Women in Tourism International Women's Day Lunch - Sydney

You are invited to the sixth annual Women in Tourism International Women's Day luncheon.

We are thrilled to partner with Laissez-faire and the State Library of NSW to host this year's event.

The global theme for International Women's Day 2020 is #EachforEqual and this theme will be adopted for our celebration in March.

"An equal world is an enabled world. Individually, we're all responsible for our own thoughts and actions - all day, every day. We can actively choose to challenge stereotypes, fight bias, broaden perceptions, improve situations and celebrate women's achievements. Collectively, each one of us can help create a gender equal world. Let's all be #EachforEqual." 

Join us from midday on Friday March 6 for drinks and canapes followed by a two course lunch and a stellar panel discussion moderated by Mayvin Global Director and Founder Deanna Varga.

Our panel guests are:

Michelle Cox: Michelle has held leadership roles in the Travel, Tourism and Hospitality sector for over 25 years. In addition to holding many national and global executive roles for several well-known brands, as an entrepreneur at heart, Michelle has also acquired and started a number of companies along the way as well. She is currently a Director on the Board of Tourism Tasmania; a Non-Executive Director on the board of ASX listed tourism adventure company Experience Co; and continues to be a shareholder in the marketing communications agency group Bastion Collective, she part-founded seven years ago.

Passionate about living an unconventional life and encouraging us all to embrace imperfection more, in December Michelle released a book series of short, impactful books centred around topics we don't often talk about. It's called The Wabi Sabi Series and the first three books are available now in hardcopy and e-book form. 

Lyn Lewis-Smith: Lyn is a Non-Executive Director, Chair and CEO with more than 20 years’ leadership experience spanning banking, resources, transport, public private partnerships, tourism and sport. As CEO of BESydney, Lyn leads a global team of professionals spanning Europe, North America and Asia who are charged with securing global meetings of economic, social and educational benefit to Sydney, Australia. In the last five years under Lyn’s leadership, BESydney has secured events generating commercial outcomes greater than $1 billion.

Lyn is one of the worlds most respected and influential figures in the tourism and business events industry, winning a number of accolades for her leadership, including Destinations International Humanitarian Award for co-authoring with a team of academics at UTS Business School, the article Determining Business Events Legacies beyond the Tourism spend: An Australian Case Study Approach.  

Julie Trell: Julie is the Head (and Human API) of Telstra’s startup accelerator, muru-D. She comes to the role with a vast and varied background spanning education, startup, not for profit and corporate environments.

Through serendipity, Julie has been fortunate to combine her passions for technology, philanthropy, education and play and forge a rewarding non-linear career path spanning nearly two decades. Julie was a founding member and Vice President of All Things Fun, Meaningful & Rewarding at Salesforce.com Foundation for a large part of her career, bringing fun and a measurable community impact to the company.

Julie has been an advisor of startups from San Francisco to London, she’s helped companies integrate meaningful philanthropy programs into their businesses and was instrumental in launching SheEO Radical Generosity, (a global initiative to transform how we support, finance and celebrate female entrepreneurs) in the USA in 2016 and most recently in Australia in 2018. Julie’s path continues to impact local and global communities at large.

Our lunch MC is:

Deanna Varga: Deanna is a tourism, business events and arts professional with 25 years’ experience. Her executive career in tourism included commercial development roles in Tourism Australia, Business Events Sydney (then Sydney Convention & Visitors Bureau), Australian National Maritime Museum and global hotel group Accor. 

She is a specialist in revenue generation and strategy in government, NFP and small to medium enterprise (SME) and has held senior executive positions within them. She now leads her own consultancy.

Founder of Mayvin Global consultancy, Deanna designs growth strategies and revenue generation programs for clients within government, NFP and SME, ranging from cities and regions to individual attractions and destinations, focused on business-to-business markets.

With deep conviction about creating women leaders, she has a flexible-work practices within her consultancy and she mentors young females in the sector.

Mayvin Global consultancy is currently engaged to develop the Women in Tourism 2023 and Beyond Strategy.