EmpowerHer Conference 2026

GET YOUR TICKETS

EmpowerHer Conference 2026

GET YOUR TICKETS

‘Confidently You’

A powerful day of connection, confidence and community for women in business

EmpowerHer is the Fraser Coast’s only Women in Business conference of its kind - a highly sought-after, annual event created to bring women together for a day that is inspiring, empowering and deeply affirming.

Confidently You is about showing up as yourself - without apology, without comparison, and without shrinking.


It’s about building confidence from the inside out, connecting with like-minded women, and walking away feeling clearer, stronger and supported in your next steps.

This full-day event sells out every year and welcomes women from across the Fraser Coast and beyond - business owners, professionals and women ready to grow personally and professionally.

EmpowerHer is also proud to raise vital funds for the Fraser Coast Hospice.
Through ticket sales, raffles and silent auctions, over $15,000 has been raised across the past two years, directly supporting this incredible local service.

Event Details

Friday 9th October, 2026

The Clubhouse Hervey Bay

9.00am - 2.00pm

Your Ticket Includes

A full-day EmpowerHer conference experience

Refreshments provided throughout the day

A curated goodie bag filled with beautiful offerings from local business owners

Meaningful networking and connection opportunities

Proudly Supported by Hervey Bay RSL

We are incredibly grateful to the Hervey Bay RSL for their generous support of the EmpowerHer Conference through their Community Grant Program.

Their commitment to supporting local initiatives helps create opportunities for connection, learning, and growth for women in business across the Fraser Coast.

2026 Diamond Sponsors

Arise + Shine

Transformational Life Coach Tania Comerford empowers executives and professionals to create lives filled with greater joy, freedom, clarity, and purpose.

The Services Club Maryborough

A vibrant community hub offering great food, entertainment, events, and a welcoming place for locals to connect, relax, and enjoy quality hospitality.

Qld Finance Hub

Led by Monica Wandel, Qld Finance Hub provides strategic finance solutions backed by real-world experience as a broker, property investor, entrepreneur, coach, helping clients build wealth and achieve their goals with confidence.

Meet Our MC - Lizzie Macaulay

We’re thrilled to welcome Lizzie Macaulay as the MC of EmpowerHer 2026.

A familiar face within the Fraser Coast business community, Lizzie is a communications and business strategist and the founder of Bigger Picture Business Solutions.

For more than a decade, she has worked alongside founders, business owners and leaders, helping them cut through the noise, find clarity in their ideas and turn big-picture thinking into action.

Lizzie’s approach is refreshingly grounded and collaborative. She sits across the table, listens properly and has a knack for taking a tangled, half-formed idea and turning it into something clear, strategic and achievable.

No hype. No jargon. Just honest, considered thinking and the confidence to move forward with intent.

Lizzie understands the reality of building a business - the ideas, the uncertainty, the decisions and the constant juggling that happens behind the scenes. It’s this understanding, combined with her warmth, quick wit and ability to connect with people, that makes her the perfect person to guide us through EmpowerHer 2026.

Throughout the day, Lizzie will keep the conversations flowing, bring out the best in our incredible speakers and help create the connection, energy and fun that EmpowerHer has become known for.

We couldn’t think of anyone better to take the stage and lead us through a day dedicated to showing up, backing yourself and becoming Confidently You.

Our Keynote Speakers

Danni Whiley - Keynote Speaker

Danni Whiley

Danni Whiley is a nutrition coach, content creator and founder of Rebuild with Danni, where she helps women stop starting over and build a healthier, more sustainable relationship with food, their bodies and themselves.

After becoming a mum to twins, Danni found herself in a season where so much of who she was had been swallowed up by motherhood, business and the everyday pressure of simply trying to keep everything together.

What followed wasn't an overnight transformation or a perfectly packaged success story. It was years of rebuilding - her confidence, her health, her identity and, eventually, a career that felt genuinely aligned with the woman she had become.

Today, Danni works with women who are ready to make themselves a priority again. Her approach to nutrition is realistic, sustainable and designed to work within the beautiful messiness of real life. But what she has created has become about so much more than food.

At the heart of Danni's work is helping women trust themselves again, take up space in their own lives and recognise that prioritising themselves doesn't mean becoming someone completely different or leaving behind the roles that matter to them.

