A traveling conversation about financial power and professional security
Across five Australian cities this May, Women in Print has set a national conversation in motion — one centered on money, power, and the particular financial realities women navigate. The 2026 Speaker Series, launched in Sydney under the banner 'Financially Fierce,' draws on the expertise of FinTech entrepreneur Pascale Helyar, whose three decades in financial services lend the tour a grounded, lived authority. It is the kind of gathering that understands community not as backdrop but as the point itself.
- Women in Print is moving fast — five cities, five events, all within a single month, building momentum before the conversation can cool.
- The 'Financially Fierce' theme signals something deliberate: this is not a networking mixer but a direct confrontation with the financial gaps women face in building wealth and security.
- Pascale Helyar brings 30+ years in financial services and 15 years of FinTech entrepreneurship to each stage — not theory, but the hard-won knowledge of someone who has seen where the system fails.
- Each event is engineered for engagement — book signings, giveaways, and open Q&A transform what could be a lecture into a participatory exchange.
- Sponsors Durst Oceania and Media Super are underwriting the infrastructure, making a genuinely national tour logistically possible.
- The series lands in ProPrint's June issue, extending the conversation into the broader professional printing community long after the final Hobart lunch wraps.
Women in Print opened its 2026 Speaker Series in Sydney this May with a clear purpose: to bring women into serious, sustained conversation about money. The theme — 'Financially Fierce' — was not decorative. It named an intention that would travel through five Australian cities over the course of a single month.
Headlining the tour is Pascale Helyar, whose career spans more than three decades in financial services, including fifteen years building FinTech ventures from the ground up. She arrived at the Sydney launch not as a theorist but as someone who had encountered the real gaps in how people manage money — and built businesses around closing them.
From Sydney, the tour moves through Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, and finally Hobart, where a lunch event on May 29th will close out the schedule. Each stop is designed as more than a presentation. Helyar meets attendees directly, signs books, and fields the questions that don't fit a prepared script. Book giveaways keep the energy participatory rather than passive.
The scale of the undertaking required backing. Durst Oceania returned as Ally Sponsor for 2026, joined by Media Super — partnerships that made the venues, coordination, and national reach possible. Full photographic coverage of the Sydney launch will appear in ProPrint's June issue, bringing the series to the wider professional printing community. The conversation, it seems, is only just beginning.
Women in Print opened its 2026 Speaker Series in Sydney this May with a single, clear mission: to get women talking seriously about money. The inaugural event brought together professionals under the banner "Financially Fierce," a theme that would carry through five cities across the country over the coming weeks.
The headliner was Pascale Helyar, a figure with deep roots in financial services—three decades of them, to be precise. Helyar's career arc tells a particular kind of Australian professional story: fifteen years spent building and scaling FinTech ventures, the kind of hands-on entrepreneurial work that teaches you where the real gaps are in how people manage their money. She came to the Sydney stage not as a distant theorist but as someone who had lived the problems she was discussing.
The Sydney launch was only the beginning. Women in Print had mapped out a national tour with military precision. Melbourne would host the next gathering on May 7th at ParkRoyal Monash in Clayton. Brisbane followed on May 8th at 4Pines at Landers Pocket, near the airport—a deliberate choice, perhaps, for accessibility. Perth got its turn on May 20th at Royal Perth Golf Club, and Adelaide on May 21st at The Conservatory at Ayers House. Hobart rounded out the schedule with a lunch event on May 29th, though the full details were still being finalized.
Each stop was designed as more than a lecture. Helyar would be there to meet attendees directly, to sign books, to answer the questions that don't fit neatly into a prepared speech. The organization built in time for people to purchase her work, turning the events into something closer to a conversation than a broadcast. There was also a competitive element—attendees had the chance to win copies of Helyar's book during the sessions, a small incentive that kept the energy participatory rather than passive.
The logistics of pulling off five events across different cities in a single month required support. Women in Print acknowledged its sponsors explicitly: Durst Oceania returned as an Ally Sponsor for 2026, joined by Media Super. These partnerships made the tour possible, underwriting the venues, the coordination, the infrastructure that allows a national conversation to happen.
The full photographic record of the Sydney event would eventually appear in ProPrint's June issue, giving the broader professional printing community a window into what had transpired. For now, the series was in motion—a traveling conversation about financial literacy, professional power, and the specific challenges women face in building wealth and security. The theme wasn't accidental. "Financially Fierce" wasn't aspirational rhetoric; it was a statement of purpose. Women in Print was betting that when you bring women together to talk seriously about money, something shifts.
Citas Notables
Helyar's career spans more than three decades in financial services, including fifteen years as a FinTech entrepreneur— Women in Print
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does a printing industry organization care about financial literacy for women?
Because the women in print—the professionals, the business owners, the decision-makers—are managing real money, making real investments, and often doing it without the same networks or mentorship that men have access to. It's not separate from the industry; it's central to it.
And Helyar specifically—why bring in someone with a FinTech background rather than a traditional banker?
Because FinTech people understand disruption and gaps. Helyar spent fifteen years building solutions to problems that existing systems weren't solving. That's a different kind of authority than someone who's always worked within the establishment.
The tour hits five cities in one month. That's ambitious. What's the actual goal—awareness, or something deeper?
Both, but the deeper one matters more. It's about building a community of women who talk to each other about money, who don't feel alone in their questions. One event in Sydney is a nice gesture. Five events across the country says: this conversation is worth the logistics, worth the sponsorship, worth the time.
Why include the book signings and giveaways? Why not just a pure speaker event?
Because you want people to leave with something tangible—a book, yes, but also the sense that they can keep learning after the event ends. It extends the conversation beyond the room.
What does "Financially Fierce" actually mean to the women who showed up?
It means permission to be ambitious about money without apology. It means learning from someone who didn't just read about FinTech—she built it. It means sitting in a room with other women who are thinking about the same things you are.