About Chris
Chris Catania is a keynote speaker, thought leader, and award-winning strategist who helps leaders turn online communities into engines of growth and competitive advantage.
With 20+ years leading transformation at Fortune 500 companies, he has helped organizations leverage the power of community and collaboration to deepen trust, increase loyalty, build better products, drive engagement, save millions in costs and grow top-line revenue. Based in Southern California, Chris is Head of Community at Esri and the author of The Community-First Advantage (2025).
Digital Networks Are Your Competitive Marketplace Advantage
New Book Coming for Community-Driven and Community-Curious Leaders!
The Pressure Is Real.
Markets are shifting. Loyalty is fleeting. Teams are burned out. Tech stacks are overloaded—but results still fall short.
In a noisy, fast-moving world, the most effective leaders aren’t adding more tools. They’re rethinking how they lead—using community as a strategic system to drive growth, cut costs, and compete where others can’t keep up.
This isn’t community as a soft, feel-good concept. It’s about building people-powered networks that unlock loyalty, trust, and measurable business outcomes.
In The Community-First Advantage, award-winning strategist Chris Catania shows how modern leaders are turning online communities into a competitive edge—not just in marketing or support, but across the entire organization.
Inside, you’ll learn how to:
- Align business goals with a system that scales trust and loyalty
- Unlock cost savings while accelerating innovation and growth
- Lead through pressure with the ADAPT model (Authenticity, Direction, Agility, Purpose, Trust)
- Activate the 3Es of community success: Experience, Enablement, and Evaluation
- See how companies like LEGO, UiPath, Airbnb, Microsoft, and Canva outperform competitors with community-led strategy
- Avoid common traps that stall or sink well-intentioned community efforts
Whether you’re a CEO, CMO, founder, or rising change agent, this book will help you turn your community into the strategic force your business has been missing.
Speaking Appearances
Podcast Guest: How to Design Better Events with Community-driven Shared Value and Intention
This episode discusses the growing significance of community building in events. Chris shares his expertise on creating impactful community initiatives through understanding and valuing one's audience and the concept of shared value.
Podcast Guest: Amplifying Customer Success Through Community Engagement
SHEDGEEK PODCAST: His community-first philosophy is not just theory; it's a proactive approach that Chris promises will turn community into a strategic business asset, with a sneak peek into his upcoming book that's packed with leadership strategies. Delve into the artistry behind engaging communities to drive trust and loyalty, leading to undeniable business success
Podcast Guest: The Power of Investing in Community-First Business Strategy
Explore how fostering a community-centric mindset can revolutionize customer experiences and internal culture in business.
be a better sales leader Podcast: Community-powered Intentional Leadership & The Power of Mentors
On the Be A Better Sales Leader podcast, Chris draws the parallels between building communities and how collaboration and transparency results in intentional leadership. His insights cover everything from the evolution of leadership communication styles, attaching to bigger goals, inspiring your teams, having a vision and building personal relationships.
KeyNote: Why Your Community Needs to Create Shared-value for Customers and Company Leadership
Chris discusses the importance of using The 3Es: Experience, Enablement and Evaluation to create community-driven shared value for customers and stakeholders.
Podcast Guest: Leveraging Data Analytics for Community Success
Hosts Jim Storer and Shannon Abram chat with Chris about Leveraging data analytics for community success, community building and education for executives, and his work building a community ROI model and its impact on organizational value
Expert Panel: How to Leverage Internal Stakeholder Relationships
Live Event: 3 Reasons why Leaders don't Maximize Community the Right Way.
Partnering with internal stakeholders are key to community growth and customer connection. Chris shares how to engage, nurture and measure those relationships.
Live Event: 3 Reasons why Leaders don't Maximize Community the Right Way.
Live Event: 3 Reasons why Leaders don't Maximize Community the Right Way.
Chris discusses best practices to deliver community-driven value to executives across the organization.
Webinar: How brand Communities drive customer success and business value
Chris Catania shares strategies he used for aligning internally, securing stakeholder buy-in, and optimizing a brand community to deliver measurable business value to the company, customers, partners, and employees.
Podcast Guest: Hiring, building and scaling Specialized Community Teams
Podcast Guest: Hiring, building and scaling Specialized Community Teams
Chris discusses the role specializations and career paths, hiring for specializations within community and communicating your team’s value to executives.
Companies Chris Has Helped
INdustry Awards
