Cheers to Our Super Forum 2020 Award-Winning Customers!
Customer Stories, HL News // Every year at Super Forum, we award customers who excelled at member & customer engagement. 2020's challenges make their successes even more impressive.
Christina HillEvery year at Super Forum, we award customers who went above and beyond with their online communities and email campaigns.
Even though Super Forum was virtual this year, we had no reason to hold off on celebrating our customers. And honestly, this year’s challenges have made our customers’ achievements even more impressive.
We had tons of award nominations from many of our fantastic customers. Every single one of you deserves a round of applause for all your hard work and successes.
Without further ado, let’s share the award categories and the winners for each category:
- Best Community Manager: Katie Cammer, Senior Manager, Growth and Expansion, Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association; Matt Lawson, Manager, Online Communities, Genesys
- Best Community Site Design: Nicsa, Cayuse
- Best Community Site Design for Event Engagement: International Legal Technology Association
- Most Successful Community Launch: The American Association of Endodontists
- Most Successful Online Community: Pragmatic Institute, the Promotional Products Association International
- Best Email Design: National Confectioners Association
- Most Successful Automated Campaign: American Association of Airport Executives
- Top Digital Marketer of the Year: Beth Arritt, Staff Vice President, Marketing at the American Association of Airport Executives
We’re so glad we’ve had the chance to recognize these superstar clients for their hard work and successes using our Community and Communications software.
Keep going to learn more about each one of these exceptional winners.
Best Community Manager
We had a hard time picking just one winner for this category! Our first winner is Katie Cammer with the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association. Katie currently manages nearly 180 different communities, almost 500 volunteer leaders, and over 14,000 community members. She leads an internal task force of cross-functional staff in handling community strategy, projects, tasks and initiatives that have driven engagement metrics up exponentially in recent years. Congratulations Katie and the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association team!
The tie for best community manager goes to Matt Lawson with Genesys. Matt runs the Genesys community on his own, developing a successful, well-used, and organized hub for customers and employees. Congratulations Matt. You can learn more about some of the fun online community engagement activities he uses to get customers involved here.
Best Community Site Design (Overall)
Our first winner for best online community website design is Nicsa. Nicsa is a nonprofit trade association that connects the global asset management community. Allie Walsh and the team at Nicsa worked with eConverse Media to design their new community site as part of an entire technology ecosystem upgrade, including a new association management system, learning management system, and community, at the same time as a rebrand. Call us impressed!
For our next community site design winner, we have Cayuse. The customer advocacy team at Cayuse worked with eConverse Media to integrate company branding into the community which resulted in a sleek, modern design with an intuitive user interface. We love it!
Best Community Site Design (Event Engagement)
We added a special category this year for events. Considering the craziness of 2020 and the number of customers who had to pivot to virtual events, we wanted to recognize the best online event community site.
Our winner for this category is the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA). ILTA leveraged their community platform to deliver their annual conference in a virtual environment that surpassed the expectations of their attendees, including five days of educational tracks, networking, and an exhibitor hall. Congratulations to Jeanne Martinez and the rest of the team at ILTA.
Most Successful Community Launch
Our winner for most successful community launch is the American Association of Endodontists (AAE). AAE relaunched their community this May with a fresh design, a COVID-19 specific forum, and a new blogger program. To reframe community goals and objectives, the AAE team went on a listening tour with their members to determine what they needed and wanted from a community.
AAE averaged a 32% digest open rate for the first 5 months post-launch, beating the industry average (17-21%), and their 229 posts/month consistently beats benchmarks for their community of their size (180 posts/month). They saw increases across the board when comparing their numbers to Higher Logic benchmarks. Congratulations to Alyssa McHugh, Kim FitzSimmons, and the rest of the team at AAE.
Most Successful Online Community
For our two winners in the most successful online community category, we have Pragmatic Institute and the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI).
Pragmatic Institute’s Pragmatic Alumni Community launched in April of this year and delivered incredible success and value for members amidst the pandemic. Lead by Georgina Donahue and Rachel Silvano, the organization used a phased launch program for their online community of practice. In their first two months, 78% of all members had at least one connection, 60% of all members posted at least discussion or comment, and 98% of all questions had been answered. Congratulations to Pragmatic Institute!
At PPAI, a trade association for promotional products, Jody Shaw and team have done a great job of building upon the fundamentals to drive member engagement. They’ve leveraged automation rules to create 8 key outreaches, gamified the community through ribbons and badges, and capitalized on data by writing back 70+ community data points into their membership database (their association management system). Congratulations to Jody and the rest of the team at PPAI.
Best Email Design
Just like many of you, the National Confectioners Association (NCA) had to pivot their annual conference to virtual. But, with well-designed email branding, they generated record turnout at their virtual event, Washington Forum @ Home, which they held over a 3-week period instead of a one-day event. This meant that some participants got to speak with even more members of Congress than they could before. Congratulations to Amy Buglass and the team at NCA.
Here’s the winning email:
Most Successful Automated Campaign
Our winner of the most successful automated campaign is the American Association of Airport Executives. Sarah Spinosa and the team at AAAE launched a campaign for their annual conference that contributed to an increase in exhibit and sponsorship sales of nearly half a million dollars, or 20% year-over-year growth. Total registrations grew by 10%, and they earned two awards from Trade Show Executives Fastest 50.
Top Digital Marketer of the Year
And finally, a well-deserved congratulations to Beth Arritt, our top digital marketer of the year! She is the Staff Vice President, Marketing at the American Association of Airport Executives. Here are just a few of Beth’s achievements from this year:
- Creating and using subject scoring to deliver personalized news, resources, news, and ads to members
- Automating many staff processes, saving hours each month
- Building a nurture program for the AAAE accreditation program
Check Out Last Year’s Super Forum Award Winners
We wish we could recognize all our customers for the great work they’re doing. But that wraps it up for our Super Forum award-winning customers in 2020. Want more inspiration? Check out winners from past years below:
Director of Brand & Customer Marketing
Christina is the Director of Brand & Customer Marketing at Higher Logic. She helps organizations grow audiences, deepen customer relationships and drive revenue through strategic, multi-channel marketing and game-changing business development. With over 25 years of experience at world-class US and UK commercial and nonprofit companies within the technology, entertainment, and live events sectors, she’s experienced in leading cross-functional teams, partnerships and projects to create measurable growth. Christina hails from New York City, although she’s called Louisville, DC, and London her home at one point or another.
