Travel means different things to different people. It could be a Bali break or a European summer, but the kind of life-changing travel TEDx Canberra speaker Penny Elsley loves is more than just a holiday. Hold the resorts, the partying, the sightseeing. For Ms Elsley, it's about those eye-opening experiences, ones which alter the course of your life.
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A chance meeting with an eccentric 80-year-old man in New Mexico happened to be one of those.
"After getting to know me for a little bit, the old man poked me and said: 'You're going where the dots are not joined,'" Ms Elsley said.
"That was the moment when an explosion went off inside me. And I thought this is the name of what I'm doing and what I'm called to do with my life. So I went away and journaled about this metaphor."
Years later, Elsley founded non-profit organisation joiningthedots, which includes The Welcome Dinner Project, an initiative that gives newly arrived Australians the opportunity to find their place in the community and overcome loneliness through potluck meals.
She credits her "quests" in India, Africa, Palestine, and Central and South America as being instrumental.
"On these travels, I've learned to pay attention to the spaces in between, to what happens on the way to where you think you're going." And that's the theme of her TEDx talk: the spaces in between.
On September 8, she'll be speaking at TEDxCanberra2018 - Divergence on her unique experiences in far-reaching destinations, human disconnection being at the root of social problems and the power of reconnecting over food.
Elsley held her first welcome dinner in 2013 after meeting Sudanese women at a lunch who mentioned no Australians had invited them into their home. Later that day, Elsley's colleagues mentioned they were looking to connect with refugees and immigrants without seeming "culturally inappropriate."
"That very same day I had both sides of the story come to me. And I saw it as dots that needed to be joined."
Two weeks later, the first welcome dinner was held in her home. 500 welcome dinners have since been hosted under the project. She says it's become a "social movement."
Hosted in most major Australian cities and towns, attendees each bring a dish from their home country and tell its story.
The requirements are that people don't speak about their work or how they came to Australia, instead they write their "passion" on their name tag. Which Elsley says helps "get to the heart of things."
"Even the shy people can tell a story. Which is part of why it works so well.
"The international students who attend go to so much effort. They Skype their mums while cooking. It's beautiful, people go to so much effort and people are intrigued by each dish, so it creates a beautiful atmosphere.
"At every welcome dinner you'll try something you've never heard of before, it's a spread you can't buy at any restaurant. It's food from all over the world, Grandma's traditional recipes."
Elsley says it goes back to the "reach the heart through the stomach" adage and that hospitality is an age-old tradition throughout the world.
"It's for people who want to engage in a form of activism, but aren't sure where to start. This makes it accessible. It's in your own home, at your own dinner table and with your own food."
TEDx Canberra - Divergence, Saturday September 8, 8am-6pm, The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre. Full program and tickets at tedxcanberra.org
