The day I met Philip Ruddock

It nearly didn’t happen. I was booked on a flight from Sydney to Canberra at 6am to attend the first day of the AFR’s GovTech conference in July. And in hindsight it would have been far less stressful if I flew down the night before. Instead of telling it to wake me up at 4am Thursday morning, I inadvertantly ticked 4am on Friday morning. It turns out it is possible to outsmart your smartphone. Lesson One: don’t set your alarm when you go to bed at 1am on the same day you have to get up… late nights affect your judgement.

So you can imagine how I felt when I sat bolt upright in bed at 6.35am, a full 35 minutes after my flight took off without me.

Skip forward to when I turned up at Sydney’s domestic terminal at 7.30am, still trying to regain composure. Here’s where I’ve got to tip my hat to Qantas. The woman at the ticketing counter graciously put me on the next flight at 8.10am and didn’t charge me for another ticket. By some small miracle I made it to the Hyatt Hotel in Canberra at 9.20am, just in time to hear the final 5 minutes of Philip Ruddock’s keynote. It was also 10 minutes before video interview was scheduled.

Our film crew had already set up the camera gear and lights (I was told), so after a quick handshake I walked with Ruddock across the corridor and we got stuck straight into the interview. It was all done and dusted in 10 minutes, and after he’d gone I just sat there and stared at the ceiling for a moment. It was the second video interview I’d recorded with the AFR, and the first time I’d met Ruddock. And it nearly didn’t happen!

The rest of a day was something of a blurr, but fun. We interviewed Special Minister of State Gary Nairn, Federal Government CIO Ann Steward, and other federal and state CIOs. Edited versions of these interviews are progressively making their way to the site here.

As for Mr Ruddock, you can see our interview here. As a special bonus it contains my first crack at borrowing from the “piece to camera” playbook of your favourite ABC/commercial TV reporter. Yes, I am a print/online journo discovering 3D. Be gentle! Oh, and Lessson Two: when fronting a camera in Canberra in July do yourself a favour and wear a warm coat. How cold is it down there for crying out loud???