CMX Summit 2018 is just around the corner and SOLD OUT! I cannot believe it. 400 attendees are ascending into the streets of Portland.
As we’re closing in on the event, we wanted to give you the full run-down of what to expect and a little Portland flavor, since many of you are coming in from out-of-town.
This means 400 incredible community professionals for you to meet, get to know, and make new friends. We’ll also have over 25 incredible speakers, all of whom are excited to share with you and help you take your community building knowledge to the next level. And we’ll feed your body too with lots of great food each day!
The Nines Hotel: home sweet, home
Location: The Nines Hotel, 525 SW Morrison St, Portland, OR 97204
This is the first time we’ve had CMX Summit at a hotel, friends!
That means you’ll have a lot of opportunities to cross paths and spend time with other attendees outside the event. Just don’t stay up too late ;). The Nines is not only beautiful but well insulated. Hurray for temperature control!
Summit itself takes place on the 6th floor of the Nines building, which you’ll be able to access through the elevators. The space layout is pretty simple with registration and badge decoration, vendors and merch, two stage rooms, two lunchrooms, an introvert zone (for recharging), and two sets (four!) gender neutral restrooms. You’ll be finding your way around in no time.
Tag a buddy in and head to our Venting Booth! Another new addition to Summit to support you. Sometimes, we just need a little safe space to share about the downsides of being a community professional. One person will serve as listener/supporter and the other shares. What you share in the Venting Booth, stays at Summit.
We’re super thrilled to bring you an incredible line up this year! Some highlights include creativity expert Denise Jacobs, community industry leader Richard Millington, UX community-focused designer Rajesh Kalidindi, and a panel with LinkedIn, Facebook, and Jive.
Some goodies and changes you may notice:
• Longer sessions, all in one room on Tuesday.
• A little stretching and meditation Wednesday during breakfast.
• 5 minute walk times between sessions, meaning you can more easily change conference rooms.
• Two book signing sessions on Tuesday: Denise Jacobs and Richard Millington.
The CMX Summit 2018 agenda!
Monday, October 1 from 12:00-6:00pm
Workshop-only: Fundamentals of Community Strategy Workshop with David Spinks
Location: The Nines Hotel (same place the conference is at!)
Join CMX Media’s CEO David Spinks, the afternoon before the conference kicks off, for our fundamentals workshop, which has been developed over 4 years and taught to over 600 organizations of all sizes around the world. Both new and experienced community professionals have taken this workshop to get clarity on their community strategy and bring industry best practices to building valuable, meaningful, and engaged communities.
Registration is from 12:00-12:30pm, and class starts at 12:30pm. Please eat lunch beforehand. You must have registered and paid separately for the workshop.
Tuesday, October 2
8:00 am – 9:00 am — Breakfast and Registration
9:00 am – 9:20 am — Welcome to CMX Summit 2018 with David Spinks
David is the Founder and CEO of CMX, the premier membership for community professionals. CMX’s mission is to help community professionals thrive. The CMX team has trained hundreds of companies in community strategy, including teams at Facebook, Google, and Salesforce. Today, thousands of community professionals come to CMX every day to learn, connect, and grow.
9:20 am – 10:20 am — The Creativity of (R)Evolution with Denise Jacobs
When does one equal far more than one? Join the (R)Evolution to discover how to cultivate your creative spark and that of others to set you, your team, and your company on the path to betterness.
Denise is a Speaker + Author + Creativity Evangelist who speaks at conferences and consults with companies worldwide. As the Founder + CEO of The Creative Dose, she teaches techniques that unlock creativity to help people become engaged contributors, synergistic collaborators, and authentic leaders. Denise is the author of the book Banish Your Inner Critic.
10:20 am – 10:50 am — Morning Break
10:50 am – 11:30 am — Intimacy at Scale: Building Community with Brand Ambassadors with Kara Cronin
Looking to grow your company and build loyalty at the same time? Give brand ambassadors a seat at the table. Join to Kara to learn how fostering connections between strangers with one thing in common — love for your brand — can help you build products, facilitate meaningful relationships, and activate your audience.
Before starting her career at theSkimm, Kara was a Skimm’bassador herself, gaining first-hand experience into the power of its community. She later became a full-time employee as Community Manager for the program, and now leads campaigns, programming and communications for the community of 30k highly-engaged female millennials that accounts for over 20% of theSkimm’s audience growth.
