Press Centre
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18
Communities
9
Conferences
25,000+
Members
Global
Reach
Who We Are
Communities are infrastructure. The systems supporting them are not.
The Value
Technical communities and third-sector organisations move knowledge, build careers, and reach the people public services and markets miss. They generate substantial economic and social value.
The Gap
Yet the systems they depend on are fragile by default. Organisers run critical communities on fragmented tooling. When a platform shifts terms or a volunteer steps back, the community absorbs the loss.
Our Response
Community Stack exists to close that gap. We operate the communities. We build the platforms. We steward the standards that allow this layer of social infrastructure to function with the seriousness it has always deserved.
For Coverage
About Community Stack
Community Stack is a stewardship-led community infrastructure group founded in Barnsley by Ethan Sumner and Mercedes Moxon Greenfield. The company builds, operates, and stewards the infrastructure communities rely on across technology, civic life, and the third sector. Its work spans six connected pillars: Ecosystem, Link, Engine, Switchboard, Intelligence, and Labs. Community Stack operates practitioner communities and conferences, supports community-led markets, builds software for community operations, improves third-sector discoverability, creates responsible ecosystem insight, and pilots future infrastructure through research and campaigns. Its mission is to make communities easier to find, run, sustain, understand, and harder to lose.
Community Stack is a stewardship-led community infrastructure group founded in Barnsley. It operates technical communities and conferences, supports the wider community-led market, builds platforms for community operations and third-sector discovery, creates responsible ecosystem insight, and runs research programmes focused on the next generation of social infrastructure.
Community Stack builds, operates, and stewards the infrastructure communities rely on.
Quotes
Quotes available for use
Communities are infrastructure. They move knowledge, create opportunity, support participation, and reach people that institutions and traditional systems often miss. The systems supporting them should not be fragile by default.
Ethan Sumner
Co-Founder & CEO
Community Stack exists to close the gap between the value communities create and the fragile systems they are forced to rely on.
Ethan Sumner
Co-Founder & CEO
We are not simply an events company, a software company, or an advisory firm. We operate the communities, support the wider market, build the platforms, create the discovery layer, steward the insight, and research what comes next.
Ethan Sumner
Co-Founder & CEO
Stewardship before scale is not a slogan. It is the operating constraint that determines how we grow, what we take on, and what we refuse to do.
Ethan Sumner
Co-Founder & CEO
The people who most need community support are often the same people excluded by complicated technology. If our platforms are not usable by them, we have not built infrastructure. We have built a barrier.
Mercedes Moxon Greenfield
Co-Founder & CTO
Accessibility is not an enhancement to community infrastructure. It is part of the infrastructure itself.
Mercedes Moxon Greenfield
Co-Founder & CTO
Technology should make communities easier to find, easier to join, and easier to sustain. That is the standard we are building towards.
Mercedes Moxon Greenfield
Co-Founder & CTO
Story Ideas
Story angles we can speak to
Our founders are available for commentary, interviews, podcasts, background briefings, written comment, and panel contributions. We can also connect journalists with community organisers, sponsors, speakers, practitioners, civic partners, and third-sector organisations across the Community Stack portfolio.
Communities as critical infrastructure
Why communities should be treated, funded, governed, and understood with the same seriousness as other forms of infrastructure.
The infrastructure-first approach to community building
Why the dominant growth-led model often creates fragile communities, and what stewardship-led operation looks like in practice.
The future of technical ecosystems
What Community Stack is learning from operating communities across AI, cloud, DevOps, platform engineering, open source, data, and leadership.
The post-Meetup landscape
What happens when organisers depend on platforms they do not control, and why communities need infrastructure they can trust.
The civic case for community infrastructure
Why technical communities and third-sector organisations sit on the same infrastructure problem: discovery, access, continuity, funding, and trust.
Accessibility-first product design
Why accessibility is not a compliance exercise, and what it means to design infrastructure for people with low digital confidence, disability, or limited access.
The rise of community-led markets
How vendors, sponsors, enterprises, investors, and portfolio companies are starting to treat communities as strategic market infrastructure.
Responsible community intelligence
How communities can use data and insight to improve coordination, resilience, accessibility, funding, and decision-making without becoming extractive.
Northern tech and regional ecosystem building
Building national and global infrastructure from Barnsley and South Yorkshire, and what regional communities reveal about the future of digital economies.
The future of technical events
Why practitioner-led events, conferences, roundtables, and meetups still matter in an AI-saturated world.
Community acquisition and stewardship
How Community Stack acquires, modernises, and stewards community assets while protecting local identity and trust.
Digital inclusion and participation
Why discovery, offline access, accessible platforms, and civic infrastructure matter for the future of the third sector.
Timeline
Milestones
May 2025
Community Stack founded in Barnsley by Ethan Sumner.
July 2025
Mercedes Moxon Greenfield appointed Co-Founder & CTO.
August 2025
Community Switchboard announced.
December 2025
Acquired Cloud Platform Engineering London (~2,000 members) from Appvia.
January 2026
Overmind announced as Global Ecosystem Platinum Sponsor.
February 2026
Expanded into APAC with three Bangalore community acquisitions; surpassed 24,000 members.
March 2026
2026 conference programme announced; three national campaigns launched; Community Engine announced.
April 2026
Acquired GCP London User Group; launched Cloud & Platform Security Global Conference; surpassed 25,000 members.
April 2026
Community Switchboard national launch; Barnsley HQ and Advanced Accessibility R&D Lab announced.
