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Innovation is the thread running through TFWA World Exhibition & Conference in keeping with the event theme of ‘Exploring New Horizons’. The TFWA Start Up Day is a key part of the agenda today, taking place from 09:00 to 12:00 in the Press Centre in the Palais des Festivals. TFWA Start Up Day In partnership with: Welcome coffee sponsor: TFWA Start Up Day participants Altavia Travel Retail Blynk Customer Experience Group (CXG) dayholi DWS Engraving Helios Worldwide MyDutyFree Uber Advertising utu Voiceback Analytics MEADFA announces further details for 2025 conference M EADFA held a press conference yesterday during TFWA World Exhibition & Conference, at which it provided an update on the state of the industry in the Middle East and Africa, as well as plans for the 2025 MEADFA Conference. Managed by TFWA and hosted by Dubai Duty Free, the event will take place from 9 to 11 November at InterContinental Dubai Festival City. A lmost 400 women members of WiTR+ and guests were generously hosted by Brown-Forman for their flagship annual networking event on Tuesday evening, the perfect opportunity for making connections with women from all sectors of the industry. Unsurprisingly there was huge energy and buzz in the room as women shared their experiences. A special guest was Ylva Binder – it was a conversation in 2006 between Ylva and Sarah Branquinho, now Chair of WiTR+, which sparked the notion of WiTR. At that time Ylva worked for Bacardi, and she is now a distiller in her own right. As is Dr Rachel Barrie, Master Blender at Brown-Forman, who gave the audience a taste of her amazing career path and a swift masterclass tasting of Glendronach. Now heading towards 900 members, Qatar Duty Free became WiTR+’s 25th corporate partner this month. The momentum gained through the corporate partnership scheme has led to a huge increase in activity at country level. Over the last year many individual and corporate members have organised and hosted events frommeeting for a coffee to larger scale gatherings with some stellar speakers who have generously shared their career paths and experiences at these events and onWiTR+’s monthly webinar programme. The mentoring scheme – a free service to members – continues to grow to great acclaim, with a fantastic line-up of mentors, both women and men, who generously give their time to support mentees WiTR+ champions mentorship, growth and giving back at flagship event across many aspects of their business lives. A raffle was held to raise funds for Toutes a l’Ecole, WiTR+’s 2025 charity, and the target €15,000 needed to completely refurbish the sleep and study areas for female students in Cambodia was exceeded, in part thanks to generous donations from Victoria’s Secret and from Brown-Forman at the event. WiTR+ is open to ALL women working in the duty free and travel retail industry – do join us! For more information go to www.womenintr.com . Thursday 2 October 2025 8 T F W A D A I L Y