Event Recaps

A recap of our Context First conversation with Hillarie Ralston on how product-led customer events turn attendee feedback into loyalty, advocacy, and real product impact.

Richard Millington of FeverBee joins Context First to explain why community engagement is declining industry-wide, and which types of knowledge community still creates better than AI or documentation.

A recap of Gradual's Context First fireside chat with leaders from OpenAI, Contentsquare, and Gradual on turning customer engagement into measurable growth.

Brian Hansen explains how the OVE Framework helps SaaS teams understand customer outcomes, measure value, manage expectations, and improve retention and expansion.

Josh Zerkel hosts a live Q&A on community engagement, covering how to get members to participate, why they come back, how audiences differ, and how to measure it all.

Ed Giansante shares how a one-person community team influenced $3M in pipeline through AI, curated events, tracking, and sales.

Mark Birch explains why community measurement remains difficult, how to connect community signals to business outcomes, and what leaders can do before their next finance conversation.

Jake McKee explains how Conversation Debt builds when product teams rely on secondhand customer insight, and how better customer conversations create stronger product decisions.

Michelle Baltrusitis shares how Fiverr made community more strategic by aligning programs to business goals, internal partnerships, and shared outcomes.

Darragh Collins shares how B2B communities can earn participation through founding members, curation, personal attention, and member-led connection.

A practical reflection from on how community teams can build influence by translating customer context across product, GTM, and leadership.

Audrey Vandenbroeck shares how Campfire Stories helped Issuu turn customer conversations into useful context for product, GTM, CX, and retention.

Why community depth matters more than scale, and how intentional experiences create trust, insight, and business value.

A practical recap of Patricia Feitosa’s approach to community migration, focused on habits, trust, continuity, and helping members adapt to change.

A recap of my conversation with Ashley Williams on turning internal skepticism into support by clarifying community’s value, evolving with company needs, and building trust over time.

A recap of Gradual’s Context First dinner in New York exploring how leaders translate customer engagement signals into cross-functional alignment and executive decision making.

A recap of Gradual’s conversation with Brittney Aston on how orientation, participation design, and psychological safety shape member experience and community engagement.

Repeat customer buyers close faster and generate higher value. This recap explores how B2B teams can activate repeat buyer programs by improving customer data and cross-team visibility.

A practitioner recap of how Reddit engagement supports GEO and helps teams turn external conversations into shared customer context.

A candid Executive Insights conversation with Holly Firestone on how community teams build internal alignment by translating member value into shared context across the business.

A practitioner-led recap on B2B community leadership, executive buy-in, and how to translate community work into measurable business impact.

A practitioner-led recap of Gradual’s January Community Roundtable, exploring how community signals and shared context are shaping GTM strategy decisions.

A practical recap of how Splunk’s community team approached migration planning, communication, and member trust during a major platform change.

We just shipped a fresh set of product updates focused on community customization, learning experiences, events, integrations, and analytics—including a more powerful pre-login homepage builder, customizable welcome emails, native course quizzes and certificates, streamlined event duplication and event-type switching, plus expanded Marketo and Common Room integrations. You’ll also find notable improvements like upgraded club metrics, search history reporting, and a unified global chat experience, with more enhancements on the way.

Community leaders gathered in San Francisco to explore how engagement becomes intelligence, sharing real examples of human connection, member behavior, and community-led program design.

Brian Oblinger shared how executives can turn community into a true business asset by aligning teams, measuring outcomes, and preparing for the future of AI.

Discover how the Gradual Community brings marketing, sales, CX, product, and community leaders together to learn, share, and grow what drives results.

Gradual brought together senior leaders from across CX, Marketing, Product, Growth, Brand, and Community for an evening of open conversation on what it really takes to build customer trust in an AI-driven world. The group explored how transparency, cross-functional alignment, and authentic human connection shape lasting relationships with customers. From defining “trust as the new moat” to rethinking how teams collaborate and show personality, the discussion made one thing clear: trust grows through listening, honesty, and shared purpose.

At our October Community Roundtable in San Francisco, community builders and cross-functional partners came together to explore how trust, transparency, and human connection shape customer relationships in the age of AI. The conversation touched on the power of authentic voices, the importance of company-owned community spaces, and how teams can see beyond personas to better understand the people they serve.