Is it me or should this part of setting up a national conference be marked Mission: Impossible?  Sure, it’s not 1986 where money flowed like wine out of  corporate pockets and into the hands of every niche conference imaginable.

On the phone yesterday, I pitched a potential sponsor about what an incredible conference The Momtrepreneur Exchange is going to be, how inspiring the Momtrepreneur Meetups are, and how her company would profit tremendously from participating.  Let’s just say that it was going superduperly until my 3-month old started howling like Darryl Hannah in Splash and, well, forget about this woman’s mood transitioning from interested to less interested to she-was-getting-another-call-disinterested: she could not hear a word that I was saying.

Without actually dragging every potential sponsor to a Meetup or a teleseminar so that they get why we need to make this happen on a national level, I’ve found it very challenging to convey the spirit of the whole thing.  Any creative ideas out there?  Anyone?

First things first:  throw out the baby with the bathwater before making any more phone calls.

We have a venue.  A venue!  I’m thrilled about the place where we will hold our Exchange–at the Zhou B Art Center in Chicago.  This incredible space, founded by famed artists the Zhou Brothers, will accommodate everything that we want to do at this event and then some.  The history of the center alone is amazing–I could not be more excited to share the space with all of you.  If you could not tell, I’m a bit excited…now that the Exchange has a home, it is feels much more real than a mere that I’ve had thus far.

I’ve spoken with dozens of potential speakers, and everyone has had a very positive reaction to the conference, its purpose and participating in it.  I’ve connected with several local momtrepreneurs through The Momtrepreneur Meetup and will be coordinating with a few of them to help continue to develop the conference in early 2010.

It’s March.  The sponsorship hunt is on.  Cross your fingers.

I’m nine months pregnant with my second child, am still busy running my businesses, and I have decided to add more work to my giant pile of work.  Since I’m often asked, “How do you do it all?” I thought I would take this opportunity to chronicle my experience putting together my first national conference.

There, I said it.  (The more I say it, the crazier it sounds and the more excited I get.  Perhaps I need a therapist.)

Sure, I have enough going on with my business responsibilities, nevermind my two-year old constantly interfering.  But I know that this conference is a great idea.  Necessary, really.

It all began when I organized a neighborhood Meetup in the hopes of meeting 5-10 fellow momtrepreneurs to discuss the trials and tribulations of our lives over coffee.  It’s been less than a year and the group now has 120 members (!!!).  That number is not a typo.  In the middle of Illinois I’ve found that there are an incredible number of momtrepreneurs who have been thrilled to come together and talk about work/life.  As we neared the 100-member mark in the middle of flyover country, it occurred to me that there must be many more momtrepreneurs around the nation—and we needed an event that would bring us together.

Because I want to create awareness about The Momtrepreneur Exchange, and because I want to solicit as many ideas from you as possible to make this the best conference ever, I am going to chronicle my activites as I put together this massive event.  Please join me, and let me know what you think along the way.