September 2026 (upcoming)
Community Engine launches.
The Stack
Six pillars. One operating model.
Together, they form one operating model for building, connecting, powering, funding, understanding, and sustaining communities across technology, civic life, and the third sector.
Ecosystem
The communities, conferences, and practitioner networks we own and operate.
Link
The commercial services layer supporting independent communities, vendors, sponsors, investors, and portfolio companies through representation, advisory, activation, and portfolio support.
Engine
The software platform that powers community operations, events, sponsorship, memberships, CFPs, microsites, analytics, and discovery.
Switchboard
A full-service digital platform helping charities, civic groups, and third-sector organisations become easier to find, access, and engage with.
Intelligence
The responsible insight layer that helps communities, partners, funders, and institutions understand ecosystems without extracting from them.
Labs
Research, pilots, campaigns, and future infrastructure focused on accessibility, digital inclusion, offline participation, community resilience, and civic innovation.
How We Operate
Operating Principles
Infrastructure First
We build for durability, not hype.
Stewardship Before Scale
Growth matters, but trust matters more.
Local Agency, Shared Standards
Each community keeps its own identity, leadership, and voice while benefiting from shared infrastructure.
Accessibility by Default
Accessibility is not an afterthought. It is part of the infrastructure itself.
Reinvestment Over Extraction
Revenue is used to improve quality, governance, accessibility, technology, resilience, and sustainability.
Trust by Design
We are clear about who runs our communities, how decisions are made, how partners engage, and how value is created and reinvested.
Responsible Intelligence
Insight must serve communities, not exploit them.
Impact Over Activity
We measure success by outcomes, not just event counts, member numbers, or activity for its own sake.
Open Where Possible, Responsible Where Necessary
We default to openness while protecting privacy, trust, sensitive relationships, and responsible commercial boundaries.
Ecosystem Portfolio
18 communities across 5 domains
Practitioner communities, leadership networks, and technical ecosystems spanning Data & AI, Cloud, DevOps, Cloud Native, and Startups.
Data & AI
Applied AI, GenAI, data platforms, MLOps, analytics, and leadership networks.
Cloud
Cloud platforms, architecture, operations across AWS, Azure, and GCP.
DevOps & Platform Engineering
SRE, reliability, CI/CD, internal developer platforms, DevEx.
Cloud Native & Open Source
Kubernetes, CNCF tooling, OSS maintainers, cloud native engineering.
Startups, Ventures & Operators
Founders, operators, investors, and ecosystem builders.
2026-2027 Conference Programme
9 flagship conferences
Practitioner-led conferences spanning DevOps, Cloud Native, AI, Data, and Security — in-person and virtual, across the UK and globally.
Campaigns
Civic campaigns
We run a portfolio of civic campaigns operating at the intersection of community infrastructure, digital inclusion, and accessibility — targeting systemic gaps in how underserved communities access support, participate in public life, and find trusted services.
#NoCommunityLeftOffline
A national campaign ensuring rural, isolated, and digitally excluded communities can access support and participate online regardless of location, connectivity, or digital confidence.
Press Releases
Latest announcements
Leadership
Available for interview and commentary
Our founders are available across community infrastructure, digital inclusion, ecosystem operating models, and accessibility-first technology.
Ethan Sumner
Co-Founder & CEO
Co-Founder & CEO, Community Stack
Ethan Sumner is the Co-Founder and CEO of Community Stack, a stewardship-led community infrastructure group founded in Barnsley. He leads Community Stack's ecosystem strategy, commercial growth, partnerships, conferences, acquisitions, and long-term infrastructure vision. His work focuses on treating communities as serious social infrastructure, not informal side projects or one-off events.
He has built and operated practitioner communities across cloud, DevOps, platform engineering, AI, data, and technology leadership, and has run more than 125 events. His background includes work with Microsoft, Mastercard, Barclays, and leading consultancies.
Topics Ethan can speak on:
Community infrastructure, Ecosystem operating models, Stewardship-led growth, Digital inclusion, Platform engineering communities, Community-led markets, Northern tech and regional ecosystems
Mercedes Moxon Greenfield
Co-Founder & CTO
Co-Founder & CTO, Community Stack
Mercedes Moxon Greenfield is the Co-Founder and CTO of Community Stack. She leads the technical direction of Community Stack's platforms, including Community Engine, Community Switchboard, and the wider infrastructure underpinning the company's work across accessibility, civic participation, and community operations.
Her work focuses on accessibility-first product development, inclusive digital systems, and building platforms that make communities easier to find, run, sustain, understand, and protect.
Topics Mercedes can speak on:
Accessibility-first product design, Inclusive digital systems, Civic platform development, Designing for low digital confidence, Community infrastructure technology
Founders
Ethan Sumner (CEO) and Mercedes Moxon Greenfield (CTO) founded Community Stack to build the infrastructure that enables communities to function as critical, measurable, and trusted systems. They bring together community organising experience, technical expertise, and a shared commitment to accessibility-first design.
Resources
Press resources
Direct downloads
Primary logo, alternate marks, colour and mono variants
Available on request
Response within 24 hours
- Founder headshots
- Company factsheet
- Joint founder photo
- Event imagery and b-roll
- Custom imagery or video
- Background briefings
press@communitystack.io
Coverage
Cover the work, not just the announcements
Community Stack is building infrastructure that helps ecosystems endure — across practitioner communities, governance layers, and third-sector participation.
