Women In Aviation Conference Reaches New Heights in Music City

Photo courtesy of WAI International

The 33^rd annual Women in Aviation International (WAI) conference took place across three days in Nashville last weekend, scoring attendance of over 4,500 from 16 countries, and 68% of the attendees were women. The conference was supported by 176 separate companies and organizations, and 103 scholarships were awarded to participants, with total scholarship value exceeding $473,000. That means, since 1995, WAI members have been awarded more than $14.5 million.

Spanning 22 countries through 153 chapters worldwide, WAI's mission is to encourage and promote the advancement of women in all aviation career fields and interests. It's worth noting that WAI goes beyond the annual conference by providing year-round resources to assist women in aviation and to encourage young women to consider aviation as a career.

On that note, last weekend's conference featured Girls in Aviation Day Nashville, which hosted more than 200 girls aged 8-17, along with their chaperones, in an immersive experience at the heart of the conference. Visiting girls rotated through 21 activity stations, learned about potential aviation careers at a panel forum, and got to meet with representatives from many of the big-name av-colleges.

Feeling like you missed out? The 2023 WAI conference has already been announced for February 23-25, 2023, at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California. Plus, WAI operates an active YouTube channel where most of this year's conference highlights will be featured.

Samantha ThomasWriter