Back in 2002, I was selected to manage Team-UK for the World Cyber Games in Daejon, South-Korea.
The local newspaper (Crawley Observer) did a profile about me. They asked about how I gained the positioned, what I suspected the experience would be like, what my aspirations for the trip were.
A few weeks after the trip they contacted me again. They asked how the team did (badly), my thoughts about the trip, what my advice would be to others looking to do something similar.
The profile format proved popular and began a regular feature for the next few years. Every week, the newspaper would pick one person attempting something interesting and profile them both before and after the event/activity. Did they succeed or fail?
Soon, many people wrote to the newspaper asking to be featured.
You can adapt this to your community. Find out what interesting things your members are doing (whether related to the topic or not). Are they getting married? Starting a new job? About to climb up mount everest? Starting their own business? Do a pre and post event profile.
This helps breed familiarity among members. It helps construct a stronger community identity. And it creates an environment in which members can support one another. The more you individualise the community and highlight the activities of single members, the more members can feel a sense of connection with one another.
