Women with Flavour: The Parea Gathering – Making the Table Bigger

Sometimes the best ideas don’t begin with a business plan.

They begin with a conversation.

For Women with Flavour, it began with six women sitting around a table.

I had been inspired by strong women who understood the value of bringing women together over dinner. There was something about the simplicity of it that stayed with me: women sharing food, talking, laughing and having conversations that perhaps wouldn’t happen in everyday life.

It inspired me to create something of my own.

I called it Women with Flavour.

And from the beginning, I knew I wanted it to be more than just dinner.

Dinner with intention

I describe Women with Flavour as dinner with intention.

At every dinner, I bring a question to the table.

It’s not an elevator pitch. It’s not about what you do for a living or how many business cards you can hand out. And there’s certainly no right or wrong answer.

The question is simply there to start a real conversation.

What happens next belongs to the women around the table.

We talk. We listen. We share experiences and different perspectives. We laugh. Sometimes we’re challenged by what another woman says. Sometimes we recognise a little of ourselves in somebody else’s story.

And sometimes a conversation goes somewhere none of us expected.

That’s the beauty of it.

Then I discovered the word Parea

More recently, I was introduced to a beautiful Greek word: Parea.

Parea is about the company of people coming together, sharing conversation, food, experiences, ideas and time.

As soon as I heard it, something clicked.

It gave a word to something I had already been creating.

Women with Flavour was never about filling a room with as many people as possible. It was about creating the right environment for women to genuinely connect.

Parea seemed to capture that perfectly.

And so the next chapter became:

Women with Flavour: The Parea Gathering

The idea behind The Parea Gathering is beautifully simple.

Bring good women together and see what happens.

Women from different backgrounds. Different ages. Different careers. Different experiences. Different chapters of their lives.

You don’t have to own a business.

You don’t have to arrive with somebody.

You don’t need to prepare anything or worry about walking into a room where everyone already knows each other.

You just need to bring yourself.

Because that’s where the flavour comes from.

It’s our different personalities, experiences, opinions, stories, successes, mistakes, humour and wisdom that make the conversation interesting.

Women who want the best for other women

There’s another part of Women with Flavour that’s very important to me.

I want to bring together women who don’t only want the best for themselves, but who genuinely want the best for other women too.

There’s room at the table for all of us.

One woman’s success doesn’t diminish another woman’s.

We can introduce each other. Encourage each other. Share knowledge. Open doors. Have difficult conversations. Celebrate successes. And sometimes simply listen.

We never really know what might come from sitting next to someone new.

A friendship.

A collaboration.

An opportunity.

A piece of advice.

A different way of looking at something.

Or simply a brilliant evening with women you might never otherwise have met.

Our next gathering

Our next Women with Flavour: The Parea Gathering will be held at The Jolly Farmers, beginning with welcome drinks at 7pm before we sit down together for a two-course meal.

I’m also delighted that Penny Ferguson, founder of Living Leader, will be joining us as our guest speaker.

Penny is a woman who has personally inspired me, so having her as part of this gathering feels particularly special.

But just as with those original dinners, the heart of the evening won’t only be at the front of the room.

It will be around the tables.

It will be in the conversations we have, the stories we share and the connections we make.

And yes, there will be a question.

I’ll bring that.

You bring your flavour.

From six women to a bigger table

When I think back to those first six women sitting around a table, I love seeing how the idea has evolved.

The heart of it hasn’t changed.

Food. Conversation. Connection. Women supporting women.

We’re simply making the table bigger.

So, if something about Women with Flavour: The Parea Gathering speaks to you, I’d love you to take a seat.

Come alone. Come with a friend. Come ready to meet someone new.

You never know who you might find yourself sitting next to, or where one conversation might lead.

Women with Flavour: The Parea Gathering

Dinner with intention. Connection with meaning.

When good women come together, good things happen.