Read what previous Pillar Summit participants said about this course:
“Rich has the ability to distill theory from a variety of disciplines and apply it to online communities. His pragmatic suggestions for online community management have proven very valuable in finding the best approach for our organization.”
- Heather Sinardo, Canadian Cancer Society
“The Pillar Summit has been a truly valuable experience to me. The course outperformed my expectations and has sent me away fired-up with inspiration and concrete plans. I believe this will make a real difference to the value of my community.
I found that Richard has an admirable degree of knowledge and gave an excellent insight into all the complexities of on the area of community management. Very informative and interactive.”
- Vanessa van Donselaar, Mobilization Officer, Greenpeace
“When it comes to online communities Richard is truly an expert, his insight into the psychology and motivations on why users engage online second to none.
His practical approach on how to engage with users and build relationships with key influencers have become a major component of our organizations online community outreach plan.
If you’re looking to build an online strategy which includes developing or engaging in online communities then taking the Pillar Summit will definitely point your organization in the right direction for success.”
- Jose Gonzalez, University of British Columbia
“I greatly appreciated and valued participating in the Summit course. It was chocked full of great information to guide our community development from the ground up.
The course provided a unique and very key realistic approach to developing a community–doing the up front planning and spade work to make it successful. I’ve found this to be largely lacking.
For many it may seem a tough pill to swallow but the successful results are definitely worth it! I also appreciated the variety of interesting classmates. It was helpful and interesting to hear their different perspectives. Great class!”
- Laurie Maak, West Education
“I had the opportunity to be part of the 1st class of Pillar Summit and I recommend it to community managers and professionals considering creating one. I just loved Richard´s direct, no bullshit approach, with a perfect balance of practical tips and theoretical material. In addition, you will meet brilliant colleagues and have lots of opportunities to share experiences and ask for guidance. “
- Tiago Amaral, Founder of 1+1>2 Communities, Brasil
“I am community manager with more than 4 years of experience, and I found the Pillar Summit to be extremely beneficial. I didn’t think the first half of the course would be very helpful as I already manage 2 active communities for my company, however, it was just as important as the latter material that I was initially interested in.
This background information has helped me understand the things I did wrong, or simply didn’t do in the beginning; and has given me a better understanding of my communities and their members.
The knowledge I have acquired through this course is helping me become a more effective and influential community manager. I am now able to effectively define and achieve the right goals for the community; and am more confident in articulating the needs, purpose, and benefits of the community to upper management. I would recommend this course to anyone involved with online community management, at all experience levels.”
- Jared Adler, Avid.com
“I have found that the balance of informative content and research summaries make the lessons very accessible and engaging and lead to further independent research and investigation.
The online discussions (via skype) have also developed my understanding of the content and demonstrated the wealth and experience of other course members.
There is a large volume of content and a fast pace to the course so much so that it will probably take me a few weeks/months to digest, analyse and apply it as we start to develop our community. The audio lessons were particularly useful and added some variety.”
- Briony Phillips, Teach First
“After following Richard Millington’s blog, Fever Bee, for several months, I was delighted to see the announcement of the Pillar Summit course and became a member of the first cohort of participants.
I found that this extremely well researched course not only provided a clear understanding of the theory, but pushed to tactical application in a way that makes the material tangible to the end user.
The assignments should not be viewed by community managers as additional work, but instead as a guide for executing well on their job. A community whose manager executes as spelled out in this course will certainly be well on their way to achieving world class status.”
- Cecilia Edwards, Senior Vice President, Telligent
“If you’ve ever read Rich Millington’s blog, FeverBee, you’ll recognise his genius: he lives and breathes online communities. Sometimes it feels like maybe he grew in up in one, so instinctively does he seem to understand what it takes to build them and make them flourish.
His Professional Community Management course was an opportunity to go beyond daily blogs. He provided extended analysis that I could read in my own time; invaluable twice-weekly tutorials which alone were worth the course fee; and, of course, access to an online community of other community managers.
I gained insight into the mechanics of community technology and the dynamics of bringing people together online, and, most importantly, how to apply this theory to the communities I run.”
- Jacob Kestner, TeachForAll
“Pillar Summit has proved to be an invaluable tool for learning about online communities. I started this course with no prior knowledge in the subject and, week by week, have been on an intensive learning curve.
I’ve been really impressed with how in depth the course has been and with how much scope there was to the course – the founders of the course are real specialists on community management and it shines through in the course materials and further reading suggestions.
The forum was a great way to get to know fellow course members, discuss real-life communities and share our assignments. There was a real broad mix of people on this course ranging from people like me to established community managers and it certainly added an extra dimension to the learning.
All in all, I’ve learnt an awful lot on this course and I would certainly recommend it.”
- Emma Conway, apt marketing & PR
“Pillar Summit exceeded my already high expectations. It gave me deeper and broader understanding on how to build and run a real “2.0 level” on-line community. Now I have a clear action plan for my start-up community.
Richard was a real Pro coaching and guiding the active and interesting group with very different backgrounds. The modern way of learning gave opportunity to participate in active and deep dialogue and problem solving within the group.
Real life experience & best practice sharing and common problem solving worked fine. I can really recommend Pillar Summit for those who want to reach “the next level” of their on-line community.”
- Jorma Lehtinen, Notium Ltd Oy
“I have truly benefited from this course and I am sure that it has placed me in a better position in understanding both online and offline communities and the management of these two entities.”
- Joanne John
