What a wonderful time we have been having at Transport Women Australia Limited (TWAL) with four finalists at the Women in Industry Awards: Annastasia Denigan (Safety Advocacy), Louise Azzopardi (Mentor of the Year), Ann Lopez (Excellence in Transport), and Coralie Chapman (Excellence in Transport), all deserving finalists.
For Coralie, the TWAL vice chair to take out the Excellence in Transport Award on the night was just superb, so well deserved and so exciting for all of us.
It was the first time for me as chair to have all of our finalists in the audience and for them to have brought their families along.
Super exciting, especially for Coralie to have her mum and her mother’s husband in the audience to see her be presented with this award on the night. I’m not sure who was most excited, myself or her mum. I think we were more excited than Coralie for sure.
Coralie made a fantastic speech on the night reminding us of how far we have come and how what we say has such an impact on others, and how we need to change our words to change the world.
There was so many amazing women in the room and many male supporters, the positive energy in room was truly incredible.
Coralie and I followed this up with the Alexandra Truck Show on the King’s Birthday long weekend, and what an awesome day it was.
This was my first time to attend and while I did not like the early morning start or the drive to Alexandra, the line-up of beautiful trucks was some- thing not to be missed. Plus, the noise of them all leaving together was both a sight and sound to behold.
We had so many visitors to our stand and were inundated with people trying to guess the amount of jellybeans in the jar. It was eventually won by a critical care nurse from the local hospital, so a great result.
An added bonus for me was that the TWAL stand was adjacent to a bookstore, so I was able to escape and buy eight books.
We were assisted throughout the day by Owner Driver magazine managing editor Geoff Crockett, which left Coralie free to roam and also to present at the industry forum that was held in conjunction with the truck show.
Without a doubt, we will be back there next year for an even more spectacular event.
We have the CeMat event coming up on July 26, this will be a great day and True, Kat and I are looking forward to seeing everyone there.
Not to be forgotten is the Annual TWAL breakfast in Alice Springs on the Friday morning of the Festival of Transport, followed by the Transport Women Unite Red Ball and the Dream Maker Awards presentation on Saturday August 26th.
Plans are also going full steam ahead for the 2024 Living the Dream conference, while our song has been shortlisted for two awards at the Australian Song Writing Awards.
For all queries regarding events, projects or sponsorship, please contact chair@transportwomen.com.au or phone 0417 422 319.