Women in Local Government turned out in force to support the Local Government Professionals’ (LGPro) first Women’s Professional Development Forum held to mark the 2010 Year of Women in Local Government (YoWiLG).
A capacity crowd of 200 people attended the full day forum held on 29 July 2010 as a lead in to LGPro Women’s Network Dinner. It attracted a record number of 543 women and 20 men from 45 different councils.
LGPro developed the Women’s Professional Development Forum in support of YoWiLG and to acknowledge the important contribution women make to the sector. It focused on the opportunities and challenges facing women in the sector and promoted career development, personal growth and shared approaches.
High profile speakers included Maxine Morland who was then the Victorian Minister for Women’s Affairs and Minister for Children and Early Childhood Development, and Samah Hadid, the 2010 Australian Youth representative to the United Nations.
Panel discussions held throughout the day covered a range of interesting topics, including vocal intelligence increasing effectiveness and confidence in the workplace; finding the balance between the needs of the organisation and the individual and what makes a good leader in Local Government; and is gender an issue?
Feedback from people attending the forum was extremely positive with 100 per cent of respondents voting it excellent, very good or good, and 98.5 per cent saying the quality of the concurrent sessions was excellent, very good or good.
The event was such a success that LGPro plans to run it again on 28 July 2011, prior to the Women’s Network Dinner.
