Welcome to the CMX update, where we share what’s happening in the community, update you on our progress toward our goals, and share what’s coming up next.
Our mission is to help community professionals thrive, and we’ve taken a lot of big strides this year in working toward that goal. In keeping with our values of serving our community first, and practicing radical candor, we want to transparently share what’s happening.
September is always a wild month for our team as we get ready for CMX Summit each year. Putting the conference together takes the effort of our full team, and we always have some big launches that coincide with the event, and we have some big updates.
Improvements to CMX Pro and Price Increase
Last September, we launched our new membership model. This was a big shift for CMX, and it allowed us to do two key things:
- Put more focus on our mission of helping community professionals thrive
- Build a repeatable revenue model to sustain and grow the business
Since launching, we’ve received over 400 applications and welcomed over 200 community professionals to the membership. We’ve learned a ton as we experiment with different forms of content, programming, and support to make the membership more valuable.
The most rewarding part is seeing members support each other with everything from from struggles with community conflict to negotiating salaries. It truly feels like members have each others’ backs, and we’re extremely grateful to have such a thoughtful community.
On top of the network itself, we’ve been working on content and programming to help community professionals learn and succeed. One of the biggest values we recently launched are our new Action Plans. These are in-depth, step-by-step guides to guide you in your work building communities. So far we’ve launched two Action Plans:
- Action Plan 1: Measuring the Value of Community
- Action Plan 2: Growing and Measuring Community Engagement
In addition to the Action Plans, we’ve hosted dozens of expert calls (recordings are all available in Pro) and member office hours where members can connect live and support each other over video.
We’re continuing to develop CMX Pro to make it an invaluable resource for every community professional. Some things that we will be testing in the coming months…
- Member Badges – add the official CMX Pro badge to your websites, profiles, emails and anywhere else on the web.
- Mentor Network – our curated mentor network will enable members to book 1:1 meetings with experienced community professionals and experts.
- More Action Plans – we will continue to develop action plans that will help you navigate specific challenges in your work building communities.
With the community growing quickly, and a lot more value being added to the network, we will be increasing the CMX Pro membership fee to $750/year on September 18th, and we will be discontinuing the monthly option.
If you’re already a member, we will not increase your membership fees. You are locked in at your current rate for as long as you’re a member, as a way of saying thanks for supporting us early in getting this membership off the ground.
Accessibility and inclusion is critical to a healthy community, and we will also be offering payment plans, scholarships and reduced rates for non-profits.
CMX Summit in the Rose City
Our 9th conference is coming up in less than a month, and it’s poised to be our best event yet.
Erica McGillivray joined us last year from Moz, and quickly got to work making improvements to CMX Summit. Her hard work showed, and last year’s event was by far our highest rated event to date, with members giving it a 4.15/5.
It had a positive impact on this year’s event, as tickets have been selling faster than we’ve ever seen, and at the point of writing this we are on track to sell out early. The workshop is already sold out, and 80% of the 400+ tickets are sold.
Quite honestly, this is the first year since starting CMX that I’m not stressed about ticket sales. I’m sure Erica still is, but she hides it well. I’m so excited to see this year’s event come to Portland for the first time. CMX Summit has never been hosted in the same venue twice, and we’re hoping we’ve found a home we can come back to next year.
The next month is going to be filled with webinars, interviews, announcements, and lots of energy in the community as we lead up to the big event. If you’re coming and haven’t already, jump in the CMX Summit 2018 Group and start connecting with other attendees.
Webinars we have coming up soon:
- Terri Lomax from Asana: Managing an Online Community Through a Company Acquisition: A Chat with CMX Summit Speaker Terri Lomax
- Richard Millington from Feverbee: Escaping the Engagement Trap: An Interview with David Spinks
Keep an eye on CMX social accounts, the blog, and our CMX Weekly newsletter for more summit updates.
More Updates and Upcoming Announcements
In addition to CMX Pro and CMX Summit, the team has been growing, and we’re working hard to develop content and new offerings for the community industry.
- We hired a part-time CFO who has been helping us with business modeling and strategy.
- We’re continuing to bootstrap the business, and are looking at a range of options to bring in more capital to help us grow and manage cash flow.
- We have been testing new recruiting and consulting arms of CMX. If you need help hiring, or need consulting support with your community strategy, email info@cmxhub.com
- After a hiatus, the CMX Blog is up and running again, and we’re accepting submissions.
- We’re working on a big overhaul of the website structure and design, coming soon…
- Local events are organically starting up around the world and while we don’t have a ton of bandwidth to support local hosts right now, it’s on our short list to invest in.
Onward!
Transparency and consistency are critically important to the community we have all created together at CMX. To keep you in the loop, and make sure we’re constantly listening, we’re planning on making regular updates like this via the blog. Stay tuned for more updates, and if you have any feedback on any of these updates, email us at info@cmxhub.com any time. We want to hear your feedback, both positive and constructive.
