Community Leadership Awards Archives

The Community Roundtable Recognizes Excellence in Community Management with Community Leadership Awards 2024

November 8, 2024 By Jim Storer

Esri, UKG, CSA Group, and Cambridge Associates among global organizations recognized as leaders of innovation in community management.

The winners of the ninth annual Community Leadership Awards were announced Monday, October 21^st and included community leaders from organizations including Esri, UKG, Constant Contact, the American Association of Medical Colleges, and more. The Community Roundtable, the leading global resource for the community management industry, presented the awards at their annual Connect event for online community management professionals. As the recognized leader in community management research, training, and thought leadership, The Community Roundtable is uniquely qualified to evaluate and reward individual and organizational contributions to the industry.

Community Leadership Awards recognize excellence in online community management across nine categories: Outstanding Community Programming, Outstanding Community Dashboard, Outstanding Community ROI, Outstanding Community Design Element, Outstanding Advocacy Program, Community Trailblazer, Community MVP, Community Champion, and Community Phoenix. Members of The Network – the world’s premier independent resource for community professionals – were recognized in seven individual categories. In total, 16 organizations and individuals were recognized for outstanding efforts in community management.

“I’m thrilled to acknowledge winners of the 2024 Community Leadership Awards, celebrating the outstanding accomplishments of this year’s best-in-class community managers, teams, and organizations. Their passion, innovation, and commitment to building meaningful connections are truly inspiring, and I couldn’t be more excited to honor these community leaders who are setting the standard for excellence in community management and engagement.” said Jim Storer, Co-Founder and COO at The Community Roundtable.

The winners of 2024 Community Leadership Award are:

Outstanding Community Dashboard 2024: Autodesk

The “Outstanding Community Dashboard” award recognizes a community dashboard that exhibits the most impressive and engaging design, sharing metrics and measurement in an impactful way that contributes to the overall narrative of a community program.

Outstanding Community ROI 2024: Constant Contact

“Outstanding Community ROI” award recognizes a community that has best demonstrated significant ROI for their business/organization through innovative community management practices.

Outstanding Community Programming 2024: Esri

The “Outstanding Community Programming” recognizes an exceptional community programming that the whole of a member’s journey.

Outstanding Community Design Element 2024: Cambridge Associates

The “Outstanding Design Element” award recognizes a design element in an online community program that demonstrates meaningful engagement through thoughtful design.

Outstanding Advocacy Program 2024: UKG

The ”Outstanding Advocacy Program” award recognizes outstanding community leadership programs that increase engagement, recognize members, and showcase unique talents.

Community Phoenix 2024: American Association of Medical Colleges

The “Community Phoenix” award recognizes an individual or team that successfully navigated dramatic change to their workplace or industry.

Community Trailblazer 2024: CSA Group

The “Community Trailblazer” award recognizes an outstanding use of emerging technology in an online community program.

Community MVP 2024: Carianne Behr, AECOM

The “Community MVP” award recognizes individual excellence in community management – including outstanding efforts, willingness to share with peers, achievements, and excellent community results.

Community MVT 2024: UKG

The “Community MVP” award recognizes team excellence in community management – including outstanding efforts, willingness to share with peers, achievements, and excellent community results.

Community Champion 2024: Janet Stiles, AAMC

The “Community Champion” award recognizes a specific executive that has shown they understand the value of and fully commit to supporting their Community initiatives through messaging, funding, and integrating community into their overall organization.

Community Detective 2024: Stephanie Melfi, nCino

“Community Detective” awards the member who helps source group knowledge and expertise by regularly asking thoughtful and meaningful questions in The Network.

Community Explorer 2024: Alex Blanton, Microsoft

“Community Explorer” awards the member who charts new territory in the community management industry. They take best practices, research, and community models to experiment and advance the industry.

Community Pack Leader 2024: Matthew Hall, Dassault Systèmes

“Community Pack Leader” awards the member who consistently leads the most discussions, online, in-person, and on virtual calls, and shows leadership around a topic or initiative in The Network.

Community Journaler 2024: Marissa Rogers, PegaSystems

“Community Journaler” awards the member who works out loud the most regularly and with the most depth.

