About the Awards
These awards celebrate the achievements and shine a well-deserved spotlight on individuals and teams in our industry.
CMX Summit 2026
Meet Our Winners
Customer Support Community
Zoom Community
Awarded to a community that enhances customer support and success by fostering engagement, reducing support tickets, and improving customer retention through peer-to-peer assistance and knowledge sharing.
Growth Marketing Community
StoCoMo - Stocks, Community & More!
Recognizes a community that drives sales, acquisition, and brand growth through advocacy programs, ambassador networks, and engagement strategies that contribute to measurable business success.
User Group Program
Yerba Madre
Celebrates a community-led user group or chapter program that connects members, shares knowledge, and fosters engagement through local or virtual events. It is not designed for recognizing individual chapters but rather the overall structure and strategy behind a distributed user group program.
Best New Community
Alkami Community
Awarded to a community launched or relaunched after January 1, 2024, that has quickly grown, engaged members, and demonstrated early success.
Best Community Podcast
Community Life
Recognizes a podcast focused on community-building that has an engaged audience, fosters discussion, and released at least five episodes in 2024.
CMX Connect Chapter of the Year
Tope James Moses
Awarded to the CMX Connect Chapter that demonstrated exceptional growth, strong community engagement, and consistent success throughout 2024. This chapter went above and beyond to foster local connections, deliver impactful programming, and embody the spirit of the global CMX community.
B2B Community Professional
Edwin González
Given to an individual building a thriving B2B community that fosters engagement, customer advocacy, and business impact.
Executive Leader of a Community Team
Anuj Sharma
Recognizes a community executive managing a team and aligning community strategy with business goals to drive growth and engagement. (nominees must have 1 or more direct report to be considered for this award).
Nonprofit Community Professional
Bhargavi Mantha
Awarded to an individual managing a nonprofit community, mobilizing members, increasing engagement, and supporting a cause-driven mission.
Developer Relations (DevRel)
Rohit Radhakrishnan
Celebrates a leader fostering developer engagement, advocacy, and innovation while strengthening connections between developers and technology.
FAQs
Our awards program has three main stages: Nominations, Judging, and Voting.
Here’s how it all comes together:
Stage 1: Nominations
Anyone can submit a nomination—whether it’s for a peer, a boss, or even themselves! You can submit as many nominations for as many people as you’d like. However, keep in mind that multiple nominations for the same person do not increase their chances of moving forward.
Once a nomination is submitted, the nominee has the opportunity to accept it. Any duplicate nominations are consolidated, and any that go unaccepted are forfeited. When a nominee accepts, they’ll provide additional details on how they or their community team demonstrated success over the past year, along with answers to some category-specific qualifying questions.
Stage 2: Judging (Behind the Scenes)
This is where the CMX team rolls up our sleeves! We review all accepted nominations to ensure they meet the category criteria and requirements. Then, we anonymize each nomination (thanks to AI, we no longer have to do this manually!) before adding them to the judges’ scorecards.
Important: Accepted nominations are not made public. The details nominees provide are only shared with the CMX team and the judges assigned to that category. Judges review the anonymized nominations and score them on a scale of 1-10. (You can learn more about our scoring process here)
Stage 3: Voting
Nominees who accept their nomination and meet all category criteria move on to the public voting round. This is where we shout it from the rooftops! The industry gets to celebrate by casting votes for their favorite community builders and teams. We love seeing the community come together to support and recognize each other’s achievements!
September 30: Nominations are open (8 weeks)
November 21: Nominations close
Nov 24: Judges are announced
Dec 8: Voting is open (5 weeks)
Jan 9: Voting is closed
January 20, 2026: Finalists announced
January 26, 2026: Winners announced
Submitting a nomination is easy! Just click on the nomination form, fill out the required details, and hit "Submit." Please note, once your nomination is submitted, the nominee will receive an email notification. The nominee must accept the nomination to advance to the voting round. Nominations that are not accepted by the nominee, will be forfeit and will not be moved to the voting round.
No, multiple nominations won’t impact a nominee’s chances of moving to the next round. Each nominee only needs one valid nomination to advance. Nominees only have to accept their nomination once. So, submitting extra nominations is not necessary.
When a nomination is accepted, the CMX team looks at the validity of the nomination.
- Are the questions answered in full?
- Does it meet the criteria (word or character count if applicable, all questions are answered, etc.)
- Is the nominee relevant to the particular category (eg. if they are nominated for Developer Relations, we ensure they actually work in Developer Relations)
Community Awards
Customer Support Community
- Awarded to a community that plays a key role in helping customers succeed. These communities reduce support costs, improve customer satisfaction, and provide peer-to-peer solutions that make a measurable business impact.
Growth Marketing Community
- Awarded to a community that fuels customer acquisition and sales growth. These communities build awareness, generate demand, and contribute to the revenue pipeline by engaging prospects and customers in meaningful ways.
User Group Program
- Awarded to a community-driven chapter or distributed events program. These programs empower local leaders to host meetups, run regional events, and create connections that scale the community beyond a single hub.
Most Engaged Community - New Category in 2026!
- Awarded to the community that demonstrates exceptional member participation. This community stands out for high-quality interactions, meaningful conversations, and activities that keep members consistently active, connected, and invested.
Professional Awards
B2B Community Professional
- Awarded to an individual who has built or scaled a thriving B2B community. This professional demonstrates how community can drive customer retention, expansion, and thought leadership in a business-to-business context.
Executive Leader of a Community Team
- Awarded to an executive leading a community function and managing at least one direct report. This leader sets the vision, empowers their team, and champions the business value of community at the highest level.
Nonprofit Community Professional
- Awarded to an individual who builds or manages a nonprofit community. This professional drives engagement and impact in mission-driven spaces, often with limited resources but unlimited creativity and dedication.
Developer Relations (DevRel) Professional
- Awarded to an individual who builds or manages a developer relations community. This professional fosters trust, advocacy, and collaboration between developers and their platforms, products, or ecosystems.
Yes! However, you can only nominate one person or community per category.
Yes! You are welcome to nominate yourself, your community, or someone on your team! Go ahead, toot your own horn.
We require your email in order to track the number of times you have voted per category. You are able to vote once per person per category.
Once your nomination is submitted, the nominee will receive an email notification. The nominee must accept the nomination before midnight PT on November 7 to advance to the voting round. Nominations that are not accepted by the nominee, will be forfeit and will not be moved to the voting round.
Yes! Previous winners are eligible to be nominated again.
Please refer to the Scoring Process here
The judging panel is composed of a group of volunteers who are all members of the CMX Community. Each category has at least two judges, but no more than four. The previous year's winners are invited to be judges in the same category in which they won. Judges are both invited and encouraged to participate, and they are selected based on their industry experience (e.g., folks who work in Developer Relations are assigned to the Developer Relations category) as well as their membership and engagement in the CMX Community (Judges must be members of CMX).
We will be announcing our judges on November 24, 2025
Community Industry Award winners will receive:
- A free ticket to CMX Summit 2026
- a Community Industry Awards trophy
- More prizes to be announced!
Winners will be announced on January 26, 2026 on CMAD. Winners will receive their trophy in person at CMX Summit 2026. If you are unable to attend, your trophy will be sent to the address you provide at the time.
Great! We’re happy to help. We love any and all feedback on how we can improve your Community Industry Awards experience. Please email us at team@cmxhub.com.
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