A BRIGHTON company has been shortlisted as a finalist in the Conference Awards 2018.

Qubist, based at Tower Point, North Road, is up for Best New Conference Launch category.

It held VE: WAVE: The Influence 2.0 Marketing Summit in London in November.

CEO Andrew Seel said: “We are delighted that Qubist’s new conference in 2017 has been recognised as one of the UK’s best launch events.

“The one-day event in London was a huge success.

“It was inspiring to experience brands, speakers and delegates discuss the future of influencer marketing and how employees and customers are radically changing its shape.

“We are already excitedly planning our second event for winter 2018.”

WAVE was a hugely successful launch event bringing together 150 expert digital practitioners and decision makers to debate the latest thinking on social influence, advocacy and engagement.

There was a keynote speech by leading futurologist Brian Solis.

The day was designed around the central premise that influencer marketing needs a radical rethink.

The new summit explored the future of influence marketing where brand employees and customers are the new influencers.

There was standing room only for Brian Solis’s opening keynote speech.

He is a principal analyst, altimeter and best-selling author from San Francisco and flew in especially for the event.

His provocative speech “RIP Influencer Marketing. Welcome to Influence 2.0” was a great success and set an inspirational tone for the day, said Mr Seel.

Among the many brands represented were L’Oreal, Boots, Lego, EY, John Lewis and Suzuki.