Flight Centre Travel Group’s annual Womenwise initiative wrapped up in Brisbane yesterday with a goal to see women make up 50% of the group’s senior leaders across Australia.
This year, female leadership roles sit at 43% in the group, but Flight Centre believes it can hit 50% next year.
Flight Centre’s Womanwise event saw 480 awesome women get together for an inspiring day of talking female leadership.
For years now the internal event has offered FCTG women access to structured support and the skills to strive to develop their leadership potential.
Flight Centre’s Womenwise event 2019
The all-expenses-paid incentive sees the company fly in and accommodate attendees in the host city. Over 1000 women apply to attend each year.
Womenwise co-founder and Global Head of Peopleworks for FCTG, Carole Cooper has seen the movement grow from a small group of female senior leaders having a chat over a bottle of red to the major event and global initiative it represents today in Australia, Asia, UAE, South Africa, and the Americas.
“What started as an idea to provide a forum for our women to feel supported has turned into a flourishing global initiative across all of our varied businesses”.
Womenwise co-founder and Global Head of Peopleworks for FCTG, Carole Cooper
Carole Cooper, Global Head of Peopleworks addressing the audience.
“We are incredibly fortunate to be able to put on this event and it provides a valuable opportunity for our women to network among peers and hear from some incredibly talented and inspirational keynote speakers,” she said.
“While the agenda is enjoyable, the themes we discuss have big-picture significance so we take this event – and our Womenwise movement – very seriously.”
The Womenwise event is the major drawcard in the calendar for FCTG’s approx. 7,800 women across Australia, with women representing 70% of FCTG’s Australian employees.
Melanie Waters-Ryan, COO, addressing the audience.
This year’s theme focused on “the inspirational women who support you” and the speaker line up included cancer advocate and Love Your Sister founder, Samuel Johnson, former Flightie executive and founder of Goddess in the Boardroom, Rachel O’Brien, and ultra-marathon runner, Turia Pitt.
The event, hosted at Howard Smith Wharves in Brisbane, follows the success of the brand’s first-ever leadership course for women; the Womenwise Leadership Summit. Offered for the first time to external guests in August of this year, FCTG’s senior female leaders shared the tried and tested methods harnessed to develop its own leaders.