Lee-Sean Huang will be a panelist at the Future of Community Internet Week discussion organized by Be Social Change and hosted by MeetUp on May 20. Register here and get a discount using the code "CommunityPanelFriend."

Join Be Social Change on Tuesday, May 20th at 7:00PM for a panel discussion on The Future of Community Building as we explore the trends, challenges, and best practices in the art of building community.

Building and maintaining meaningful relationships with current and potential customers, employees, supporters, and neighbors is becoming a central imperative for organizations big and small. Gone are the days of simply marketing at customers, today’s thriving businesses are focused on inviting the public into conversations and into their communities.

Why are more and more companies prioritizing community building as a key part of their growth and impact strategies? What tools and techniques are being used to effectively engage and activate customers? How can online communities bolster in person communities and vice versa?And what is “community management” anyway? From likers and retweeters to C level strategists, how and why is the role of community manager evolving to become increasingly essential to organizations across sectors?

{Drinks and snacks will be provided!}
Join the conversation on Twitter #FutureOfCommunity
@besocialchange | @marcossalazar | @csisl | @leesean| @davidspinks | @meetup | @heidisloane

Schedule

6:30-7:00 PM - Doors open, Arrive
7:00-8:30 PM - Panel Discussion + Q&A
8:30-9:00 PM - Networking

PANELISTS 

Marcos Salazar, Co-Founder + Executive Director, Be Social Change

Marcos is a social entrepreneur, educator, and community builder. He is the co-founder and Executive Director of Be Social Change, a New York City based non-profit on a mission to educate and connect the next generation of change makers.Previously, Marcos was the Vice President of Programs at The White House Project as well as former Technology Strategist and Leadership Researcher for Girl Scouts of the USA. He is the author of The Turbulent Twenties Survival Guide, an expert speaker on the psychology of life after college, Gen Y, and Millennial topics, a former elected official in New York City as well as owns two hyperlocal clothing companies, BoroThreads and DistrictTees, in New York City and Washington, DC.

Eli Malinsky, Executive Director, Centre for Social Innovation

Eli has been a champion of collaboration and innovation in the social sector for the past ten years. A deep believer in the potential of ‘everyday people’ to create social change, Eli’s work is centered on new models that unleash creativity and catalyze impact. Eli has spoken and published works on networks, collaboration, social enterprise, shared space and social innovation. He is currently Executive Director of the Centre for Social Innovation in New York City. The Centre for Social Innovation is a coworking space, community and launchpad for nonprofits and social entrepreneurs.

Lee-Sean Huang, Co-Founder + Creative Director, Foossa

Lee-Sean is the co-founder and creative director of Foossa. He is also affiliated with Purpose, where he has worked as a designer, strategist, and now as an advisor. He has devoted his career to working with social enterprises, nonprofits, and communities to create transformative experiences for positive social change. He has collaborated with organizations including: Avaaz.org, Human Rights Watch, the United Nations, the SEIU, Creative Commons, Made in the Lower East Side, and Afro Brazil Arts. Lee-Sean holds a Bachelor’s degree in Government from Harvard and a Master’s degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University.

David Spinks, CEO, CMX Media

David is the CEO of CMX Media, a brand dedicated to improving the community industry through its publication: CMXHub and its event: CMXSummit. David has spent his career building startups and communities and a couple of them didn't even completely fail. He cofounded Feast,TheCommunityManager.com and BlogDash and built communities for companies like LeWeb, Zaarly, Udemy and SeatGeek. Today he's working to build the leading community of community professionals. Super meta!

Andrea Murphy, Community Team Manager, Meetup 

Andrea is the Community Team Manager at Meetup where she is responsible for managing support operations and scaling support tools and resources for the world's largest network of local groups. Andrea has built out and managed chapter models for local Meetup Organizer Groups as well as organizations interested in fostering local community around their brand. She recently spoke at UserConf NYC (2013) about How to Get Feedback into the Development Process by creating a user-centered culture and community within your company. 

MODERATOR 

Heidi Sloane, Strategy & Community, Be Social Change + miLES

Driving community engagement and strategy at Be Social Change, Heidi is committed to connecting passionate, talented individuals to other people, projects and ideas that will amplify impact, lead to electric conversations, or result in inspired collaborations. Having studied social entrepreneurship at NYU, Heidi has been working with early stage non-profits, startups, and social projects since graduating in 2012. On top of her work with Be Social Change, she manages community and communication for a startup social enterprise, miLES (Made In The Lower East Side). She previously worked with Lean Startup Machine and was inspired by how lean startup can be used as a powerful tool by change makers tackling social and environmental issues. Since joining the BSC team, she has been working to adapt lean startup methodology to be more accessible and applicable in the social good space; she co-teaches the Makers Institute class series “Lean Startup for Social Good.”