Zonta Club of Gladstone Inc hosts successful 2024 International Women's Day Breakfast event

On 10 March, the Zonta Club of Gladstone Inc, Australia, invited Saskia Groen-in't-woud to speak at its annual International Women's Day Breakfast.

A former club member, Saskia shared a tale of an embarrassing faux pas early in her career, stories about lifting other women in her life and wisdom from her varied and exciting career. She has worked in over 70 countries around the world. 

The club gained tremendous exposure from the event, with photographs of event attendees on the front page and a second page of the local newspaper. Attendees were inspired and enlightened by the guest speaker's insights. The local state member for Parliament, Glenn Butcher MP, and Gladstone Regional Council's mayor, Matt Burnett, attended the breakfast and were very impressed by the professionalism.

The event theme was the UN's "Count Her In: Accelerating gender equality through economic empowerment." The chief message from each speaker was for women to support each other to encourage economic empowerment.

In a first for the club, they trialed using Guestpix for event photographs rather than incurring the cost of a photographer. For a limited outlay, guests shared the pictures taken on their tables. Although the club doesn't know the final amount raised yet, they sold out of raffle tickets and raised enough money to provide substantial assistance for future club projects.