11:30 am – 12:05 pm — Making Easy Work of a Career in Community with Sarah Hawk
Organizations which truly prioritize community are rare, which means our roles are often the first cut when things get tight. Building a strong network and a great reputation can help ensure that you’re always employed. Hawk has built a successful and fulfilling career without a single job interview. Find out how she did it.
Hawk (first name Sarah, but keep that on the down-low) is an expert in the UX of community platforms and is currently on the team that builds Discourse. Originally a software developer, she has spent the last decade in community roles, most recently HOC at FeverBee, and works remotely from her home in New Zealand. When away from the screen, Hawk is a gym instructor, a wine drinker, and a mother of twins.
12:05 pm – 12:10 pm — The CMX Update with David Spinks
David updates you on what’s been happening at CMX and what we’re looking forward to into 2019.
12:10 pm – 1:40 pm — Lunch
Look for our birds-of-a-feather tables!
1:40 pm – 2:55 pm — Escape the Engagement Trap and Multiply the Value of Your Community with Richard Millington
Do you feel pressured to always up your engagement metrics? Richard will teach you why you shouldn’t waste your career or your community’s potential chasing engagement. He’ll refocus your work to set expectations, give value to your members, and hone member behavior.
Richard is the founder of FeverBee and the author of Buzzing Communities. Over the past 14 years, Richard has helped to develop over 250+ successful communities, including those for Facebook, Google, The World Bank, Oracle, Amazon, Autodesk, Lego, The United Nations, Novartis, and many more.
2:55 pm – 3:25 pm — Afternoon Break
3:25 pm – 4:05 pm Panel: The State and Future of Community Platforms with Mitali Pattnaik, Lindsay Russell, and David Hersh
You’ll hear from industry experts who are behind the scenes on some of the biggest and innovative community platforms. Moderated by CMX CEO David Spinks, our panelists will share recent updates and get candid about where community technology is headed.
Mitali is Director of Product for LinkedIn Groups. Prior to LinkedIn, Mitali spent over a decade building consumer products at Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, and Twitter. She is a strong advocate for women in technology leadership and started LinkedIn’s Women In Product initiative. Mitali has a BA in Computer Science & Philosophy from Mt Holyoke College and a MBA from London Business School.
Lindsay works in product marketing on the Facebook Groups team. Her work focuses on group power admins — people leading the most meaningful groups on Facebook — and she collaborates closely with the Groups product team as a passionate advocate for these users. Lindsay runs the global Facebook Power Admins program, communities where group admins connect with and support each other as community leaders.
David is an entrepreneur, investor and advisor based in San Francisco. He was the Founding CEO of Jive Software (NASD: JIVE; acquired in 2017), which he led up until its IPO. After Jive, he spent two years as a Board Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Most recently he started his own buyout group (Glimmer.ai) where he acquires technology startups and builds them into profitable growth companies.
4:05 pm – 5:35 pm – Networking Party
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm — CMX Summit Exclusive Pro-Only Party
Wednesday, October 3
8:30 am – 9:30 am — Breakfast
9:00 am – 9:30 am — Design Stage — Morning Stretch and Meditation with Arielle Tannenbaum
Kick off your morning with some stretching and meditation! Arielle will guide you in some self-care to ignite your body and balance your mind before a day of learning.
Arielle spends her days building the global Buffer community and designing meaningful experiences for people to connect, learn, and grow together. She has grown community in many settings — in the worlds of dance, tech, coworking, and holistic health. Always exploring, Arielle is grateful to spend her time being outdoors, dancing, cooking, traveling, and is currently studying to be a yoga teacher.
9:30 am – 10:10 am — Culture/Fashion Stage — The State of Community with David Spinks
The community industry continues to grow and evolve. CMX CEO David Spinks will review the key trends happening in the community industry today.
David is the Founder and CEO of CMX, the premier membership for community professionals. CMX’s mission is to help community professionals thrive. The CMX team has trained hundreds of companies in community strategy, including teams at Facebook, Google, and Salesforce. Today, thousands of community professionals come to CMX every day to learn, connect, and grow.