Community Power User 2024: Catherine Hackney, Confident Communities

“Community Power User” awards the most active member in TheCR Network who contributes on a regular basis in a wide variety of ways, from sharing their expertise to supporting and encouraging other members.

Community Rookie of the Year 2024: Megan Cohen, The Conference Board

“Rookie of the Year” awards a Network member who has fewer than three years of industry experience, is new to TheCR Network, and is a power user – regularly collaborating and contributing inside the Network.

About The Community Roundtable: The Community Roundtable is the leading, global resource for the community management industry. The Community Roundtable helps organizations from Fortune 500s to start-ups and associations recognize, define, and leverage the power of their communities. Through the industry’s only comprehensive community management research, The Community Roundtable provides training, events, and consulting to help companies recognize real ROI from their community programs. TheCR Network – the world’s premier resource for community professionals, connects hundreds of community practitioners worldwide for networking, professional development, training, education, and support. Learn more at communityroundtable.com

ESRI, UKG, AECOM, and Gallaudet University among global organizations recognized as leaders of innovation in community management.

October 18, 2023 By Jim Storer

The winners of the eighth annual Community Leadership Awards were announced Thursday, October 5^th and included community leaders from organizations like Udacity, Microsoft, UKG, ESRI, AECOM, and more. The Community Roundtable, the leading global resource for the community management industry, presented the awards at their annual Connect event for online community management professionals. As the recognized leader in community management research, training, and thought leadership, The Community Roundtable is uniquely qualified to evaluate and reward individual and organizational contributions to the industry.

Community Leadership Awards recognize excellence in online community management across ten categories: Outstanding Community Programming, Outstanding Community Dashboard, Outstanding Community ROI, Outstanding Community Design Element, Outstanding Advocacy Program, Outstanding New Community, Outstanding Community Migration, Community MVP, Community Champion, and Community Phoenix. Members of TheCR Network – the world’s premier independent resource for community professionals – were recognized in seven individual categories. In total, 14 organizations and individuals were recognized for outstanding efforts in community management.

“We are honored to have a front row seat to witness the innovative work these community professionals are doing,” said Jim Storer, Co-Founder and COO at The Community Roundtable. “As the community world continues to evolve, the organizations and individuals recognized provide a blueprint to the professional for exemplary work.”

Outstanding Communtiy Migration - Udacity

Community Leadership Awards - Community MVP

The winners of 2023 Community Leadership Award are:

Outstanding Community Dashboard 2023: AECOM

Outstanding Community ROI 2023: ESRI

“Outstanding Community ROI” award recognizes a community that has best demonstrated significant ROI for their business/organization through innovative community management practices.

Outstanding Community Programming 2023: Community Food Navigator

The “Outstanding Community Programming” recognizes an exceptional community programming that the whole of a member’s journey.

Outstanding Community Design Element 2023: UKG

The “Outstanding Design Element” award recognizes a design element in an online community program that demonstrates meaningful engagement through thoughtful design.

Outstanding Advocacy Program 2023: ESRI

The ”Outstanding Advocacy Program” award recognizes outstanding community leadership programs that increase engagement, recognize members, and showcase unique talents.

Outstanding Community Launch 2023: Gallaudet University

The “Outstanding Community Launch” award recognizes an innovative or exceptional new Community launched in the last year.

Outstanding Community Migration 2023: Udacity

The “Outstanding Community Migration” award recognizes a community or community team that completes a community migration with exceptional results.

Community Phoenix 2023: April Uzarski, Microsoft

The “Community Phoenix” award recognizes an individual or team that successfully navigated dramatic change to their workplace or industry.

Community MVP 2023: Research Innovations, Inc.

The “Community MVP” award recognizes team excellence in community management – including outstanding efforts, willingness to share with peers, achievements, and excellent community results.

Community Champion 2023: Allison Brotman, UKG

Community Detective 2023: Rosemary Tietge, Claris

“Community Detective” awards the member who helps source group knowledge and expertise by regularly asking thoughtful and meaningful questions in TheCR Network.

Community Explorer 2023: Stephanie Melfi

Community Pack Leader 2023: Melanie Binder, HFMA

“Community Pack Leader” awards the member who consistently leads the most discussions, online, in-person, and on virtual calls, and shows leadership around a topic or initiative in TheCR Network.

