The challenge: one global network, many local realities
As ChIPs expanded to nearly 40 chapters, the question wasn’t whether community existed. It clearly did. The challenge was making it consistent and accessible everywhere.
The public website was always a marketing tool, designed to get people curious about ChIPs. What it couldn’t do was give them a reason to stay. Members needed somewhere worth going, where showing up felt worthwhile and where real connections could form. Chapters in hubs like Silicon Valley, DC, and New York had momentum. Other regions needed the same opportunity.
Operationally, the challenges ran deep. Before a dedicated platform, the network ran largely on goodwill and individual initiative. More than 200 chapter leaders were trusted to carry communities forward, but without consistent onboarding, shared data, or coordination support, what looked like one cohesive network was, in practice, dozens of separate efforts under a shared name. And the integrity of the network had to be protected. ChIPs’ value depends on members being able to trust the space, and that trust requires control over who’s in it.
The solution: one platform for chapters, programs, and member connection
Chapter spaces, event management, member directories, discussion groups, and tools for leadership coordination all moved onto a single platform. The member experience had to be genuinely self-serve: joining, updating a profile, finding someone to connect with, all of it working well enough that members would come back on their own.
“When we were evaluating platforms, seeing clusters of ChIPsters across the globe through Hivebrite’s maps was the first ‘ah-ha’ moment for our team. That’s when we knew this was the one. This platform had to be about actually connecting people. It couldn’t just be transactional. We didn’t need a solution provider; we needed a community builder,” explains Olivia Moorer, Director of Communications at ChIPs.
Chapters got their own spaces to run local conversations without routing everything through headquarters. As the foundation held, the team layered in more: sponsor onboarding, programming, peer mentorship matching, and early thinking around a career center.
How they use the community today
Chapters run local events and discussions in their own dedicated spaces. The central team supports leaders and surfaces opportunities without becoming a bottleneck. One shift in particular stands out: member-to-member connection now happens without staff in the middle.
“They can connect with one another. I don’t need to be emailing, ‘hey, I think this person and this person would get along.’ They connect to each other. They set up meetings.”
Peer mentorship matching, previously a manual guessing game, now runs through the platform. Sponsors are part of this evolution too: many now want direct access to regional communities without the central team brokering every interaction.
ChIPs’ longer-term goal is to engage members from law school all the way through their career, building relationships that last decades. That vision is already taking shape through law school outreach, mentoring programs, and a career center model connecting early-career members with experienced professionals.
The impact: stronger participation, more visible demand, and a team freed to do strategy
By April 2025, nearly 10,000 members were active on the platform. In London, a reception co-hosted by the London and Germany chapters during the International Trademark Association’s conference drew a waitlist of 490 for 120 spots. In Atlanta, one post about a leadership opportunity generated five candidates within a week, with no campaign and no follow-up email. That’s what an engaged community looks like.
But the most telling moments aren’t in the metrics. One member relocated for a new job. Within a year, the role was eliminated. She was stuck between two cities with no job. She posted to the community: “I’m looking. Does anybody have any insights on what the market is looking for right now?” Within hours, she had replies from members in both cities. Within three months, she had a new job.
“That’s why community matters,” Olivia said. “They show up for each other.”
The operational shift inside the ChIPs team is just as significant. “When we joined this job, we were doing a lot of cleanup to get the systems right for our members. Now we’re going to just do strategy. And that’s a really great feeling.”
Chapter leader adoption tells the same story. Leaders who started out skeptical got curious, then excited, and started asking for more admin access.
Why ChIPs Network builds on Hivebrite
Hivebrite gives ChIPs one place for a global network to operate as one: chapters activating locally, leaders supported without constant hand-holding, and members at every career stage finding real opportunity.
What makes the London waitlist and the Atlanta leadership post possible is that members trust the space. “They know they can be vulnerable in our spaces. They can be honest. They don’t have to be performative. They can just be themselves and find support, find genuine connection.” That quality of engagement doesn’t happen on a public forum. It happens when the community has a home worth returning to.
ChIPs holds Hivebrite to the same standard they hold themselves, and the relationship has held up:
“Reaching ten thousand members shows how well the platform works. But what really sets Hivebrite apart is how seriously they take our feedback. They go to bat for us. The relationship is more than transactional. It’s genuine care.”
Olivia Moorer, Director of Communications, ChIPs Network
