Community Day at...a Theme Park?
Reflections on the state of events for our profession and what may come
One of the many takeaways I have from the gathering of Community professionals in Silicon Valley two weeks ago is that people are craving more opportunities for genuine connection. There’s a deep yearning for more options for coming together throughout the year. As Viki Cumberbatch discussed recently on LinkedIn, why do we only come together for workshops and conferences? Why don’t we see more of an array of events, like retreats, sharing circles, or unconferences?
Well, good news…We ARE seeing something new to feed our desire for more connection. A few examples:
Viki’s offering a very unique style of events, catering to both virtual audiences and in-person (for those who live in the Denver area).
Rosie Sherry hosted an in-person retreat in Brighton, UK on Thursday, Oct. 12!
The Community Community held their first in-person event, an Unconference that took place the day after CMX Summit. (Kudos to Amanda Petersen, Jocelyn Hsu and Nikki Thibodeau for planning, and special thanks to Common Room and Gradual for sponsoring!)
Talkbase is changing things up when it comes to virtual events by offering the 2-minute Presentation Series. The speaker talks for 2 minutes about ANY subject (doesn’t have to pertain to Community), and then participants have 8 minutes to ask questions. The event is concluded after 10 minutes. These are not being recorded, so that only adds to how special and important that 10-minute time frame is.
Jake McKee hosts the virtual Dinner5 series, which is open to individuals in North America and Europe. Jake arranges a free meal delivered to your door, and the small group atmosphere makes for great networking and connections with your peers. (This series has been taking place since January 2019!)
While I hope to see many many more of these types of events, I appreciated the words of Serena Snoad this week when she said the following on LinkedIn:
I'll share a challenge I have mentioned elsewhere about the risk of prioritising in-person events so much that we lose interest or commitment to asynchronous and online ways of gathering. As a profession, the shift to online (through necessity from 2020-22) meant that we created a level playing field for the majority of the profession who are online/remote workers, many who are not in/near Silicon Valley or major cities, many who do not have conference budgets or disposable travel cash. If we see the shift head back too far, we'll recreate a two-tier profession of a small group of people who have the privileges of $/location. I hope we can reach a healthy balance.
Serena’s words are a loving reminder to anyone planning gatherings to be considerate of your audience to try to create an experience that would be available to as many as possible, whether it’s virtual or in-person.
In a conversation with Pat Cooney last week, he also referenced the importance of these occasions, but for another reason:
I'm thinking our industry, being full of "teams of one", probably needs this more than others, just because we don't have proper peers at work.
Sure, I have other people I work closely with, and am friends with, here at work, but they aren't proper peers in that we don't do the same work. I can't have those "I'm thinking of doing this, what do you think" or "don't you hate it when..." kinds of conversations with those people because they don't do our work. So.. we have to look outside of our company - to our network - to spaces like CMX, CLI, Community Community, etc - to have those conversations. That's where our peers are.
Add the "team of one" to the growing number of consultants like yourself, and yeah, we need places to be with our peers for those kinds of peer conversations.. which may be very work focused ("I'm trying to solve this problem, do you have any ideas?") or even just casual ("Don't you hate it when this happens").
For me, I’m looking for events that will enrich my skills/knowledge/life in some way and do the same for my clients. I’m also looking for an experience that is going to be FUN. Remember that three-letter word? It’s not always the first thing we think of when we think of a community profession gathering, but why can’t it be?!
This is all leading me to a concept I’d love your thoughts on…What if there was a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT kind of event entirely? Different from anything that’s been mentioned before (to my knowledge, at least).
If you like the idea of coming together for a “Community Day at a Theme Park,” then I invite you to take this brief survey, at the end of which you can sign up to receive notifications for future news about this possible event (which may or may not take place in March 2024 😉…it truly depends on your feedback).
➡️**CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE SURVEY**⬅️
Special thanks to Hass Mirza for his valuable feedback on the survey format and concept! Hass is an accomplished senior community professional who’s looking for his next great opportunity.
Hey Los Angeles, you’re invited…
…to the next meetup of Community Pros of LA!
Tuesday, Oct. 24
Bond Collective in DTLA
Call for Speakers for Super Forum 2024
Highler Logic’s annual conference is coming back next year, and it will be in-person only. Also, it’s open to ALL community professionals, not just their customers.
April 10-12, 2024
National Harbor, Maryland, USA
If you’ve ever wanted to be on stage to share your Community story or message, now’s your chance! Speaker applications are due by the end of this week. If you’re nervous about submitting, just picture a mini-Jenny sitting on your shoulder, whispering in your ear, “YOU CAN DO THIS! GO FOR IT!”