New York has always belonged to storytellers. They're the journalists chasing one more lead outside City Hall before deadline. They are the actors waiting tables while auditioning for Broadway. They are writers turning corner coffee shops into offices as they work on the next great American novel. They are the photographers wandering Washington Square Park on a summer afternoon, searching for a moment worth preserving.
Today, that story has expanded. It's the independent journalist building a newsletter from scratch. It is the creator producing a talk show from a tiny studio apartment. It is the designer, filmmaker, podcaster, strategist, and artist trying to build something meaningful.
But for all the creative energy that exists in New York, finding genuine community has become harder than ever. Too many industry events feel designed for algorithms instead of people. Networking has become speed dating for business cards, LinkedIn requests, and elevator pitches. Even the best happy hours can leave you feeling like you met everyone and connected with no one.
We wanted to build something different, so we did. Our invite-only collective brings together the people shaping culture and telling stories—from journalists and creators to artists, communications professionals, producers, designers, musicians, photographers, and founders. The best creative work happens when relationships come before transactions.
It's for the journalist who just moved to New York and looking to make new friends, the veteran producer navigating a career pivot, the creator looking to expand their social circle, the writer searching for advice on their first book proposal, the publicist chasing their next great story and even the producer looking for the next chapter of their career.
Most of all, it's for people who believe that creative communities should feel like communities.
We bring that vision to life through experiences that prioritize conversation over networking and relationships over transactions. Every quarter, we host our signature event, Press Play: A Celebration of Storytellers, bringing together the people behind the stories shaping culture.
Between those gatherings, we host intimate dinners, coworking sessions, art shows, concerts, writers' retreats, happy hours, workshops, and other experiences designed to turn acquaintances into collaborators and collaborators into lifelong friends.
How it happened....
In 2025, a journalist and a communications professional sat down and talked about something they'd both been feeling for a long time. New York's media events had become exhausting. We loved the people, just not the performance. Every gathering felt like a carefully choreographed sociological experiment.
What if the people who spend their careers telling stories, building brands, creating culture, and shaping conversations had a space where they could simply be themselves?
That idea became Press Play. Our first event was a simple one. It was a coworking day that turned into a happy hour, launched alongside fluxo and WFHishNYC at Pete's Candy Store in Brooklyn. During the day, people worked side by side. By night, laptops closed, drinks were poured, and strangers became friends. We repeated the formula at Brooklyn Art Haus and Mary's on the Lower East Side, and each event confirmed what we had hoped. That is that people were craving community more than networking.
As the community grew, so did the vision. That summer, we partnered with the Gansevoort Hotel to host a series of "anti-networking" networking events. We expanded into art exhibitions featuring local creators, concerts with emerging musicians at Brooklyn Art Haus, and launched our signature Celebration of Storytellers party.
From there came intimate dinners, thoughtful panels, roundtables, and larger celebrations—all built around the same idea that creating spaces where meaningful conversations happen naturally.
Along the way, we've partnered with brands including beehiiv and Pernod Ricard to help bring these experiences to life.
The impact has gone far beyond a good night out.
People have landed new jobs, found collaborators, met editors, signed clients, launched creative projects, built lasting friendships—and yes, we've even played matchmaker a few times.
We've connected freelance writers with editors accepting pitches, creators with agencies, and countless people who simply needed to meet the right person at the right moment.
Our community includes creators behind the Doorman Series, The Running Interview Show, and NowThis Impact. We've welcomed writers published in The New York Times, Wired, Fast Company, Inc., and New York Magazine; on-air journalists from CNBC, MS Now, CNN, and Al Jazeera. A war photographer, an Oscar-shortlisted filmmaker and some of the biggest political voices on Substack.
The former vice president of an EU member state has popped through and even New York City Council candidates. Brand leaders from Match Group, Peninsula Hotels, and Pinterest, a stylist for Rihanna, a runway model fresh off New York Fashion Week have all come to our events. We've welcomed executives from media brands including beehiiv, CNBC, Collective Media, Business Insider, NBC News and Caliber. Oh and some founders, musicians, artists, and entrepreneurs were in the mix too.
But the résumés are not what’s ultimately important. It's that every event brings together people at different stages of their careers—those just getting started alongside those who've spent decades building their craft. We believe the best conversations happen when experience and ambition are on showcase in the same space.
We'd love for you to join us.
