to achieve is showing how the people of Canberra connect you to what’s truly special in Canberra.

Basically, never underestimate the power of stories; of peoples’ experiences – nor of their desire to share those with you.

I can’t wait to see and share Canberra with my guests this weekend – one a former resident, and the other a big fan of Canberra who makes the most of each visit.

To readers of this blog, I think there will be few surprises about the weekend I want to show off. I’m passionate about Canberra, and I’m passionate about what I love – and you’ve no doubt read about what I love already.

In addition to what we plan, there’s a special, dedicated event specifically chosen for us. Ours involves spirit. Can you guess?

Below is a snapshot of what I hope to share with my guests this weekend. You can follow what other Canberrans want to show off on the official humanbrochure.com.au page, which curates all of the social media posts from the humans and their guests. And you all know where to find me – the links to my Twitter and Facebook accounts are to the right of this blog. I have even started dabbling in Instagram (despite my drawn out and – I admit – ongoing reluctance)!

Do you recognise what I might be hoping to show my guests? If you had a blank canvas of 48 hours to share with interstate guests, what would you show them?

#HumanBrochure – A Day of Food and Wine

Those of you who follow me may have seen a whole host of posts recently where I’m using the hashtag #HumanBrochure. The reason being: I am one! In Canberra’s 101st year, ACT Tourism put out the call for social media-savvy Canberrans to be part of a huge campaign.

101 Canberrans have been chosen based on the quality of their content, and reach. Some of us are across many social media platforms, including blogs, and others just one or two. We got to nominate one of four available groups: Food & Wine (my group!), Adventure, Family Fun and Arts and Culture.

Throughout the months of May and June, ACT Tourism has organised a whole host of ‘discovery events’, where some of Canberra’s best is revealed to us. In many cases we get to go behind the scenes. Armed with this knowledge, at the end of October we get to invite two interstate guests and one Canberra local for a weekend spent how we choose, but with one special, niche event (still to be revealed!).

In amongst all these excellent discovery events, each group gets a whole day devoted to exploring the region around their theme. Food & Wine was first up – all we’d been told is that the day was starting with coffee, and ending with cocktails and entertainment. The rest was a surprise!