We often tell companies that they should look to their community to find great talent. Your most active community members are the people who truly understand the mission of your community and are there for the right reasons.
If, on top of that, the member possesses just the right skill set you need to grow your team, you’ve got a golden opportunity to bring on a key team member.
Well, we’re taking our own advice. Today we have a few big announcements…
Meet Evan Hamilton, the new Director of Community at CMX
Many of you who follow CMX know Evan Hamilton already. To say that this is a match we’ve dreamed of would be an understatement.
He’s one of the most dedicated, passionate, and respected professionals in the community industry. He previously ran community for Coursera, Zozi and Uservoice. He’s the founder of the Community Manager Breakfast. He’s part of the heart and soul of this industry.
Even though Evan has been contributing as a CMX community member, speaker and supporter since day one, we take great pride that Evan decided to work with us full-time on the CMX mission to advance the community industry.
As far as what Evan will actually be doing, he’ll start by running all CMX Summits. If you’ve been to a CMX Summit conference, you know how deliberate we are about creating a welcoming, warm environment for community builders old and new. We’ve been dedicated to providing the best possible content alongside this experience. With Evan putting his experience and full focus toward CMX Summit, you can expect only bigger and better.
In the future, he’ll also lead the CMX Series program, working with our organizers around the globe.
In Evan’s own words:
“I’ll be transitioning into this full-time role over the next few months as I wrap up my consulting contracts. My initial focus will be making CMX Summit East 2016 the best Summit yet (a tall order!), and gradually I’ll start focusing on the CMX Series events, the Facebook group, and any other way I can think of to connect those in our industry and push it forward. I’ll need your help! Via email or via Twitter/LinkedIn, let me know what you want to see from CMX.”
You can read Evan’s full announcement here.
This brings the CMX team to three full-time members: Evan, Carrie Jones and myself (woo! 50% team growth!)
We decided that hiring for a community position this early was critical for CMX. Community isn’t just the theme of our business. It’s at the core of everything we do. It’s our number one value. Everything we do at CMX stems from our commitment to serving our community. So this was an obvious hire.
And, yes, we realize that as the Director of Community for CMX, the Community for Community Professionals, Evan officially has the most meta job in the world. Bless up.
Carrie Melissa Jones Moves to Chief Operating Officer Position
To add to that exciting news, Carrie Jones is now transitioning into a Chief Operating Officer position after working as the Director of Content for the last year and a half.
This was a very obvious and natural transition as Carrie has grown to be a critical member of the CMX team. She’s one of the hardest working people I’ve worked with and has gone above and beyond to make the CMX brand and content something we can all be proud of.
Like Evan, Carrie has also been hustling in the community industry since before it was considered an industry. A leader in the space even before joining CMX, she learned the ins and outs of community strategy during her work building community for Chegg, Scribd, and many clients through her consulting.
During her time at CMX, Carrie has already published dozens of industry-shaping case studies, launched the first CMX research project (of many), and has played a critical role in the launch of CMX Training. Carrie cares so deeply about this community, regularly going above and beyond to help CMX community members with their challenges. She truly embodies the CMX mission.
In the expanded COO position, Carrie will lead all core operations for CMX, working side-by-side with Evan and myself to push forward on our bold new projects in 2016. She’ll also streamline our content program, which includes all of our research, articles, case studies, and online events.
What the Future Holds for CMX and the Community Industry
Now it’s time for us to wax poetic about all the future holds in store for this company and for your careers. We’ve known this for a while, but every single day, it becomes even more clear: community-driven business is inevitable.
You’re doing work that is changing the world, making people’s lives brighter, and bringing real value to your businesses.
2016 is going to be a big year for this industry and for CMX. Last Saturday marked exactly two years since we hosted the first CMX Summit in San Francisco. A lot has changed since then. The community industry is better defined, connected, and equipped than ever before. Which is good, because the spotlight on community is getting stronger and companies are looking for people to help them figure it out.
We initially started CMX to unite the community industry. We hope we’ve done a good job of that to this point. Now to continue to advance the industry, our goal in 2016 is to make community professionals and businesses more efficient in their community building work. We intend to get more buy-in from brands and executives who haven’t quite grasped the opportunity in front of them yet.
To do that, we’ll be focusing on building out CMX services like training, consulting, and recruiting. Our first training program received a huge response and sold out almost immediately, which was enough validation for us that the industry is ready for rigorous standards, deep learning, and models that new community professionals can incorporate into their work. We’re going to continue to grow the community and launch more events, release more research, bring on bigger partners, and publish more of the strong content you’ve come to expect.
We’ll be growing our team too, so give us a shout if you’re interested in joining the CMX team and you see an opportunity to fill some gaps (we’re currently looking for folks with expertise in content/editorial/writers).
We’ve come a long way in a short time with a very small team. For a bootstrapped company, I’m incredibly proud and grateful to be in the position we’re in. But there’s still a lonnnng way to go and the industry still faces some huge challenges.
We have a massive vision for the future and will not stop fighting for it. Bringing Evan on and Carrie’s expanded role will help us go bigger and move quicker. It’s an exciting road ahead.
Onward.
