On my trip to celebrate Thanksgiving with family in the US I caught up with Ellen Voie the president, CEO and founder of Women in Trucking USA.
Ellen founded WiT in 2004 and is due to retire from the CEO role later this year.
In the intervening 18 years, she has built an incredible legacy.
Mostly we spoke about the recent Accelerate! conference in Dallas with 1750 delegates, over 100 speakers and 100 exhibitors.
This more than doubled the delegates of the 2021 conference. It was by all accounts a spectacular few days, with an amazing time had by all.
I also spoke with Madison Jaco of the Global Cold Chain Alliance, who I had introduced to Ellen earlier this year when we were working on a project.
I recommended she attend the WiT conference and as a first time attendee she assured me that it was great advice with wonderful connections made and with many new things learned about the trucking industry.
I also got to chat with Debora Babin-Katz, VP of TrucBrush, director of the Snow and Ice Management Association, an executive board member and secretary of the Massachusetts Trucking Association and who will be ratified on January 1, 2023 as the first female chair of the Rhode Island Trucking Association in its 91 year history.
Debora was formerly chair of the board of the Women in Trucking Foundation and we became firm friends at the 2015 and inaugural Accelerate! Conference in Dallas when I had a spare ticket to the Garth Brooks concert and was prepared to swap the ticket for the Uber fare to and from the A T & T Stadium. Nothing like a little bit of boot stomping to cement a friendship at a concert of the incredible, one and only Garth Brooks.
This is my first Thanksgiving I ate too much turkey and ham, no pumpkin pie but lots of stuffing; joined the debate which is apparently held yearly whether the stuffing should be inside or outside the turkey (inside) and generally had a great week, especially with my 14-year-old nephew who I haven’t seen since May 2019 and who is now taller than I am.
On the home front, we held our EOY dinner in Perth presented Driving the Difference scholarship winner Brooke Tran with her certificate and finalised the details for the remainder of the EOY events around the country.
We have a few surprises for our loyal members and will present the remaining five Driving the Difference scholarship winners – Ainsleigh Bilato (Adelaide), Ellen Tandy (Forbes), Nichole Speers (Wollongong), Joana Feiteira (Sydney), and Sally-Ann Eather (Sydney) – with their certificates.
Brooke was the first of the six winners to receive a certificate, which was presented by vice chair, Coralie Chapman.
- Jacquelene Brotherton is chair at Transport Women Australia