The Regional Business Women's Conference has secured a celebrity lineup for its conference in May.
The speakers will include scientist and social entrepreneur Sir Ray Avery, chief executive of Trilogy International Angela Buglass, former New Zealand Herald editor Tim Murphy, Women's Refuge chief executive Dr Ang Jury, manager of the Hip Op-eration Crew Billie Jordan, and Tauranga's Black Sticks hockey star Gemma McCaw.
The conference is a biennial event and drew around 170 delegates in 2015, said Kathryn Lellman, chairwoman of the Tauranga Chamber of Commerce's Business Women's Network, which is organising the event. The lead sponsors are Craigs Investment Partners and Cooney Lees Morgan.
The 2017 conference theme is "No grit, no pearl", which Ms Lellman said reflected the fact that women could not expect to achieve their goals without encountering and overcoming challenges.
"The conference goals include showing attendees that sometimes succeeding means getting a bit of dirt under your fingernails and dealing with some grit," she said.