The Climb to the Summit

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON YODELINGMAMAS.COM
****************************************************************************************************

About three years ago, Yahoo! formed some very special relationships with 17 moms. Bloggers, to be exact. Wonderful, insightful, smart bloggers.

Fast forward to today and the Yahoo! Mother Board is 80 women strong. What’s even better, 62 of them are about to meet face-to-face at Yahoo! headquarters for the first time. Of course many of us “know” each other. What was once a product testing group is now a true community. We email through our Yahoo! Group, read each others’ blogs on our monthly topics, tweet like mad (seriously, some of these women must dream in 140 characters) and every now and then meet at industry events. But this is different. This isn’t just another industry event. This is a Yahoo! Mother Board event. Summit, actually.

Though I’ve worked at Yahoo! for 7+ years, I’ve only had the honor of working with these women for a few months. I think I started in my new role the day the Yahoo! Mother Board Summit became official. Talk about diving into the deep end! For the past few months, I’ve worked with a very talented, thoughtful team to plan everything from branded pens to the keynote address. And in the process, I’ve met and been inspired by a lot of really smart Yahoos. I just know it’s going to be amazing when these two worlds collide.

To me, “The Mother of All Conferences” is what blogging and social networking is all about. We’ll be making personal connections, learning from real-life experts (and believe me, these bloggers and Yahoos are experts in all kinds of subjects—many entirely unrelated to their day jobs), and sharing that new knowledge with the people in our individual communities.

Ok, I’m not going to give away anything more at this point. But after the Summit, I’ll share all kinds of details and pictures. I have no doubt there will be a lot to discuss!

If you’re interested in hearing from us during the Yahoo! Mother Board Summit on Friday (July 16th), follow @yodelingmamas on Twitter and search for the hashtag #ymotherboard. We’ll be live tweeting throughout the event on Friday and hope you’ll join us on this adventure.

Look out Yahoo! Mother Board Summit, here we come!