C200 Conversation: Still changing after these years?

On my way to Los Angeles for the annual Committee of 200 conference. C200 bills itself as the most prestigious organization for senior women business leaders. I'm one of the original founding members and was elected chair of the network for two terms. And I served on its Board of directors for what seem like countless years. So I've observed firsthand the evolution of this amazing group of extraordinary women leaders.

 
It began in response to the need many women expressed privately. Each of them ran big business enterprises. But they were starved for conversation with female peers. Most of us had paid our dues as the rare woman in most groups where we spent time... academic programs, corporate hierarchies, boards of directors... most of our life was built around being the only girl/woman in the group.

We got plenty of attention. But it was lonely. At the inaugural C200 meeting, held in LA, that was the thread running through our conversation. We were thrilled to find that--unique as each of us was in her hometown -- there were others like us who had scaled similar heights to impressive leadership roles and were eager to talk with other like minded women. Those days in Los Angeles provided a shock of recognition in each of us. Eureka! Women like me!

 

C200 now has to determine its role in a changed world. We'll be talking about that.

I'm thinking now, though, of the same shock of recognition that the Internet has produced in people all over the world. People who felt alone in their interest (often obsession) in something their friends, neighbors, family do not share. The boy who lives in a suburb of Milwaukee and loves doing needlepoint. The woman who lives in Sydney and collects snow globes. The man from Naples who lives to ride his Harley. On the internet each can find their tribe of like minded folks.

 
So here is a question for C200 and for other groups formed in pre-Internet days: are you still relevant? Do your members find they can't live without you? Or are there lots of other opportunities for your members to have scintillating conversations with people like themselves?