As David Bowie once said, “Five years - what a surprise!”. And he’s right! Surprise is exactly what I felt when I looked at the calendar and realized the CMX Connect program is celebrating its five year anniversary!
In 2019, the need for the program was clear, and we continued to build. The CMX Connect program would fulfill the need for community professionals to come together to learn, grow, and connect with each other! The events were to be about sharing information, building meaningful relationships, and creating a knowledge base about all things community. We started this program with 16 volunteers and 14 events in 9 countries. Since then, we've grown into an international movement with hundreds of hosts worldwide! (I’ll share some numbers at the end of this post because they truly are incredible).
Over five years, the CMX Connect program has seen its fair share of challenges – the world moving to virtual events, then the world trying to move back to in-person events, leadership changes, budget cuts, unpopular swag designs (my bad) – but one thing has remained constant throughout it all: the incredible passion from our CMX Connect Directors. Our Directors are the true heart of this program. They are passionate community leaders from all around the world committed to building their own CMX sub-communities. They are bringing together community professionals everywhere to connect and share knowledge and experience, even in the most challenging of times.
Ups and Downs
We began 2020 with 63 CMX Connect Hosts. This team of passionate community builders had volunteered to host events in their local CMX communities. In the first two months of the year alone, we had 27 new CMX Connect Host applications! Then came March. News of lockdowns began to surface, and states of emergency were declared around the world. Slowly but surely, our March events were canceled. I shared resources for the Connect Hosts, offered as much support as I could, and made space for them to ask questions and seek advice. But I still had a moment where I thought, “Well, that’s the end of CMX Connect.”
But then, in April, something amazing happened. I think of it like the end of How the Grinch Stole Christmas after he’s stolen Christmas (spoiler alert) and there is silence in Whoville. But then, we start to hear singing, and we realize that nothing can destroy the Whos’ spirit. In April, I felt like I could hear that singing. Through the challenges and uncertainty, the CMX Connect Directors rallied and showed their resilience. The CMX Connect program migrated to virtual events — and the results were nothing short of incredible.
The entire global Director team was having conversations, sharing advice, and solving problems. They picked each other up, learned from each other, and teamed up to host incredible events locally and globally. They connected people, taught community builders, and gave the CMX community a safe space to be themselves and build meaningful relationships.
Five Years of CMX Connect: By the Numbers
The three goals of CMX Connect continue to be:
- Connect: Meet awesome people, and get to know your peers in the industry
- Learn: Walk away with an actionable strategy you can implement into your work today
- Advocate: Grow the community industry.
We’ve reached an astonishing number of people in more countries than we could have ever done with HQ-led events. The following numbers do not include any CMX HQ events, like CMX Summit, Masterclasses, or CMX Global. Overall, in this program’s five years:
- We’ve hosted 1,032 total events (that’s one event every two days)
- We welcomed 22,651 attendees to our CMX Connect events
- We invited 501 speakers to grace our stages - both in person and virtual
- Our community has sent 12,286 chat messages and asked 518 questions during virtual events
- We’ve hosted events in 47 countries and 155 cities
Congratulations to CMX Connect Columbia for hosting their 100th event! It’s a huge accomplishment to keep a community events program running with the kind of enthusiasm our Director team in Colombia has shown!
Congratulations to CMX Connect Washington for hosting the largest CMX Connect EVER! In 2023, y’all hosted Metrics that Matter: Unveiling the Power of Community Data with 236 Attendees.
So what’s next?
As we look ahead, the CMX team is eager to see what the future holds. Our goals for the coming years include increasing public awareness of the importance of community building and growing the industry as a whole. We intend to work towards this goal with CMX Connect by continuing to provide chapter leaders with the tools they need to grow their communities and increase positive impact in our industry. CMX Connect is an ever-evolving program and we're always looking for new ways to help our community grow, connect, and learn from one another! We hope you’ll join us!
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