2024 International Women’s Day - One for the History Books

We are still riding the wave of inspiration after our annual International Women's Day event at the stunning Surfhouse venue!

Over the course of two incredible days, tennis icon Jelena Dokic shared her empowering story from "Victim to Survivor to Thriver" with 390 attendees who were deeply moved by her courage. Her keynote took us on a remarkable voyage through a childhood & career that began at such an early age. Tennis served as a pathway to freedom However, it entailed a lengthy journey filled with pressure and mistreatment from her father to achieve success.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to the business community for their exceptional support. A special shoutout to our naming rights partner, Regional Australia Bank, and the enthusiastic teams from Hunter Plastic Surgery, Impero Conveyancing, Galah Cyber, Doughheads, and Swell Magazine. Their dedication was instrumental to our event's success. We would also like to thank Kate Haberfield, the team at Merewether Surfhouse, Nick from Event Speakers Australia, Myf Garven Creative, Amy-Lea Pettigrew, Newy Event Collective, Macleans Book and RIVA & Co for helping us to run these two events. Lastly we would like to thank Mitch Revs and LH Agenda for providing special gifts for Jelena, as a reminder of her time here in Newcastle!

A message from Jelena…

“An amazing two days in Newcastle and two absolutely incredible sold out events with Gen Collective. Thank you all for coming, thank you for the love and kindness and thank you for the standing ovations. My heart is full and I am so grateful. A special thank you to Gen Collective for all your amazing work, for looking after me so well and for putting on the most amazing two events and thank you Regional Australia Bank for your support, Got Your Back Sista for all the amazing work you do when it comes to DV and thank you Macleans Books for doing the most amazing job with our book signing and helping make it happen.
Well done.👏👏👏 Thank you all.”

Supporting Got Your Back Sista

We are thrilled to announce that we were able to raise $15,000 for our charity partner, Got Your Back Sista. This amazing achievement would not have been possible without the generous contribution from the community so we send a big THANK YOU to our all guests for supporting the very important work that Got Your Back Sista does in our region to support those who have escaped domestic violence. A special thank you to Peter Drayton Wines, Zadig Studio, The Forum and Bar Mellow for kindly donating the raffle prizes.

Online Gallery

Whether you joined us on the day or not, we're excited to share the excitement through our event photo gallery. Discover the highlights to get a taste of the day's atmosphere or perhaps spot yourself if you were there with us!

Click here to browse the full event library and download your favourite photos.

Once again, thank you for being part of this vital conversation, and for your participation that propelled this event into a memorable experience for everyone involved. We eagerly anticipate creating more inspiring events together.

The Gen Collective Committee

Adrienne Donnelly, Amy-Lea Pettigrew, Brodey Corbett, Katelyn Stokes, Alex Beal, Caitlin Powell, Darcy Luck, Elena Terol, Jessica O’Neill, Jordyn Ode, Myf Garven.