On the afternoon of Wednesday 4th May, nearly 50 women (who are either undergraduates or graduates working in the power industry) arrived at the Stanford Grand in Glenelg, Adelaide. They were ready. Ready to strengthen their career, their connections and level up their understanding of our dynamic industry.
The Early Career POWERful Women cohort joined the summer school program for Thursday which included the Syndicate Project presentations and the Future Workforce Forum (check out the blog post on that here).
In addition to the technical learnings, they heard stories of professional journeys of other phenomenal women in the power sector, stories about how they were successful in their paths and stories about the setbacks and challenges they experienced and how they dealt with them and what they learnt from them too – these most certainly were invaluable. The insightful discussions and presentations by speakers such as Dr. Fiona Kerr, Josh Farr, Felicity Furey and many others were the highlights for most.
In summary, these women had the opportunity to network, discuss, and most importantly learn from the largest group of inspiring, technical-minded, passionate-about-energy women that we have seen in one room.
Photos from the PWLP Early Career Retreat can be found here:
What the delegates said were the best aspects:
'Networking with like minded women. Everyone in the retreat was a hero with different stories, experience and valuable notions. It was amazing to share it with women in the same field and develop an understanding that we need to support each other and build each other up to attain success. and make a difference in real.'
'Getting to immerse myself and connect with other like minded women who are determined to make a change and learn more about the power industry.'
'The open floor discussion with the PWLP participants regarding our feelings and challenges as women in the sector. The high value talks from Felicity, Josh and Fiona covering stimulating and engaging content. Networking at social events organised by the API each evening. The future workforce forum. Specifically being able to collaborate with PWLP and summer school participants to work on a problem together in a group setting.'