An innovative conference for women by women...

It seems that business conferences and creative workshops are incredibly popular nowadays, which is probably due to the fact that a lot of us are exhausted of being under-employed, under-payed and let's face it, uninspired as a result of this horrid economy.  I love that these PR gatherings exist, and I would gladly attend, if they didn't cost so much money. (Between Mark and I, we would easily need at least 10K!) But I get it, the phenomenal speakers need to get paid.  I'm especially tantalized by two forums in particular; the TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conferences hosted in Long Beach, Palm Springs and Edinburgh, Scotland AND the Domaine de Boisbuchet workshops sponsored by vitra. and Centre Pompidou. But again, the $$$ is very much an obstacle...
So a few days ago, I was elated to discover that Montreal will be hosting a conference here (near ME), this coming May called, Commerce + Creativity, organized by no other than...Sid Lee (and prominent friends).  Its main focus is really to attract possible international collaborators to Montreal, which I love, but I was quickly dispirited by 2 main things, the price ($2,700+) and the line up of speakers. The only female speaker on the panel so far is Arianna Huffington.  I have nothing against Arianna Huffington, but is she the only successful woman available in May? Don't get me wrong, the men invited to speak are fantastic, but I do hope a few more affluent and motivational women are added to the list.  See complete list here. 

Which leads me to the photographs I have selected for this post.  It would be fascinating to attend a conference for women by women, right? Do they exist?  AND I don't mean craft fairs...not at all what I mean.  Does anybody know Oprah?, maybe she can help us get this going...

Here are a few women that come to mind. . .who would you add to the list?

Phyllis Lambert, Founding Director of The Canadian Centre for Architecture, located here in Montreal.  Image from Review/Tendances FW 2010.
Maira Kalman, Author, Illustrator, and frequent contributor to The New Yorker.  Image borrowed from here.
Leith Clark, Editor-in-chief of LULA magazine. (Great article here.) Photo by Maja Flink.
Kate and Laura Mulleavy (Rodarte).  Incredible recent news about them, here. Photo by Inez Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin.
Desirée Rogers, Former social secretary to the White House for the Obamas.  Informative article here. Photo borrowed from here.
Elizabeth Diller, Partner and founding member of Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Great article by DOMUS here.
Alice Waters, Chef, author, and the proprietor of Chez Panisse. Photo borrowed from here.
Grace Coddington, Former model and the creative director of American Vogue, read here.
Sofia Coppola, Screenwriter, film director/producer. Photo by Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin.
Tilda Swinton, Model and peerless actress.  Photo by Tim Walker for W Magazine.

Topic No.1: Innovative Conferences, Cosmo THIS!