We are still buzzing from all the excitement of attending Pulse Europe 2025 in Dublin, and it's not just the Guinness talking!

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Sasja Beerendonk and Lisa van Asselt had the opportunity to host a workshop at Gainsight's two-day event around customer community strategy. But how do you give the attendees a valuable takeaway in just 45 minutes, especially if the people attending will find themselves in different stages of developing their community? The answer was SMILE, A Practical Guide for Building a Successful Community.

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Why SMILE?

Our SMILE guide is designed to help anyone, no matter where they’re at, leave with clarity, focus, and practical next steps for their own community. And that’s exactly what we were looking to provide.

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During the workshop, attendees were given a set of cards on a locking ring, and invited to pick cards from their table to build, write and personalise their own community story through the lens of SMILE. On some cards they wrote their insights, like who their audience is or what problem they are trying to solve through community. For everyone this story looked different, yet each story helped in discovering how they can build, grow, or thrive their own community. And that is simply the power of SMILE!
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Now that the story is written, what’s next?

The SMILE workshop helped some to figure out what is needed to start their own community from scratch, for others it provoked ideas and opportunities to add a spark to what has already been built. As one attendee wrote in their feedback

“The presenter and content, especially the flip cards - fabulous. I have an activity to rate away for my team to work on and for that I’m grateful.”

While the next steps may differ for each attendee one thing is for sure. In just 45 minutes attendees walked away inspired to write the next chapter of their community story!

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Curious to explore how SMILE could support your team? Just reach out. We’re here to help you build a (more) successful community!

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