It was a harmonic convergence of what might be called "womanity" for Maria Shriver and about 10,000 of her girlfriends.

Some she knew and invited personally -- including the rich and famous, the gifted and glossy. Many of the rest, by sheer coincidence, were employees of the event's countless corporate sponsors. On Thursday they all came here to spend the day swimming in an Olympic-sized pool of estrogen -- otherwise known as the annual Governor and First Lady's Conference on Women and Families -- and to receive advice about how to actualize their potentials, energize their beings, maximize their investments, tone their lower abdominals, empower their communities, and be all that they can be.

Find out if Dr. Arthur Agatston, the maker of the South Beach Diet, attended the conference at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/30/INGUUFG4AN1.DTL.