Last week, we hosted Fohr U: School of Arts & Sciences (our annual brand conference) at the Crosby Street Hotel in New York. Brands and agencies like NARS, Equinox, Space.NK, and FleishmanHillard came out from all over the country (and even across the pond).

With the help of our wonderful speakers and attendees, we addressed everything from working with microinfluencers to managing campaigns at luxury brands — with some exceptional food and networking in between.

For the first time ever, leaders from our team led intimate breakout sessions in their areas of expertise: Grace Murray on optimizing campaign strategy, Emma Gonzalez on integrating and utilizing microinfluencers, and Jillian Netzel on increasing campaign execution efficiency.

We also delved into data and heard inspiring insights from brands, influencers, and managers.

Experiential Consultant and former Creative Director at Mother, Piers North, took us through the future of traditional advertising in the influencer age: "Companies need to open their ways up to new ways of working. They need to listen to people they haven't listened to, people creating culture." His big takeaway? "Brands don't build brands anymore. The audience builds brands."

Entrepreneur Idalia Salsamendi kept it real re: influencer and brand relationships — "Don't go out for the kill, go for the relationship. You attract bees with honey. We're not the enemy, we're the colleague." Attendees appreciated her no frills insight as both an industry veteran and manager of influencer powerhouse, Chriselle Lim.

And lastly, Fohr CEO & co-founder James Nord went on to tell us all about what keeps him up at night...

Thank you to everyone who spoke and to everyone who listened: we hope you enjoyed the day and walked away with some powerful takeaways on influencer marketing. We'll see you next time!