International Women’s Day Workshop 2023

Applejack hosted a delicious breakfast and immersive workshop to celebrate International Women’s Day.

RAFI North Sydney was the perfect backdrop for a thought-provoking morning, discussing women in hospitality with the leaders of Applejack.

We were joined by Hospitality legend and pioneer of women in hospitality, Justine Baker, who took us through her hospitality journey and her insight into women in hospitality. Justine then assisted us in an interactive workshop, in which the Applejack leaders were broken up into groups to discuss questions and later present their ideas.

Applejack leaders, both female and male, were invited to RAFI to partake in the workshop. Guests included all our General Managers, Head Chefs, as well as some Assistant General Managers, Bar Managers, Chefs, Bartenders, and Head office.

With freshly made coffees in hand we were treated to an amazing breakfast spread, catered by RAFI Head Chef Matias Cilloniz and Director of Culinary Patrick Friesen. Guests enjoyed their breakfast while mingling and catching up.

Director of Marketing, Jo Steuart, and Director of People, Matt Jenkins, then welcomed everyone and ran through the plan for the morning and the reasons behind hosting this workshop. Jo then introduced our guest speaker Justine Baker, a pioneer of women in hospitality.

Justine spoke of her career in hospitality, her journey to becoming COO of one of Sydney’s biggest Hospitality groups, her career after having children, and her views on flexible working. It was an incredibly inspiring talk, that saw many of our staff feeling empowered and motivated in progressing their careers in hospitality.

Our guests were then broken into specific groups to discuss key questions including what they value at work, and how can we include more flexibility in the workplace. The teams were specifically chosen with Gernal managers together, FOH of different venues together, and BOH of different venues together; this allowed people with similar work styles and hours to discuss their views.

A representative from each team then presented their team’s discussions and ideas from the workshop. It was a great discussion with many new insights that will help shape Applejack’s policies moving forward.

We want to say a big thank you to everyone who joined us and everyone that contributed to making the day so special.