10:10 am – 10:45 am — Culture/Fashion Stage — Communities in Projects — Developing Culture Inside Our Work with Miranda Barrett
People come together for all kinds of reasons — work projects, volunteer committees, conferences, even travel. When you create a culture of shared purpose, accountability, and trust, those groups transform from “project teams” to highly functional communities and can exceed what they set out to do. Miranda will focus on the stages of group development in projects, and how each one is an opportunity to build a highly effective community.
Miranda has organized groups around the world for almost twenty years, including the White House Press Corps, private corporations, and entrepreneur-focused delegations. She was a Vice President at the Entrepreneurs’ Organization and credits her global community-building skills with being a camp counselor in the mountains of North Carolina.
10:45 am – 11:15 am — Morning Break
11:15 am – 11:40 am
Culture/Fashion Stage: FOMO for Good: Building Blockchain Communities with Savannah Peterson
Join Savannah to learn about blockchain beyond the crypto buzz. We’ll explore what this community-driven paradigm shift means for you, and illustrate the power of FOMO through a case study on crowdfunding the humanoid robot Sophia’s brain.
Savannah is a Forbes 30 Under 30 in Consumer Technology and the Founder of Savvy Millennial. She is an international public speaker, vlogger, and community builder. A connector of needs at solutions, Savannah’s current projects range from Blockchain to books. She makes teaching cameos at Stanford, NYU, and UCLA, and is featured on NBC, BBC, WSJ, CNBC, CNET, The Verge, and more.
Design Stage: What We Can Learn from Indigenous Tribes for Our Communities with Jessica Wawoe
Indigenous tribes have organized themselves into often-thriving groups with specific rites, rituals, and traditions. Jessica focuses on gathering knowledge from tribes all over the world and and presenting what can be applied in other areas, such as operations and community building. She will share what makes a strong tribe, how to lead and assign roles, and suggested rituals for you to adopt in your community.
Born from two cultures, Jessica made a career out of helping international teams to collaborate better. After almost two decades with global brands, she is applying her experience and curiosity towards making tribal knowledge applicable to a broader audience. Recently, Jessica moved back to The Netherlands where she balances family, work, and travel with her love of yoga and outdoor sports.
11:45 am – 12:05 pm
Culture/Fashion Stage: Self-Care Isn’t Selfish: Strategies for Bringing Your Best Self to Your Community with Tiffany Yu
You’re a rock for everyone in your community, but how do you prevent community manager burnout? Tiffany, who runs a community for the disabled (including chronic illness and mental health), will walk you through the strategies to take care of yourself and make sure you can give your community 100%.
Tiffany is the CEO of Diversability, an award-winning social enterprise to rebrand disability through community. Previously, she ran community for a co-living startup and founded Bloomberg’s affinity group for employees with disabilities and allies. Named one of 100 visionary leaders by Real Leaders Magazine, Tiffany has been featured in Marie Claire, the Guardian, and Forbes.
Design Stage: Community Is Our Product: Why We’re Betting on User Engagement, Not User Reach, to Build a Sustainable Business with Ben DeJarnette
Trust in traditional news media is at an all-time low, and many of our local news resources are steadily shrinking due to declining revenue. That’s why journalists today can’t afford not to put community at the center of their editorial and business strategies. We’ll talk about the specific ways media companies are doing this across the industry and at WhereBuy.US – a media company serving communities of curious locals through email newsletters and community experiences that create impact, value, and long-term relationships.
Ben is a journalist in Portland, Oregon, and the co-author of Reimagining Journalism in a Post-Truth World: How Late-Night Comedians, Internet Trolls, and Savvy Reporters Are Transforming News.
12:05 pm – 1:35 pm — Lunch
Look for our birds-of-a-feather tables!
1:35 pm – 2:00 pm
Culture/Fashion Stage: We All Contain Multitudes!: Mapping Multiple Identities to Your Community Engagement Strategies with Dr. Stephanie E. Vasko
Create a map for your community engagement strategies. Stephanie will demonstrate how she connects the multitude of her own identities for use in personas and ultimately community engagement at Michigan State University. She’ll underscore the value of recognizing the multitudes in all of us, and she’ll offer five takeaways to consider in mapping your community member personas to the infrastructure of your organization and to the design of programming for your community.
