Building communities around (regional) exchanges

I've been thinking recently about how to engage people and
organizations in the community (used generically) that
supports and uses an exchange.

This was sparked by reading Isenberg's "Paradox of the Best
Network", and a comment he makes that networks are
inherently communal because they are driven by the basic
human need to communicate (remember, technology is the means
to an end).

Exchanges are the mechanism that supports that communication
in a multi-network environment. They are a focal point where
network interests converge. Because they connect networks
together, their participants have a vested interest in
collaborating. The community surrounding an exchange is one
of, if not the most valuable network community. An exchange
lives or dies based on it's ability to engage and support a
community, and adapt to meet the community's evolving needs.

What have you found successful in building and engaging a 
community for your exchange? What is the community you are 
trying to engage? How do you engage new communities as your 
exchange evolves and expands, without alienating the 
existing exchange community?

Along these lines, I have been thinking about one way to 
build a focus around the Utah Community Internet Exchange. I 
wanted to see if anyone else has tried this, or something 
similar. Most importantly, I'd like feedback on this idea, 
and would like to discuss trying this in many areas this 
year.

I'm planning a conference for this fall called "Utah Next 
Generation Networks" (I've attended *the* NGN in Boston 
twice now, and I haven't come up with a better name yet). 
The conference will be a one-day event, bringing together 
Utah-area network users, carriers, vendors, municipalities, 
government, economic development, visionaries, pundits, etc.

The conference will be an exchange of ideas of what people
are doing with the network and what they plan to do within
the next 1-3 years, specific to Utah. The exchange fits in
well with this, but there will be plenty of other topics, to
attract a wide array of interests that are related to the
network.

I hope that the conference will spawn an environment of
collaboration to make a better network in our region. We
start with information- and idea-sharing, and see where it
goes from there.

Thoughts?

Pete.