A Convening Venue is where Community members meet, connect and communicate. A Convening Venue can be in person and/or online, synchronous and/or asynchronous and can include:
Face-to-face (events such as workshops, happy hours, peer assists, meet-ups, and so on)
Email
Virtual meetings (i.e. tools such as Zoom or Webex)
Most communities typically have multiple Convening Venues. For example, a given Community might meet face-to-face at its annual conference, the conference presentation materials might be stored and shared on the online collaboration platform, and ongoing discussions about the conference and follow-up activities might continue in a discussion forum or over a series of virtual meetings between a subset of members.
Note: A common mistake is to equate one Convening Venue with the Community itself. For example, having a Yammer group does not mean that you have an actual Community. You may actually have a Community, and that Community may happen to convene mainly on Yammer, however, the technology does not make the Community. The technology platform, in this case Yammer, simply provides a means for people to connect and interact.
Why is it important to select the appropriate Convening Venues for your Community?
It is essential that you make an intentional and informed decision regarding where, how, and when your Community will meet, communicate, and collaborate. The right Convening Venues are at the heart of a successful Community because they serve as the conduits for relationship building and knowledge exchange.
Selecting Convening Venues will directly impact your Community’s success. Choosing too many Convening Venues might confuse and overwhelm members. Choosing just one might not be enough to stimulate engagement and interaction. Choosing a Convening Venue that is too difficult to use, or that doesn’t work well, or that is not conducive to conversations and relationship building, would likely result in members disengaging and leaving.
How do you choose Convening Venues for your Community?
The appropriate Convening Venues are the ones that your members would actually use. So, how can you determine what’s right for you?
Member habits and preferences: Send out a survey, talk to prospective members to understand their habits with regards to what tools they use and how they prefer to engage with others.
Locations: Think of the different physical locations of your members and what would be the best way to connect them.
Support: Consider also costs and support available. For example, if you decide to build your own online Community instead of using what’s offered by your organization, you’ll incur significant expenses initially and will have to come up with a budget for ongoing maintenance and support.
Multiple venues: Be aware that most communities use a combination of Convening Venues. However, you should minimize duplication and be clear about which venue is used for what.
Member preferences: Keep in mind that different members will naturally prefer different Convening Venues, and may engage in different ways - that’s okay! Your goal is not to convince every member to attend every event and participate in every online discussion. Your goal is to provide options to maximize engagement and sharing while minimizing duplication of effort and resources. In fact, it is common to have certain members who really like face-to-face or virtual events, and frequently attend those, but never post anything on your online collaboration platform.
Platform preferences: When you are choosing among online platforms, it is generally a good idea to pick something your members recognize and are used to. For example, you may think a Yammer group would be great for your Community only to find out that the majority of your members don’t like Yammer or have never used it before. Or, you realize that the majority of your members heavily use WhatsApp and may even be part of other communities that use WhatsApp - in that case, you may consider creating a WhatsApp group as one Convening Venue.
Finally, note that you have to spend some time and effort to onboard your members to the various Convening Venues, help them use the Convening Venues appropriately, and give them time to acclimate and start participating. The burden is on you to make it extremely simple for your members to engage, regardless of the Convening Venue.
Blog » Choosing a Community's Convening Venues
Choosing a Community's Convening Venues
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Template: Convening Venues
What are Convening Venues?
A Convening Venue is where Community members meet, connect and communicate. A Convening Venue can be in person and/or online, synchronous and/or asynchronous and can include:
Most communities typically have multiple Convening Venues. For example, a given Community might meet face-to-face at its annual conference, the conference presentation materials might be stored and shared on the online collaboration platform, and ongoing discussions about the conference and follow-up activities might continue in a discussion forum or over a series of virtual meetings between a subset of members.
Note: A common mistake is to equate one Convening Venue with the Community itself. For example, having a Yammer group does not mean that you have an actual Community. You may actually have a Community, and that Community may happen to convene mainly on Yammer, however, the technology does not make the Community. The technology platform, in this case Yammer, simply provides a means for people to connect and interact.
Why is it important to select the appropriate Convening Venues for your Community?
It is essential that you make an intentional and informed decision regarding where, how, and when your Community will meet, communicate, and collaborate. The right Convening Venues are at the heart of a successful Community because they serve as the conduits for relationship building and knowledge exchange.
Selecting Convening Venues will directly impact your Community’s success. Choosing too many Convening Venues might confuse and overwhelm members. Choosing just one might not be enough to stimulate engagement and interaction. Choosing a Convening Venue that is too difficult to use, or that doesn’t work well, or that is not conducive to conversations and relationship building, would likely result in members disengaging and leaving.
How do you choose Convening Venues for your Community?
The appropriate Convening Venues are the ones that your members would actually use. So, how can you determine what’s right for you?
Member habits and preferences: Send out a survey, talk to prospective members to understand their habits with regards to what tools they use and how they prefer to engage with others.
Locations: Think of the different physical locations of your members and what would be the best way to connect them.
Support: Consider also costs and support available. For example, if you decide to build your own online Community instead of using what’s offered by your organization, you’ll incur significant expenses initially and will have to come up with a budget for ongoing maintenance and support.
Multiple venues: Be aware that most communities use a combination of Convening Venues. However, you should minimize duplication and be clear about which venue is used for what.
Member preferences: Keep in mind that different members will naturally prefer different Convening Venues, and may engage in different ways - that’s okay! Your goal is not to convince every member to attend every event and participate in every online discussion. Your goal is to provide options to maximize engagement and sharing while minimizing duplication of effort and resources. In fact, it is common to have certain members who really like face-to-face or virtual events, and frequently attend those, but never post anything on your online collaboration platform.
Platform preferences: When you are choosing among online platforms, it is generally a good idea to pick something your members recognize and are used to. For example, you may think a Yammer group would be great for your Community only to find out that the majority of your members don’t like Yammer or have never used it before. Or, you realize that the majority of your members heavily use WhatsApp and may even be part of other communities that use WhatsApp - in that case, you may consider creating a WhatsApp group as one Convening Venue.
Finally, note that you have to spend some time and effort to onboard your members to the various Convening Venues, help them use the Convening Venues appropriately, and give them time to acclimate and start participating. The burden is on you to make it extremely simple for your members to engage, regardless of the Convening Venue.
This article is part of the WBG Communities of Practice Toolkit licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The toolkit features practical resources to help you develop impactful Communities of Practice. 📖 Learn more about the Toolkit. ▶ Access the Toolkit.