Community Journaler 2023: Oliver Beirne, Arm

“Community Journaler” awards the member who works out loud the most regularly and with the most depth.

Community Power User 2023: Marissa Rogers, PegaSystems

Community Rookie of the Year 2023: Michelle Sneck, USAA

The power of an award-winning dashboard

April 10, 2023 By Lindsey Leesmann

Each year, we celebrate excellence in community through our Community Leadership Awards. These awards are The Community Roundtable’s way of recognizing the dedicated individuals and organizations who are doing innovative, mission-critical work in our industry.

Nichol Goldstein, Senior Community Engagement Specialist, weighs in on her work in community at Progress and her advice for others in the industry.

Progress: Outstanding Community Dashboard
"If you're new to community, talk to others. Connections in our network are some of the greatest resources you can leverage." Nichol Goldstein, Senior Community Engagement Specialist

Nichol weighs in on …

The impact of winning the award

It’s been amazing to see my company support me by sharing my win on Twitter and LinkedIn. But, the best part was when someone from my Community saw those posts and added a new thread to our forums congratulating me!

Beyond that, I’ve been having conversations with my stakeholders about what they want to see additionally for metrics, and our dashboards being award-winning is really impressing them. Knowing that the industry appreciates what I’m producing helps give them perspective when it comes to their additional asks.

How being part of TheCR Network has helped

I’m newer to community management. So, I attend events all the time and love hearing other’s ideas, feedback, and searching the archives for information.

I know we discuss the “lurker” a lot, and I’m of the complete belief that I’m getting value, even as I just prowl around TheCR Network Community site.

The future of her community at Progress

I’m working with my stakeholders to get a clearer picture of what they like and what they want to improve. There are minor webpage tweaks — easy fixes! — as well as additional content to get out.

That’s what I really love to hear; other areas of the business raising their hands and wanting to be a part of our Community.

Advice for someone new to community

Talk to others. There is a big chasm [in community] where “you don’t know what you don’t know.” So, it’s hard to ask the right questions or find the right materials.

Listening to your peers on The CR calls can tickle your ear and make you say, “I want to try that,” or “I never thought of it that way.” Connections to our network is one of the greatest resources there is.

Outstanding Community Dashboard

If you’ve been in community management, you know how important a tool a dashboard is. It’s a one-stop-shop to monitor and report on your community’s health. Whether using one directly out of the box or having one custom-built, no two organizations’ dashboards are exactly the same. That’s why we ask our members — representing some of the best and the brightest in community — to show off their work when they nominate orgs for Outstanding Community Dashboard.

The 2022 winner, Progress, checked all the boxes:

Engaging design
Easy-to-understand metrics
Data showing the community’s impact and value

Learn more about the Community Leadership Awards.

The Community Roundtable Recognizes Excellence in Community Management with Community Leadership Awards 2022

October 31, 2022 By Jim Storer

The Community Leadership Awards 2022 recognize Zapier, Progress, Analog Devices, Inc., Microsoft, and Bain and Company, and other global organizations as leaders of innovation in community management.

BOSTON, MA – October 31, 2022

The winners of the seventh annual Community Leadership Awards were announced Tuesday, October 25th, and included community leaders from organizations like Udacity, Microsoft, Zapier, and more. The Community Roundtable, the leading global resource for the community management industry, presented the awards at their first in-person Connect event since the COVID-19 pandemic began. As the recognized leader in community management research, training, and thought leadership, The Community Roundtable is uniquely qualified to evaluate and reward individual and organizational contributions to the industry.

Community Leadership Awards recognize excellence in online community management across five categories: Outstanding Community Program, Outstanding Community Dashboard, Outstanding Community ROI, Outstanding Community Design Element, and Best Recognition & Reward Program. Members of TheCR Network – the world’s premier resource for community professionals – were recognized in six individual categories. An additional award, Community MVP, was awarded based on peer nominations. In total, 11 organizations and individuals were recognized for outstanding efforts in community management.

