• Denise Quinn (pictured at right) has been involved with the business development of women living in rural, regional and remote communities for the past 9 years. Denise is also an accomplished professional speaker who'll guide the conference program in her motivating personal style.

  She is the founder of the RRR Women Small Business Creation & Mentoring Program which uses an online learning portal to reach women all over Australia.

  Denise and her husband Kelvin live up on Queensland's beautiful Darling Downs raising cattle and their two very spoilt border collies. "With technology today you can live anywhere and work everywhere!" Denise says - and she's living proof of it.

 
Barbara Grey lives in Mungindi, Queensland and has been an irrigated cotton grower for the past 30 years. The innovative and efficient practices she and her husband have put in place on their farm has led to them being awarded the prestigious Cotton Australia ‘Innovative Grower of the Year Award’ in 2007, and consistently being placed in the top five percentile of their region's benchmarking group for cotton growing.

Barbara is Chair of the Women's Industry Network - Cotton and a non-executive director of the Cotton Co-operative Research Centre. She's also a graduate of the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation, has just completed an Advanced Diploma in Business and is currently enrolled in a Masters of Business Administration.

Barbara is committed to strong, healthy and productive rural industries and regional communities and is deeply concerned about what she believes is a growing disconnect between rural people and government and decision makers.

Her RIDC Award ambition is to implement a pilot education program that will empower aspiring rural and regional women leaders to gain a better understanding of the political process and government decision making which will help give them a stronger and more effective voice for rural industries and regional communities.

 
For more than two decades Kim Morrison and Fleur Whelligan have inspired and entertained audiences around the world. Their "duo delivery" is captivating. They empower their audiences to make positives changes in their lives by adopting simple, sensible and practical ideas and tools.

Kim and Fleur have also undertaken extensive studies in aromatherapy, beauty therapy, nutrition, fitness, stress management, counselling and personality psychology. They fill the hearts of their audience by connecting people, changing attitudes, improving relationships and inspiring leadership and a positive ripple effect.

They also well-respected authors of four highly successful books - "Like Chocolate for Woman", "Like an Apple a Day", "About Face" and "Read My Lips" -   which focus on aromatherapy, relationships, personality differences, physical, emotional and mental wellbeing, holistic health, self care, natural beauty and skincare.

“Our vision is to educate and empower people to make positive choices regarding their health and well being; to inspire people to acknowledge that health is their greatest asset; to respect and live in harmony with all mother nature provides; to seek the best products and offer informed opinion on what to place on and in our bodies and to create an ethical, universal business that inspires people who thrive on passion, integrity and fulfilling their dreams.”

Spotlight Conversations - a series of live interactive interviews hosted by our conference MC - are an exciting innovation for 2011. The aim is to share and showcase personal resilience, business diversification, leadership development, community participation and professional development. Conversation participant profiles will be available closer to the conference.

Workshops will be offered by professional facilitators within the four streams of:

• Small Business and Diversification
• Diversity within Community
• Health and Self (includes Mind, Body, Spirit)
• Workplace Diversity (Leadership, Management & Employment)

More complete details of all the workshops on offer will be available closer to the Conference and you'll be advised on our website and Facebook page when they're posted online.

Representatives from government, not-for-profit organisations, agribusiness, community support services, representative bodies and private enterprise will be on hand at our 2011 State Conference to share information and services. Trade Display registrations forms available from the forms section of the website.

Traditionally the conference has attracted a diverse range of entries in the Cultural competition. The 2011 competition aims to be bigger and better and the QRWN are encouraging members, students and women over 16 years who are Queensland residents to enter. The categories include:

• Art
• Craft
• Photography
• Wearable Art
• Short Story Writing

More detailed competition guidelines can be downloaded from the forms section of our website (the rules that apply to each category are attached to that category's registration form).

The QRWN encourages individuals who wish to showcase, display art or sell goods to take the opportunity to share these with delegates who attend the conference. Guidelines and registration can be downloaded from the forms section of the website.