2010 GALA BUSINESS DINNER
Wagga Wagga City Council, Riverina TAFE and Charles Sturt University and proud to present the 2010 Gala Dinner to be held on Thursday 23 September at the Garden Court Restaurant. Invitations to the event will be distributed next week.
Khoa Do has been confirmed as this years guest speaker. Khoa Do is a film director, screenwriter and teacher who has had extensive experience working with the most disadvantaged in our community.
Khoa has traveled widely as a speaker, motivating and inspiring people in all arenas and platforms, ranging from conferences for major corporations such as Optus and IBM, to newly arrived refugees in Cabramatta and Aboriginal youth in the Northern Territory. He has represented Australia as a youth delegate (Action 2000 Anti-Racism Initiative in Canada). As young Australian of the Year 2005, Khoa shared a platform with the Prime Minister and the leaders of the country in Canberra. After hearing hum speak, the Governor General of Australia exclusively asked Khoa to interview him in Kalgoorlie to launch Australia Day in 2006.
In 2001, a group of kids in Cabramatta, had come to a welfare centre seeking help. One was homeless, sleeping in refuges, another was a shy Aboriginal young man who never spoke, and another was an accused criminal currently on parole. None had finished high school.
Two years later, they were all AFI Award nominees, walking the red carpet. Khoa harnessed their talents and abilities to make an internationally acclaimed film, which became a true lesson in teamwork, motivation and inspiration.
Khoa's own story is also amazing - arriving in Australia as a refugee on a tiny fishing boat - to becoming the 2005 Young Australian of the Year, is a journey of courage and hope amidst incredible opposition. Khoa recalls going to school with sticky-taped shoes and coming home to find that their electricity had been cut off because the family couldn't afford to pay the bills.
In 2004, he was the youngest film director in Australian history to be nominated for an AFI Award. Khoa has received many awards for his work in the community - Young Vietnamese Australian of the Year 2000, Young Citizen of the Year Award 2001, Powerhouse Wizard of the Year in 2005 and the Young Australian of the Year Award 2005.
In film, Khoa has had incredible success. He wrote the film Delivery Day, wrote and directed Footy Legends and wrote, directed and produced The Finished People. Khoa has been nominated for three AFI Awards, two Australian Writers' Guild Awards, and an Australian Screen Director's Award. His first short film was shortlisted for a 2001 Academy Award, and in 2003, he won the IF Independent Spirit Award for his filmmaking. In 2009 his film Missing Water ran in the Official Competition for the Sydney Film Festival.
When Khoa was announced 2005 Young Australian of the Year, he became the first ever filmmaker to have been awarded the accolade.
