Meet the Top Community Professionals and Communities of 2023

The fourth annual 2023 Community Industry Awards ceremony was a success, and we'd like to thank you for making it happen! It was a celebration of the achievements of exceptional community professionals and companies making waves in the industry as they work to make a difference by building amazing places for their members.

The many changes in the community industry during 2022 challenged and inspired professionals to reach new heights of accomplishment. From around the world, we received thousands of nominations for professionals and companies to be recognized at this year's awards. All nominations were incredibly impressive and inspiring, and each nominee deserves recognition for their hard work!

After all nominations were submitted, we opened the voting to the public. We were thrilled by the results: more than thousands of votes came in—a clear indication of how passionate community professionals are about honoring those who work alongside them. Finally, our expert judges reviewed all submissions and cast their votes. We considered the popular vote and scores from our expert judges to find the winners for this year's Community Industry Awards.

The winners were announced on Community Manager Appreciation Day on January 23rd, 2023. It was truly a special day for all of the winners, their teams, and the community industry as a whole. We awarded 16 incredible community builders and community-focused organizations who were honored at our annual awards ceremony.

We want to take a moment to thank everyone who participated, from those who were nominated, to those who voted, to our expert judges. It's because of all of you that this special day was made possible.

And now, without further ado, here are the 2023 Community Industry Awards winners!

The Community Awards

The Community Awards are given to outstanding communities that are raising the bar for the industry. These include:

Customer Success Community of the Year

Awarded to a team building a customer success/support community.

Spotify

Growth Marketing Community of the Year

Awarded to a team building an acquisition community and using a community-driven marketing strategy.

Learning Ally Educator Community

User Group Program of the Year

Awarded to a team building a distributed events, user group, and chapter program.

Tessitura Network

Best New Community 2023

Awarded to a community that has shown significant growth and success in 2022.

Covid Aid Charity

Web3 Community of the Year

Awarded to team-building and paving the way in the Web3 space.

Celo

Creator Community of the Year

Awarded to a team-building community for innovators and creatives.

Patreon

The Professional Awards

The Community Professional of the Year Awards are given to outstanding individuals working in the community.

Executive Leader of a Community Team 2022

Awarded to a Community Professional. This is like the Best Director category.

Alexis Brown, Senior Manager of Zoom Community

Community Professional of the Year – Developer Relations

Awarded to a Community Professional building a community for Developer Relations.

Samantha Hepburn, Senior Global Community Manager at Snyk

Community Professional of the Year for – Gaming Community

Awarded to a Community Professional building a community for a gaming organization.

Sam Gee, Senior Community Manager at Riyo Games

Community Professional of the Year – Education Community

Awarded to a Community Professional of an education organization building a community.

Jen Durkee, Senior Community Manager at Coursera

Community Professional of the Year – B2B Community

Awarded to a Community Professional building a community in the B2B space.

Monique van den Berg, Head of Online Community at Atlassian

The CMX Awards

CMX Connect Chapter of the Year

Awarded to the CMX Connect Host team, who have shown growth and success in building their CMX Connect Chapter.

CMX Connect Denver Chapter

Communiteer of the Year

Awarded to a CMX’er who is highly engaged in the community and continuously helps their fellow CMX’ers with resources, answers to questions, and advice.

Jen Serrat

CMX’er of the Year

Awarded to the member of the CMX Community who stood out as helpful to other members, contributing to the discussion spaces and engaging with the community throughout the year.

Yurii Lazaruk

The Best of the Year Awards

Community Professional of the Year

Awarded to the best overall Community Professional. This is like the Best Actor and Actress categories.

Samantha Hepburn, Senior Global Community Manager at Snyk

Community of the Year

Celo

Awarded to the best overall Community team. This is like the Best Picture category.

Missed the Event? You Can Watch It Here!

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