The 2016 Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards finalists
Today we’re announcing the winners of the Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards at a luncheon in Sydney.
But as we told our excellent group of finalists at a cocktail party last night, announcing the winners is really just a formality. What matters is getting another talented group of women together – to meet and learn from each other, and to together celebrate and share what they’ve achieved, particularly over the past 12 to 18 months.
Meeting most of our finalists last night at O Bar and Dining, 47 levels above the Sydney CBD, was a humbling experience, with so many brilliant women in the room who are doing so much to transform their businesses and their industries. What was especially great was to see how everyone pretty much arrived individually – unless they’d met at the airport or in the lift — but quickly managed to connect with others and share in some great conversations. Such conversations can simply be enjoyable and interesting, or the start of something significant – a collaboration, a lifelong friendship, a mentoring relationship, a little bit of advice, or even some reassurance that you’re not alone in juggling multiple priorities.
Once again I was reminded of what happens when you put a group of women in the room and invite them to share stories with each other: Magic.
Today we’ll bring this group together again for a much more formal occasion over lunch. They won’t be arriving alone. While some are bringing supporters and even tables full of their teams, they’ll still enter the room today with the connections made last night. These connections last forever, well beyond what happens today.
All the best to our finalists as we get ready to celebrate female leadership today. You can follow along on social media with #WALA2016 and check back with Women’s Agenda for a very special edition tomorrow morning.
Check out our group of 2016 Finalists here. And a big THANK YOU to our partners for making the program possible in 2016 including AGSM, the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Seek, BT Financial’s Stella Network, Jetstar, Kailis and Aim For the Stars.
