Day two of our Sunnyvale adventure started with an early wake-up call. Our hotel was only a few miles from our destination – Yahoo! headquarters. Gail and I participated in a Digital Citizenship Summit. Teaching Internet Safety is an important part of our job responsibilities and we jumped at the chance to surround ourselves with other people and experts that share our passion. I’m sure Gail’s post will be about the curriculum, messaging, vision, connections, etc… mine, not so much. It’s all about the cool building and the food.
Yahoo! encouraged us to take photos (they had a flickr share) and they wanted us to “live tweet” and blog the event. Super fun to be surrounded by tech geeks like ourselves. We checked in – were told that video cameras would be capturing the entire day, and then we ventured deeper into the building and classroom area.
They actually had interactive spots on the carpeted floors that would change video displays on the walls.
The first thing that caught my eye was the classroom names – apparently it’s a rather new thing…
wink – The best friend of 🙂 and one of the most popular (and sassy) Yahoo! Emoticons. When words fail, try an Emoticon.
purple haze – Yahoo!’s favorite cocktail. Purple, delicious, powerful, and easy to make yourself… here’s the recipe: (Creme de Violette, Luxardo Maraschino Liquer, Gin, Muddled Lemon, shaken & stirred up, topped with a brandied cherry) NICE! cocktails in the workplace… reminds me of the old ad agency I worked for.
homepage – Over 680 million users around the world have made it the center of their online lives – the Yahoo! homepage.
We checked out the homepage room and then dropped off our swag bags to save seats.
We then made our way to the breakfast spread…
Raspberry, blackberry, strawberry and blueberry yogurt parfaits.
Muffins, scones, danish, croissants and other baked delights…
Bagels and all of the toppings…
Bananas and apples…
A selection of mini Jamba Juices that included:
- Five Fruit Frenzy – Strawberries, blueberries, bananas, mangos, peaches, mixed berry juice, peach juice, and ice.
- Mango-a-go-go – Passionfruit mango juice blend, mangos, pineapple sherbet, ice.
- Razzmatazz – Mixed berry juice blend, orange sherbet, strawberries, bananas, ice.
- Strawberry Whirl – Apple strawberry juice blend, strawberries, bananas.
I went with the raspberry parfait…
…and granola and real sugared yogurt never tasted so good!
I also grabbed a Mango-a-go-go Jamba Juice. I used to get them all the time – and WOW… not having had a lot of sugar in a while (minus the pumpkin cheesecake) – made a huge difference – it was almost too sweet. Glad it was a super small size.
The vendors were set up in the lobby on bar height tables. We had a chance to talk to some of the founders and directors of the companies that we’ve been working with for years.
I loved that Yahoo! had glassed in lounge areas – perfect for discussion and just chillin’ with your laptop or iPad.
We made our way back to our seats for the welcome and overview after the breakfast and vendor fair.
We got a little distracted with raffle tickets that were included in our swag bag packets…
A chance to win an iPad 2, don’t mind if I do…
The room started to fill up and the sessions got underway.
The screens to the right displayed the Yahoo! TweetDeck – it was pretty cool to see the live tweets as speakers presented.
Yahoo! staff was tweeting right along with the rest of the group.
Yahoo!’s Web Life Editor – Heather Cabot, moderated the panel of experts – it was a great session. There was a lot of good conversation and audience interaction when it got to the Q & A part.
We had a short break and then got into the second session before breaking for lunch.
Lunch was housed in cute “to go” Yahoo! Safely insulated lunch sacks. We had 3 choices, veggie, roast beef and chicken. I grabbed a chicken sandwich and we headed outside to get some fresh air.
The buildings and grounds were pretty cool. Volleyball/basketball and other outdoor courts for employees. We passed through the employee food court and ended up sitting outside on the edge of a fountain.
It was at this point that Gail’s friend said, “You’re such a nerd!” – for taking pictures of my food. I guess Gail forgot to mention that I had this food blog. ha!
The sandwich was grilled chicken breast, smoked bacon, avocado, pepper jack cheese, green leaf lettuce and organic tomatoes on an artisan sourdough roll. Bread, beloved bread how I have missed thee…. The lunch also included a whole grain salad, Kettle brand New York Cheddar chips and a cookie. It was a shortbread style cookie 1/2 dipped in dark chocolate.
We pretty much had to power through our quick lunch – we had about 25 minutes before the afternoon breakout sessions started. We decided to divide and conquer. We all went to different sessions. We reunited in the homepage room around 3:00 p.m. for the closing Q & A session with the panel and for the iPad raffle – definitely a good way to keep attendees until the end. I’m sad to report that we didn’t win the iPad – but I’m sure it would have looked super greedy if I had – since I was taking notes on the iPad I already owned throughout the sessions.
I passed on the sweets as we left to find our way back to the car…
But I couldn’t resist snapping photos of the adorable education/Yahoo! themed cupcakes. Rulers, apples, numbers, chalkboards…
Pretty flowers were displayed all over the tables…
We spent the remainder of the evening driving home. It gave us time to chat about the sessions we did on our own. I feel very fortunate that we got to take part in the summit – we left with some great resources, a Yahoo! flash drive loaded with all of the presentations and full bellies from the fabulous food. This summit proved that Gail and I are “on point” with our knowledge regarding Internet Safety. It felt pretty good to know that we were cutting edge compared to many others there.
Definitely a great day – thank you Yahoo!
