The Community Roundtable is the result of a collaboration between Rachel Happe and Jim Storer – both veterans of the online community space (is it old enough to say that yet?!?) and former colleagues at Mzinga.

Our motivation for creating The Community Roundtable is to establish a neutral, trusted, easy-to-access and 24/7 resource for community practitioners in order to help them with their day-to-day needs.

The online community, social media, and social business markets are bigger than ever and finding tactical, trusted and rich sources of information can be difficult. While we don’t have all the answers, we do have a lot of experience, are familiar with most of the vendors and know many of the leading experts in the space.

At The Community Roundtable we bring you the best of what and who we know in a private setting that allows you to explore, experiment, and get feedback so that you are able to develop the most thorough strategies and plans possible. Our roundtable calls bring in recognized experts in a variety of areas to help stimulate conversation and challenge member assumptions. All sessions are recorded, transcribed and summarized for member reference after the call is complete. We also have an online community to hold all this great information and give members a daily resource for new content, discussions, chats, and quick reference checks.

What we want in return? For you to contribute your experiences and thoughts with other members. We think it is a winning idea in a confusing market that has a lot of noise. To learn more and/or apply for a seat at the table, please tell us a little about yourself.

A little more about us:

Rachel Happe

Rachel (@rhappe) has over fifteen years of experience working with emerging technologies including enterprise social networking, eCommerce, and enterprise software applications. She has been both a product manager and a management analyst, and brings with her multiple perspectives on technology development and use. As an analyst at IDC, Rachel initiated their enterprise social software practice and wrote groundbreaking research including

• The Power and Passion of Organic Communities: How Technology Can Be Used to Increase Discovery, Engagement, and Productivity
• The Social Enterprise: How Social Networking Changes Everything
• U.S. Social Networking Application 2008–2012 Forecast: Enterprise Social Networking Takes Hold.

Rachel has served as a product executive at both Mzinga and Bitpass where she worked with media and publishing companies such as Disney, MSN, United Media, CanWest, and Ziff Davis. While at Bitpass, Rachel was instrumental in developing Mperia, an social networking site for indie muscians and their fans. Her experience is chronicled in the book, The Future of the Music Business, in an interview that discusses changes in the music business brought about by the internet. Prior to Bitpass, Rachel was the Product Marketing Manager for IDe, an enterprise software company that developed applications to manage the new product development process.

Rachel started her business career at PRTM as a Business Analyst focused on helping technology companies understand and improve their product development operations. She has presented and written about trends in both social media and product development management, both at industry conferences and as a visiting speaker at the Wharton and Kellogg schools of business. She blogs at http://www.thesocialorganization.com

Rachel serves on Social Media Today’s Blogger Board, the Enterprise 2.o Conference Advisory Board, and as an Isis Parenting Fellow & a GigaOm Pro Analyst.

Mark Yolton , SVP SAP Community Network, hired Rachel as a Business Consultant in 2007, and hired Rachel more than once

“Rachel is one of the rare people who really understands the emerging and accelerating areas of social media, Enterprise 2.0, virtual communities, including best practices and rising players in this whole space. On top of understanding, she has shown genuine insight into trends and models, and best: she used her reputation and influence to communicate and advocate in this space. Rachel’s presentations, conversations, position papers, and her personal blog all provide value and insight.” July 24, 2008

Joshua Reynolds , Practice Director at Hill & Knowlton, hired Rachel as a Business Consultant in 2006, and hired Rachel more than once

“Rachel is a thoroughly knowledgeable, resourceful and personally engaged professional who provided immense value to me and my team on multiple occasions. Her understanding of social networking technology, their real-world applications–and limitations, and how to apply them in myriad settings resulted in better marketing and communications strategies for me and my clients. What’s more, Rachel is reliable, personable and just a pleasure to work with. My team and I wish her every success.” July 23, 2008

Jim Storer

Here’s what clients and colleagues have to say about working with Jim.

Jay Gaines hired Jim as a Business Consultant in 2007

“I worked very closely with Jim on the development, launch and management of my company’s social media strategy and community web site. The effort has by all accounts been wildly successful and I attribute much of that success to his astute guidance. Jim’s depth of knowledge, ability to effectively communicate and apply that knowledge, and talent for turning social media strategy into genuine business value sets him far apart from others in his field. Even after the formal project ended, Jim has continued to be an extremely valuable resource as I and others at my company regularly reach out to him for insight, opinions and guidance which he always generously offers.”

Top qualities: Great Results , Expert , High Integrity

Tom Humbarger hired Jim as a Community Strategy Consultant

“Jim helped tremendously with getting our Catalyze community started. He consulted with us on the initial strategy and design, and provided insights for growing and managing the community. Jim’s breadth of knowledge in the community and social networking space is top notch — and he continues to be a great resource and good friend.”

Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, High Integrity

Aaron Strout worked directly with Jim at Shared Insights & Mzinga.

“I could spend thousands of words explaining exactly why Jim is not only a great friend, but also an expert at tapping into the power of online community and social media for business, but I’m going to keep this short and sweet instead. Here are the five reasons I would highly recommend Jim to any organization:

1. He understands how to create business value using social tools and online communities
2. Jim is personable, easy to work with and a great listener
3. Unlike many folks that are jumping into the social media/community arena, Jim has managed communities and been involved in social media for several years
4. Jim and I were principles at our predecessor company, Shared Insights, so he deeply understands how to run an organization
5. Most of all, Jim is an innovator. He’s always looking for ways to improve the bottom line using new techniques and technologies.

Feel free to contact me anytime if you’d like me to wax more poetically about Jim as a valuable addition to our company.”