If you enjoy watching, reading or listening to news about the property market, there’s a good chance you’ve consumed expert commentary from Dr Diaswati (Asti) Mardiasmo.

Asti, the 428th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is the chief economist of PRD Real Estate, and therefore a regular media commentator and keynote speaker. 

She’s also a university lecturer, at QUT (Queensland University of Technology), and is a member of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games Legacy Committee, which is working to ensure Brisbane gets a return on investment from the Olympics.

Asti spent the first half of her childhood in Indonesia, lived for periods in America, Canada and England, and then moved to Brisbane for university. She was drawn to economics, partly because her father was an economist and partly because she realised that learning economics would allow her to better understand the world.

As Asti pursued her bachelor’s degree – and then a master’s degree, PhD and research fellowship – she knew economics would take her somewhere interesting, but had no specific destination in mind. So when she attended a networking event and the managing director of PRD unexpectedly offered her a job, she was happy to accept. A decade later, Asti has established herself as one of the property industry’s leading commentators.

If you were asked to picture an economist, a stuffy, serious person (probably a man) with poor social skills might come to mind; Asti, though, is fun, vicarious and very social. That’s why journalists get more out of her when they begin phone calls with a friendly chat, rather than immediately launching into their questions. 

That’s also why Asti has decided she’s going to pursue her own lunches-with-strangers adventure. She’s planning to meet people from all walks of life; and, to make things particularly interesting, to let the other person choose her meal.