By ANN Correspondent Aleta Vinas

There is no lack of what to do at a Women in Aviation International Conference. Things start rolling at a generally decent hour in the morning, around 0900. Other special sessions can start earlier.

There are five basic types of seminars. There are special workshops that last all day and may be one or two days in length. These workshops entail an extra cost.

For example, you can renew your Flight Instructor ticket at the Flight Instructor Refresher Clinic. The FIRC runs from 0800 – 1700 a total of two days, per FAA requirements. There is an FAA Maintenance Recurrent Training class as well.

The Professional Development Seminars last about three hours. "Traits of a Thriver with Cheryl Cage" is designed to help minimize anxiety and indecision in your daily life. "Not Everybody is a Salesperson – but All Successful People Are" is presented with humor by WAI favorite Ralph Hood. There may be three or four choices, some running concurrently. These are included in your admission ticket price

A General Session runs about 90 minutes and can include one or several guests. Would you like to listen to former astronauts like Col. Eileen Collins, or Capt. Robert "Hoot" Gibson? Maybe you prefer to hear Carolyn Blum, Regional Administrator of the FAA Southern Region? These General Sessions run in the morning prior to the educational sessions, so conflicts with other sessions are minimal. These great sessions are also no extra charge.

The meat of the conference is the Educational Sessions. Several run concurrently, so this is where most of your "which one should I attend" questions happen. The sessions run about 50 minutes, and cover a myriad of subjects -- aerobatics, airports, medical/health issues, personal stories, like Wally Funk, military to civilian transition, airplane ownership, the job search and more.

There are also lunch and dinner banquets, which do cost extra to attend. Naturally, lunch or dinner is provided and an industry leader is the keynote speaker. This year Pat Andrews, Manager of ExxonMobil's Aviation Services was one of the speakers. The banquets are longer in duration than the educational session meaning more good information for you to absorb and take on home with you.

No matter what session or seminar you attend, a notebook or tape recorder is a must. The knowledge these speakers have to impart to us is priceless, and you will want to take notes.

Following is a short glimpse of some of the General Sessions I attended, and what I took home with me:

The Corporate Aviation Panel was moderated by Gay Williams, Gulfstream V captain with Bristol-Myers Squibb. Panelists were Sheryl Barden, President of Aviation Personnel International; Katie Brown, Lear Pilot for Fed Ex Corporate; Rita Dandridge, Flight Technician for ExxonMobil; Lori Edwards, an aviation attorney for Jackson-Wade; Karen Hall, a Flight Attendant on the Pfizer Gulfstreams; and Chris Tatum, a Gulfstream Quality Assurance Engineer.

There was even a special guest, Mr. Ed Bolen, President of National Business Aviation Association. Bolen addressed the group initially speaking about the birth of NBAA. The group will be celebrating their 60th anniversary next year. Then later Bolen stepped up to the plate to field a question about user fees. Bolen said that with the airlines trying to heave an unfair burden onto general aviation and business aviation, one thing we must do is write our representatives in DC. NBAA makes it easy with an icon on their website, they will tell you your reps and there is a form e-mail you can use. It doesn't get any easier.

There were questions about how to break into corporate flying. The panel said recruiters like Aviation Personnel are helpful, as are the NBAA and the websites of companies a pilot may be considering.

As far as pursuing the corporate vs. airline pilot route, and what's best if you want a family, Brown answered "It would depend on company to company and airline to airline. What suits you best is what it boils down to."

Something I had not heard of, corporate shuttles, was mentioned – as was their significance to the future of corporate flight departments. There is the stability of a known schedule but still being in a corporate flight world. Halls explained the use of a scheduled run to facilitate the transport of company research scientists between sites. The time and cost to use commercial airlines are often prohibitive.

What about the introduction of the Very Light Jet market? Edwards made her prediction: "I'm hoping that it helps the business and corporate aviation industry to explode. It looks like it's going to bring aircraft and business aviation to a lot of folks it was never available to before based on cost. This will open up a lot of pilot jobs, mechanic jobs, dispatcher jobs, customer service jobs, every job that you can think of in corporate and business aviation."

These ladies are there right now; their advice is solid and current. One excellent piece of advice from the panel was to keep an ear on the industry, don't live in a bubble. Watch the user fees.  It may mean the difference between a company keeping a flight department open and closing it down. Will you be able to weather the impact?

The "Skirt Trails" paneled, presented by Karen Cooper and Peggy Holly from The Boeing Company, explored the subject of being a mentor and role model for the next generation of aviation/aerospace workers. Cooper has been an engineer for 27 years; Holly is a chemical engineer. In this panel I learned that just because your paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.

What I really learned was that little eyes have been watching you though you may not even be aware of it, your children, friends' children, new neighbors and young professionals. This was exemplified by Cooper's tale of a cousin who recently thanked her for being her mentor. Cooper was the first woman in the family to attend college and get a professional degree and be a success. Her cousin was inspired to earn her law degree. Cooper admits she "had no idea I was impacting her because I'd only see her every couple of years."

Says Holly, "There's no time out from being a role model."

Even if you don't take an active role in mentoring, be aware of who is around you and try to set a good example. If you want to do more, some of the ideas tossed out by Holly and Cooper include becoming involved in schools. Holly doesn't have children but is active on school boards. "Maybe those of us who don't have kids can be more objective because we care not just about our own kids but fundamentally about our society and how all the kids do." Holly says.

For working with older "kids" try the professional organizations, AOPA, EAA, AIAA, SAE, ASME and more. If you're not confident in your own skills, take a leadership course – there's everything from day long seminars to college credit courses. It can only help.

Be careful though, if you become "known" as a successful leader, more demands will be placed on your time; "the word no is perfectly acceptable" advises Cooper. "Treat yourself nicely; treat yourself fairly so that you can avoid burnout."

These two panels are but a small sample of the offerings at the conference. Bring your notebook and open your mind and you will come away with far more than the free pens and candy given out in the exhibit hall.

FMI: www.nbaa.org, www.wai.org, www.wca-intl.org