MBW Australia Virtual Event: Women in Meat – Getting it Done

Tuesday 3rd May 2022, 11:30am – 13:00pm AEST (02:30am GMT)

Meat Business Women Australia will be hosting a free virtual event for members and non-members.

Everything about how, when and where people work has been turned on its head in the past couple of years. Does that mean more opportunity for women in the meat sector? Is now the best possible time for women to speak up about what they want and need in their meat sector careers?

Hosted by Meat Business Women Australia Chair, Catharine Heffernan

Join us at 11:30am (AEST) on Tuesday 3rd May 2022 for a proactive 90-minute online discussion

Who’s on the agenda?

Georgie Somerset, General President of AgForce

• GET HEARD

How to make women’s voices count inside the meat sector, and the role women can play in advocating for the sector across the wider ag industry and beyond.

Georgie will explore what advocacy is, why it matters when you’re busy trying to just get through your day, where women can make the most difference, and why the post-covid environment will provide big opportunities to make change.

Senator Susan McDonald, Chair, Rural and Regional Affairs & Transport Legislation Committee

• GET UP TO SPEED

Knowledge is power. Senator McDonald will provide updates on legislation, policy and personal insights on topics from meat packaging and labelling to encouraging innovation in staffing as the ramifications of a changed global talent pool continue to reverberate.

Dr Jaime Manning, Lecturer in Agriculture at CQUniversity

• GET CHANGE HAPPENING

Jaime will look at what the latest research says about teachers’ perceptions of working in the red meat industry. Can helping teachers think different impact the future of meat sector careers?

About Georgie…

Georgie Somerset is a rural industry leader and strategist with a background in regional development across Australia. Based on her family’s cattle property in Queensland’s South Burnett, she is actively involved in the operation of the multi generational family beef business. For three decades Georgie has juggled the demands of beef production along side her roles in many influential organisations.

Georgie’s passion for advocating for rural Australia and her service to primary industries, women and the community saw her named a Member of the Order of Australia in 2020.

In addition to her working in the family business, Georgie holds a number of positions across the not-for-profit, government and Primary industries including: being the first female General President of AgForce Queensland, Deputy chair of the Royal Flying Doctor Service (Queensland section), director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the National Farmers Federation and the RFDS Foundation, and as Chair of the Red Earth Community Foundation South Burnett.

In the past Georgie has held roles on advisory councils, government review committees and board roles. Georgie believes in embracing change, connecting despite geographic isolation, investing in people and lifelong learning – she is looking forward to speaking at this year’s Meat Business Women event.

About Susan…

Susan grew up on her family’s cattle property, 70km south of Cloncurry. She was educated by Correspondence School and Mt Isa School of the Air before boarding school in Brisbane. Her first job was cooking for a stock camp and working at Expo ’88 in Brisbane before going to the University of Queensland to study accounting with the idea she would go back to the family station to handle the bookkeeping.

But circumstances changed and she ended up in Brisbane working in different businesses as an Accountant before going in as Chief of Staff for then Natural Resources and Mines Minister, Andrew Cripps.

Her family had bought a chain of butcher shops in Brisbane and the Gold Coast and Susan ran them for 6 years before being elected to the Australian Senate for Queensland.

She has three teenaged kids and is now based in Townsville.

About Jamie…

Dr Jaime Manning is a lecturer in Agriculture at CQUniversity Australia, based in the beef capital of Australia, Rockhampton. She lectures into the CQU agriculture degree program, and her research focuses on issues facing rural, regional and remote communities, ensuring that project outcomes have real world applicability and relevance in Agriculture.

She has a Bachelor of Animal and Veterinary Bioscience (First Class Honours) after completing an honours project researching the use of GPS technology to detect the predation of sheep, and a PhD from The University of Sydney, that investigated heterogeneity in pasture systems, and how it affects cattle production, paddock utilisation and behaviour using livestock tracking and pasture sensor technologies.

Jaime has extensive experience on livestock research projects, with a focus on livestock tracking technologies, technology in agriculture and how using and incorporating new technologies on farm can help improve the welfare of livestock, the level of monitoring, as well as production and management outcomes. Additionally, how these technology solutions across the red meat supply chain, can be used attract and retain the next generation agricultural workforce, and highlight the broad career options available.

She is the program coordinator for annual Northern Meat Judging conference and workshop, and is passionate about increasing the participation, development and leadership capabilities of women across the agricultural supply chain.