Australian Sailing is excited to announce the return of the highly anticipated 2023 SheSails Leadership Conference, with this year’s event set to make waves by becoming the first ever SheSails event with an international lineup of industry speakers.

Once again scheduled to coincide with World Sailing’s global women’s sailing festival, Steering the Course 2023, the third edition of the SheSails Leadership Conference is set to be delivered via webinar at 6pm (AEDT) on Tuesday 3^rd October 2023.

The Conference will focus on professional and volunteer pathways for women in the sport of sailing and aim to inspire those interested in beginning or furthering a career in the industry to achieve their goals.

In 2022, the SheSails National Leadership Conference was a great success, overtaking the record set by the event in its inaugural year to become the most attended SheSails gathering to date, seeing over 300 participants dialing in from states around Australia.

This year’s 1.5-hour event is set to further the positive trajectory of female sailors, volunteers, administrators, and officials even further, with a diverse range of talented industry leaders on board to present.

Australian Sailing is thrilled to be partnering with Yachting New Zealand again and we are delighted to announce that guest speakers Kelly Hartzell and Tanya Peart (leading engineers from Emirates Team New Zealand - America's Cup) are confirmed in the lineup.

Kelly graduated from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL, USA) with a B.S. of Mechanical Engineering in 2014 before starting her career in the Transmission and Driveline department at Ford Motor Company, focusing on testing and development in the AWD calibration group. She moved to New Zealand in 2019 where she joined Emirates Team New Zealand as a Mechatronics Engineer, and currently specializes in sensors and data acquisition onboard.

Tanya joined Emirates Team New Zealand as a Fluid Dynamics Engineer in 2021, working on modelling the aerodynamics of the America’s Cup yachts for use in design analysis and the sailing simulator. Prior to this role, Tanya completed a PhD in Mechanical Engineering which focused on yacht sail performance prediction.

Keynote Speakers Kelly and Tanya from the Emirates Team New Zealand SailGP

Olympic Silver Medalist and co-skipper of the Australian Team for the inaugural Women's America's Cup in 2024, Olivia Price will also join as the second of its esteemed keynote presenters.

America's Cup Australian Women's Challenge l-r Wendy Tuck, Olivia Price, Nina Curtis, Lisa Blair © Salty Dingo 2023-CRG38564

More information on the event and how to ensure your attendance will be released over the coming months. In the meantime, we encourage the SheSails community to mark the 3^rd of October in their calendars and note the time the event will be starting in their state:

6pm – NSW, VIC, TAS

5pm – QLD

5:30pm - SA

4:30pm – NT

3:00pm – WA

8:00pm – NZ

Stay tuned via www.shesails.org.au or via the SheSails FB and Instagram page @SheSailsAus.