Emerging Leaders Forum - 2024

What a pleasure it was for us here at the Women in Aviation Australian Chapter to spend the day with the remarkable attendees and speakers at our 2024 Emerging Leaders Forum (EML).

This spectacular event was hosted in the beautiful city of Cairns on Gimuy land, in the picturesque Far North Queensland and we didn’t want to leave!

This insightful, impactful and all-round meaningful event was proudly delivered as part of the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts Women in Aviation Initiative, and was generously sponsored by our long time corporate partner Boeing .

Here at WAI Australia, we set out with a goal to deliver EML for free to 50 attendees, due to some savvy planning and commitment to making our events accessible we were able to deliver this event for free to approximately 80 attendees – We couldn’t be prouder of that achievement.

If you are wondering what our Emerging Leaders Forums are all about, join us as we reflect on the wonderful day that was EML 2024.

The day Started with a welcome from our marvelous MC Alana McKenna setting the scene for what was going to be an epic day followed by a beautiful Welcome to Country by Aunty Sharon Cavanagh-Luskin with the wish that we “let the collective wisdom of your elders to inspire us”.

Alicia Prince was our first speaker who shared her impressive aviation leadership story which was full of honesty, thoughtfulness and had people at the heart of what she does. Alicia encouraged the group to look inward at themself and encouraged them to create their Leadership Philosophy Statement. A powerful document that will always guide our aviation leaders on their path.

We then had the pleasure of hearing how Sharna Tonkin carved out a respected and trusted home at Redcliffe Aerodrome through her influential leadership, despite being a team of one! We all shared in a collective deep breath to process the magnitude and weight of a truly vulnerable part Sharna’s story as she courageously shared with us the impacts to being a first responder at an aviation incident. Sharna left the group with the powerful message that leadership is recognizing when you need help and having the courage to ask for it.

Carley Scott, OAM & Erin Douglas gave us a fireside chat with vulnerability, honesty and a dose of lovely humor. The Sage leadership advice peppered throughout the chat included demonstrating courage, leading with kindness, getting comfortable with saying no, perfection isn’t necessary as a leader and community is everything.

The group then split into two as we embarked on two tangible leadership workshops.

shamsa lea ?? ran a masterclass on supercharging our courageous conversation techniques. The masterclass was jammed packed with solid gold advice for leadership and life. With a few of our favourite take a ways being the setting of your three-word intention for the energy you want to bring to the space, the reminder that “The only person who will get pissed off if you set your boundaries is the person exploiting you” and the actionable plan for curating our own personal courageous conversation style.

We all agreed that sharing, practicing and sharpening our leadership tools together was valuable, but as we looked around the room, we witnessed Shamsa helping the group to sow the seeds of connection, community and the building of relationships that we hope take our emerging leaders through their leadership journey.

Ellis Neil delivered a flawless workshop on identifying your leadership style and how to leverage it. The groups discussed leadership types and self-reflected on what our own leadership styles might look like. Key take away being that it’s okay to blend styles but wherever you land, you need make it your own style. And speaking of owning your style, there were some amazing albeit some questionable paper aeroplanes that were designed and miraculous took flight as the groups engaged in a very collaborative and fun leadership team activity. ?We were mighty impressed by the way the Jet Aviation Team sprang into action in this workshop – a clear demonstration of a team who know each other well and have been working together.

Ellis has left us all with an amazing E-Book resource to continue our leadership journey as we identify and develop (not perfect!) our leadership style.

Vivianne Kollevris on Aviation, a career path not planned, shared how her transferable skills lead to a career of passion and a love for aviation. There were just so many takeaways that we know resonated with many of us in attendance!

Highlight moments included – “It’s all the skills and experiences you bring to the table over time”; “It’s important to think about how you can transfer your skills”; “taking chances, makes opportunities”. And last but certainly not least clearly curiosity did not kill the cat, but rather as Viv explained – it can lead to something new (even if it is toilets!).

And lastly for our forum before we ended the day with networking and speed mentoring sessions, we had our wonderful final panel: Chahida Bakkour expertly guided our incredible panelists Cindie Giummarra , Grace Donnell ,and Aunty Sharon through a thoughtful conversation on navigating your leadership journey. The panel discussed challenges for the EML including generational workforce change and inter-generational workforce challenges; technology and connection in challenging scenarios and situations; disruptive leadership; gaining experience without burning out; nurturing talent and the discipline of failure.

Key advice from the panel included: “remember who you are, and why you were selected – trust yourself and trust your leadership”; Be brave and be honest to ask for help “have someone you can call to tell you to ‘put your big girl pants on’”; “Remember that you are clearing the pathways for the generations behind you (in your pink bulldozer)”; “you can do anything but you can’t do it all”; and lastly (amongst so many other gems) “We need good girlfriends on our team!”

Our very own Shannon O'Hara (GAICD) closed the day with a beautiful summary of the day so far, before she and Alana announced the winner of the generous door prize – A domestic business class flight voucher for two gifted from the wonderful team at Virgin Australia ! We had a very excited winner!

To close the day out attendees then shared in an opportunity to network, build connections and take part in speed mentoring sessions with Aldjia Brakni , Justine Teernstra, Cherie Horan GAICD , Dr Oleksandra Molloy and Chahida Bakkour . For our mentors this was a lovely experience to give back to the aviation community as they provided guidance and coaching to our emerging leaders. We were all very impressed with how all our EML’s came prepared to these sessions-with questions ready to go and note pads and pens in hand to make the most of the opportunity to capture the insights and knowledge they were receiving

EML would not have been made possible without the commitment and passion of our Volunteer Team.

We would also like to acknowledge the contribution of our WAI Australia Corporate Community – Jet Aviation , McDermott Aviation Airservices Australia QBE Insurance Gallagher Boeing Recreational Aviation Australia Australian Federation of Air Pilots (AFAP) agile aviation underwriting services 澳大利亚专科技术学院 and Regional Development Australia Hunter

To the incredible in-kind Sponsors of today’s events, thank you for supporting us! Red Peak Advisory Virgin Australia Qantas Adelaide Airport Limited Aviation Projects Cairns Airport Space CoLab, Bespoke solutions consulting and Skyways Technics

We really cannot put into the words the gratitude and thanks that we have for all our wonderful attendees and speakers in making this event a truly special and memorable day. Our hearts are singing after sharing in this day with you

Finally we would like to end this summary with the very fitting statement by Chahida ?“Aviation is like a puzzle, we are all connected – to get the outcomes we need as leaders and an industry depends on bringing all the pieces of the puzzle together.”