Women on Top Special : Inspirational Speakers Event

Join us for one final Women on Top Special before Our Place Tauranga closes its doors to the public. This will be a Summer Special event.

Women on Top as always is curated to bring women together for a night of stories about careers, survival, success and songs by special guest speakers and performers.

This event will again be hosted by colourful and wonderful Rachel Axis who provides all the giggles and information on the charity which we will be auctioning and raffling for.

Our chosen organisation this time around is ' Gender Minorities Aotearoa'.

Gender Minorities Aotearoa is a nationwide transgender organisation. It is run by and for transgender people; including binary and non-binary, intersex, and irawhiti takatāpu, with a vision for all transgender people to be empowered by a full range of choices across all aspects of their lives, and to be able to participate fully in society.

We are raising these funds and paying tribute on the evening in honour of our beloved first host, Suzi Paige who sadly passed away in early December from a tragic accident. Suzi was an advocate, a mentor and an inspiration to the Trans-Community , and a played a part behind the bar in Our Place Tauranga, leaving many beautiful and happy memories with the team there, and she will be sorely missed.

Here is your lineup for Women on Top Summer Special , with a focus on wāhine in our food and drinks industry.

Stacey Jones,

Flavours of Plenty Chair & Founder of Kitchen Takeover

Our favourite foodie, Stacey is back to tell us all about Flavours of Plenty, its initiative and festival happening in early 2022! Stacey is a big city lass who has worked on the Premiere of Devil Wears Prada and is the Founder of secret supper club start up, Kitchen Takeover. She brings together creativity, innovation, marketing and spark to our hospitality community and next year shes going even bigger and connecting the food and drinks industry to the community with Flavours of Plenty Festival!

Cherie Metcalfe,

Creator of food brand Pepper and Me, and Author of cookbook- Keepers.

Obsessed with food from the early years, Cherie adorably named the business after her daughter Pepper.

Cherie started the Pepper and Me journey as a chef in Auckland and left the long hours of hospitality to spend more mummy time with Pepper. Cherie is the proud author of Keepers cookbook and an ever-growing business. We are lucky enough to hear about the hard work, laughter, tears and ups and downs it took to get to where she is today!

Renee Ball

Founder of The Lactation Station

Renee, who started out as a childcare provider for primarily newborns, began studies in Midwifery before becoming a mother herself. Renee’s father was one of Aotearoa’s top bakers and she had a passion for this from an early age. After Renee started making lactation cookies for herself while at home with her baby daughter Honor, her journey began. After starting out at the markets, Renee turned a home baking hobby into a full-time job and is now New Zealand’s leading brand in Lactation goods. As a mum, Renee understands the needs of the world’s most important job and this is what drives her to succeed.

Malika Ganley,

Recipe Developer, Chef & Creator & Recent Owner of ‘The General’ Cafe in Mt Maunganui

If you are lucky enough, you will already know Malika as the ray of sunshine that until very recently was running every aspect from the counter to the kitchen at one of the Bay of Plenty’s most popular cafes, ‘The General’ in Mt Maunganui. The General was brought to life after opening only a few years ago, and quickly became the hotspot not only on weekends, but every morning on Mount Main Street.

Malika has traveled and worked at all corners of the globe, has 25 years of hospitality business ownership and has worked for some of New Zealand and the world’s top business people.

Coming from a family of chefs, Malika studied nutrition at university, then went onto culinary arts and is now on her own journey on how to navigate the ebbs and flow of what this one wild and wonderful life has to offer.

Danielle Cubis

Passionate Baker, Cake Maker & Owner of specialty business, Spongedrop Cakery.

Dani has always loved cake - so after 10 years working in the advertising industry both here and in Australia - she put her money where her mouth was and invested in pursuing cake making as her full-time career. After a stint in London, at a popular cake decorating store, Dani headed home to begin her first official Spongedrop job - making her Mum’s wedding cake!

Fast-forward to 2021 and Dani has now been running her much-loved Spongedrop Cakery, based in central Mount Maunganui, for over 9 years.

Following traditional baking methods and using classical ingredients (think butter, eggs, sugar and flour!), Dani and her team create cakes and cupcakes that are both beautiful to look at and delicious to eat.

Dani will share with us her path to becoming a professional baker, what it meant to her when someone first called her ‘Chef’, and how she juggles mum life along with the many, many other hats she wears within her business.

Rose Connor, Bespoke Dining Host & Owner of Roses Dining Table

Roses Dining Table is a new kid on the block, operating her small business for just over a year now, in the Bay. Rose offers a bespoke dining experience that is hosted in the comfort of people’s homes for gatherings, parties and special occasions. The menus are carefully tailored to match customer preferences and aims to connect people over beautiful food and styled events.

Coming from a strong sales background in a heavily male dominated field, Rose has overcome many hurdles to get to where she is today with this new thriving business venture and is joining us to prove to other women that your passions are possible if you just take that leap!

Rose will give us some tips on sales strategy and how to create authentic brand purpose too! PS - we told her it’s mandatory that she brings her Sous Chef along to Women on Top, which is her ADORABLE and naughty Golden Retriever, Nacho.

*NOTE : We will require vaccine passes and valid ID to enter the event. Please consider this when booking tickets, as failing to present these does not fall within the refund policy.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Our Place Tauranga, 91 Willow Street, Tauranga, New Zealand