Dame Kelly Holmes inspires at first Travel Weekly Rising Stars lunch

Double Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes was the guest speaker at the first Travel Weekly Inspiring Women Rising Stars Lunch in London last week.

The event was the latest addition to the Travel Weekly Inspiring Women portfolio, which has featured lunches over the past three years with a range of speakers from outside the industry.

The first Inspiring Women Retreat is also planned for late November, with senior female executives to be hosted by Travel Weekly and a range of partners in Greece.

The inaugural Rising Stars Lunch saw 30 senior executives from across all sectors of the industry invited to attend along with a rising star from their organisation.

The event was hosted by Hyatt at the Hyatt Recency London – The Churchill hotel, and was supported by Celebrity Cruises, Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic.

Dame Kelly Holmes appeared courtesy of Avis and took part in a Q&A moderated by Travel Weekly editor-in-chief Lucy Huxley after addressing guests.

In addition to talking about her experiences during an athletics career which saw her crowned both 800m and 1500m champion at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Holmes spoke about her personal life and challenges.

She also told attendees about the creation of the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, which was founded in 2008 and supports retired athletes who use their skills and experience to transform the lives of disadvantaged young people through mentoring programmes.

Huxley said: “Our Travel Weekly Inspiring Women Lunches have become a fantastic way to bring together and support many of the industry’s leading female executives and we are delighted that the portfolio has now extended with the addition of the Rising Stars event and our Retreat in Greece later this autumn.

“Following on from a hugely successful Paris Olympics, I could not have imagined a better choice of speaker for our first Rising Stars lunch than Dame Kelly, who had so many words of wisdom for all our guests.”