4 community leaders battle it out on the debate of how to handle lurkers in your community. They've taken their stance and will represent three approaches in a panel discussion. Leave them be: Laura Zug Try to get them active: Leslie Greenwood & Tim McDonald Kick them out: Bri Leever Each talks about their approach and when their approach is the right one to take.

Alfredo Morresi and Van Riper have over a decade of experience at Google in developer relationship and community management. They will talk about their experiences in the context of the Google Developer Groups, a meta community program born in 2009 that has grown to 1,000+ chapters across 140 countries. They discuss how to build a program at that scale with benefits for the company, benefits for the developer community, and benefits for the world.

We invest hours, days, months, maybe even years of time building a community space. After all that investment, do we have the ability to shut it down if it's not working? No matter how much effort we've put into a community space, we have to be honest about whether or not it's serving and supporting the community and be willing to let go. But that's easier said than done. This is an honest conversation with veteran community builder and current Head of Community at Nextdoor, Caty Kobe to where she explores her experiences shutting down community spaces. Caty shares insights from her own community journeys of what has worked, and what hasn't, and some tips and tricks to know when and how to move on.

One of the most common mistakes community builders make (especially when they come from a marketing background) is treating their community like they treat their audience. Having a marketing background gives you an amazing leg up in the community space, but you're prone to certain myths that need to be busted. Join Bri Leever as she explores the similarities and differences between working in marketing and building a community, and shares about her own mistakes along the way.

Bill will present primary research on the role of purpose in community strategy, give a summary of recent research on how brands are investing in high-touch online community experiences for their executive customers, and offer guidance on how to think about creating more purposeful and intimate communities for your organization.  When most brands think "community", they think of online forums that are focused on support and knowledge management - this is an unfortunate limiting belief. The pandemic forced the mass adoption of digital collaboration tools and triggered a sober look at how we spend our time online. Many people are now searching for more meaningful, authentic, and intimate online experiences. These facts point to significant opportunities for online communities a central role in experiences that have traditionally been relegated to in-person, including Executive advisory boards, mastermind groups, industry innovation and much more.