“2022 proved to be the first year of a ‘new normal’ in the community management space,” said Jim Storer, Co-Founder and COO at The Community Roundtable. “The esteemed community leaders recognized provided invaluable vision and guidance for their organizations during a year full of change.”

The winners of 2022 Community Leadership Awards

Outstanding Community Dashboard 2022: Progress

Outstanding Community ROI 2022: Udacity

“Outstanding Community ROI” award recognizes a community that has best demonstrated significant ROI for their business/organization through innovative community management practices.

Outstanding Community Program 2022: Microsoft

The “Outstanding Community Program” recognizes an exceptional community program that supports new member onboarding, including communications, training, mentoring, and more.

Outstanding Community Design Element 2022: Zapier

The “Outstanding Community Program” award recognizes a design element in an online community program that demonstrates meaningful engagement through thoughtful design.

Best Recognition + Reward Program 2022: Analog Devices, Inc.

The “Best Recognition + Reward Program” award recognizes outstanding community recognition, reward, and gamification programs that increase engagement

Community MVP 2022: Kayla Koch, Sr. Marketing Manager, Customer Community Programs, Egencia

The “Community MVP” award recognizes excellence in community management – including outstanding efforts, willingness to share with peers, achievements, and excellent community results.

Community Detective 2022: Claire Richardson, Enterprise Community Manager, Thomson Reuters

“Community Detective” awards the member who helps source group knowledge and expertise by regularly asking thoughtful and meaningful questions in TheCR Network.

Community Explorer 2022: Dan Simon, Director, Bain

Community Pack Leader 2022: Melissa Hockenberry, Community Program Manager, Datto

“Community Pack Leader” awards the member who consistently leads the most discussions, online, in-person, and on virtual calls, and shows leadership around a topic or initiative in TheCR Network.

Community Journaler 2022: Sam Pirok, Community Moderator, Extreme Networks

“Community Journaler” awards the member who works out loud the most regularly and with the most depth.

Community Power User 2022: Rachael Silvano, Community Operations Manager, Zapier

Community Rookie of the Year 2022: Vee VoPham, Community Programs Coordinator, Pantheon

About The Community Roundtable: The Community Roundtable is the leading, global resource for the community management industry. The Community Roundtable helps organizations from Fortune 500s to start-ups and associations recognize, define and leverage the power of their communities. Through the industry’s only comprehensive community management research, The Community Roundtable provides training, events, and consulting to help companies recognize real ROI from their community programs. TheCR Network – the world’s premier resource for community professionals, connects hundreds of community practitioners worldwide for networking, professional development and support.

Community Conversations – Episode #79: Chris Catania

March 9, 2022 By Jim Storer

Community Conversations is a long-running podcast highlighting community success stories from a wide variety of online community management professionals.

Episode #79 of Community Conversations features Chris Catania, Head of Community at Esri. Esri is an international supplier of geographic information system software, web GIS and geodatabase management applications, headquartered in Redlands, California.

Chris is an award-winning community and collaboration leader, who always thinks “people first, technology next.”For more than 20 years, he has helped organizations build relationships with their audiences through strategic communication, community management, content development, and global business strategy.

He believes in the proven power of community to deepen trust, increase loyalty, lower costs and grow revenue. And that power comes when you align community with real business goals to design meaningful online experiences and deliver measurable business results.

He is driven by a passion to empower companies to leverage the power of community as a strategic asset and competitive advantage in the marketplace.

We chat about how the community redesign of their long-term community program, their award-winning community design elements, and how Esri leveraged member feedback to design a community that serves the members and the organization.

Listen Now

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Discussed in the conversation:

Community Jobs

Team Bearded Dragon:

The Community Roundtable Recognizes Excellence in Community Management with the Community Leadership Awards 2021

December 13, 2021 By Jim Storer

Cloudera, AAMC, BluePrism, ESRI, and The Conference Board among global organizations recognized as leaders of innovation in community management.

The winners of the sixth annual Community Leadership Awards were announced Monday, December 13th and included community leaders from organizations like Zapier, Leidos, Commvault, Motorola, and more. The Community Roundtable, the leading global resource for the community management industry, presented the awards virtually. As the recognized leader in community management research, training and thought leadership, The Community Roundtable is uniquely qualified to evaluate and reward individual and organizational contributions to the industry.

