Technology Links National Fundraising Dinner

Australian’s from across the country will join together in a virtually-connected national dinner party as part of a new technology-driven fundraising campaign for cancer research.

The Longest Table – United We Dine launched in Adelaide on Wednesday and the event will take place in October, linking people virtually, wherever they are having dinner that night.

The concept allows people to hold their own fundraising dinner parties, at home or at selected venues and they will be linked to live-streamed music, entertainment, prize draws and auctions.

The money will be raised for the Australian Breast Cancer Research and Australian Prostate Cancer in affiliation with The Hospital Research Foundation.

The Hospital Research Foundation CEO Paul Flynn said the idea was to have hundreds of people hosting dinners at their homes, office boardrooms or at restaurants with their family, friends, colleagues or clients.

"We’ve had a fantastic response and our goal is to make this a premier event on the social calendar,” he said.

“Everyone we talk to tells someone else about the event, it is really firing people's imaginations to create a unique experience they can share with friends, from pizza parties to full-scale black tie dinners.

"These will all be linked together, and to ‘The Longest Table Studio’, by technology, with live-streamed music and entertainment, prize draws and an online auction all on offer on the one night.”

Flynn said the quirky campaign has already been well-supported with ambassadors in the community championing the ‘virtually connected’ fundraising idea.

Breast and prostate cancer are two of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in Australia with 1 in 9 women affected by breast cancer and 1 in 4 men developing prostate cancer.

Flynn said money raised from The Longest Table will go towards funding medical research into the detection, management and treatment diagnosed cancers, as well as preventing the metastatic spread of the disease.