Women in Leadership Summit 2025: Retail & FMCG

Fundamental skills for communicating in a male dominated environment

- Dive into your unique communication style

- Engage in confident and clear communication 

- Learn how to communicate with different audiences

Tackling conflict and difficult conversations

- Understand the importance of timing and place

- How to have difficult conversations with empathy and professionalism

- Individualised communication interactions 

Use communication to build trust and rapport

- Match and mirror communication mannerisms 

- Set implicit positive intent in your engagements 

- Position yourself to be open and available to communicate with

Influential conversations with staff, employees, and stakeholders

- Establish credibility in your conversations 

- Increase your ability to evaluate nonverbal cues to increase influence 

- Be compelling and enticing throughout your interactions

Join Liquid Learning for this kick-off session as we prepare for two days of incredible speakers, senior leaders, expert deep dives, and unmissable panel discussions.

When Simone O’Brien survived a near-fatal domestic violence attack, her life changed forever. Rather than remain silent, she chose to speak. Rather than retreat, she chose to lead. In this powerful and emotional keynote, Simone shares her lived experience as a survivor turned advocate, and how trauma can become a turning point for purpose. Her story is a call to action for every leader: to stand up, to speak out, and to create safe, inclusive cultures where people are truly supported.

- Using lived experience as a catalyst for purpose-driven leadership

- The role of empathy and courage in modern leadership

- How to champion change even when your voice shakes

Following Simone O’Brien’s powerful keynote, this guided session offers space to pause, process and begin to translate inspiration into action. Led by event chair and leadership facilitator Jo Wise, this interactive and practical session invites you to connect with fellow leaders across industries, reflect on what resonated, and explore how courage, compassion and clarity shape strong, inclusive leadership. A mix of guided networking, small-group dialogue, and hands-on leadership exercises to supercharge your summit experience.

- Reflect on key emotional and leadership insights from the keynote

- Explore how vulnerability, empathy, and advocacy show up in your own leadership

- Make meaningful new connections across sectors

- Identify one personal leadership action you’ll take forward from today

Mix and mingle with your fellow leaders over a cup of coffee and light refreshments.

With more than 20 years of experience in ASX-listed and private equity businesses, Rennie has perfected the art of combining creativity with commercial impact. As General Manager of Marketing at Kmart and a member of B&T’s Top 20 Power CMO List 2025, she leads diverse teams to deliver customer-centric strategies that drive measurable growth. This session explores how leaders across all functions can influence executive decisions by linking innovation to business outcomes, balancing customer needs with commercial objectives, and harnessing creativity as a key driver of organisational success.

- Strategies to connect creative ideas with measurable results

- How to influence executive decision-making beyond your immediate team

- Balancing customer experience and commercial goals for sustainable growth

In retail and FMCG, where customer behaviours evolve fast and decisions need to be made even faster, leaders often sit at the crossroads of instinct and insight. While analytics offer clarity, it’s often intuition and frontline experience that drives truly impactful decisions. This panel explores how leaders navigate the interplay between gut feel and hard data in dynamic, competitive markets.

- Validate instinct as a core capability in trend-sensitive environments

- Balance metrics with creativity

- Know when to trust your gut—and when to challenge it with data

Enjoy a midday lunch break. A time to refresh, refuel, and prepare for a full afternoon of immersive learning and inspiration.

As leaders we are continuously looking for ways to improve, understand our team more and increase engagement. Leaders who understand the principles of behavioral science can utilise this to create environments that foster employee success, productivity, and satisfaction. In this expert session, Leanne shares with us the key biases of behavioural science that you can use to enhance your leadership skills. 

- Uncover tools and strategies to overcome barriers through the lens of behavioural science

- Explore employee motivations and help your team reach self-actualization

- Develop habits that put trust and psychological safety at the core of leading

After gaining experience at a global company, Larissa made a bold move into a small business to gain a different perspective. The shift brought proximity to people, purpose, and decision-making she hadn’t seen at scale. Navigating new environments, she’s learned that trust is foundational and being intentional about where, how, and with whom you build your career can shape not just outcomes, but impact.

- From scale to intimacy: shifting from global to small business

- Trust as strategy in navigating career moves

- Intentional placement to build influence and momentum

A quick break to refresh and continue building your network with fellow leaders. Enjoy a light refreshment before finishing day one.

True leadership isn’t just about performance, it's about purpose. In this inspiring and actionable session, leadership expert; Amanda shares how reconnecting with your personal "why" can elevate your leadership and drive meaningful impact in your work. This session explores the intersection of purpose and performance, showing how aligning what matters most to you personally with your professional role creates the foundation for effective leadership and how the risks of misalignment can lead to burnout and disengagement.

- Learn how to lead with intention

- Understand how purpose protects against leadership fatigue

- Gain strategies to stay connected to your “why”

As day one of the conference comes to a close, take a moment to reflect on today's insights and how they can shape your journey. What key takeaways will help you move closer to your personal and professional goals?

Join us for our end of day one networking. Enjoy canapés and drinks whilst getting to know your peers further, build ongoing relationships, and share your highlights of the day.

Welcome back for Day Two - there's a lot to digest from our amazing speakers and action modules so far!