Through her coaching, content and willingness to share the very real parts of her own journey, Danni has built a community around a message that resonates deeply with women at every stage of life:

You don't need to become a completely different woman. Sometimes, you just need to find your way back to yourself.

It's a message that sits beautifully at the heart of EmpowerHer 2026 and everything it means to become Confidently You.

Keynote: How Women Shrink (and How They Start Taking Up Space Again)

So many women spend their lives making themselves smaller.

We stay quiet when we have something valuable to say. We second-guess our ideas. We apologise before we've even spoken. We downplay our achievements and wait until we feel completely "ready" before taking the next step.

But what happens when we stop waiting for permission and start taking up the space we were always meant to occupy?

In this powerful and deeply personal keynote, Danni Whiley shares her own journey of rebuilding her confidence, finding her voice and creating a business and life that finally felt like hers.

Through honest storytelling and practical mindset shifts, Danni will explore the beliefs and behaviours that can quietly keep women playing small - and what it takes to begin challenging them.

This isn't about becoming the loudest person in the room or pretending self-doubt doesn't exist. It's about learning to trust yourself, back your ideas, use your voice and show up as the person you really are.

Attendees will walk away feeling challenged, inspired and ready to stop waiting until they're more qualified, more confident or more "ready" to take their next step.

Because the world doesn't need a smaller version of you.

It needs Confidently You.

Kylie Brennan

Kylie Brennan works with ambitious women in leadership to amplify their influence and impact.

She is the author of Focus is Fertiliser: How to Grow a Positive Mindset and creator of the signature Leadership Impact Framework, which helps women replace leadership barriers with the confidence, clarity and capability to influence and create impact naturally - and with results.

Through 1:1 coaching, group coaching and leadership programs, Kylie supports women who are ready to progress their careers, improve their leadership performance or build a meaningful legacy.

A former Registered Nurse, Kylie went on to spend more than 15 years in the pharmaceutical industry across sales and mindset coaching roles.

Her own story is also one of extraordinary resilience. Following the tragic death of her identical twin sister, Karen, Kylie continued her sister's legacy through the touching children's book My Mummy Lives in My Heart. Written for Karen's children and published by Kylie, the book was created to help grieving children while giving purpose to her own grief.

Keynote: Confidence Is An Inside Job

Have you ever felt frustrated because you know you should feel confident enough to do something, say something or take that next step… but you just don’t?

In this powerful keynote, Kylie Brennan will challenge what you think you know about confidence and help you rediscover where authentic confidence really comes from. And no, she’s not going to tell you to “just believe in yourself”.

There’s a reason confidence can feel fleeting - strong in one moment and completely absent in the next. Because while confidence is an inside job, it isn’t about becoming better at faking it or pretending self-doubt doesn’t exist.

Kylie will take you beneath the surface to explore your own internal leadership landscape - the thoughts, beliefs and barriers that can influence how confidently you show up in your business, career, leadership and life.

Through a powerful guided visualisation, you’ll have the opportunity to reconnect with your own authentic confidence and better understand what may be holding you back from speaking up, stepping forward or taking up the space you know you’re capable of owning.

You’ll walk away with a new perspective on confidence, greater awareness of your own internal barriers and a deeper understanding of how to show up with more influence and impact - without needing to become louder, more polished or someone you’re not.

Because confidence isn’t about changing who you are. It’s about having the courage to show up as who you already are. And that’s what being Confidently You is all about.

Jacqui Maloney - Keynote Speaker

Jacqui Maloney

Jacqui Maloney is a Speaking and Media Coach who works with influential CEOs, founders, entrepreneurs, and emerging leaders to elevate their presence, impact, and confidence on stage, on camera, and in the room.

From a young age, Jacqui was drawn to storytelling through acting, recognising the power stories have to influence, connect, and create meaningful change. Today, she combines that passion with practical communication strategies to help her clients speak with clarity, authenticity, and confidence.

Jacqui has supported clients in securing keynote speaking opportunities, media appearances, and major personal and professional achievements, including helping a client secure a Top 10 placement in Miss Universe Australia 2025.

She is also the Founder of The Makuru Foundation, an organisation dedicated to improving care and support for women and families experiencing pregnancy loss in Western Australia.

