The Ypulse Tween Mashup program is really beginning to come together. I'm really excited to announce that we just confirmed Kyra E. Reppen from Nick/Neopets as our morning keynote. We're still working on filling out our panels and confirming our afternoon keynote (Note to self: August is the worst month ever to try to confirm speakers). Here's more about Kyra from her bio:

Kyra leads and manages all day-to-day operations, creative direction and business strategy for Neopets. With more than 40 million global memberships registered, Neopets is the largest global youth-focused virtual world. Prior to Neopets, Kyra was Vice President and General Manager of Nickjr.com, where she oversaw strategy, creative and editorial. Kyra repositioned Nickjr.com from a television promotional site to the number one parenting website for parents of young children. In addition, Kyra created and launched Nick Jr. ParentsTV, made-for-the-web broadband video for parents; produced the first-ever 3D online games for preschoolers and led the networks' preschool introduction to wireless, interactive TV and innovative online gaming experiences.

In other speaker news: New School panelist Stardoll is launching "StarPlaza," an interactive shopping galleria where real fashion labels will be able to roll out virtual collections for members to buy and dress up their virtual avatars. They didn't mention any fashion brands yet in their email, but I have a feeling they won't have any trouble attracting them. I can think of no better upsell than being able to dress your avatar in couture. Update: MediaPost, reg. required, has the Stardoll story here.

Fellow New School panelist Whyville just received $440,000 in grants from the Texas Workforce Commission to build Whyville Biotech and the Whyville Advanced Manufacturing Center. Wow.

More good reasons to register now for the early adopter rate. And, don't forget, we're offering a special package with our friends from Digital Media Wire where you can attend both The Millennials conference and the Tween Mashup. Finally, when you attend the Tween Mashup, you also get a V.I.P. tour of the Digital Life floor where all the latest gear and gadgetry will be displayed.

Posted by anastasia