Our 2023 event
Our 2023 theme, Paving the way, will explore the journey women take to pave the way in their respective industries: balancing business with families and self; creating new ways of working; and exploring the new frontier in business.
We’re bringing together a group of incredibly influential women from across the region and the country. Their stories – full of passion, adversity, and grit – will challenge the way you think in life and in business.
We’re diving head first into the curveballs and setbacks; the dreams and sleepless nights; and those spectacular moments that make it all worth it.
So, will you join us?
When: Tuesday, 27 June
Where: Baycourt Tauranga
This year attendees will enjoy perusing a small expo-style environment, and filling their goodie bags, over a light lunch – before moving to the main theatre for our speakers. Then onto bubbles and networking to our hearts’ content.
Get your ticket
Tickets are now on sale for the 2023 BWN Speaker Series. Get your ticket now… spots will sell out fast!
Our 2023 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 successful 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. She first gained national attention as organiser of the ‘Levi’s Life Festival’ in Wellington at age 20. 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. Her talks centre around personal stories of risk, failure, authenticity, relationships, resilience and growth. She has light and humorous approach whilst sharing vulnerable moments that lead to strong insights and takeaways for the audience.
Amanda Lowry
Amanda Lowry 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.
Cecilia Burgess
Cecilia’s career has taken her around the world. Starting out in Auckland in the late 1980s, she has spent the majority of her career working in the management of professional service firms across New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong and London. This experience has helped her become an expert in building and managing teams and client relationships, as well as working on diversity, inclusion and sustainability initiatives. Her goals in the workplace have changed over the years – from being focussed on proving she could do whatever she set out to do, to now helping others thrive in business. Having moved to the Bay of Plenty in September 2021, she is now the CEO of Cooney Lees Morgan in Tauranga.
Sally Duxfield
Sally Duxfield is an industry leader in the art of experiential architecture, designing and delivering leadership coaching and programmes to inspire change. Sally’s 30+ years’ experience spans a career in the New Zealand Defence Force, as the director of her own leadership training business, and as the owner of Makahika Outdoor Pursuit Centre. Along with an insatiable appetite for understanding the neuroscience of leadership and excellence, and armed with the knowledge of how our environments affect our ability to absorb information and effect change, Sally brings Experiential Architecture to the business and corporate worlds so that organisations can change the way in which they grow leaders.