Small business owners are hungry to talk to their peers about shared needs, topics, and solutions. American Express OPEN — the small-business arm of American Express — recognized this demand and developed an online community for small businesses called OPEN Forum. Forrester spoke with Mary Ann Fitzmaurice Reilly, SVP at American Express OPEN, about the lessons learned from offline networking events and efforts to extend the community online via OPEN Forum. eBusiness professionals can learn two basic but critical lessons from American Express' OPEN Forum: 1) the tremendous value of an online community driven by client demand, and 2) the rigorous planning that goes into a successful online community.