FohrU: Creators of Color Event & Mixer

Last week, Fohr hosted our first FohrU event back after a two-year hiatus due to COVID restrictions. And damn, it was good to be back! We’re recapping how the night went and chatting with Agatha Prestan, our People Operations Manager, that helped organize this event.

What was the primary purpose behind the event?

Since she started working here in 2021, Agatha has been working with our internal employees to set up multiple DEI-focused initiatives throughout the year, not just for one month. This includes teaching opportunities and internal training, guest speakers, and networking events like this one. We recap those events in our Community Reports at the end of each quarter.

The original idea for this event started as a way to celebrate Black History Month in February, but when COVID came around again, Agatha was forced to push back the planning.

The event evolved into a way to celebrate Creators of Color, an invite-only FohrU that opened up the Fohr office (and the Fohr Bar) to mingle, network and put faces to names (and have a good cocktail or two).

“We aren’t just celebrating diversity because of these honored months and celebrations, because we’re not our race only one month out of the year,” Agatha told me. “As our internal team has become more diverse in the past couple of years, I wanted to open up the floor and offer more ways to be seen and heard through their suggestions for new DEI initiatives.”

In the past, our FohrU events have been a space for education, business tips, and advice for budding entrepreneurs to help them navigate their careers as content creators. With this first event of 2022, we’re excited to offer more opportunities for connection.

What value did it bring to creators?

We recognize that content creation for people of color is fundamentally different—from brand partnerships, online community management, campaigns focused on DEI, tokenism, and more. DonYe spoke to this in one of our webinars, How to Be a Best-in-Class Partner to Black Creators Year-Round. With this FohrU event, Fohr wanted to offer a space for Creators of Color to come together and share their personal stories and experiences.

Outside of using the Fohr platform and profiles, the event is a way to help put faces to names after two years of Zoom calls and email threads. Many members of the Fohr team were there to meet creators they’ve worked with in the past and to meet new potential partners.

“It was a nice way to bridge the gap between our Fohr campaigns team and the creators they work with,” Agatha added, “to form new connections and build upon existing ones.”

Our CEO James Nord and DonYe Taylor gave a presentation on the state of the industry, some advice on content creation, and then left room for a Q&A.

Fohr as a company is focused on supporting not only Creators of Color but also our internal employees. We’re incredibly grateful that Agatha is offering more opportunities for creators of Color and championing these diversity-focused events.

If you have ideas or ways that you feel like Fohr could support you as a Creator of Color, reach out to DonYe Taylor at donye@fohr.co.