BWN Speaker Series - 2023

Description

Be inspired, empowered and uplifted at the BWN Speaker Series. Our mission is to connect Bay of Plenty women in business with other business women, with a view to build a community of people all looking to make positive change.

BWN Speaker Series 2023  

Paving the Way

Our 2023 theme, Paving the Way, will explore the journey women take to pave the way, to overcome obstacles, to think differently and explore the new frontier in business. 

These women are approaching being in business, caring for their families and themselves, and creating new working environments – and all enjoying the success of their endeavours. 

But, as they say, nothing worth doing comes easy. These women have done it tough, overcoming personal and/or professional adversity along their journey to get to where they are today. They have held strong to idea that we look to the future we want, not what someone or something else decides.

For every curveball and setback along the way, these women have emerged stronger for the experience, and they share with us their stories of resilience and reinvention

Our Speakers:

• Kerre Woodham - Kerre began her television career on Fair Go and has made regular appearances on TV over the 35 years that followed including Intrepid Journeys, Heartland, Ready Steady Cook and most recently on Dancing with the Stars. She has also hosted several TV documentaries.  Kerre is popular for product launches and awards events where she can put to use all facets of her talents.
  
  She has written three best-selling books - ‘Short Fat Chick to Marathon Runner’ which went into an 8th reprint in New Zealand, ‘Short Fat Chick in Paris’ and ‘Musings from Middle Age.’  Kerre is a brilliant MC and guest speaker. She is lively and warm and quite simply a national treasure!
• Rebekah Campbell - New Zealand entrepreneur Rebekah Campbell is founder of three companies, and author of 138 Dates, a book about searching for love at the same time as launching a global technology business published by Allen and Unwin in July 2021. Rebekah is a former New York Times columnist who speaks and writes about topics at the nexus of personal and professional challenges that we can all relate to.
• Cecilia Burgess - Starting out on my career in Auckland in the late 1980’s I never imagined that I would ever be perceived a “paving the way” for other women, I just wanted to do my job well.
  Now, after working in professional service firms around the world, I can see how my kiwi background and spending my formative career in male dominated firms set me up for later success. My goals in the workplace have changed over the years; from initially being focussed on proving I could do whatever I set out to do, to now helping others thrive in business.
• Amanda Lowry - Amanda is famous for all the wrong reasons. Since breaking her neck in 2013 she has become a well-known advocate for disability and community inclusion. She has been working for Tauranga City Council as a disability adviser, is a board member on several not-for-profit boards here in the Bay and is mid PhD examining the lived experiences of welfare and care of highly impaired, high-performance athletes. Amanda has a super busy home life with two young children, Lola 13 and Ziggy 10, and is the envy of many with an osteopathic partner: Gemma. Sport is still a massive part of her world; she plays wheelchair rugby for the fabulous Bay of Plenty Steamrollers and swims competitively in New Zealand.
• Sally Duxfield - Sally’s 30+ years’ experience - including studying neuroscience, leading high performance teams, and owning/directing Makahika Outdoor Pursuits Centre - speak to these favourite things impeccably. In other words, she lives and breathes the things she loves the most. The way life ought to be lived.