Roundtable: Seating or discussion arrangement in which (usually) all participants are considered peers.
What is the magic of a roundtable? Perhaps its more easily seen in action. Recently I was on a weekly call with TheCR Network where we had an expert speaker talking about a hot topic. Usually experts speak while others listen.
This was not the case at The Community Roundtable that day. Mostly because one of our tenets is we want the members of our peer network to participate and move the discussion forward. So on this day, the speaker started the discussion but soon it moved from his expert opinion to our members discussing how they saw the issue from their hands-on experiences and their strategic planning. To the point where our “expert” that day became more of a listener than a talker.
There are two reasons I saw this to be great.
1) It shows our TheCR Network members are the experts. They are the ones in the trenches of Community Management and Community Strategy every day. They are happy to hear from pundits and thought leaders but are not afraid to push back or disagree or bolster an argument with personal business case studies.
2) It is where communities mature to after you start them and grow them and nurture them. You hope the community takes over the discussion and leaves you on the sidelines. It’s one way to know your group is continuing to move forward.
The discussion was so vibrant that we were asked to schedule a follow up session on the subject. And I am very much looking forward to having a seat at The Community Roundtable for that discussion. Because I know there is much to learn from all of my peers “seated” there with me.
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The Community Roundtable is committed to advancing the business of community and being a valued resource to community and social business professionals. We offer a monthly subscription report, a membership based peer network, a community management training program and advisory services for corporations and individuals.
