Long before we thought about launching Engage365 in December of 2010, we consulted with Lindy Dreyer and Maddie Grant (of SocialFish) to provide insights and guidance to our new community. It took us a year to really learn that these two ladies were the right people to help guide us. It was their ability to demonstrate their experiences with associations, online communities, relationships and social technologies.

While we focused on growing Engage365, they have focused their energies on writing their book, “Open Community” for Association and community leaders. It’s a small book (in size) with a collection of big ideas, processes and far reaching concepts for building community online in a way to help associations succeed.

Now that they are releasing their book, on behalf of the Engage365 community, I thought I would catch up with them.

Engage365 is taking part in the virtual book tour Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer are doing to explore concepts from Open Community: a little book of big ideas for associations navigating the social web.

You can buy the book at the Engage365 bookstore. Use coupon code ENGAGE365 and save 10% off your order.

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e365: Why did you write Open Community?

<Lindy giggles, but Maddie answers>

Maddie: Lindy and I have talked to thousands of association executives who have voiced their frustrations about the social web–from the overabundance of tools and the disorderly experimentation of staff (and members!), to the lack of organizational support and the unwieldy processes for monitoring and managing social media, and that’s just the beginning. We decided to write Open Community as a way to address those frustrations and redirect the thinking about using social tools to build community online.

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e365: So, what is “Open Community?”

Lindy: Here’s the gist. Your Open Community is your people who are bonded by what your organization represents and care enough to talk to each other (hopefully about you!) online. Connecting with and supporting your Open Community is really important, because if you don’t, someone else will.

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e365: How does Open Community relate to events?

Maddie: Events are such an important part of building community–you’re creating lots of content for people to socialize around. And face-to-face creates opportunities for bonding on much deeper levels. Event pros are experts at community building, in real life.

Lindy: So when we talk about “Open Community” we’re talking about what that can look like online. The trend now is to build event community platforms–and while we see that as a good tactic for some events, we see an opportunity for events who broaden their thinking about what it means to be a part of an event community.

Maddie: Exactly–your event’s Open Community is not exclusively using your event web site or community platform. And there are lots of ways to connect and support the community, regardless of where they choose to bond with each other (and you!)

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e365: Do You Feel Face to Face (F2F) meetings drive online community or is it vice-versa?

Lindy: Both ends drive each other. They amplify each other. And this will increase, when more and more people are comfortable being social online.

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e365: Would you classify Engage365 as an “Open Community”

Lindy: Definitely! It taps into its open community. Just look at the Engage365 Twitter chats. Many people use the community to connect with others and (you), the leaders embrace and connect with other communities such as #eventprofs and EventCamp and YAP (young association professionals).

e365: Speaking of YAP, how does your experience leading this community help?

Maddie: YAP inspirited a lot of the writing for me and Lindy. It’s our sandbox for open community.

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e365: Who should read the book?

Lindy: Anyone interested in building community online.  It’s targeted towards associations, with some of the vocabulary about members that associations are most used to, but other organizations will appreciate the broader concepts too. We wrote with top-level and C-suite executives in mind, but it’s meant for a team of people at all levels to get the conversation going.

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e365: What’s happens next?

Maddie: Well, we see the book as a conversation starter–we hope lots and lots of people will get the chance to read it, and think about how the concepts affect their organization.

Lindy: And we hope to gather lots of great stories about Open Community in action, which we’ll continue to share in lots of ways throughout the year. So here’s a question for all of you Engage365 peeps to consider…

• How is your event building community online?
• What’s your strategy for connecting with and supporting your Open Community? Is it working?

Chime in on these questions! And, buy the book today.

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