Women in Cafes and Restaurants Brings Its First Event to Perth

Women in Cafes and Restaurants (WCR) will host its first-ever Western Australia event on the evening of Wednesday 28 October 2026, running 6pm to 8pm at Miss Chow's on the Terrace, 240 St Georges Terrace, Perth. Tickets are already live via Humanitix.

It's a geographic milestone for a young organisation. Founded by Laura Goldberg to connect, support and elevate women working across hospitality, WCR has spent the past 18 months building its footprint entirely on the east coast — Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Perth marks the network's first step west, and Goldberg frames it as deliberate rather than incidental.

"It was really important to me that WCR didn't become something that only existed on the east coast," Goldberg said. "From the beginning, the vision has always been to build a genuinely national community for women in hospitality, and Perth absolutely needed to be part of that."

What does the event actually offer?

The format follows the template WCR has refined across its first four cities: an evening gathering designed to be relaxing, welcoming and easy to walk into, even for attendees who arrive knowing nobody. That design choice matters. Goldberg says she knows how intimidating conventional networking events can be, and she's explicit that she never wants WCR to feel like that.

"It's about women in hospitality getting in a room together, having honest conversations, making real connections, and hopefully meeting someone they stay in touch with long after the event," she said.

The Perth edition adds a drawcard in Jacquie Chan, founder of Miss Chow's, who joins as a special guest. Goldberg calls Chan a "Perth hospo legend" and says the value lies in the unvarnished version of her story.

"She has built an incredible business, and I think hearing the real story behind that, the hard parts as well as the wins, is going to be so valuable," Goldberg said.

Why the national expansion matters

Across every city WCR has visited, Goldberg says the pattern has held: women are looking for the same three things — connection, a stronger network, and a space to meet other women who understand the realities of working in hospitality. That consistency is what's pushing the group to scale nationally rather than stay a Sydney or Melbourne phenomenon.

"For me, WCR is about making sure women feel seen, supported and connected, regardless of where they are based," Goldberg said. "Taking WCR to Perth is another step towards building the national community I always hoped it could become."

The road ahead, as Goldberg describes it, is more events, more connection and more opportunities for women to support one another across the industry. She also credits the group's sponsors and partners, noting that "none of this happens in isolation".

Her success metric is deliberately modest and individual rather than corporate: "If WCR can help one woman feel less alone, more confident, more connected, or more supported in her career, then we're doing what we set out to do."

For operators in WA, the 28 October event offers an early, low-friction entry point into a network that has already consolidated a following in four east coast markets — and, if Goldberg's expansion plan holds, one that will keep adding cities from here.