Hundreds of young Chicago professionals flock downtown to the Victor Hotel. Their dress code is corporate casual, but the impeccably dressed, multi-cultural crowd isn’t there for a seminar: they’re attending one of Mark Fuller’s parties.
Fuller, a disc jockey with a marketing degree from Jackson State University turned marketing CEO, has thrown some of Chicago’s hottest networking events for young, urban professionals. The weekly events are held at hot spots and swank venues, and bring in, on average, 500 to 1,000 people. Legendary DJs like Tone B Nimble, DJ 33 1/3 and DJ TimBuck2 provide musical entertainment, and national recording artists like Kanye West, Mos Def, Common and Dwele are known to drop by whenever they’re in town. Guests sip alcohol or move about the dance floor, while chatting and exchanging business cards or phone numbers. Angling to get at the 25- to 40-year-old urban professionals that he attracts, major advertisers like Coca Cola, Heineken, Budweiser and Hennessey sponsor Fuller’s events. It’s all in keeping with Fuller’s theme: network and socialize. That idea garnered Fuller recognition by American Family Insurance. On July 4, the insurance giant awarded him the American Family Leadership & Recognition for being an “emerging entrepreneur.” Dante Lee, president and CEO of the multicultural marketing firm Diversity City Media, said that events like Fuller’s “are not necessarily new," but they successfully appeal to the elusive urban professional demographic. “Targeting urban professionals actually can be very difficult because not all Black people are the same. So if you’re trying to reach an urban professional audience, the big question is how do we separate that from the African American audience that isn’t professional. There are certain things that an urban professional audience is attracted to that doesn’t attract the typical (non-professional) African American audience,” Lee said, noting that many major companies do not know the difference. Fuller said his company was born out of his own need. Ten years ago, he was a 20-something marketing executive with Shell Oil and had moved to Hartford, Connecticut. “I had just relocated there for work and I didn’t know where to go for dinner, where the cool spots were, what to do on the weekend, nothing. I wanted to ask someone who was like me,” Fuller said. So he threw parties. In college, he was known for hosting and being a DJ at full capacity gatherings, and he decided to pick up where he left off. Soon after he moved back to Chicago in 2000, he quit his Shell job and started enFULLAffect Marketing, a niche marketing, event management, advertising and promotions company. And he doesn’t see business slowing down anytime soon. “Chicago is a town that has a lot of implants. A lot of major corporations are here, and people get relocated. People can go anywhere and party. But I can’t name many places where you can go and mingle with successful people all under one roof,” Fuller said.
Leila Noelliste can be reached via e-mail at lnoelliste@chicagodefender.com.
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