Build Community, For You

Recently, I participated as a panelist at an event series called Founders & Makers organized by Susan Charara, herself an entrepreneur. During our pre-panel coffee chat, we talked about what we could explore during the panel and our backgrounds. At one point we talked about where she thought Founders & Makers could go long term, but more importantly I wanted to know why she started the series in the first place.

I would often get asked the same thing as we were getting initiatives like artsScene, TEDx and Startup Edmonton off the ground. All the organizing — meetups, democamps, festivals, panels, hackathons — was simply about gathering interesting people in our own community. But with more attention, things became more complicated. We were focusing more on program strategy, policy shaping, finding long term funding, and scaling up impact. Because that’s what you’re supposed to do, right?

One of the challenges I see in cities is how we burn out passionate organizers of grassroots initiatives as they’re building. We distract them with trying to fit into a broader strategy in the interests of more sustainable communities. We create a negative perception around community organizing that self-interest or (gasp) charging for value by an organizer is bad; that they’re only in it to recruit talent and customers; that if you’re not participating around a roundtable, you’re not being a good community player; or, that you must pick between building your company or building community, but you can’t do both at the same time.

There’s nothing wrong with community building around something that matters to you first. To me, that’s where the best things start from. I organize events and meetups because it’s a way to surround myself with awesome people in my own backyard and abroad. I organize to level up my circle of peers. I organize to level up my thinking. And I organize in a way that creates opportunities for others to build new relationships and friendships. Thus levelling up my community as a result.

As humans, we learn best from each other, and meetups provide the simplest way for us to gather. We create value for each other one relationship at a time. You don’t need to set up an association, appoint a board, sell memberships, or lobby government, to build community. No programs, no roadmaps, non-profit, for-profit, whatever. Just organize a gathering, large or small, around something that matters to you to start. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that.

To those who have capacity to support passionate community organizers — just do it. Give them resources, sponsor, participate. But don’t make it about your strategy or platform, make it about theirs. Because it’s organizers who create magic in our cities by building something when no one asked them to.

It’s as simple as my new friend Susan putting 50 people in a room to share stories about building companies. Because you never know where those relationships might lead to one day.

That’s plenty of value for me.