Dr. Stephanie E. Vasko is the managing director for the Center for Interdisciplinarity at Michigan State University. She holds a Ph.D. in chemistry and nanotechnology and was an American Association for the Advancement of Science Community Engagement Fellow in 2017. Her research focuses on community engagement and on applications of machine learning to team science.
Design Stage: Provide a Human Touch in Your Online Community with Rajiv Patel
How do you bridge the gap between your community members’ online and in-person presence? How do you make your users feel like they’re interacting with a human and not a robot? Join Rajiv to learn tips and tricks to how you can make a “real” impact in your community.
Rajiv is the Manager of the Salesforce Partner Community. In April 2014, he helped launch the first-ever partner community at Salesforce, with a focus on the highest levels of engagement and success. In four years, Rajiv’s team has been able to grow the partner community site from 700 users to 80K+ worldwide users. He lives in the Bay Area of California and loves to practice yoga in his free time.
2:05 pm – 2:25 pm
Culture/Fashion Stage: Health Measurements that Actively Help You Improve Your Community with Ben Leong
How can you tell if your community is healthy? What should you measure, and what should you actually do with that data once you have it? Learn how good health metrics identify where problems occur and help community managers prioritize where to put their resources to best effect.
Ben is fascinated by the ways long-term online communities evolve and thrive. As Envato’s Forum Manager, he works with a globally distributed team and a community of over 2 million customers. With almost two decades of online community experience, Ben is currently focused on developing environments that provide members with a strong sense of community, while also delivering business outcomes.
Design Stage: Big Data or Big Responsibility? How to Give, Not Take, with User Data with Eryn Peters
User data is a goldmine — but for whom? Most organizations measure the ROI of community for the organization itself, but are we overlooking its value to community members? What if we stopped thinking of user data as something to capitalize on, and let it teach us how to grow instead? What if by doing the best for the community, we do the best for the business?
As Toptal’s Director of Operations, Eryn leads the global Toptal expert community in sharing thought leadership at conferences and technical events, as well as through professional mentorship and learning initiatives. Focusing on experiential, quantitative methods, Eryn brings cross-functional experience from time spent at Sony and Mercedes-Benz to best serve the communities she influences.
2:30 pm – 2:50 pm
Culture/Fashion Stage: How You Too Can Leverage the Power of Video with David Singer and Justin DeMers
Video may be the best way to connect with people when you’re not face-to-face as it provides a common unifier and language, but it’s also the most intimidating to create. David and Justin will demonstrate how they leveraged video and storytelling to grow their community and will provide you with the knowledge to conquer your fears and video!
David began his career performing in live theater, but reluctantly moved behind the scenes at the urging of his fellow actors. There he discovered a passion for directing and in helping other filmmakers tell stories that transform lives. Story & Heart grew out of this desire for collaboration and love for a story well told. David will, however, still demonstrate a triple-time-step on demand.
Justin is a photographer turned filmmaker turned entrepreneur. A co-founder of Story & Heart, he helps filmmakers tell stronger stories and build fulfilling careers. When not in the studio, you’ll often find Justin exploring the PNW wilderness with his beautiful wife and two kiddos — camera in hand.
Design Stage: Save the Drama for Yo’ Mama: 5 Strategies for Resolving Team and Community Conflicts Tactfully with Terri Lomax
While conflicts and disagreements are an unavoidable part of life, they can grow fast and spread like wildfire if left unattended or handled carelessly in an online community. Terri has put out many conflict fires. She will share her go-to strategies for diffusing conflict with relatable case studies and empower you to establish expectations early on to minimize friction in the long run.
Terri is a blogger, speaker, and brand strategist, who empowers women who struggle with tech to leverage social media and personal branding to grow their audience and impact. She also manages a flourishing online community of more than 4,000 ambitious women on a mission, via the Mocha Girls Pit Stop blog, which is where women of color refuel on motivation and ignite their lives.
2:50 pm – 3:20 pm — Afternoon Break
3:20 pm – 3:45 pm
Culture/Fashion Stage: Community Retention: How to Science the Heck Out of It with Anuj Adhiya
You’ve built your community, but keeping your members engaged is always an ongoing challenge. How do you craft a plan that will keep them coming back for more? Anuj will walk you through the three stages of member churn, identify strategies for helping them get through each stage, and you’ll learn from tactics that communities (and popular apps) have used to improve retention.
