Under signs reading LIVE IN THE MOMENT, hundreds of people on a New York rooftop formed a dance circle, and some of them filmed themselves on their phones as they did. Party host Tionne Barmer sells the same rooftop twice: tickets to guests and access to the crowd to brands. A ticket to his party costs $30, and the bar is sponsored by Patrón.
With the ticket, the sales page promised “genuine connections”. The Atlantic’s reporter arrived three quarters of an hour after the start. At the party selling genuine connections, only a handful of guests sat on the couches, most of them staring at their phones. The rooftop filled up only later. “People will pay for the entertainment,” Barmer told the reporter, “and, on the side, they get community.”
An IRL influencer brings people together in person
An IRL influencer is a creator who adds community to entertainment. The role also goes by event curator, community builder or community host. These hosts run knitting circles, silent reading nights, summer camps for adults or run clubs, and they bring the group together in person. Jolyon Varley, co-founder of the brand agency OK COOL, turned this into the slogan “Forget followers. The new influencers have a guest list” on LinkedIn.
Even so, the new influencers with a guest list cannot do without followers. Events still need to generate online content to be financially viable, says Andrew Roth, co-founder of Offline, a platform that matches brands with events. People mostly find out about these communities through social media, according to him. Companies expect every event they sponsor to generate posts featuring their products.
What apps and brands pay hosts for
The Pie app is wagering that businesses will eventually pay hosts for access to their guests, just as they pay influencers today. In October 2026 it offered members of the Pie Creator Club an average of $445, and up to $3,500, a month to organise gatherings. Barmer is one of them. For now, the payouts come from venture capital. Pie co-founder Nadya Okamoto sets a video that, hopefully, holds someone for three to five seconds in a feed against an hour in which a person stands IRL in front of a logo or a product. She puts the value of that hour much higher.
An hour and a quarter in person is what London’s Babes on Waves offered women in May 2026. Twenty of them came to its book swap in a sauna overlooking Brixton. Jasmine Douglas founded the paid membership club in 2020. The club gives priority to Black women, women of colour and non-binary people. She does consulting and casting for Apple and Nike. As early as 2021, by her own account, she no longer felt as connected to members as she had at the start. “It’s intimacy versus growth and you can't be best friends with 120 people,” she said.
Tinder, which also sponsored Barmer’s party, is counting on events to grow. It launched an Events section in its app in the spring. By the end of 2026 it wants the section in 75 cities, mainly through partnerships with party organisers. European events in the section ran in July in Berlin, Munich, Zurich and Geneva. Independent organisers continue to create, manage and ticket the events listed in Events.
In Prague, run clubs are also organised by shops and fitness chains, such as Form Factory since August 2026. In September, 176 people turned up on Prague’s Střelecký Island for a run held by the RANNØ club with the Blackout festival. Participants could win festival tickets. In 2023, the founder of LOVE THEM RUNNING CLUB described his club as the first project that “doesn’t earn me anything at all”. Regular RANNØ runs are free, and registration is only voluntary.
Hinge, which since 2024 has given out $2.3 million to groups that meet in person, funds only those that are free or low-cost. Through its One More Hour programme, the dating app had sent the money to more than a hundred groups in the US and the UK by June 2026, for practical needs such as space, programming and equipment. Connection between people is increasingly monetised, according to Hinge, and One More Hour is designed to make it more accessible.
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