Event Success

CHAPTER 12Community

Humans are social creatures by nature; we crave the sense of belonging that can come only from feeling part of a community.

Community building has always been a mainstay of event strategy. Events have long been one of the most valuable community-building tools in the broader marketing portfolio. While in-person interaction was previously the key to building that community, we as an industry have taken significant strides in a relatively short period of time when it comes to online community building. Much of that progress has come from combining the event-based community-building strategies organizers are already well accustomed to with the virtual community-building strategies borrowed from other industries.

With virtual event platforms dramatically extending the reach of events, there is now an opportunity to attract and develop a much broader community. At the same time, organizers will be challenged by the need to keep those communities vibrant and valuable beyond the length of the event itself.

“The whole community thing isn't new; for many years publishers have tried to form communities of professionals who interact not just at live events, but in the months that precede and follow the event,” explained the Financial Times managing director of FT Live events, Orson Francescone. “The Holy Grail has always been a 12-month marketing cycle, where people interact on the community platform and meet once a year face-to-face, and it's never really worked very ...