Ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March 2019, The St. Regis Abu Dhabi invited Abu Dhabi’s most influential female leading women to an exclusive all-female session of inspiring conversation and idea exchange on 3^rd March 2019, hosted by two international guest speakers to aid them to be the best of themselves.

The event took place at the prestigious Abu Dhabi Suite, the world’s highest suspended suite located on the 48^th and 49^th floor of The St. Regis Abu Dhabi, to elevate Abu Dhabi’s female luminaries to new heights. Together with two guest speakers from London, Janette J Sinclair and Alicya Sinclair, the workshop format event invited to discuss personal future management after breaking the glass ceiling as well as how to dress to impress in the professional career. To enhance social networking, all guests were part of the ‘Queen of Hearts Afternoon Tea’ debut, a St. Regis timeless tradition that is exclusively available at The St. Regis Abu Dhabi in celebration of International Women’s Day this March. All guests were invited to discover the famous pastime of the St. Regis brand’s matriarch Caroline Astor - luminary of her time and one of the most influential women of the 20^th century. Perfected through her legacy and reimagined by the hotel’s highly skilled pastry team, the Queen of Hearts Afternoon Tea showcases freshly handcrafted sweet and savory treats inspired by today’s female luminaries and icons of modern society.

Janette J Sinclair is a Chartered Member of the CIPD (MCIPD) & QSCA Certified Life Coach at Synclarity Coaching Practice. As first guest speaker for the ‘Connecting Women’ event debut she said: “I have always had a passion for people, talent development and personal growth. Being the first guest speaker for this event debut at The St. Regis Abu Dhabi makes me proud and I am happy to inspire Abu Dhabi’s leading ladies to a challenge and to stretch themselves to be the very best they can be!”. Janette’s experience, understanding and knowledge is drawn from several positions both in the publishing world at The Readers Digest and at IBM. As a result, Jan has watched people grow and flourish in their careers and lives. On the business side she has helped to close multimillion-dollar deals, as well as delivering significant improvements to revenue and cost. As a qualified life coach, Janette has provided coaching and mentoring to those reporting to her, long before it became fashionable, extending to peers and senior management.

Janette is a mother of 2 grown daughters both pursuing their ambitions in life. One of her daughters, Alicya Sinclair, was the second guest speaker of the event. Founder & Director of Sinclair London, she is the first Savile Row trained female in 2013 and launched her own woman’s only tailoring brand for bespoke tailoring in 2013. Alicya has collected award nominations which include first time finalist at Golden Shears Awards - branded as the Oscars of Tailoring by GM Magazine, The Luxury Consumer - Rising Star finalist at the Black British Business Awards in 2016, Precious Awards - Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 finalist and Sinclair London became a finalist for Drapers Awards - Women's wear Brand of the Year 2017. With her motto “We're not changing the world, we simply dress the women who do!”, Alicya hosted the second session of ‘Connecting Women’ with dressing inspirations and tips how to make the most of your work wardrobe to create a lasting impression.

More than 50 celebrated female leaders across several industries shared their successes and challenges to motivate and encourage progressive changes in work places for women. Attendees also commented on the event anonymously. "There were lots of forward-thinking ideas in the group workshops, and I felt that I made meaningful connections with others in the industry. The shared experience by Janette and Alicya of being both a leader and a woman made it easy to find common threads."