# NYC's Cultural Mavens Find Their Hub at Mercer Labs' Host With CX Initiative
Mercer Labs launches Host With CX, a new program designed to identify and amplify New York City's most influential cultural connectors. The initiative targets creators who do more than produce content or design objects. It seeks individuals who build communities, bridge audiences, and shape cultural conversations while doing so.
The program reflects a broader industry shift. Fashion, design, and culture no longer live in isolated silos. Brands increasingly recognize that influence flows through people who operate across disciplines. A designer might collaborate with a DJ. An artist might partner with a retail space. A journalist might curate experiences. These hybrid roles define contemporary cultural power.
Host With CX operates on a simple premise. Some people create. Some gather others. The most valuable people do both simultaneously. They host dinners, pop-ups, gallery openings, and conversations. They move between fashion and music, between retail and art, between digital and physical spaces. They shape taste while building trust with their communities.
Mercer Labs, positioned as a cultural innovation hub, bet that NYC remains the epicenter for this type of work. The city's density, diversity, and history of cultural collision make it the obvious testing ground. The program seeks out creators who operate this way, then provides resources, visibility, and infrastructure to amplify their work.
This model appeals to contemporary brands hungry for authenticity. Influencer marketing exhausted itself through saturation and performance. Algorithmic content feeds commodified attention. Brands now chase something harder to fake. They want access to real communities built on genuine relationship and taste.
Mercer Labs' approach signals what cultural capital looks like in 2024 and beyond. It's not purely about follower counts or viral moments. It's about orchestration. Who brings the right people into a room? Who recognizes emerging talent? Who translates between worlds? Who builds something that lasts beyond a single moment?
The program also acknowledges New York's particular role. The city hosts fashion week, art fairs, and music venues that shape global aesthetics. But the real work happens in smaller spaces. Gallery openings in Williamsburg. Intimate dinners in Greenwich Village. Basement shows in Chinatown. These microcultural events, curated by people with taste and reach, often precede major trends.
Host With CX taps into that ecosystem. The program identifies individuals embedded in these communities, then provides them with resources to scale their work without losing its character. This balancing act defines the initiative. Growth without dilution. Reach without losing intimacy.
For fashion specifically, this matters enormously. The industry has long relied on cultural gatekeepers. Fashion editors, boutique owners, and stylists shaped what people wanted to wear. That gatekeeping function hasn't disappeared. It has simply distributed across many more people, operating in many more channels, with many more varied audiences.
Mercer Labs recognizes that consolidating access to these cultural connectors creates value for brands, for creators, and for the audiences these connectors serve. The program functions as translator and connector itself. It identifies people doing the work, then amplifies their position within the cultural ecosystem they already inhabit.