I’m not wearing rose coloured glasses, I’m fully aware of the complexities and challenges ahead. However, I owe it to the Rural Room audience to champion this cause and I’ve been extremely humbled by early support shown by companies such as the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation, Telstra and Australian Wool Innovation who have seen the potential in our work and whole heartedly believe regional creatives and stories should be heroed. I travel between regional and urban worlds representing Rural Room to encourage city business to support stories from the sticks at a high level, year round. At present, the drought has inspired a momentary, mass acknowledgement of the struggles in regional Australia. While it’s great to see the bush finally receive hard hitting coverage, the drought is not a spontaneous media event but a debilitating issue that haunts long after the outside broadcasts breeze in and out of town. The tokenism assigned to regional Australia is frustrating for many, and the romanticism that’s rolled out to capture hearts from time to time does little to really re-connect. In an age where the provenance of agricultural goods is often overlooked and the connection to country seems largely lost it’s important we retain a high level of support for regional issues ongoing, well beyond the periodical pulling of heart strings for the sake of the news cycle and government box ticking. The positive stories of impressive local ventures, ingenuity, friendship, character, creativity, regional resilience, environmental rehabilitation and community connection are just as important, and they should be given equal airtime all the time.