Anuj is the Director of Engagement and Analytics at GrowthHackers. He runs the community and is the data analyst on the growth team. Anuj’s role has him running experiments all the time to understand what drives sustainable growth. Before GrowthHackers, he had no experience with growth or community. Anuj’s last degree was in Chemistry and its principles have been surprisingly relevant to his role.
Design Stage: Power to the People: Advocate Community in Product and Engineering with Megan Berry
We all know communities hold incredible product insights. However, ensuring those insights are maximized across teams can be a struggle. As a community turned product person, Megan will share advice and actionable tips for better communication and integration with product and engineering.
Megan Berry has focused her career around building communities and social products. She is currently VP Product at Octane AI, a chatbot platform for online stores. Previously, she was VP Product at RebelMouse. Before that, she led community and marketing at social influence startup Klout, after joining as their fourth employee. Megan graduated from Stanford Phi Beta Kappa.
3:55 pm – 5:00 pm — Culture/Fashion Stage — Inclusive Community: Don’t Leave One out of Five from Your Community with Rajesh Kalidindi
The very first engagement with your community is through digital experience for tech and non-tech communities. Unfortunately, 1 billion people with disabilities on this planet are unable to use the digital experience effectively due to the inaccessible technology. Let it be a simple electronic communication or a community platform software. In fact, 70% of disabilities are invisible. Having empathy for inclusive experiences benefits not only someone with disabilities, but also helps people WITH all abilities. Now is the time to act on including EVERYONE in the Community Experiences.
Rajesh is building inclusive experience for Microsoft community users for more than 25 consumer products. Over the past 20 years, he has delivered a wide range of digital experiences for consumer and enterprise products. He’s a board member of User Experience Professionals Association International organization that fosters professionals to grow their UX skills. Rajesh enjoys promoting Accessibility.
7:00 pm – 10:00 pm — Afterparty
Making friends and connections
We’d be remiss without including some great activities and other ways to make connections with fellow attendees.
Pre-show
Online: meet your fellow attendees in the CMX Summit Facebook Group, and on Twitter, using the hashtag #CMXSummit.
Attendee-organized!
Coming into Portland early? Make Sunday plans in the Telegram Group.
Got your Monday afternoon free and enjoy craft beer? Take a brewery bike tour, organized by Joel Connolly.
Birds of a Feather lunch tables
During lunch each day, nine attendees will be facilitating discussions around a variety of community building topics. Bring your expertise, your questions, and your curiosity. Grab your food and join a conversation! All tables will be labeled so you can choose.
Tuesday lunch:
• 24/7 community coverage with Katherine
• Blockchain and cryptocurrency with Dom
• Career pathing with Michelle
• Developer communities with Dan
• Education communities focused on teachers with Caitlin
• Growing internal communities with Arleen
• Local events and distributed user groups with Eli
• Machine learning and community engagement with Stephanie
• Marketing your community with Adrian
Wednesday lunch:
• Community platforms with Hawk
• Cultural differences and communities with Ami
• The evolution and future of community with Janice
• Incentivizing and boosting community engagement with Adriana
• Influencing product roadmaps with community with Suzi
• Managing global communities with Eli
• Mental health and community with Ruby
• Moderation with Nora
• Storytelling with Lindsey
Three nifty events
Tuesday Night Networking Party
Tuesday, 4:00-5:30pm at the Nines Hotel
As day one of Summit closes, we’re bringing everyone together to enjoy time to get to know each other, get to chat with speakers, and get to visit our sponsors. We’ll have light hors d’oeuvres, beer and wine, and non-alcoholic beverages too.
CMX Summit Exclusive Pro-Only Party
Tuesday, 6:30-8:30pm, location Top Secret for Pros only
Are you a CMX Pro member? We’re inviting our Pro members for a special CMX Summit party. Pro members — get all the special details, including the location!
Wednesday Night Afterparty
Wednesday, 7:00-10:00pm at Ground Kontrol, 115 NW 5th Ave, Portland
After two days of learning and immersing yourself in all things community, take a moment to relax, solidifying those connections with other attendees, and have a little fun. Bring your Pumas and wristbands as Ground Kontrol features arcade games! David Spinks is standing by to play Asteroids or Lord of the Rings pinball.
