Forging connections, leadership and legacy: reflections on She Leads 2026
The 2026 She Leads Conference brought together an extraordinary community of women for a day of connection, learning and honest conversation about leadership, resilience, influence and the change women are creating across our community.
For Parker Coles Curtis, She Leads has become an event we look forward to each year. 2026 marks our fourth consecutive year sponsoring the She Leads Networking Night, reflecting our ongoing commitment to supporting spaces where women can connect, share experiences, build relationships and create opportunities for one another.
This year, our involvement extended beyond the Networking Night, with Parker Coles Curtis also sponsoring the Forging Legacy panel at the conference, featuring our Director, Debra Parker, as one of the panellists.
Four years of supporting connection
The She Leads Networking Night once again provided a wonderful beginning to the conference experience.
There is something incredibly valuable about bringing women together outside the structure of their everyday professional lives and giving them the opportunity to simply connect — to meet someone new, exchange ideas, share experiences and build relationships.
As the Networking Night sponsor for the fourth year, Parker Coles Curtis was delighted to once again support an evening dedicated to creating exactly that kind of space.
Debra spoke during the evening, with her address warmly received by attendees, while MC Chris Ryan brought wonderful humour and energy to the event.
For us, continuing to support the Networking Night year after year is about more than sponsorship. It reflects something we strongly believe in: when women have opportunities to connect and support one another, the impact extends well beyond the room.
Forging a legacy
That idea of creating an impact beyond ourselves continued into the conference with the Forging Legacy panel, sponsored by Parker Coles Curtis.
Debra joined Christina Ryan, Julie Peters and Satara Uthayakumaran for the discussion, facilitated by Han Worsley. The panel explored women leaders who are creating lasting impact by educating and inspiring future leaders, with a particular focus on legacy-building and the importance of intergenerational leadership in sustaining progress.
It was an insightful conversation and one that strongly resonates with our values at Parker Coles Curtis.
Legacy isn't simply about what we achieve individually. It is also about the people we encourage, the opportunities we create for others and what we leave behind for the next generation.
Challenging what it means to be a ‘difficult woman’
Another powerful conversation came through Celebrating the Many Faces of ‘Difficult Women’.
The panel explored the experiences of women who have defied expectations, spoken truth to power and challenged the systems around them — reframing the idea of being labelled ‘difficult’ and instead recognising the courage it can take to stand firm in your convictions and challenge norms in pursuit of progress.
Being persistent, demanding or uncompromising can sometimes attract criticism, particularly for women. But those same qualities can also be the catalyst for advocacy, leadership and meaningful change.
The Women at the Vanguard panel continued this theme from another perspective, celebrating women building the future through leadership, innovation and activism across diverse sectors.
Finding your voice, potential and ability to thrive
The afternoon seminars offered practical ideas attendees could take away and apply in their own workplaces, leadership roles and lives.
Annelise McCarthy's FORGE Your Voice explored something many women will recognise: holding back, second-guessing what we want to say or downplaying our achievements. Her session challenged women to communicate with greater clarity, precision and authority and considered how effective communication can create influence and lasting impact.
Dr Lauren Burns OAM's Forging Potential explored stress, mindset and human connection, sharing research-based tools to help women remain composed under pressure and create the conditions to perform, grow and thrive.
Penny Nesbitt's Forge a Thriving Culture turned the focus towards our workplaces and communities, exploring practical ways leaders can strengthen engagement, productivity and inclusion while building cultures in which people can genuinely thrive.
Stories that stay with you
The keynote speakers brought another dimension to the day, sharing powerful perspectives on resilience, adversity, identity and moving forward.
Sophie Delezio spoke about forging ahead when we cannot control what happens to us, while Dr Michelle Dickinson delivered an incredibly engaging and inspiring keynote. One message in particular stayed with us:
“Have good scars... not wounds.”
It was a simple but powerful reflection on healing — acknowledging what we have experienced without allowing those experiences to remain open wounds that define where we go next.
Later in the day, Dr Hannah McGlade brought an important perspective to the conference before Kylie Kwong AM delivered the final keynote, sharing her story and bringing the day to an inspiring close. The program concluded with remarks from YWCA Canberra CEO Frances Crimmins.
Creating an opportunity to be in the room
This year, there was another element of our involvement that was particularly meaningful to the Parker Coles Curtis team.
Alongside our sponsorship, Parker Coles Curtis provided a ticket scholarship to enable a recipient to attend the She Leads Conference. The recipient, Michelle Parkowski, is a writer, director and producer from regional NSW and is (more recently) and inventor of a public-interest technology architecture (watch this space!).
We know that access to events like She Leads can create opportunities that extend far beyond one day and Michelle came into the office to meet Debra following the event, where she expressed her gratitude for the opportunity to attend.
We were delighted to hear from Michelle about how she will carry what she learnt at the conference into her work and leadership going forward.
More than a conference
After four years supporting the She Leads Networking Night, it is wonderful to see how this community continues to evolve.
This year's conference was a reminder that there is no single way to be a leader.
Leadership can mean speaking truth to power. It can mean refusing to make yourself smaller. It can mean creating a healthier workplace, sharing what you've learned with the next generation, challenging a system that needs to change or simply making space for another woman to step forward.
From the conversations and connections of the Networking Night to the panels, seminars and extraordinary stories shared throughout the conference, She Leads 2026 gave us plenty to reflect on — and plenty to carry forward.
Parker Coles Curtis is grateful to have supported She Leads for another year and to continue playing a part in creating spaces where women can connect, learn, lead and forge what comes next.