We've all heard the buzzwords: "community-led growth," "network effects," blah blah blah. But here's the real deal – building a community isn't about checking boxes or chasing vanity metrics. It's about understanding what actually makes people connect and stick around.

At the heart of every truly successful community is a delicate balance: scaling without losing the magic that made people fall in love with the community in the first place. I've learned this firsthand, both while building Tech Commute from the ground up and later scaling communities at Torc.

This isn't another theoretical talk about community building. This is a raw, practical dive into what actually works – drawn from real-world experience of growing a community to thousands of members, attracting hundreds of thousands of podcast and stream viewers, and even organizing a virtual conference that raised over $11,000 for charity.

What You'll Actually Learn:
- The real strategies that drive genuine community engagement (not the fluffy advice you've heard a million times)
- How to tell if your community is truly healthy – beyond surface-level metrics
- Practical techniques to get members talking to each other, not just broadcasting into the void
- Ways to balance business objectives with authentic community value
- Systems that won't fall apart the moment your community starts to grow

Who This Is For: Community managers, developer advocates, product managers – basically, anyone who's serious about building communities that matter, not just looking good on a PowerPoint slide.

By the end of this session, you'll walk away with battle-tested approaches and a framework that you can implement tomorrow. No more generic advice – just real, actionable insights from someone who's been in the trenches.

This isn't just another community talk. This is a blueprint for building communities that people genuinely want to be part of.

A bit about me: I'm a community builder who's lived between two worlds. After a decade in film, I've brought storytelling magic into tech community building. Whether it's founding Tech Commute, organizing the Journeys Conference, or speaking at events like That Conference Wisconsin, I blend film storytelling skills with tech world scenarios!

Want to build a community people actually show up for? Learn how I grew Tech Commute to 100k+ reach without using the usual playbook. Get real strategies that work, avoid the common pitfalls, and discover how to scale without losing your soul. No buzzwords, just results.