International Women’s Day 2024 Event Recap

International Women’s Day is one of the most important days on the calendar when it comes to celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

This year WiAD put together two events focused on the theme: Count Her In: Accelerating Gender Equality Through Economic Empowerment. Based on the priority theme for the United Nations 68th Commission on the Status of Women, Count Her In, examined the pathways to greater economic inclusion for women and girls everywhere. 

Events were held in Melbourne and Sydney with people joining us ONLINE as well. We are grateful to the incredible speakers in each city sharing their thoughts and experiences with attendees. Here is a recap from each city!

Melbourne

‘‘The Melbourne IWD event went very well, with all three guests speaking with great knowledge and experience and all were well received by an intimate gathering of 10-12 people.

Uniquely for Melbourne, of the three speakers, we had Morgana Ryan (CARE Aust) and Angela Odero (Rio Fish / YGap Kenya) in-house, with Diana Tjoeng (Good Returns) joining in via Zoom from Bangkok. The discussion flowed well, from and between all three.

Interestingly, each speaker lent a different perspective to our topic of Economic Empowerment for Women - looking through the lens of governance/business, strategic partnering and community engagement and involvement through establishing micro-business relationships and cohorts.

The night was also underlined by the presence of our first male attendee, who was surprised at that fact, given the welcoming and lively conversations that ensued on many aspects of development.

The evening concluded with much appreciation from all and several promising return visits, now they'd taken the opportunity to step through the WiAD event door!"

Jill Scanlon - WiAD Board Director

Sydney

Last night’s event in Sydney went well despite some tech issues and after struggling for 50 minutes we gave up and had Nicole and Sophie speak along with Judy Foster from Good Return who stepped in to tell us about their financial systems focus. We had 14 people and the venue was great. Many attendees promised to come again and bring colleagues next time.

Everyone was very enthusiastic and we received some warm comments and feedback, see below.

“What an amazing group this is - networking is so valuable   What an inspiration tonight was! It was so great to hear from passionate, knowledgeable women in the sector. My biggest takeaway was ‘R&I’ using your Resources and Initiative to feel empowered as women.”  Alexandra Prenc-Sadler

“When women's voices are amplified we can have better conversations.” Nicole Clements (Speaker)

“Women in this room can impact the future!” Anny Zheng

“I loved connecting with such a great circle of women discussing the amplification of the importance of investing in women.” Nicole Clements (Speaker )

Read some valuable insights from one of our speakers, Sophie Cooke, here.

Chris Franks - Sydney City Leader

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A massive thank you to all of our amazing speakers, all those who attended and of course, our city leaders, who so generously shared their time to ensure that all events were a success.

We hope to see you all again at our next series of events in May!