PeerfoldSign inYou cannot staff a global community, and you should not try. HubSpot's user groups worked because partners ran them: the local agency got the stage, the authority, and the pipeline; HubSpot got presence in hundreds of cities at the cost of a playbook and some swag.
Package the event kit, let your most invested champions host under your brand, and let their self-interest do the logistics. We lived both halves of this play as a partner: we hosted our local HUG, and traveled the state speaking at other groups — reach without the logistics. The rules were clear that the room existed to serve the community, not to generate leads, and honoring that is exactly why the leads came anyway.
Post-COVID, the room is as likely to be online as in person. The mechanism is identical either way — status earned in public and peers answering peers. In-person just concentrates it.
The compounding
The authority compounded until we were simply known locally as the HubSpot shop — and hosting built a capability we kept: the playbook, the venue relationships, the run of show that later powered our own events.