3,200 Participants Attended Three-Day Event

The 18th Annual International Women in Aviation Conference broke its own records for attendance, exhibitors and just plain fun February 15-17 at Walt Disney World's Coronado Springs Resort. The conference had 3,200 participants and 49 excited scholarship winners by the end of its gala banquet ceremony Saturday night.

In a surprising move, Continental Airlines opted to hire more than just its scholarship winners -- offering an additional 10 scholarship applicants pilot jobs, too. The final scholarship tally was a little more than $385,000.

Speakers at the event included former astronaut and CEO of the Museum of Flight in Seattle Bonnie Dunbar; Virgin Galactic's Will Whitehorn; USAF Thunderbird pilot Maj. Nicole Malachowski; Jane Middleton, Finance Director, Rockwell Collins, UK; Capt. Betty Uhrig, Chief Pilot, Chevron Global Aviation; Lisa Piccione, Senior Vice President, National Business Aviation Association; and as the keynote banquet speaker, USN Rear Admiral Wendi Carpenter.

Inducted into the Women In Aviation Pioneer Hall of Fame were Canadian Major Deanna Brasseur, American Iris Cummings Critchell and, posthumously, Frenchwoman Marie Marvingt. All cut paths and created opportunities for the women who followed them into aviation and aerospace careers.

If you missed this year's conference, the 2008 Conference will be held at the Town and Country Resort in San Diego, CA from March 13-15, 2008.  WAI will lock in your conference registration at this year's rates if you sign up now.

FMI: www.wai.org