Women in Travel Mixer Inspires Future Leaders

Travel Massive London is proud to co-host the Women in Travel Mixer at the World Aviation Festival (4-6 September in London).

Caitlin Mehta is producer of the World Aviation Festival (a Terrapinn event) and has developed the content for diversity and inclusion, talent and future leaders at the festival for the past two years.

We asked Caitlin to share her highlights of this year’s Women in Travel Mixer and some of the speakers we can look forward to learning from.

🎟 Secure your free exhibition pass, then register for the Women in Travel mixer.

What are the highlights at the Women in Travel mixer?

To complement our focus on diversity in the industry and build on the success of last year’s inaugural mixer, we want to embrace the opportunity we have at the World Aviation Festival to provide a platform for women to come together, share experiences and take some inspiration back to their organisations.

The Women in Travel Mixer will welcome women from all aspects of the travel and aviation industries for this informal networking session. Women from any sector of travel or aviation and those looking to join the industry from university will have the opportunity to meet others who are facing similar challenges and share experiences, advice and connections.

As a new aspect of the mixer this year, we will be hosting a panel featuring inspirational female leaders who will share their experiences as well as offer their tips and advice for excelling in the industry.

Who will be on the Women in Aviation panel?

We will be hosting a panel featuring the following inspirational speakers:

Nathalie Stubler, CEO, Transavia France

Nathalie started out at former French domestic airline Air Inter. She then held many managerial roles at Air France and Air France KLM, developing expertise in network planning, scheduling, sales, corporate social responsibility, revenue management, and pricing. Before being appointed CEO of Transavia France, a low cost subsidiary of Air France KLM, in 2016 she was the Chief of Staff for the CEO of the Air France KLM Group and secretary of the group executive committee.

Dupsy Abiola, Head of Global Innovation, International Airlines Group

Prior to working at IAG, Dupsy was a specialist barrister / litigator and tech entrepreneur. She is a passionate advocate for travel, innovation, and inclusion in leadership and advises impact focused ventures. Dupsy was recently appointed to the Global Future Leaders Council for mobility at the World Economic Forum and was named one of the top 100 BAME Tech leaders by the Financial Times in 2018.

Patrizia Gallo, Chair, Foreign Airlines Association

With 30 years’ experience in the airline industry, occupying senior roles for Alitalia, Skyteam Airline Alliance, Royal Jordanian and Saudia, including two years as Vice Chair of the Foreign Airlines Association (FAA), Patrizia was appointed chair of the FAA in 2017. She is an accomplished and strong communicator with a proven track record in business development, revenue responsibility, relationship building and partnership management within global organisations.

Kate McWilliams, Captain, easyJet 

Kate’s interest in flying started at an early age, gaining her first hands on experience aged 13. On her 19th birthday, Kate joined a pilot training school and gained her commercial pilots license. At 21, Kate started working as a First Officer with easyJet and in 2016 (aged just 26), Kate became the world’s youngest female commercial Captain. Since then, Kate has had great involvement with schools and youth organisations to inspire youngsters to achieve their own childhood dreams, for which her efforts were rewarded with the everywoman Woman of the Year award in 2018.

Why is diversity in tourism is important?

I think it’s important that anyone looking to enter the travel industry should see people like themselves ‘at the top’, so that they can truly understand that this opportunity exists for them.

More women are at a board level now compared to say five years ago – however, there is still much room for improvement when it comes to representation.

As conference organisers, we always try to create diverse agendas that are as inclusive and balanced as possible, to reflect not just the current industry, but where we want to see it develop.

The Women in Travel Mixer is really important to us and we hope that attendees find it to be both an inspiring and useful session.

What tips do you have for women looking for a career in travel?

I’d advise anyone looking for a career in travel to consider your skills and strengths: whether you’re good with people, you’re creative, or you’re more analytical for example (not that these are mutually exclusive), and think about the right role for you and the company whose values align with what you’re looking for.

I haven’t had what I’d call a ‘traditional’ career path, and I think that’s something to embrace, rather than worry about. You might need to take a few side-steps before you can step forwards – that’s fine as long as you keep moving.

— Thanks, Caitlin for your insights on this important topic!

Register for the Women in Travel Mixer and connect with Terrapinn on Travel Massive.