Hanging off her every word

Organiser Pamela O’Connor thanked attendees and said the feedback had been fantastic.

‘‘The vast majority said that they loved, admired and respected our guest speaker,’’ Ms O’Connor said.

‘‘The young female students who attended said they were ‘awe-struck’ by Christine’s presentation and by having the opportunity to meet her in person.

‘‘The general comment was that the whole format and content of the evening was fabulous and that they would not change a thing.

‘‘Considering there were 229 people there that is a heart-warming response and validation of all the hard work performed by our three committee members Julie Folan, Sue Berry and myself.’’

The event was emceed by ABC Goulburn Murray chief of staff Gaye Pattison, who welcomed guests, introduced Ms Nixon and hosted a Q&A session towards the end of the evening.

Ms Nixon’s speech was engaging and had the crowd hanging off her every word.

‘‘International Women’s Day is a great opportunity for women to come together across the whole of this country, and in-fact, in many countries,’’ Ms Nixon told the room.

‘‘It has a great history going back to 1911 in Europe when it was first celebrated.

‘‘It was about recognising the achievements of women and celebrating them.

‘‘But it was also about thinking about what the future held and where that might take women.’’

Ms Nixon said her first International Women’s Day event was in NSW in 1973.

‘‘International Women’s Day has always been a wonderful event for me and when I came to Victoria I was one of four senior women in the public sector.

‘‘I remember the four of us got together one day and said we should make a real event out of International Women’s Day.

‘‘We said to the police and the Institute of Public Administration Australia that we wanted to have a big dinner and the boys said ‘no one will come’.

‘‘The girls said ‘of course they will’, especially when we were all determined to buy tables and take people along as a gift for the work they had done during the year.

‘‘That first dinner had 1500 people attend.

‘‘And that dinner continued throughout the years.

‘‘I was involved with various roles and one of those was to run a trivial pursuit quiz.

‘‘And I thought how am I going to keep almost 1500, mainly women, quiet, so we can play trivial pursuit?

‘‘One thing I learnt at that event is just how competitive women are.

‘‘Another thing I leant that day was ‘shhh’ is the only way to keep 1500 people quiet.’’