WOMEN in farming businesses were inspired to lead at the Partners In Grain (PinG) WA inaugural conference in Perth recently.
The two-day event focused on upskilling the women, who are heavily involved in their farm businesses, to be better leaders and managers.
About 130 women in different roles across WA attended and heard from expert speakers on everything from office management to positive agriculture promotion.
Outgoing WA chairwoman Nicole Batten said women play a vital role in the management of farm businesses and the conference supported their learning and facilitated grain industry growth.
She said PinG State representatives were taking the idea home to discuss how it could be applied locally.
"We really do work to fill the gaps in training and we're not here to replicate anything," Ms Batten said.
"We created the inspire summit for women in farm businesses that have been involved for a reasonable amount of time, carry a reasonable amount of responsibility and want to upskill.
"It was a huge success and I think the general talk is that it could become a biannual thing."
PinG is a not-for-profit group aimed at providing opportunities otherwise unavailable or inaccessible to growers.
The group co-ordinates training events across WA with a focus on farm office efficiencies, being a better boss and the use of technology.
The PinG conference built on these themes and included a session with Rabobank acting WA manager Steve Kelly on strengthening farm business decisions, group sessions on succession planning and how to manage team dynamics with professional facilitator Andrew Huffer.
Just prior to the two-day event, the PinG WA committee welcomed Dandaragan grower Bronwyn Fox to the role of chairwoman as Ms Batten prepares to take on the national chairwoman role.
Ms Batten said her new role would focus on a national restructure as the organisation works to meet new funding requirement.
"There's a need for funding to help develop the workshops,'' she said.
p See social pictures on page 50.