Community Leadership Awards recognize excellence in online community management across five categories: Outstanding Community Program, Outstanding Community Dashboard, Outstanding Community ROI, Outstanding Community Design Element, and Best Recognition & Reward Program. Members of TheCR Network – the world’s premier resource for community professionals – were recognized in six individual categories. Two additional awards, Community MVP and Outstanding Community Achievement were awarded based on peer nominations. In total, 14 organizations and individuals were recognized for outstanding efforts in community management.

“2021 proved to be another unprecedented year in the community management space,” said Jim Storer, Co-Founder and COO at The Community Roundtable. “The community leaders recognized this year provided invaluable guidance and vision for their organizations, amid near-constant change.”

The winners of 2021 Community Leadership Award are:

Outstanding Community Dashboard 2021: Cloudera

Outstanding Community Program 2021 – AAMC

The “Outstanding Community Program” recognizes an exceptional community program that supports new member onboarding, including communications, training, mentoring, and more.

Outstanding Community Design Element 2021 – ESRI

The “Outstanding Community Program” award recognizes a design element in an online community program that demonstrates meaningful engagement through thoughtful design.

Best Recognition + Reward Program 2021: Blue Prism

The “Best Recognition + Reward Program” award recognizes outstanding community recognition, reward, and gamification programs that increase engagement

Community Champion 2021: Nick Frunzi, Chief Customer Officer, ESRI

The “Community Champion” award recognizes an outstanding community stakeholder or executive.

Community MVP 2021: Rachael Silvano, Community Operations Manager, Zapier

The “Community MVP” award recognizes excellence in community management – including outstanding efforts, willingness to share with peers, achievements and excellent community results.

Community Detective 2021: Christine Vazquez, Associate Director, Professional Development International Foundation of EBP

“Community Detective” awards the member who helps source group knowledge and expertise by regularly asking thoughtful and meaningful questions in TheCR Network.

Community Explorer 2021: Lisa Allison, Senior Community Strategist, Analog Devices, Inc.

Community Pack Leader 2021: Tracy Maurer, Senior Manager, Community and Knowledge Management, Commvault

“Community Pack Leader” awards the member who consistently leads the most discussions, online, in-person, and on virtual calls, and shows leadership around a topic or initiative in TheCR Network.

Community Journaler 2021: Tammy Triplett, Enterprise Community Manager, Leidos.

“Community Journaler” awards the member who works out loud the most regularly and with the most depth.

Community Power User 2021: Lori Harrison-Smith, Enterprise Community Strategist, Motorola Solutions

Community Rookie of the Year 2021: April Uzarski, Associate Director of Community, Xandr

“Community Rookie of the Year” awards a Network member who has fewer than three years of industry experience, is new to TheCR Network, and is a power user – regularly collaborating and contributing inside the Network.

Community Leadership Awards 2021

May 11, 2021 By Jim Storer

Since 2016, our annual online community industry awards have recognized and rewarded excellence in community management.

We are lucky to have visibility into some of the most creative, innovative and effective community work being done today. From non-profit organizations building community on a budget to massive global community programs, members of TheCR Network generously share their successes and challenges with each other. Over the last five years TheCR Awards has spotlighted their successes, and helped global community professionals model their progams after proven examples.

Added bonus? Our winners find that being recognized helps secure executive sponsorship, increased budgets, and wider awareness for their community initiatives. (Literally a win-win situation!)

We’re excited to announce that the awards are back and open for submissions in 2021 – with a new name.

To better reflect the true purpose of our long-standing online community awards program and to support our goal of recognizing and rewarding excellence in online community management leadership, TheCR Awards are now the Community Leadership Awards.

The Community Leadership Awards 2021 are now open and accepting submissions and nominations from members of TheCR Network and their organizations in seven categories: Community Champion, Community MVP, Outstanding Recognition + Reward Program, Outstanding Community Dashboard, Outstanding Community Program: New Member Programs, Outstanding Community Design Element, and Outstanding Community ROI.

Learn more and submit your community program, or nominate a peer or champion here. Call for submissions closes on July 31, 2021.