EventProfs community shifts from event app to Circle

The #EventProfs community, a global network of meeting and event professionals, is moving its online hub from an event app to Circle, a platform purpose-built for communities. The shift marks a significant change in how the group intends to support year-round engagement, monetisation and content discovery beyond the lifecycle of individual events.

Community founder and Event Tech Podcast host Will Curran outlined the rationale for the move in a recent episode, describing the decision as a response to the limitations of using event software as a long-term digital community space.

Event tech and the community use case diverge

During the pandemic, many event technology providers positioned themselves as all-in-one solutions that could power both time-bound events and ongoing communities. For organisers under pressure to consolidate tools, the idea of a single app for registration, live sessions, networking and post-event discussion was compelling.

Curran initially embraced that vision. The #EventProfs community started with a Slack group and informal meetups before expanding into an event app, based on the belief that event platforms could evolve into robust community environments. He saw potential in repurposing event technology, with its attendee data, content delivery and networking features, as a central home for professionals to connect between shows.

However, as platforms refocused on core event delivery and recurring event-driven revenue, community capabilities received less emphasis. Curran observed that vendors were no longer actively positioning community as a primary selling point, and the gap between what a 365-day professional community needs and what an event-centric system delivers became increasingly clear.

That experience has led to a change in philosophy: rather than relying on a single platform to manage both events and community, Curran now advocates for using separate, specialised tools optimised for each use case.

Key drivers behind the move to Circle

The decision to migrate the #EventProfs community to Circle was driven by several practical and operational pain points encountered when using an event app as a long-term community hub.

Membership and recurring payments

One of the biggest challenges was billing and access management for a subscription-based community. Event software is typically set up for one-time ticket purchases tied to a specific date range, not for ongoing monthly, quarterly or annual membership models.

According to Curran, implementing recurring payments would have required building and maintaining complex, third-party integrations using tools such as Stripe and Zapier. For communities planning paid tiers or subscriptions, this creates additional overhead and risk. Circle, by contrast, offers native Stripe integration, support for trials, flexible billing intervals and discount codes, enabling #EventProfs to introduce a sustainable paid model without external workarounds.

Depth of conversation and content limits

The event app used by #EventProfs also imposed character limits on posts and comments. While that might be acceptable during a short conference where quick updates dominate, it constrained in-depth discussion and discouraged members from returning to the platform.

Circle’s discussion spaces are designed around longer-form posts, structured threads and topic-based areas, which better align with how professionals share case studies, templates, workflows and detailed questions over time.

Scheduling recurring events at scale

Another friction point was the way the event platform handled calendars. Most event tools are designed around programmes that run over a few days, often displaying schedules on a day-by-day basis. When extended to a full year of community sessions, this interface became cumbersome, requiring users to click through hundreds of dates.

Creating and rescheduling recurring community activities, such as live podcast recordings or regular meetups, was also overly complex. The system treated every item like a full conference session, asking for detailed metadata—descriptions, speaker lists, sponsor information and graphics—each time. Curran identified a clear need for simpler, repeatable event creation and recurring scheduling functionality tailored to ongoing community rhythms.

Notification strategy and re-engagement

Engagement proved difficult without an effective notification framework. While the event app supported one-off push notifications, it lacked automated, behaviour-based alerts that are standard in modern community platforms—such as notices for new posts, replies, profile views or partner announcements.

As a result, the #EventProfs team had to manually trigger notifications and supplement the platform with separate email tools, fragmenting communication. Curran highlighted Circle’s automated weekly digest as a key improvement, providing members with a summary of activity since their last login and helping draw them back into the community between live touchpoints.

Circle’s community-focused feature set

In the new environment, #EventProfs will use Circle to manage discussions, events, membership and resources. Curran pointed to several features particularly relevant to event industry communities.

First, Circle’s structure allows for multiple dedicated spaces instead of a single, crowded feed. The #EventProfs team plans to create targeted areas—for example, spaces for vendors, contractors, CEOs, event technologists or specific industry segments. This segmentation is intended to improve relevance, reduce noise and foster more focused interactions.

Second, Circle enables automation through triggers and integrations. Actions such as new posts or direct messages can be initiated via Zapier and other tools, supporting more sophisticated onboarding flows and engagement journeys.

Third, the platform includes wiki-style functionality, enabling the community to build a persistent knowledge base instead of relying solely on chronological feeds. Tutorials, how-to guides and best practices can be documented and organised, turning member-generated content into a longer-term asset.

Finally, Circle supports multiple membership tiers and gated areas. Organisers can offer VIP levels, private categories and restricted event calendars, providing a framework for differentiated value propositions and monetisation strategies.

Event Tech Podcast co-host Brandt Krueger, testing the platform for the first time, likened the experience to a blend of Slack or Discord with community-specific workflows. He noted some usability issues—such as character limits on profile bios without a visible counter—but overall found navigation straightforward, with standard features like announcements, events, link libraries and mobile apps in place.

Implications for event technology and community design

The #EventProfs move underscores a broader market trend: the separation of event execution tools from year-round community platforms. While many event technology providers experimented with community positioning, the operational realities of supporting always-on engagement differ from those of a time-bound event.

For vendors, the shift suggests continued demand for integrations between event platforms and specialist community tools rather than a single system that does everything equally well. For organisers, it highlights the importance of evaluating platforms not only on event-day features but also on billing models, content architecture, notification strategies and long-term knowledge management.

Why this matters for event professionals and tech providers

For event professionals, the #EventProfs transition is a practical case study in how community needs evolve once a network scales. It illustrates why features that seem secondary during a conference—such as recurring billing, segmentation, digest emails and archives—become critical for sustaining engagement over 12 months.

For technology providers, it offers insight into buyer expectations. Organisers building paid communities around their events will look for platforms that reduce integration complexity, support flexible monetisation, and provide tools to surface relevant content without overwhelming members.

As hybrid and community-led models mature, decisions about where an event brand lives digitally—inside an event app, in a standalone community platform, or across both—will shape attendee experience and revenue strategies alike.

Conclusion

The #EventProfs community’s migration from an event app to Circle reflects a growing recognition that event delivery and community building, while related, have distinct technical and operational requirements. By shifting to a platform designed specifically for communities, the group aims to support deeper conversations, sustainable membership models and a more structured knowledge base.

For the wider event technology ecosystem, the move serves as a signal: as professional networks look to extend the life of their events into continuous communities, the tools they choose will increasingly be judged on their ability to serve a 365-day strategy, not just a single event week.