Your Event is Not a Community—But It Can Help You Build One

“Build it and they will come…” (Not)

A client of mine produces the largest event in the world, in their industry. On their 1 million+ square foot show floor, they build 10 “communities”, one for each of their professional sub-specialties, at a cost of nearly $200k.

They build these communities and literally, nobody came. They sat empty for the entire 3-day event.

This illustrates a common misconception about community in the event industry: we naively believe that if we build it, they will come.

The Highest Purpose of Events

I’ve come to believe that the highest purpose of events is to build community. As a business strategist, I recognize that events are a crucial marketing channel for many organizations, but communities offer even greater business value. Both can be true.

After conducting an extensive review of the community literature, speaking with thought leaders, and interviewing dozens of community managers, they all agree on one thing: an event is not a community.

However, events do play a critical role in building one.

The Community-Based Event

Community professionals host many events, but their approach differs from traditional event professionals. At a community-based event, everyone’s job is to build community.

This new approach to events allows businesses to engage stakeholders in an ongoing dialogue, where feedback and participation directly influence products, services, policies, and procedures.

Consider the language we use when talking about events and communities:

• Events are planned. Communities are built.
• We go to events. We join communities.

One is transactional, the other transformational.

Relative (but not absolute) Differences Between Events and Communities

Definitions Event professionals define events and communities similarly: both involve a group of people with shared interests. However, community professionals see more nuance.

“A community is a place where members feel they belong to something larger than themselves, with a sense of agency or influence within the community.”

— Carrie Melissa Jones

Which leads me to something else I’ve come to believe: events will struggle to reach their full business potential until they align with something greater, like a purpose-driven community.

Purpose Many events lack a clear purpose. When asked why they’re holding a particular event, event stakeholders often say, “We did it last year.” Without a clear purpose that aligns with their overall business strategy, event planning proceeds aimlessly. Event plans are often used as a substitute for an actual event strategy.

Communities, however, start with “why.” The purpose drives the community strategy, which then determines the role events play in supporting community building.

Place The event industry has a bias towards in-person gatherings, often overlooking the potential of digital events. During the pandemic, digital events were a necessary evil, quickly discarded as soon as in-person events returned.

Communities, by contrast, are digital-first and location-agnostic. They thrive on economies of scale and are supported by various types of events.

Time Events are linear, with a beginning, middle, and end. Due to the time, money and effort involved, they’re held infrequently.

Communities are ongoing, with no fixed schedule. They’re always on, following the evolving needs of community members rather than a timeline.

Marketing Traditional event marketing targets broad audiences with a one-size-fits-all approach promoting education and networking, often yielding diminishing returns.

Communities, particularly brand-based ones, leverage brand ambassadors, customer evangelists, and word-of-mouth. They allow for niche messaging, making marketing efforts more efficient and effective.

Audience Awareness Event producers often rely on limited demographic data, leading to limited audience insights. The prevailing attitude is, “Build it and they will come.”

Communities, on the other hand, use both demographic and psychographic data, resulting in deeper insights and more actionable audience profiles. Their mantra is, “Build it with them, and they will come.”

“To build an audience, you help people.

To build a community, you help people help each other.”

— David Spinks

Content Event content is designed for consumption. It’s often experienced passively and becomes obsolete quickly. Once the event is over, content is archived but rarely accessed.

Community content is designed to connect. It’s accessible 24/7 and remains relevant over time. Community content is dynamic, frequently repurposed, and accessed often.

Communication Events typically communicate through a limited number of channels, often resembling a monologue with few feedback mechanisms.

Community communication is omnichannel and dialogic, promoting active listening and supporting multiple feedback loops.

Engagement Event engagement is generic and not outcome-oriented. It relies on basic techniques and is rarely tracked for impact.

Community engagement is specific, focused on cognitive, behavioral, or emotional outcomes. It uses a broader toolset and is easier to measure for effectiveness.

Experience Event experiences are often unintentional and transactional, marked by commoditized sameness.

Community experiences are intentionally designed and transformational, allowing for greater personalization and customization.

Belonging The feeling of belonging at an event is temporary, and taken for granted as a byproduct of attendance. Networking often substitutes for belonging, but it’s mostly transactional in practice.

Belonging to a community requires time and effort. It results in authentic relationships, providing deeper, more meaningful, and more sustainable benefits.

Metrics Event metrics focus on outputs like attendance and revenue, which are only important to event owners. These generic metrics often result in generic event experiences.

Community metrics focus on outcomes important to members, like individual and organizational performance improvement. Outcome data drives the design of more personalized experiences and actually drive output metrics like attendance. The more business value you can drive for your attendees, the more they'll keep coming back.

Competitive Advantage Events are resource-intensive, costly, and time-consuming. They rely on short-term, transactional connections and, most importantly, are easy to copy.

Communities have fewer fixed and variable costs, are easier to scale, and rely on long-term, transformational relationships. Their uniqueness provides a significant competitive advantage.

Afterwards… When an event ends, it’s often “game over.” There’s little continuity or follow-up.

A community, however, is ongoing. It evolves and grows, with follow-up and follow-through as integral components.

Conclusion

Event professionals are just beginning to discover the power of community. While there are similarities between events and communities, the differences are significant.

For those interested in exploring the opportunities encompassed in community-based events, keep these points in mind:

• Promote community as a solution to industry challenges like audience retention and engagement, driving more purposeful events that impact business outcomes. This is a change management issue.
• Beware of Imposter Syndrome. The industry tends to turn emerging trends into buzzwords. Community-building requires genuine effort and expertise—don’t fall for oversimplifications.
• Hire the professionals. As with event planning, community-building demands unique skills that take years to master. Consider collaborative partnerships with community subject matter experts to start small and scale.

Whether communities or events are the better marketing channel depends on your goals, target audience, and the nature of your product or service.