Through her keynote, Jacqui will challenge attendees to step into their visibility, own their voice, and communicate with greater confidence and impact, both professionally and personally.

Keynote: What a Year of Invisibility Has Cost Me and My Business

What happens when a speaking and media coach - someone whose work is built around helping others find their voice, show up and be seen - loses her own confidence and starts to hide?

For Jacqui Maloney, the impact was significant.

In this honest and deeply personal keynote, Jacqui takes us behind the scenes of the past 12 months and shares what stepping away from visibility has cost her, both personally and professionally.

At a time when we're constantly being told to build our personal brands, put ourselves out there and "be visible", Jacqui found herself doing the opposite. Her confidence had taken a hit, showing up felt harder than ever, and the very thing she taught others to do suddenly became something she was struggling with herself.

But rebuilding her confidence didn't mean becoming louder, posting more or forcing herself to show up in ways that didn't feel right.

It meant finding her way.

Jacqui will share how she began speaking up even when she didn't feel confident, asking for opportunities she previously wouldn't have backed herself for, and redefining what visibility could look like when she stopped trying to do it everyone else's way.

It's a raw and relatable reminder that confidence doesn't always come before action. Sometimes, we have to take the action first - and allow the confidence to follow.

For every woman who has ever doubted herself, played small, disappeared for a while or wondered whether she still has what it takes, this keynote is your reminder that you can find your way back - and you can do it Confidently You.

2026 Emerald Sponsors

Hervey Bay Myotherapy

InFocus Financial Planning

Action Forward

Gould Marketing

The Cheeky Rub Co

Thrive At Life Australia

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Secure Your Seat at EmpowerHer 2026

Secure Your Seat at EmpowerHer 2026

EmpowerHer is a space where women rise by being exactly who they are - confidently, courageously, and together.

All photography and videography is thanks to Dan Filmer Photographer

2026 Sapphire Sponsors

Bullant Designs

Fempire International

Hervey Bay Commercial Property Management

B Mee Allied Health

Logical Business Services

TerraiQ

EmpowerHer 2026

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EmpowerHer 2026 ~

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2026 Ruby Sponsors

What People Are Saying

“Attending the Empower Her Conference was an incredibly inspiring and energising experience. From start to finish, the event was thoughtfully curated, with powerful speakers, meaningful conversations, and a genuine sense of connection among everyone in the room. The atmosphere was uplifting and inclusive, creating a safe space for women to share, learn, and grow both personally and professionally. Every detail, from the topics covered to the networking opportunities, was designed to empower and elevate. It was more than just a conference it was a reminder of the strength that comes from women supporting women. I left feeling motivated, confident, and connected to a wider community of like-minded women. Highly recommend this event to anyone ready to take the next step in their personal or professional journey.”

— 2025 Conference Attendee

“I had such a great time, Thank you to everyone who who helped make the day a big success”

— 2025 Conference Attendee

“The BiziWomen Connect – Empower Her Conference 2025 was truly an inspiring experience!

The atmosphere was electric — filled with positive energy, brilliant speakers, and powerful lessons that left us all motivated to reflect, grow, and take action. It was a wonderful opportunity to connect and share ideas with other entrepreneurial women from across the Fraser Coast.

A huge thank you to the organisers for bringing such a high-quality, uplifting event to Hervey Bay. What a gift to our local business community!”

— 2025 Conference Attendee

“Attending EmpowerHer was an eye- and mind-opener for me! To see so many women in a variety of businesses was wonderful, and listening to the quality speakers was inspirational. I’m already looking forward to attending in 2026!”

— 2025 Conference Attendee

“I attended EmpowerHer after umming and ahhing for weeks on end. Then I decided to just purchase a ticket and give it a go. I attended on my own not knowing anyone at the event.

Often these events may have great information but are crowded and not everyone is welcoming. This event was so different. Welcoming, inclusive, interesting, down to earth friendly, authentic, fun.... and generous. I gained valuable understanding of the charity the event was supporting... Fraser Coast Hospice.

The speakers were next level inspiring. And Kylie from Biziwomen Connect needs a medal for the organisation and presentation of this event. I highly recommend to attend next year in 2026”

— 2025 Conference Attendee

“I loved everything about the EmpoweringHer conference, especially meeting other women in business.”

— 2025 Conference Attendee