It's no secret that I was really inspired by RIAdventure–I've been to and spoken at many conferences, but this was the first I had been to that was devoted to RIA's. One thing that was kind of nice and kind of odd was that I had the womens' bathroom to myself. This was nice, because the bathroom closest to our conference room had only one stall, but it underlined that I was the only woman there. This made me really curious about what other women might have been there had I been at a different conference. It's kind of difficult to find out much about conference attendees, so I thought I'd look at the women who have been speaking at recent conferences or are scheduled to speak in the next few months. Some of these women are ones I've known for a while, and others I discovered by going on this search.

Apologies in advance for a little cutting and pasting from bios that are much better written than what I could write.

Dee Sadler

I had to start out with Dee, because I've known her the longest. She was first a fine artist who still draws, paints and is still a photographer. Dee is an Adobe User Group manager for KCWebCore in Kansas City, ex co-manager of KCDevCore and co-manager and founder of KCDesignCore and VP of the local Mac User Group (www.maccore.org). She is also a Community Expert for Dreamweaver and InDesign and an Adobe Freelance Professionals speaker, trainer and blogger. This means that she can talk knowledgeably on pretty much anything, and does. She is scheduled to conduct several sessions at the upcoming CFUnited, as well as the FlashAndTheCity conference. She is also organizing a conference herself, the upcoming D2WC - Designer/developer workflow conference.

On a personal note, I find that Dee's magnetic personality and organizational skills make networking at conferences much easier. She always seems to find great eats. She is very generous with her time–her remote presentation comparing Photoshop and Fireworks at our local User Group Meeting was well received.

Stacey Mulcahy

Stacey Mulcahy is a Flex and Flash developer who once had a torrid love affair with Macromedia Director. When she's not building rich Internet applications that even designers like, she can be found showing others how to do the same thing as a Flash instructor.

I first heard about Stacey because my husband was often chuckling over her irreverent tweets. What I quickly learned was that she has some amazingly insightful things to say about code, work flow, and UI. I'm not the only one to notice this, because last year, she spoke at FITC Amsterdam, FITC Toronto, FlashBelt, FOTB, FlashPitt, and FITC Edmonton. This year, she will be speaking at FlashAndTheCity as well. Stacey is one of the co-writers of the ActionScript 3.0 Pocket Reference.

She also was frequently featured on the Summer of Flash podcast, right here on InsideRIA.

Laura Arguello

Laura has been working on web development since 2000. At this moment, she is specialized in the development of Rich Internet Applications using ColdFusion and Flex. She is am one of the creators of Mate Flex Framework, and the main developer behind Mango Blog, Laura Arguello is a Certified Advanced ColdFusion MX 7 Developer and the manager of the Orange Country Flex User Group.

She has won many awards for software development and technical excellence. She has given many presentations on the Mate framework, including at 360|Flex and a recent one at Adobe Max, where she demonstrated how she would code a Mate application along side speakers demonstrating Cairngorm, PureMVC, and Swiz. Can anyone say "wow"? My hat is off to anyone who can develop a Framework.

Val Head

Val is currently the Senior Designer + Developer at New Perspective in Pittsburgh, PA. She runs the Flashpitt conference and is co-manager of the Pittsburgh Adobe Flash User Group (PittMFUG). She spoke this year at FITC in Toronto on working between Flash and AfterEffects.

Lisa Larson-Kelley

Lisa Larson-Kelley began her career in print design, but was soon lured to digital media by a little application called Flash 4. In addition to hands-on development projects, she enjoys writing and teaching, with a knack for breaking down complex concepts and making them accessible.

She has authored whitepapers, tutorials and e-seminars for Adobe, editorials and features for StreamingMedia.com; and co-authored the book Flash Video for Professionals, published by Wiley.

She presented FMS Made easy at Flash on The Beach and co-manages the FlashCodersNY user group.

Huyen Tue Dao

Huyen is a Flex/AIR developer for NASDAQ OMX. While she focus mostly on RIA development these days, she also handles backend development and has dabbled in databases. She also fancies development in C/C++, Java, and Perl. She spoke in 2009 at CFUnited on GreenThreading. She will be expanding on this topic at 360|Flex.

Michelle Yaiser

Michelle is an Assistant Professor of Web Design and Interactive Media at the New England Institute of Art. There, she teaches computer science classes, digital audio classes, and social science classes that cover topics including ActionScript, Flex, object oriented programming, application development, digital audio, physical computing, social research methods, and gender.  Using Flash with various devices and sensors, she has worked with her students to create a variety of both practical and creative interactive experiences including art installations, sound sculptures, and interactive orchestra concerts.

Outside of the classroom, Michelle has spoken at FlashForward, Flash on the Beach, and Flash on Tap.  She has taught workshops on object oriented programming in ActionScript and on physical computing.  Michelle is a moderator for the Adobe Flex Cookbook and with Keith Peters co-manages the Boston Flash Platform User Group.

And the list goes on...

This is just a partial list of the wonderful female speakers who are out there speaking about creating Rich Internet Applications. I am sure I missed a lot of names, and I'd ask you to use the comments section to help set me straight.

I am really jazzed by all of the role models that are out there, and I find myself wanting to go to all of these conferences to meet them in person. Guys, it's not that I think you're any less capable speakers than women, but I just want to compare notes with other female developers sometimes.

Read more from Amy Blankenship.