Business aviation operators, flight training providers and aircraft manufacturers were represented among the 165 exhibitors and sponsors participating in the 2017 International Women in Aviation Conference, and with good reason.
“I think there is a general feeling, attributed partially to the new administration in Washington, D.C., that there is about to be an uptick in orders…so aircraft manufacturers here at the conference are hiring workers,” Dr. Peggy Chabrian, president and co-founder of Women in Aviation, International (WAI) told AIN. “Major airlines have been coming to WAI for the past four years and hiring WAI members in significant numbers,” she remarked, “but this year the companies accepting résumés seem to be more diverse.”

WAI is a membership organization created in 1994 as a networking, outreach and educational tool meant to boost diversity in aviation, and the composition of the crowd at this year’s event suggests the mission is succeeding. Some 4,500 of the organization’s 14,000 members journeyed to the Coronado Springs Resort at Walt Disney World early last month. The annual event enables attendees to network with human resource professionals and recruiters who are searching to fill positions from aviation maintenance to assembly line, dispatch and scheduling to flight and cabin crew, and many management positions in between.

The three-day conference began with two days of group hiring briefings and individual interview opportunities with a half a dozen airlines and corporate charter/ fractional operators, before segueing into 50 educational and professional development sessions, networking events, teacher and student outreach activities, AOPA “Rusty Pilot” and “Learn to Fly” seminars and the organization’s traditional scholarship award and Pioneer Hall of Fame induction banquet.

This year, defined “tracks” made it easier for attendees to identify seminars and professional development sessions that aligned with their interests. Before the affair was over WAI awarded 120 scholarships, from cash awards to jet type rating and maintenance training, valued at $640,000. Among the keynote speakers were AOPA president Mark Baker; retired Marines Cobra pilot and author Vernice Armour; Jenette Remos, v-p and general manager of fabrication at Boeing; astronaut Dr. Yvonne Cagle; FedEx president David Bronczek; and aviation educator Catherine Fish. Conference attendees also had the opportunity to help World War II WASP Dawn Seymour celebrate her 100th birthday and hear her recount her experiences test flying and delivering bombers.