Recap the key learnings and takeaways from Day One, and prep an action plan to maximise your event experience over our jam-packed second day!

How do you stay at the top when the world is watching and the pressure never lets up? For Jacqui Cooper, it wasn’t just about winning, it was about bouncing back. Again and again. Across a record-breaking 20-year career, Jacqui faced devastating injuries, intense scrutiny, and the relentless demands of elite sport. In this high-energy and deeply honest keynote, she shares what it takes to push beyond limits, reset after failure, and maintain excellence over time, lessons that translate powerfully into leadership, career longevity and personal growth.

- Reframing setbacks and failure as fuel for growth

- Cultivating a high-performance mindset in leadership

- How to lead with confidence, clarity and staying power

It’s easier for individuals and teams to focus on tasks that have tangible, measurable, and observable indicators. However, without attention to the way people interact, give and take, push and pull, talk and listen, question and answer, act and react, things inevitably fall apart. Small actions can impact our satisfaction and of the people around us. In this expert session learn how to navigate complexities, manage polarities, and work amidst uncertainty and change:

- Improve organisational culture

- Collaborate effectively with greater ambitions

- Implement solutions quickly and create healthier bottom lines

Mix and mingle with your fellow leaders over a cup of coffee and light refreshments.

Leaders across organisations have faced years of challenges, from global crises to economic uncertainty. Many are now experiencing crisis fatigue and feeling the pressure on themselves and their teams. This panel explores how to build genuine and lasting resilience within organisations. It shows how to avoid toxic positivity and burnout while managing prolonged uncertainty and difficult decisions.

- Cultivate organisational resilience that supports performance and wellbeing

- Lead teams with empathy, authenticity, and steadiness

- Manage self-doubt, decision fatigue, and the emotional load of leadership at all levels

How do you lead with impact when you're responsible for 24,000 people? With experience across FMCG, retail and wholesale, Kirstie shares how she builds inclusive, connected teams in complex environments. This session explores how to lead with humanity at scale and develop future female leaders without losing sight of commercial outcomes.

- Lead with clarity and empathy at scale

- Create inclusive, high-performing team cultures

- Champion and grow talent with intent

Enjoy a midday lunch break. A time to refresh, refuel, and prepare for a full afternoon of immersive learning and inspiration.

What happens when you combine sharp strategic thinking and a fearless “why not” mindset? You get a leader who doesn’t just talk about performance, she delivers it.

In this session, Alysha shares how she’s built and led high-performing teams that thrive on trust, stretch goals, and shared ambition. With a career rooted in cross-functional collaboration and bold problem solving, she unpacks how she aligns strategic direction with culture. But leadership isn’t just about metrics. It’s also about managing complexity with empathy, whether that’s stakeholder priorities or high-stakes toddler diplomacy.

- Create a high-performance mindset across your team

- Connect big-picture strategy with everyday impact

- Lead with curiosity even when chaos is knocking

Michelle's early career success came from experience and hard work, but she soon learned that climbing higher required more than results. It meant building relationships, finding backers, and being visible beyond her immediate role. She shifted from relying on her work to speak for itself to actively investing in a strong internal and external network. That network not only helped her grow but gave her the platform to support others in return. She’ll show you why who you know, and who knows you, matters more than ever.

- Early promotions come from performance but future growth needs champions

- Know which relationships will move you forward and invest early

- Your network is a long-term asset, build it with care and authenticity

A quick break to refresh and continue building your network with fellow leaders. Enjoy a light refreshment before finishing day one.

From ideas to impact, an energising cross-sector wrap-up session weaving together top takeaways and sparking new collaborations. This interactive session brings speakers from all streams together to reflect, recharge, and reimagine what’s next for women in leadership.

- Reflect on your key learnings from the Summit

- Identify opportunities for career progression and growth

- Create an action plan for your leadership journey

We wrap up our inspirational and jam packed two days with this interactive closing round table. This is your chance to table any topic or trend for a final group discussion. Reflecting on the inspiring stories that have been shared, discussing your key learnings with your peers, and creating your action plan for moving forward.

- Reflect on your key learnings from the Summit

- Identify opportunities for career progression and growth

- Create an action plan for your leadership journey

Develop self-awareness and authenticity

- Align your values to lead authentically

- Identify your strengths and potential challenges

- Optimise your leadership style for your organisation

Advanced communication and influence

- Manage emotions for effective communication

- Develop your “conversational intelligence”

- Prepare for and navigate difficult conversations 

Develop reflective leadership

- Recognise the benefits of reflection

- Develop skills for effective reflective practice

- Apply reflection to enhance organisational culture

Strategic career progression

- Create a personal leadership plan

- Build relationships for professional opportunities

- Manage personal branding and visibility

Accelerate team performance

- Leverage team dynamics to optimise performance

- Challenge, support, and empower others

- Develop strategies to manage disruptors

Drive change and innovation

- Recognise and overcome obstacles

- Trust your instincts, embrace risks, and push boundaries

- Create a culture of positive change 

Remain productive in a crisis

- Build resilience to thrive under pressure

- Support your team and engage others to deliver

- Provide and accept feedback after crisis

Action planning for leadership

- Plan approaches for short and long-term goals

- Identify and understand challenges

- Share approaches to move your career forward