In 1997, Deanna Riddell was secretary of a dog club in Canberra when she spotted a position for an administration officer at the RNCAS. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to turn a hobby into a career – and it was. She moved into the senior executive officer role, working alongside a dedicated team of event professionals and volunteers, and by the time she left employment at the Society she had become so embedded in the community she had built there that she simply couldn’t walk away. So, in 2008 she put her hand up to volunteer.

Her roles have accumulated steadily over the years – RNCAS councillor, steward for the National Wine Show, assistant to the ringmaster, steward for the Olive Oil Show, and more recently deputy section head of the National Wine Show. She also exhibited dogs at the Canberra Royal, adding competitor to the long list of ways she has participated in the show’s life.

Growing up on the New South Wales mid-north coast, agricultural shows were part of the fabric of family life – her grandparents opened the local show at Nambucca, her father exhibited Holstein cattle, her mother and father stewarded in the cattle section until their recent retirement, and her uncle is still treasurer of the Macksville Show Society.

Coming to Canberra and finding the same community at the Royal Show gave her back something she hadn’t realised she was missing. In time she created her own version of it – her favourite memory being a grand parade where she was driving the show vehicle, her husband riding in the back dressed as the Paddle Pop lion – the show’s mascot – while her son played the show cow and her daughter held a baby lamb as a junior steward in the farmyard nursery. It’s hard for her to think of a better image of what agricultural shows are all about.