We’ll have plenty of conversation and drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic available. Make sure to bring your conference badge and your US ID or passport. Can’t wait to see you there!
All the swag!
We always want to make sure you have a little something to take home. This year, all Summit attendees will get a very special t-shirt and speaker Richard Millington’s latest book, The Indispensable Community: Why Some Brand Communities Thrive When Others Perish. That’s right, I want to see those post-conference plane selfies where you’re wearing your Summit t-shirt and reading Richard’s book.
And this year, we’re debuting our merch store!
You will be able to purchase mugs, fun water bottles, cute tote bags, notebooks, and speaker Denise Jacobs’ book, Banish Your Inner Critic: Silence the Voice of Self-Doubt to Unleash Your Creativity and Do Your Best Work. We will take cash or card.
Thank you, sponsors!
We couldn’t do it without you! Make sure to visit, engage, and get to know our fabulous sponsors:
Discourse is a from-scratch reboot, an attempt to reimagine what a modern Internet discussion forum should be today, in a world of ubiquitous smartphones, tablets, Facebook, and Twitter. Discourse is the 100% open source discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet. Use it as a mailing list, discussion forum, long-form chat room, and more!
Easily build intelligent and branded communities and portals for customers, partners, and employees.
Manage, scale, and track your community events and their impact.
Whatever motivates and inspires you, we’re a community that helps you realize your definition of success. #InItTogether
Founded in 2003, LinkedIn connects the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. With more than 546 million members worldwide, including executives from every Fortune 500 company, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network on the Internet.
Higher Logic is an industry leader in cloud-based community platforms. Organizations worldwide use Higher Logic to bring people all together, by giving their community a home where they can interact, share ideas, answer questions, and stay connected. Our goal is to help your organization with deeper engagement and meaningful interactions for your members, customers, and prospects. Everything we do – the tools and features in our software, our services, partnerships, best practices – drives our ultimate goal of making your organization successful.
Start working better together, today.
Forumbee is modern cloud-based community software. Engage your customers, partners, and employees with your own branded community. Collect feedback, provide support, and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Easily create and manage your community with an intuitive interface. Access powerful moderation tools and community analytics. Activate customer engagement with Idea Forums, Discussion Forums, and social tools for connecting with each other. Reduce support costs with member-powered Q&A Forums. Ask questions and find answers with blazing fast instant-search. Get the word out with rich content publishing tools. Post blogs, videos, and create a knowledge base, all with built-in SEO optimization.
Vanilla Forums help companies engage their customers, reduce support costs and increase sales, powering over 3B+ discussions yearly.
Google Developers Community Groups Program
Nurturing influencers and their communities everywhere to make them successful and boost Google technology advocacy, adoption, quality, and perception.
We make it simple to create stunning event pages, manage registrations, and sell tickets anywhere.
What’s up in PDX?
Japanese Gardens photo by Robin Zebrowski
We love Summit’s new home Portland, Oregon, and encourage each of you to take some time in order to explore the city itself. Or outside of the city for those of you who love the great outdoors.
First, let’s take a moment to address the weather. Portland is like any Pacific Northwest City on the western side of the Cascade Mountains in October: it could be sunny and 70s, or it could be rainy and in the high 50s/low 60s. Wear layers, and bring a raincoat or umbrella, just in case.
Hint: If you’re flying in, the easiest, cheapest, most accessible, and possibly fastest way to get from the airport to The Nines Hotel is the MAX! Portland’s light rail system runs about every 15 minutes most of the day, every day. Service is less frequent in the early morning, mid-day, and late evening. Catch the MAX from Portland International Airport and pay only $2.50 for a 40-minute ride to The Nines Hotel. Exit at Pioneer Courthouse Square.
We ask your fellow conference attendees, and here’s where they said you need to visit and eat:
Places to visit:
• Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach
• Hood River
• International Rose Test Garden
Places to eat:
• Beast
• Beer O’Clock
• Khao San
• Pok Pok
• Tasty n Alder
• Tasty n Sons
And because we’re community professionals, our friends over at Yelp put together yet more recommendations for us.
We will see you next week!
