Community Pros Yearbook 2025

Speakers: Flor Dos Reis, Co-Founder & CMO, SUMA

Flor Dos Reis: So, a personal important reflection that I want to share with all other community leaders or aspiring ones, is I got into this world by the end of 2023 without even knowing really what was community or all that. And this year in 2025, like what I really realized is like, this is the future. This is what we need in the world. When I started in digital marketing 12 years ago, it was something very new, and I was, like pioneering that, and it was so exciting and so motivational to get involved into that world, and it grew, it grew too much, and it became very noisy. And now I feel the same with community. I think like community it's the future. If you believe that you have the skills to work in community, start to aim to go into that world. Because we will need more communities, more community leaders, more people who are curators instead of content creators or who create content that is really valuable. Who create spaces where people can connect and co-create. So, I truly, truly believe that this is where the world is heading. So, it's time to jump into it if you really believe, as well. So, yeah, I'm very happy to be myself, a community and ecosystem builder. To bring my community perspective to everything that I do, to all the projects that I work on, to bring it also to my startup nowadays, and to help push for this and spread the word and bring more community to other parts of the world, in real life, in companies, I truly believe that community is something that we need. So, yeah, I think I make it already very clear.

Flor Dos Reis: So, for us, as community professionals in 2026, what I think is that this is a whole new industry. We are creating it, right? Like, it doesn't exist. When we tell people like, ah, I'm a community builder, I'm a community leader, like, people don't really know what this is, and there's like a lot of confusion on what it means, you know, like people name community things that are not. An audience is not a community, just a group is not a community, you know, like community, it's something much more bigger. So, I do think like us, as pioneers in this industry and creating this, we need to set the standards, we need to, the base, the guidelines, educate on what is community, and help the world value more our work. Because it's very new and they don't really understand what it is. But again, it's the future. I know where we're heading. So, I love what Led by Community is doing, bringing us all together to support each other, to find other people that understand what it is and what we do. And I'm very much excited to be part of this community, to have found them. To be in contact with the chapter lead here in Lisbon, to have met amazing people like Abby, through the mentorship program, and I look forward to get more involved, next year. As far as I can, because as community people, you may know we always have like a lot of things going on. But yeah, let's support each other, let's help each other on creating this industry and sharing learnings, and we know what community is and what it brings, to others, so, we also need to bring that to us as a community of community leaders. So, yeah, thank you very much, Led by Community for creating this space.