On October 9^th over 135 group moderators from the Bay Area joined the Yahoo! Groups team for its first ever Groups Moderator Town Hall at the Yahoo! campus in Sunnyvale. Our goal with this type of event is to provide moderators with an opportunity to engage with the Yahoo! Groups team as well as one other.

Open to all Group Moderators in the Bay Area, our attendees came from all walks of life with groups ranging in size from 50 to 437,000 (we do actually have a group with that many members, check out FlyLadyMentors). Almost every type of group you can imagine was represented, from mothers’ groups, to historical aviation from aquatic life to alumni groups.

We kicked off the Town Hall with an opportunity to “meet and greet” one another allowing Yahoo! staff to mingle with moderators over appetizers and beverages. This period was followed by a presentation given by the director of Yahoo! Groups which included a preview of the Groups Beta. Next up was the highly anticipated question and answer panel discussion where moderators had the opportunity to share their concerns and ask direct questions of the Groups team.

I believe that it is offline events like these that will enable Yahoo! to continue to power its online communities. Attendees were enthusiastic for the opportunity to interact with the Groups team and that enthusiasm was matched, if not exceeded, by the Groups team for the chance to meet with moderators in person and gain an even better understanding of what is top of mind for them.

One moderator summed up their experience by sharing the following sentiment, “the event was a wonderful mix of technology, business, and human interaction. Your highlighting the human side of the product was unusual and welcome. Also, your Yahoo! team rocks.”

Stay tuned for a video clip from this event to be posted in the coming weeks…

Our next Groups Moderator Town Hall event is scheduled on November 6^th in downtown Los Angeles.

If you live in the Los Angeles area and moderate an active group with at least 50 members and want to voice your opinions on how we can make Yahoo! Groups better, please send an email with a link to the group you moderate to: communityevents@yahoo-inc.com.

To all the moderators who joined us in Sunnyvale for this event, I’d love it if you shared your experience with us by commenting below!

Best,
Jami Heldt
Groups Community Manager