An IWIB networking event late last year featuring Jelena Dokic (centre) as keynote speaker drew a record crowd. Photo: NEG Photography.
In August 2013, two years after sustaining life-threatening burns to 65 per cent of her body during a 2011 ultramarathon, Turia Pitt removed her compression mask publicly for the first time on the Channel Nine program 60 Minutes.
Watching at home, Illawarra Women in Business director Glenda Papac was moved to tears. She immediately tracked down Turia’s contact details, and asked the question — would she be willing to come on stage and inspire a room full of Illawarra businesswomen?
“I never wonder. I always just ask. I’ll ask anyone for anything,” Glenda laughs.
Within 10 minutes, she had a reply, and a few short months later, the old City Diggers packed out with 320 people there to see IWIB’s first big keynote speaker.
It signalled a new era for the organisation.
Big names to have graced the IWIB stage since include Dawn Fraser, Ian Thorpe, Matt Moran, Taryn Brumfitt (who was later named Australian of the Year), Michelle Payne (the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup), Jana Pittman, The Block‘s Mitch and Mark and Lisa Curry. It reached new heights in November last year when Jelena Dokic maxed out the ballroom at the Fraternity Club with 460 people.
In November this year, joining that illustrious list of IWIB keynote speaker alumni will be none other than Cathy Freeman.
While the stage now hosts national icons, the organisation’s roots were far more modest.
The idea formed over a lunch between four Illawarra businesswomen in the early 2000s. Alongside Glenda, who was practice manager at her husband’s law firm Tony Papac & Associates, was the organisation’s founder, Suzanne Kent.
IWIB launched in 2006 with a relaxed structure and a couple of dozen members to start. But that all started to change when a year later, Suzanne went overseas, handing the reins to Glenda and Better Business Accounting’s Delyse Del Turco.
“We put our thinking caps on,” Glenda says. “We saw potential in this and decided we were going to grow it.”
They became the organisation’s first sponsors, but took a quiet strategy.
“We decided from the start that we weren’t going to push our own businesses too hard,” Glenda says. “It wasn’t the Papac and Del Turco show, and we didn’t want an accounting firm and law firm to scare other law firms and accounting practices off.”
Diane Chalk from Fiducian (then Chalk Financial Planning), who had been among the women at that first lunch when the idea was dreamed up, became the next sponsor in 2008. She was joined by real estate agent Renee Lambert in 2009, which seemed to tip the scales.
“Once we got those two sponsors on board, we gained confidence and integrity within the business community, and it just rolled on from there,” Glenda says. “People really wanted to join as members or become sponsors.”
With subscriptions and sponsorships in place, a growing membership base and regular networking events established, IWIB was running like a well-oiled machine. But something was missing. If the organisation were truly to make good on its mission to connect, inspire, support and celebrate Illawarra businesswomen, it needed a platform to formally acknowledge excellence.
In 2009, the first IWIB Awards took place with just two categories: Businesswoman of the Year and Young Businesswoman of the Year. Having now grown to include 13 categories, it’s a fixture in the awards circuit.
“Awards Day is still my favourite event, even though I wish everyone could win,” Glenda says. “I love seeing the winners up there, full of energy and making waves in Wollongong.”
Delyse left IWIB in 2014. At 70, Glenda is still running the show solo, and is often asked how long she’ll keep it up.
“The answer is: as long as I enjoy it,” she says. “It keeps me mentally young.”
Looking back over the 20 years, Glenda says she’s “immensely proud” of where IWIB is today.
“I have loved our part in building people’s confidence,” she says.
“When they first come to us, many of them are terrified to do a 60-second power pitch. A lot of women just don’t think they’re good enough. I find that surprising. Clearly, the businesswomen of the Illawarra don’t know how incredible they are. I want IWIB to continue to play a role in changing that and improving the networking scene for women.”
