#YWM2016 Your Weight Matters National Convention Wrap-up

Happy September Everyone! Last week I crossed the country to Washington DC to attend the 5th annual Your Weight Matters National Convention. I am lucky to serve as chair of the Convention Planning Committee as part of my service on the Obesity Action Coalition Board of Directors. This convention is especially near and dear to my heart because not only is about uniting our community for support, advocacy efforts and sharing top notch science based education which is so needed to counter the BS scams that prey on those concerned about their health and weight but it's a chance to see my tribe, my squad, my people, many of the attendees are my online friends and my personal support system. Each year at Convention I add to that support system, I meet so many inspiring, wonderful new friends and by the end of the weekend we all are truly are a family (leaving everyone is like coming home from summer camp.)

If you haven't attended a YWM Convention yet. I promise you will love it! Next year #YWM2017 will be held August 10-13, 2017 in New Orleans, LA. Sign up for e-alerts and you'll get all the event 411 as it's released in the months ahead.

This year's committee planned an awesome weekend and it was exciting to see the past year's plans come to life. We had the highest attendance yet and lots of positive feedback! Yay! There's always tweaks and things we want to try new and I look forward to presenting the results of the conference surveys to the convention committee as we plan for next year.

Scroll through our Storify timelines to get a peek at the weekend: Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday and the #YWM2016 Twitter feed.

Here's some of my personal pictures from the event...

and I had a lovely surprise. I was presented the Obesity Action Coalition Chairman's Award (icing on the cake, cherry on the sundae, so many food metaphors, what's up with that?!) I think our photographer got a picture I'll add it when I get it. Here's a lovely write up about this year's award winners. I am honored to be in their company.

**Edited to add** Here's the photo...

L to R: Joseph Nadglowski, President & CEO Obesity Action Coalition, Obesity Action Coalition BODs Michelle Vicari, Amber Huett-Garcia, Chair.

Well I have so many more photos I will probably do another post at some point but I wanted to just give those that did not attend a little view into the wonderful community that we invite you to become a part of the smiling faces, learning and laughing together. Join us next year!