Show Notes: Building Community with Rosie Sherry

In this episode, Nola Simon interviews Rosie Sherry, a community expert and founder of Ministry of Testing and Rosieland.

Key Topics:

- Rosie's journey into community building, starting with local tech meetups in Brighton - The growth of Ministry of Testing from a small project to a global community - Challenges and opportunities in running in-person conferences post-pandemic - Creating inclusive spaces for introverts and neurodivergent individuals at events - The impact of AI on online communities and content moderation - Building custom community platforms vs. relying on social media - The importance of focusing on community transformation rather than just conversations - Addressing the global loneliness epidemic through intentional, small-scale connections - The benefits of homeschooling and building local support networks

Highlights:

- Ministry of Testing's approach to conferences, including the unique "99-second talks" feature - The 80/20 rule of community: 20% conversations, 80% other valuable activities - Creating custom-built community platforms to own data and foster genuine connections - The challenges of quantifying community ROI and the importance of organic growth - Rosie's perspective on work-from-home policies and the potential discrimination in forced return-to-office mandates

Notable Quotes:

"Why should all the social networks have all the fun?" - Rosie Sherry on building custom community platforms

"We have to find ways to properly connect one-to-one with people and have conversations and not rely on this spamming of groups or thinking like, you know, getting the attention or getting the virality is going to all of a sudden help our loneliness. It doesn't." - Rosie Sherry on addressing loneliness

Resources Mentioned:

- Ministry of Testing (website) - Rosieland (website) - TestBash conference

Rosie Sherry - Ministry of Testing | LinkedIn