Tag: ICMSummit

Why a CMX Connect Milan?

CMX Connect Milan

If you know me, you also know I’ve been advocating since 2015 for a space, in real life, where community managers can gather, discuss, grow together. So the first CLSxItaly was born, and it was a blast! Fast forward to nowadays, we organized 6 conferences, gave a stage to 35 speakers, re-branded from CLSxItaly to Italian Community Managers Summit (ICM Summit, for friends), connected hundreds of Italian community professionals in real life and on a Facebook group.

Today, I decided to make another important step along this journey: open a CMX Connect chapter in Milan.

The reason is still the same of 4 years ago: offer to community managers, builders and professionals a platform to connect each other, to learn and share about this common passion we all have, to create a group identity to avoid the feeling of being alone. To grow, together, in this profession.

The choice of the CMX Connect format was pretty straightforward. After the first couple of conferences, we organizers immediately noticed an insatiable thirst to keep meeting and sharing with our fellows community builders. So strong, the cadence of the conferences was too diluted to satisfy it. We knew we should have organized meetups between the summits, but we had no time to do that (remember, we do all of this for free). Then, one day, I noticed the CMX Connect initiatives, and how their 5 Ws fitted perfectly with the idea we had in mind, plus the access the richest and strongest network of community professionals around the world.

And so, with a pinch of courage, I founded the CMX Connect Milan chapter, with Chiara and Alessio helping me running it (and more help always welcome). It will be the bridge to close the gap between ICM Summit events (next one on 15 Nov, tickets here). It will allow us to experiment with more lightweight formats, with a shorter cadence, with the same passion behind.

And the dream of seeing, in the near future, several Italian CMX Connect chapters collaborating together to organize the ICM Summit. Let’s see if this future will land.

Living / working in Milan area and interested in community management topics? Become a member of the CMX Connect Milan and see you at our next events!

Improve the Italian community management landscape

There is one element we’ve heard loud and clear from the retrospective of the three CLSxItaly events organised so far and attendees feedback: the Italian community management scene is in its early stage, with fragmented connections across the “professionals” of this world, especially if compared with other European countries. I have no doubt time will improve the current situation, but simply waiting for the good to come is something outside my way of doing. What if all these community managers working in and/or for the Italian landscape are dots, and we can do something to accelerate the organic process that will better connect them over time?

At its core, CLSxItaly platform was born with this vision in mind, but in-person events alone haven’t provided the speed we expected. So,we decided to start a new project, to proactively scout, highlight and connect all these people and strengthen relationships inside this community of practitioners we all are part of. Please welcome the CLSxItaly interview series.

The idea is to run a short interview with the many people working with communities in Italy, transcribe these conversations and give them back to our community. Here the list of the question we want to ask:

  • Who you are and how are you connected with the Italian community landscape?
  • What’s the best thing you’ve seen happening inside the community, or thanks to it?
  • What has been the toughest challenge you’ve managed building the community?
  • What’s your best tip for a person that wants to start as community manager/leader/builder, for profit or for fun?
  • If you had a magic wand, what you would change or improve in the Italian community management scene?
  • What’s your community superpower? (thanks to Community Roundtable podcast folks for this question)
  • Who is the next person you know we should interview?

As you can see, nothing terribly complex, probably the conversation will end in less than 10 minutes. Of course, feedback to the questions are welcome.

So, there is a simple call to action if you are a community manager working in or for the Italian context: please reach me (or any other member of the CLSxItaly team) and we’ll be happy to have with you such conversation. Or suggest us one of these people to interview, if you aren’t. In any case, see you at the forth CLSxItaly, Nov 25th in Rome.

CLSxItaly: what happened and lessons learned

CLSxItaly communities

Are you interested in what happened during the first CLSxItaly? Take a look to the recorded morning sessions. Curious about my retrospective? Please keep reading.

I’m excited

I’m excited because I get excited when one of my idea come to life and influence real people, in real life, and has an impact. So was CLSxItaly: from a thought I had in July to an occasion where 65 people met and shared around one the their passions: community management! First time for Italy, as far as I know, first time, for sure, for technical communities.
I’m excited because only half of the attendees came from technical communities, while the other half represented travel communities, open source projects, coworking and urban spaces, creative artists, maker and much more.
I’m excited because we has a 35% women participation, and diversity matters.
I’m excited because we all had fun: 3,74 average score (out of 4) is something we can be proud of ! :)

Key learnings

The CLSxItaly core organisers

First personal gain was the core organisers team: discover that a spontaneous group of people is able to create a team that works great for accomplishing a particular tasks is always a bless! And so were Alessio, Michel and Stefano. Thank you guys, you make my small dream possible, and with style!

