The business of convening ambitious women at expensive conferences has found its way to Century City.
The Female Quotient, a media and events company founded by the research executive Shelley Zalis, has signed with CAA for representation, the agency said on Tuesday. The deal will have CAA's entertainment partnerships team working to expand the company's roster of brand sponsors and extend its reach into categories like automobiles, beauty, technology, financial services and airlines.
The Female Quotient, which prefers to be called the FQ, has built its business around what it describes as a community of more than eight million members across 30 industries. Its signature offering is the FQ Lounge, a networking installation that appears at tentpole events including the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Cannes Lions advertising festival, the Consumer Electronics Show, the Super Bowl and Formula 1 races — which is to say, wherever chief marketing officers and their corporate peers tend to gather in large numbers.
The company already counts Paramount, Amazon, The New York Times, Hulu, National Geographic and Comic Relief among its partners. (Whether those relationships were forged inside a lounge or outside one was not specified.)
Beyond the events business, the FQ produces social media content and branded programming, including a series called "5 Hour In," a collaboration with Hotels.com that follows digital creators exploring cities under time constraints. The company also offers advisory services to corporations seeking to increase the number of women in leadership positions.
Ms. Zalis, who made her name in the market research industry before founding the FQ, has positioned the company at the intersection of media, experiences and corporate consulting — a combination that has become increasingly common as brands seek partners who can deliver audiences, content and strategic guidance in a single engagement.
The CAA signing suggests the FQ sees room to grow that formula further, presumably in lounges yet to be announced.
Original story published in The Hollywood Reporter: "The Female Quotient Signs With CAA (Exclusive)"