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Women in A/AA Melbourne Summit

Last Wednesday 18 October Women in Aviation/Aerospace Australia held its 9th Women’s Summit since its inauguration in 2013. Over five years we have welcomed over 100 outstanding speakers and over 1,000 industry attendees.  

The third summit held in 2017 (the first two being in Brisbane and Canberra), this event had a record attendance in two ways. Firstly, we had over 140 attendees from all experience levels including university and secondary students and secondly, the distinct standout was the fact that for the first time the summit’s attendance was approximately 30% male.

All attendee feedback indicated everyone was pleased with the increased presence of both male attendees and speakers as it demonstrates how we’re committed to working together on the journey towards creating a more diverse and gender inclusive workplace.



Featuring 11 speakers and panellists from the public, private, civil and defence sectors, some of the key themes taken from the summit were:

  • '‘Policies and procedures that are better women are better for all involved’ - Kristen Raby, Operations Manager / Nova Systems
  • 'The tone from the top is very important’  - Rowan Arndt, Global Workforce Inclusions Specialist / Boeing 
  • 'No longer are men left out of the diversity conversation’ - Troy Roderick, Strategic Advisor / Male Champions of Change 
  • 'Say yes to every opportunity' - Captain Allison Rafei, Senior Base Pilot / Jetstar



These summits would not be possible without the support of our A/AA Partners, Boeing Australia, CAE, RMIT University, Swinburne University of Technology and Thales Australia Air Traffic Management, as well as our WA/AA Sponsors, The Royal Australia Air Force, the Australian Army, Lockheed Martin, Monash University and BDO.

A special thank-you also to our exhibitor sponsor FountX, lunch sponsor Mo Works and lanyard sponsor BAE Systems.

After a successful and busy 2017 we’re now looking ahead to plan next year’s calendar of events with repeat summits planned for Brisbane, Canberra and Melbourne. Please stay tuned as dates and venues are soon to be announced!