Second important point was the umpteenth confirmation that a vision, passions and personal relationships are the three key tools to achieve any goal: the before mentioned organisers team gifted me with their own time and commitment; Davide had no hesitation when I asked him “We need a place to host 100 people for an event, and for free”; Francesco, Francesco and Mara+Chiara+Andrea put real money to make everything possible: they all believed in the same vision I had and, sustained by a common passion and connected by our personal relationships, we all morphed that vision into a real fact.

Me rearranging unconference proposals
Me rearranging unconference proposals

Third key actor for the success of CLSxItaly were the attendees. Every time I received an Eventbrite notification that someone paid 15 euro to join, I though “Oh wow, another person that trusts in our idea”. The most important positive feedback we received were about the quality of the networking, the easy-going atmosphere and the constant sharing. All of them were only because of the quality of the attendees. Probably the non-free ticket for the event, the (still) niche topics discussed and the location helped to pre-selected the audience.

Regarding the experience to offer to the attendees, selecting only two core goals and working all around them made the job. We choose to focus in creating a learning path equally composed by frontal teaching along a common narrative (the plenary sessions during the morning) and peer learning (the unconference in the afternoon), plus special care in creating lot of occasions to get in touch each other and warm-up relations as soon as possible. All the rest followed: over the two coffee breaks, the lunch and the aperitif I saw lot of different aggregation groups, and this was positive. Despite just a bounce of folks have participated to an unconference before CLSxItaly, the general feeling was positive.

So, what’s next

I lead an unconference session regarding next steps for CLSxItaly. We had some ideas to run the next event in Rome in six months, drive by people of the local context. Let’s see. For sure, I want continue what has been started in Milan. But, as for Milan, I cannot do it alone. Wanna help? Join the discussion!

CLSxItaly: The Community Leadership Summit event is a reality

CLSxItaly

Some months ago, I threw a stone in the pond: I launched the idea to organize an event focused on community management for the Italian tech community ecosystem. Something new for our country, never realized before, something I consider really helpful for the peculiar ecosystem situation we’re living now. Thanks for all the support and feedback I’ve received so far, the ideas has became reality. On February 27th, in Milan, Talent Garden Calabiana is hosting the first CLSxItaly.

Should you come? If you’re the manager of a tech community of any kind (development, makers, operative systems and many more) and you want to learn more about your “job/passion” as a community manager, definitively yes! If your company is working on a technical product and considers the community a crucial part of its development cycle, you should come. If you think you have something to say about diversity in the IT world, you have to come!

How the event will be? A Community Leadership Summit X event type follows a precise licence, so the CLSxItaly will. The event will start on Saturday morning with plenary sessions (have ideas? Ping me please!), then the lunch and then the afternoon will be dedicated to unconference sessions, where participants can discuss topics, needs and ideas they like. A final aperitif will close the day together. This is the “official program”, them I’m sure lot of satellite events will happen, at the end community managers live on that!

What are the CLSxItaly’s goals? First, meet the other Italian community managers face to face. As already discussed, I know different tech communities that have gathered under a national umbrella (GrUSP, GDG Italia, UGIdotNET, JUG, LUG etc), but I also know they don’t exist important cross-community relations, so the event can be the occasion to create them: similar experiences I had in other countries told me that it can only be a good thing. Then, I don’t know about any occasion in Italy to discuss, explore, share and experiment around the “art of community management”, so why don’t create one? Finally, I want to give back: communities have always been one of my passions since the far 2007, when I founded the CMLug, until today, when they are part of my daily job. And passions matter!

So, save the date (February 27th, Milan), spread the voice using the CLSxItaly hashtag and, if you’re interested in joining the adventure, please let me know, even in the comments: there are plenty of things to do (and to learn) and your hand, although small, is more than welcome. To make it more clearer: we need to start from the basics, from building the website… Any help on that?