Aptly themed "Game Changers", speakers highlighted the need for disruptive thinking in business to not bring about the same solutions, but to innovate, grow the property box and re-strategise in view of the changing landscape, the 'new normal' trading environment. 

Genevieve Naidoo, Head of CIB Real Estate Credit at Standard Bank and National Chairwoman of WPN noted that the "property industry has taken huge strides in transformation", although more can be done to grow the women leadership pool. Naidoo urged a rethink of how business is conducted in view of changing landscape.

Bronwyn Corbett, CEO of Delta Africa Property Holdings suggested that "to be a game changer you need to put yourself out there", despite challenges and rejections.

Zola Ntwasa, co-founder of Jade Capital Partners, which focuses on private equity and property, took the delegates through her life journey, being raised by a single mom, qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 2003, to rising through the director ranks at Standard Bank. Ultimately establishing Jade Capital Partners with Bukelwa Bulo in 2013, leveraging on their strength; one a banker with solid property experience and the other private equity deal making expertise.

Ntwasa, winner of the Entrepreneur Award in the 2015 SA Women in Property Awards, said it was important to "understand where the market, capital and opportunities were" in order to reassess your offering and constantly find different ways of doing things. "Building relationships with sponsors and mentors is key to career progression," Ntwasa said.

Since 2008 the WPN has awarded over 43 bursaries to previously disadvantaged female students studying towards a property related degree or diploma, and with the increasing financial support of the WPN Educational Trust, in 2015 a total of eleven bursaries were awarded to students studying at various institutions across the country.

On the day, Shaun Rozyn, Director of Rozyn Economic Advisory Services donated his speaker's fee towards the WPN bursary fund.