How do I build a community around my events?

Most "event communities" are a chat that goes quiet a week after the event. The ones that last usually have:

• A shared purpose beyond the event: learning a craft, a profession, a city scene, a cause.
• A rhythm: a recurring event, a monthly topic, a weekly thread. People come back to things that happen regularly.
• Clear rules and visible hosts: members know what is welcome and who moderates.
• Consent and safety: people chose to be there, and their contact details are not exposed to everyone.
• A small core: 5–10 active members create most of the energy at the start. Invite them personally.

Size matters less than density: 80 people who show up beats 2,000 silent members.

Many organizers combine a messenger chat for quick talk with a structured home for events, rules and membership. AET requires a messenger link when you create a community for exactly this reason.

1. Open My workspace → Communities → Create a community (or add the Community section on an event page).
2. In the wizard set the name, the address (aet.community/your-name), a required messenger link, and the sources — your events and calendars whose guests can be offered membership.
3. Choose visibility: Public or Private. A private community shows outsiders only its name, look, rules and application form, and is not indexed by search engines.
4. Choose the join policy: Anyone, By request (application form with up to 10 questions of 4 types), or Insiders only (only people who attended your events or subscribed to your calendars).
5. Decide who can post: all members or hosts only.
6. Write the rules. Joining means accepting them, and when you change the rules members re-accept before their next post or comment.

Joining in AET is always opt-in. Sources such as events and calendars never add people by themselves. A person becomes a member only when they:

• tick Join the community under the registration form, the calendar subscription or a seat purchase;
• press Join on the community page;
• or submit an application that a host approves.

For private communities a checkbox is not enough: the person fills in the application and accepts the rules. Members can leave or withdraw an application at any time.

By default, a member's name and photo are visible only to the hosts. A member can choose Share my details; then they see other members who also shared, and those members see them. Safeguards against contact harvesting:

• after sharing, a member starts seeing others only after 24 hours;
• after un-sharing, they can share again only after 30 days;
• at most 30 profile views per day;
• everyone sees who viewed their profile in the last 30 days;
• if someone shares, views many profiles and un-shares within 14 days, hosts get a "suspicious close" flag.

Hosts can require certain fields and approve sharing. There is no public directory of people, no sale of contacts and no advertising in AET.

• Feed: posts with a cover image and pinning, threaded comments and likes. Up to 20 posts per day per member. People are notified about new posts, comments and replies.
• Member pages: role, "in the circle since", shared fields, posts and comments, respecting privacy settings.
• Next: upcoming events from the community's sources, so membership leads back to your events.
• Shop tab (if enabled): your merch and services.

The hosts' team gets permissions from a checklist: circle settings, members, shared data, moderation, posting as the community, and team management. Only the owner can delete the community.

• Right after each event: a thank-you post with photos, materials and the feedback link.
• Weekly: one prompt or question from a host.
• Monthly: a members-only meetup, AMA or skill share.
• Every new member: a short welcome and an introduction thread.
• Quarterly: review the rules and remove spam accounts.

Measure what matters: how many members come to the next event, how many post, and how many new members joined through events. The AET workspace Overview shows community requests and activity next to registrations and tickets.